0/5

Airdate: Media Watch: 20 Years: Stuff Ups, Beat Ups & Barneys

'Cash for Comment', Ray Martin grabbing John Safran, the Paxton kids, dodgy journalism and more will feature in this retrospective special.

mwNext week ABC has a terrific retrospective of Media Watch, which notches up an amazing 20 years of keeping tabs on our print, radio, television and online media.

Since Stuart Littlemore began in 1989 it has been hosted by a number of outspoken journalists including Paul Barry, Richard Ackland, David Marr, Liz Jackson, Monica Attard and Jonathan Holmes.

In this special you’ll see some great archival news footage including its top scalp, radio’s “Cash for Comment.”

You can also expect to see Today Tonight‘s “Chase for Skase”, Ray Martin grabbing John Safran by the scruff of the neck, the Paxton kids, criticism on ABC management and much more.

All of the former presenters reflect on the role of the show.

In the interests of fair play there are interviews with key media personalities including John Laws (who as usual only agreed to be interviewed without editing), Derryn Hinch, newspaper editors and producers.

It airs 8:30pm Thursday on ABC1.

7 Responses

  1. Media Watch has got a lot better than it was with the current team. In particular, they now only repeat enough of a dodgy story to get the point across, instead of filling their ten minutes repeating what others have said.

    While the similar but harder hitting “The Media Report” on Radio National was axed at the end of last year, it’s replacement – “Future Tense” is very similar. Despite it’s apparent remit, it’s less about the future in general, and more about the future of information. Which given it’s highly important role in the future, is probably fair enough.

  2. As someone younger than Media Watch’s twenty years, I’ve only got into this show recently (via ABC’s free downloads) so it will be interesting to see what the show and the shoddy journalism was like in the past, plus who the other hosts were apart from Holmes.

  3. They need a non journalist again like Littlemore (should I say multi talented) to bring it back to life again. Too much tech related issues as media watch when we need comment about the melding of information into new media

Leave a Reply