Richard Ackland, though… 
3 Likes
Tonight on #MediaWatch:
— Media Watch (@ABCmediawatch) February 3, 2025
✈️ A media storm over big asylum seeker figures… but did anyone check the numbers?
🎥 Lights out for commercial TV news bulletins in one capital city.
🎙️ ABC’s Planet America has a podcast - or does it?
📺 9.15pm ABC TV + iview pic.twitter.com/QDhLoyRzhA
3 Likes
Pretty average presentation I reckon. Looks like it’s gone even more budget
4 Likes
Linton seems very vanilla. Maybe it’s just first night jitters but he just seems to be there for the sake of being there.
I still think Janine Perrett would’ve been a much better choice.
5 Likes
It’s basically a reward for ABC journos who’ve been overseas or on Foreign Correpondent for a while.
The program didn’t necessarily need to change from the Barry-era format. If anything, it would have benefited from leaning more into the analytical aspects of Media Watch—offering deeper dives into the backgrounds of the topics covered each week.
The Media Bites-style closing routine also didn’t suit the show and, in my view, weakened its overall tone.
1 Like
The end was funny though.
3 Likes
Not bad. Plenty of room for growth and improvement.
1 Like
Agreed, hardly Media Bites, Barry would often make a lighthearted joke as well.
I don’t get why they added a large video wall behind him but essentially kept the same bland imagery. Why not add some related graphics behind him as he talks?
Apart from that, I thought it carried over from Paul Barry fine. I had to laugh at him saying Peta Credlin got something right before taking shots at the ABC/Chas Licciardelo. 
1 Like
Review by SMH columnist Jacqueline Maley
2 Likes
He’s proving to be very good so far.
5 Likes
I see MW is a few years behind with the renovation and house hunting genres.
This “reverse engineering” has been happening on shows like Home Town, House Hunters etc for years. It’s not a secret.
1 Like
It’s new to Australian telly, and I think worth bringing up for viewers to know.
3 Likes
Tonight on #MediaWatch:
Sam Newman welcomes known Neo-Nazi onto his podcast.
The Daily Telegraph’s attempt to expose antisemitism, backfires spectacularly.
Seven’s horror horoscope experiment fails to reel in the viewers.