Paul Barry calls time on Media Watch

Barry will leave the show with the distinction of being the longest-serving host of the program, which first aired on the ABC in 1989.

The ABC is on the hunt for a new host of its Media Watch program, after presenter Paul Barry announced he was pulling the pin after an 11-year stint as the show’s frontman.

The 72-year-old, who has hosted the Monday night program since July 2013, will continue as the show’s presenter until December.

Barry will leave the show with the distinction of being the longest-serving host of the program, which first aired on the ABC in 1989.

“It’s a great privilege to host Media Watch and I’ve enjoyed it enormously,” Barry said in a statement on Thursday.

“But I’ve been in the hot seat for 11 years and it’s time to give someone else a go.”

The ABC is yet to announce a replacement for Barry.

Prior to his role as Media Watch host, Barry – who is described on the ABC ‘s website as “one of Australia’s most respected journalists” – worked as an investigative reporter for Nine and Seven, and for newspapers including The Sunday Telegraph and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Paul Barry, host of ABC TV's Media Watch.

During his time as Media Watch host, Barry drew plenty of criticism for the regularity with which he attacked mastheads owned by News Corp (publisher of The Australian).

In recent times, Barry was left embarrassed by his discrediting of News Corp journalist Sharri Markson’s reporting on the origins of Covid-19. Markson reported that a lab leak was the likely cause of the spread of the deadly virus, a claim that Barry repeatedly pilloried.

The Media Watch host never corrected the record, even when a landmark report found that the lab leak theory was, indeed, the most likely cause.

But Barry also didn’t shy away from scrutinising the failings of the ABC. Earlier this year, he branded the national broadcaster’s news coverage of the Bondi Junction stabbing attacks as “pathetic”.

Last year, he also described the ABC’s coverage of a nightclub stoush involving Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe as “pathetic”, while in 2022 he said the ABC was “in danger” of being seen as “one-sided” in its coverage of transgender issues.

However, in February this year, Jewish leaders expressed outrage at claims made by Barry on Media Watch that the public broadcaster had been the only news outlet to “give equal coverage to both sides” in the Israel-Hamas war.

As a journalist, one of Barry’s most memorable interviews was with accused murderer Gordon Wood, for Channel Seven’s Witness program in 1998.

The formal interview had concluded but the cameras were still rolling when Wood, who was accused of spear-throwing his girlfriend off The Gap, a notorious suicide spot in Sydney’s east, asked Barry: “So, do you think I did it?”

Wood was convicted of the murder in 2008 but was subsequently acquitted by the Court of Criminal Appeal.