Channel Seven’s Mike Smithson still keen to have the last laugh
Mike Smithson’s career has spanned nine premiers, the Christopher Skase chase and meeting The Beatles legend George Harrison — but after 40 years, the Channel Seven newsman isn’t calling it quits just yet.
SA News
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
More than 40 years after a newspaper editor told Mike Smithson“some people are cut out for journalism and others aren’t – you’re someone who isn’t”, the legendary Seven newsman is certainly having the last laugh.
Smithson, who not only notches up four decades on air on Tuesday but also celebrates his 63rd birthday, never imagined he’d enjoy such a lengthy, let alone illustrious, career.
“I didn’t think I’d live that long, I’m hoping I’ve got another good seven or eight years,” he says, with a laugh before adding retirement isn’t even on his horizon.
“I’m not the retiring type.”
Smithson still hits the ground running as hard as he did on his first day, he’s one of the first to arrive at 7.30am every morning.
Smithson covered a broad range of journalism before finding his niche in politics, from covering the turbulent “Underbelly” crime in Melbourne in the ’80s, to working on the Hinch show and two years in Seven’s London bureau where he had run-ins with singer Jimmy Barnes in hiding as tax fraud allegations blew up back home in Australia.
And of course his infamous Skase Chase, covering the former Seven boss Christopher Skase’s secret life in Majorca.
He’s seen nine premiers elected in his more than 25 year in politics.
“State treasurer Rob Lucas is the only politician who has been in parliament longer than I have been covering it,” Smithson says, who openly shares that he doesn’t actually like politics.
“I don’t have an interest in politics, the party machines and factions – I get it, but I’m not passionate about policy, I am very passionate about reporting on it and making it work for an audience. The journalism side of politics.”
Fan boy moments with The Beatles’ George Harrison – “I remember standing on the footpath at Adelaide airport and we had a chat and I thought ‘I’m talking to George Harrison and shall I ask him for autograph or is that really nerdy?’ I didn’t and I wish I had taken my Abbey Road album.” – and the Rolling Stones’ Bill Wyman, who gifted him a leather jacket, are standouts.
But the moment indelibly marked in Smithson’s memories is covering the start of the War on Terror after the September 11 attacks.
He was standing on hotel roof in Quetta, Pakistan and watched the first formation of jets head to Afghanistan.
“I thought the world will never be the same again,” he says.
His passion for news has been passed down a generation with his children with wife Fiona, sonMatt, 31, and daughter Emma, 28, also pursuing their passion with careers in the media.