Media Watch

Everyone loves it until they're on it.
—The tagline of the show

Media Watch is an ABC television news program which focuses on analysing and dissecting the news media in Australia. It swings between covering the appalling and the hilarious. It covers lies, discrepencies and ethical violations by all of Australia's major networks, papers, radio stations and other outlets, and it certainly isn't afraid to aim at the ABC itself should the situation call for it. It follows up on quotes, demands citations and explains how the stories get written.

Needless to say, it is hated by the less honest media figures in the country, and the show just loves the hate.

The ABC puts complete episodes up on its website, as part of its policy of keeping its content free to peruse.

Tropes used in Media Watch include:

the following tropes: ===

  • Arch Enemy: Radio personality Alan Jones[1] is perhaps the most frequently covered media entity on the show of late, and for good reason. For his part, Jones doesn't think at all highly of Media Watch and derides it at every opportunity... much to current host Jonathan Holmes' amusement.
    • Kyle Sandilands occasionally fills this role. For reference: fawn cardigans.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Pretty much a requirement for hosting the show. Original host Stuart Littlemore set a very high standard that all subsequent hosts have tried to live up to.
  • Did Not Do the Research: It often attacks journalists guilty of this. Even itself on the rare occasions where it makes errors in research.
    • Media Research Failure: Egregious examples are some of the show's favourite fodder to cover.
    • Dan Browned: It absolutely delights in tearing apart the rare case of this.
  • Grammar Nazi: Justified in that they're handling a field where one really needs to be careful with this stuff.
  • Insult Backfire: 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 People's 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).
  • Narm: Sometimes it satirises journalists in situations that are meant to look serious- for example, one instance had them mocking journalists who, when covering floods, would stand in the midst of the waters, using the line 'There's more to journalism than wetting your pants.'
  • News Tropes: Duh.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: They don't screw around when it comes to taking people down.
  • Shown Their Work: Media Watch never half-asses debunking their targets.
  1. ↑ picture Bill O Reilly with a worse temper and without people taking him seriously
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