Jonathan Holmes
Media Watch (TV program) was presented by whom from 2008 to 2013?
Media Watch ( TV program ) Media Watch is an Australian media analysis television program currently presented by Paul Barry for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ( ABC ) . The program focuses on critiquing the Australian media together with interconnections including political . In 1999 , Media Watch played a key role in revealing the unethical behaviour of radio talkback hosts , which became known as the cash for comment affair and was the subject of an investigation by what was then the Australian Broadcasting Authority ( ABA ) . Format . Media Watch is a 15-minute program which identifies , investigates and examines instances of what the program determines to be failings in news coverage by Australian media outlets . The series features a single host speaking directly to camera , detailing a mix of amusing or embarrassing editing gaffes ( such as miscaptioned photographs or spelling errors ) as well as more serious criticism including media bias and breaches of journalistic ethics and standards . Over the years , the programs emphasis has shifted towards the latter . Although most episodes of Media Watch focus on any recent incidents of media misconduct , episodes sometimes focus on a single issue of particular importance ( for instance , news coverage of a recent election ) . Presenters . Stuart Littlemore was the inaugural host of Media Watch and remains the longest-running host to date . Following his nine-year tenure , various other journalists have hosted the program . Paul Barry , who previously hosted the program in 2000 and for a brief period in 2010 , resumed hosting duties in 2013 . - Stuart Littlemore ( 1989–97 ) - Richard Ackland ( 1998–99 ) - David Marr ( 2002–04 ) - Liz Jackson ( 2005 ) - Monica Attard ( 2006–07 ) - Jonathan Holmes ( 2008–13 ) - Paul Barry ( 2000 , 2010 , 2013– ) Notable pieces . Cash for comment . In 1999 , Media Watch 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 It also persistently criticised the then Australian Broadcasting Authority ( superseded by the Australian Communications and Media Authority , or ACMA , in 2005 ) as impotent or unwilling to regulate broadcast media , and to properly scrutinise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 . 60 Minutes 1995 massacre at Srebrenica story . In 2002 , Channel Nine 60 Minutes reporter Richard Carleton sued Media Watch over allegations of plagiarism . The judge found that the allegations were untrue and declined to award any damages . The ABC World Today reported on 18 December 2002 : The veteran reporter was horrified to see Media Watch accuse him of plagiarising a BBC documentary on the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica for his Channel Nine program . But today a judge ruled that even though the program did defame Mr Richard Carleton and two colleagues , it was fair comment and no damages were awarded . The Truth Behind Tuam . In June 2014 , Media Watch examined false claims of a mass grave being discovered in County Galway , on the west coast of Ireland , found on the site of an old mother and baby home run by nuns in the town of Tuam . The story was repeated by global broadcasters including the ABC . In his editorial about the incident , Barry concluded , So why did the media fall for it ? .. . [ I ] t matched our prejudices . And it made such great headlines , it was really too good to check . And who cared if it suggested those nuns were mass murderers ? Cancellation and return . Media Watchs ability to generate controversy led to the temporary cancellation of the show . In 2000 , Barry was controversially sacked and , in 2001 , the program itself was axed by Jonathan Shier , the head of the ABC . However , in early 2002 , after Shier was himself sacked in similarly controversial circumstances , the show returned with David Marr as the new host . While Media Watch was off air , former host Stuart Littlemore presented a replacement program , Littlemore , that also examined issues about the media , running for 13 episodes between March and May 2001 . Media Bites . Starting in 2017 in conjunction with Media Watchs return , a weekly online spin-off series , Media Bites , was created . A new episode is uploaded every Thursday to the programs website , social media outlets , iView and ABCs official YouTube channel , each episode running for about two minutes . Unlike the main show , Media Bites is more casual in presentation , and Barry sits in the production office ( not a studio ) talking to the camera in a position similar to many online vloggers . Barry is often in more casual clothing using the light source of the office instead of professional lighting . Each episode has the same format , two mini-stories and the weeks alternative fact . The mini-stories are in essence a shorter version of the main series in-depth format , introducing the story and explaining the problem . For example , a story where Womans Day ran an article about Paul Hogans ex-wife ( Noelene Hogan ) in which , using a photo of Noelene with her son , the article incorrectly portrays the son as her deceased partner Reg , stating the couple were a cute pair , only to be corrected by a tweet from a family member . The Alternative Fact of the Week points out an incorrect or baffling tidbit , often involving US President Donald Trump . Episodes conclude with a teaser for the following episode of the main show . The episodes contain the same sarcasm and quips from Barry as does the main show . Episodes are edited in a similar fashion to the main show , with relevant corresponding images , text and effects relating to his narration . The stand-out difference in editing is that subtitles are permanently part of the video along the bottom of the screen , instead of being an optional closed caption . Reception . The shows 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 Peoples Work . 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 ) . Media Watch scrutinises all media outlets , and has criticised its own network , the ABC . When Marr was host from 2002 to 2004 , the show often criticised Marrs employer John Fairfax Holdings . Robert Manne , writing in The Age in 2007 , commented that : Media Watch was once , unashamedly , a program of the left.. . was sometimes unbalanced and unfair , usually intelligent and witty , always fearless and tough . No program more effectively tracked the steady drift of the political culture to the right . No program more effectively scrutinised the politics and practices of the contemporary commercial mainstream media—the rise of commentariat Islamophobia , the scandal of cash for comment . The fact that it was not impartial was the key to its unpopularity in certain quarters , but also to its importance and success . Media analysis programs and segments on Sky News Australia also describe the program as having consistent left wing bias , but see this as a weakness and not a strength of the program . Following the 2019 federal election , Sky News Australia media analyst Chris Kenny wrote for The Australian that the programs reliance on Labor Party or trade union-aligned journalists to criticise News Limited , coupled with a failure to disclose those associations , undermines the credibility of host Barrys editorials against News Limited . 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 . In June 2007 , an episode of Media Watch entitled Have Your Spray strongly criticised The Daily Telegraph , among others , for failing to censor racist comments on their website forums posted over an extended period , but then allowed strongly anti-Semitic comments to remain on its own web forum for a few minutes until removed . The ABC later launched an internal inquiry into Media Watch reliance on IslamicSydney , an Islamic website that peddle [ s ] anti-Semitic and jihadi messages , for this story .