This article is about the Australian television program. For other uses, see Media Watch. Media Watch is an Australian television program broadcast by ABC1 and ABC2. It currently screens from 9.20 pm to 9.35 pm on Monday, repeated on Tuesday at 12.20 am. Despite the limitations of this timeslot and its small production budget, it has been one of the most controversial and influential programs on Australian television since its premiere on 8 May 1989.
The current presenter is Jonathan Holmes.[1]
Overview
Media Watch is viewed by some as a watchdog of the Australian media, that investigates and exposes media bias and breaches of journalistic ethics and standards.
Opening sequence of 2005 season.
The series initially presented a roughly even mix of amusing gaffes (such as miscaptioned photographs) and more serious criticism. Over the years, the emphasis has shifted towards the latter, although the show often begins or ends with a more humorous piece.
The show's presenters have taken some pride in the vehemence of the criticism it attracts; at one point, the opening credits were made up of a montage of such criticisms, prominently featuring a description of original presenter Stuart Littlemore as a 'pompous git'. In 2002, the then-editor of The Daily Telegraph, Campbell Reid, sent host David Marr a dead fish; a replica of it is now awarded as the Campbell Reid Perpetual Trophy for the Brazen Recycling of Other People's Work.[2] Known as "The Barra" and bearing the motto Carpe Verbatim, it is awarded annually for bad journalism and particularly plagiarism (a practice for which Reid was frequently criticised).
This ability to generate controversy led to the temporary cancellation of the show. In 2000, host Paul Barry was controversially sacked and in 2001, the program itself was axed by Jonathon Shier, the head of the ABC. However, in early 2002, after Shier was himself sacked in equally controversial circumstances, the show returned with Marr as the new host.[3] Whilst Media Watch was off air, Stuart Littlemore returned to the ABC to host Littlemore, media program that ran for 13 episodes between March and May 2001.[3]
No media organisation is entirely safe from Media Watch, and it has criticised its own network, the ABC.[4] When David Marr was host during 2002–2004, the show often criticised Marr's employer John Fairfax Holdings.[citation needed] However, critics such as Andrew Bolt claim the show downplays major incidents at the ABC and Fairfax, and turns them into attacks on conservatives.[5] David Salter, a former executive producer of Media Watch, has suggested that it is "unwilling to subject Michael Brissenden, a journalist in the ABC's news and current affairs department, to the same level of ethical scrutiny it applies to others."[6] Robert Manne, a supporter of the show, also agrees it has historically had a left wing bias.[7]
The Australian, which is regularly criticised by Media Watch, has been a long term counter-critic of the show. In August 2007 it editorialised that Media Watch "lacks journalistic integrity and conducts its affairs along the lines of an insiders' club that pushes its ideological prejudice at taxpayers' expense".[8]
In June 2007, Media Watch strongly criticised The Daily Telegraph, among others, for failing to censor racist comments on their website forums,[9] but then failed to censor strongly anti-Semitic comments on its own web forum.[10] The ABC later launched an internal inquiry into Media Watch's reliance on IslamicSydney, "an Islamic website that peddle[s] anti-Semitic and jihadi messages", for this story.[11]
Cash for comments
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In 1999, the program revealed that influential talkback radio hosts Alan Jones and John Laws had been paid to provide favourable on-air comment about companies such as Qantas, Optus, Foxtel and Mirvac, without disclosing these arrangements to listeners. It also persistently criticised the then Australian Broadcasting Authority (superseded by the Australian Communications and Media Authority in 2005) as impotent or unwilling to regulate broadcast media, and to properly scrutinise figures such as Jones and Laws. The revelations won Media Watch staffers Richard Ackland, Deborah Richards and Anne Connolly two Walkley Awards: the Gold Walkley, and the Walkley for TV Current Affairs Reporting (Less Than 10 Minutes). In 2004, Media Watch played a major part in forcing the resignation of ABA head David Flint, after it was discovered that Flint had sent Jones admiring and effusive letters at a time when the ABA was investigating Jones concerning further cash for comment allegations. The reports won Media Watch another Walkley, TV Current Affairs Reporting (Less Than 20 Minutes) to staffers David Marr, Peter McEvoy and Sally Virgoe.
Hosts
Episodes
See also
References
- ^ Welch, Dylan (2007-11-27). "Holmes is new Media Watch presenter", The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved on 1 December 2007.
- ^ "The Barra 2005". Media Watch. Retrieved on 2007-11-28.
- ^ a b Tabakoff, Jenny (2002-04-02). "The watchdog barks again", The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved on 1 December 2007.
- ^ Enker, Debi: Fifteen minutes of fame, The Age, 9 December 2004.
- ^ For example: Andrew Bolt (2 October 2007). "Adams sacrificed for the war on the Right". Herald Sun blog. Retrieved on 2007-10-04. (Note that Bolt and Media Watch have a history of strongly criticising each other.)
- ^ "Watchdog must bite all hands equally", David Salter, The Australian, 23 August 2007
- ^ The new bland and dull ABC, Robert Manne, The Age, 4-apr-2007
- ^ "Old tricks back at Media Watch", Editorial, The Australian (23 August 2007). Retrieved on 3 October 2007.
- ^ "Have Your Spray", Media Watch, 18 June 2007
- ^ "Media Watch fails racism test", The Daily Telegraph, 25 June 2007
- ^ "Media Watch's jihadi sources", Richard Kerbaj, The Australian, 12 July 2007
External links
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