"Except in this case the only similarity between Henry, Hosking and John is the colour of their skin," she wrote.
Former Campbell Live reporter Ali Ikram also commented on the matter, tweeting that "the only thing u need no about JC's "perspective" is the day the show was canned he was reporting on an otara woman working 3 jobs 2 get by".
However, Radio New Zealand CEO Paul Thompson tweeted that Smalley had "raised an important issue and that should be respected as we debate it".
He emailed the Herald in response to the column and pointed out that Wilson had not been taken off air to make way for Campbell, but had been promoted to a more senior newsroom role.
"Mary has been promoted to a leadership role in which she will drive the news agenda for RNZ," he wrote.
"That made room for John (particularly given that Jim Mora wants to focus on The Panel). Mary will actually be John's boss."
Metro magazine's Simon Wilson also offered support for Smalley's views, tweeting that she was "NOT WRONG to say too few women in key broadcast roles. Why attack her for that?"
Others felt that Smalley opinions on gender were cheapened due to a controversy last year, when Smalley was heard calling New Zealand women "heifers" and a "bunch of lardos" when she thought she was off air.
Simon McCarthy tweeted, "Smalley forgot to mention the last time such damage was done to female equality was when one of their own called a 70kg woman a heifer/lardo".
Twitter user @meegille agreed, writing "From the mouth of the woman who had the audacity to call a 70kg nz woman a heifer".
Debate continues as Smalley remains the second-highest trending topic on Twitter for New Zealand.
