Why Media Watch is still one of the most important shows on TV

Media Watch has always punched above its weight. With episodes just 15 minutes long, the Monday night fixture has earned points for impact and relevance over more than three decades.

Reflecting on the first episode on May 8, 1989, The Age’s TV critic, Barbara Hooks, observed “the notion of accountability has never been more critical”. It’s a recurrent refrain: viewers in every decade have argued we need this concise, extensively researched guardian now more than ever. And the show’s recent revelations about Nine’s* “reverse engineered” real-estate show, Find My Beach House, as well as several pointed digs at the ABC suggest this watchdog still has teeth.

New ABC Media Watch host Linton Besser.

The show has had its detractors over the decades. Media Watch is habitually dismissed as irrelevant: self-important, biased and basically only watched by a dwindling clique of old-school media wonks whose opinions don’t matter anyway. Its advocates argue that it’s valuable, indeed essential, an effective and impactful arbiter of crimes and misdemeanours that might otherwise escape unchecked. And after more than 35 years on air adhering to its original format, it’s hard to think of many shows with comparable staying power.

Media Watch is a key component of the ABC’s line-up on one of the network’s most-watched weeknights. The recent ratings, another gauge of the response to the show and its newly installed host, Linton Besser, indicate the national TV reach for the first show of the year was 841,000 viewers. That’s not a paltry number: it’s an audience any free-TV broadcaster would welcome for a stalwart prime-time series that’s just introduced its seventh regular host. The second episode ratings are comparable – and these tallies don’t include those who watched on ABC iview.

These numbers persuasively counter any argument of irrelevance or claims of a paltry following. Beyond that, though, there’s the substance of the show. The founding host, journalist and barrister Stuart Littlemore, established a durable template and set a distinctive tone over nine seasons. Frequent targets of his criticism were chequebook journalism, conflicts of interest, plagiarism and mistakes. He had an abiding dislike of personality-driven current-affairs, placing subjects such as Mike Willesee and Derryn Hinch in the crosshairs. He had an eagle-eye for sloppy spelling and grammar, conveying the impression of an acerbic, exacting and intimidating schoolteacher who really expects you to do better.

His successor, lawyer Richard Ackland, was more avuncular but in his relatively brief tenure landed what has become one of Media Watch’s biggest scoops with the “cash for comment” scandal that outed Sydney radio titans Alan Jones and John Laws, exposing their practice of taking payment for positive promotion of various companies and failing to disclose those deals to their listeners.

Plagiarism, conflicts of interest and chequebook journalism remain on the radar for Media Watch, although common targets in recent years also include Sky News hosts, slanted news coverage in News Corp papers, and promotions disguised as news stories in TV news bulletins and daytime programs on the commercial channels.

The program’s researchers have also chased down the origins of some news stories that have captured attention around the globe. That was evident last August in the coverage of the UK’s Southport race riots following the murders of three young girls at a Taylor Swift dance class: the initial spark for the violence was tracked back to a single suspect tweet. Few other enterprises have the expertise, the resources or the will to chronicle such developments, and it’s significant work.

In what has been a noticeable development over the decades, some outlets, when issued with a “please explain” from the show as it investigates a suspected transgression, refuse to respond, declining to dignify the query with an explanation or justification. That didn’t happen years ago when newspaper editors and program producers defended their organisation’s damaged reputations. Now, it’s as though those executives choose to regard a Media Watch inquiry as an annoying fly, their silence intended to convey contempt. Yet the perception of bad behaviour lingers, with or without a response.

Past Media Watch hosts (left to right): Richard Ackland, Paul Barry, Stuart Littlemore, Monica Attard.Credit: Monique Westermann

Early episodes fronted by Besser have indicated this watchdog will continue to have no compunction about biting the hand that feeds it. His first episode spotlighted the activities of Chas Licciardello on his ABC TV show Planet America, and his use of it as a vehicle to promote his podcast and flog the related merch.

The second provided an impressive chronology of the messy dismissal of fill-in radio presenter Antoinette Lattouf, which Besser described as “one of the worst self-inflicted wounds at the ABC in recent memory”. The segment illustrated the kind of forensic research at which the show can excel, presenting a detailed timeline of internal communications at the highest levels of the public broadcaster.

Media Watch’s sturdy template has remained intact, even as the media has radically changed and as each presenter brings a shift in tone. David Marr, the third host, once noted, “It’s a judgmental show, so the tone is always going to be there. But you hope that, at the same time, it’s wry and funny.” He saw humour as a “vital” ingredient in the mix.

Besser appears to share that view, wrapping his debut outing, following the Licciardello exposé, by jokingly cradling a coffee mug promoting his own (fictitious) podcast. His appointment, following the retirement of the program’s longest-serving host, Paul Barry, saw the ABC choosing to promote from within. It didn’t opt for a high-profile name, instead recognising the talent of the multi-award-winning journalist, former foreign correspondent and Four Corners reporter. The early signs are that the new recruit has seamlessly taken the baton, bringing journalistic rigour as well as a hint of warmth and a touch of humour to the desk.

Given its resilience over the decades, it would be unrealistic to expect gold every week. But the viewing public is better informed and more alert for having such a watchdog. It’s a program that no other broadcaster could or would attempt, and our TV landscape is richer for it.

Media Watch airs on the ABC each Monday at 9.15pm.

*Nine is the publisher of this masthead.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.