Media Watch (TV program)

Media Watch, formerly Media Watch: The Last Word, is an Australian television programme created and broadcast by ABC Television. It is dedicated to the analysis and critique of Australian media, including its corporate and political interconnections. A number of journalists have presented the program since it premiered in 1989. As of March 2025^[update] the program's host is Linton Besser.

The show, initially called Media Watch: The Last Word, first aired in 1989, with Stuart Littlemore as the inaugural host.

In 1992 the subtitle was dropped and the show became simply Media Watch.

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 program's 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).

Stuart Littlemore was the inaugural host of Media Watch. Since 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, and is the show's longest-running host. He left the show on 2 December 2024. Linton Besser currently hosts the program.

In 1999, Media Watch revealed a regime of corrupt secret payments within the talkback radio industry which included influential hosts Alan Jones and John Laws. They had been paid to provide favourable on-air comment about companies such as Qantas, Optus, Foxtel and Mirvac without disclosing these arrangements to listeners. Media Watch also persistently criticised the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) 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.