Media Watch - Season 27 / Year 2025
Season 27 / Year 2025
Episodes
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Sam Newman's Nazi boost; Daily Tele's stunt backfires; Seven's horoscope horror. Presented by Linton Besser.
Episode 4
'Jack The Ripper' revelations come back from the dead and the media keep forgetting. Seven puffs up golden boy Basil Zempilas in the WA elections. Plus Murdoch family infighting casts doubt over the company's future.
Episode 5
Marty Sheargold's jibe at the Matildas proves the final straw for Triple M bosses. A foreign interference scoop proves a dud. Plus Sky's Steve Price attempts his own Media Watch-style investigation.
Episode 6
Commercial TV networks go all in on Cyclone Alfred coverage, Labor scores a win with misreported housing numbers, plus Trump takes control of the White House press pack - giving supportive outlets new prominence.
Episode 7
The explosive laden caravan turns out to be a con job. Clive Palmer tries to provoke outrage and succeeds at The Age. Political commentator and one-time Liberal Party candidate depicted as an average punter on news website.
Episode 8
Claims by The Australian that Yallourn coal plant will have its life extended come under scrutiny. Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest's fight against Meta over scam ads. AI shopping ads give surprise fashion advice on Seven's website.
Episode 9
Labor invites social media influencers into budget lockup, Star journo Nick McKenzie caught on secret recording, plus There's a bear in there: an un-bear-lievable tale from The Australian.
Episode 10
Miracle sports water: Seven gives oxygenated water too much oxygen. Travel insurance tales: 1Cover's warm embrace by news outlets. Plus radio rebels rebuked: Another ACMA gong for Kyle and Jackie O.
Episode 11
Billionaire gives back: Adrian Portelli's cash splash whips shoppers and the news media into a frenzy. Plus reins of power - racing industry criticism curiously goes missing.
Episode 12
Poll position: A shock SMS poll result boots a Labor heavyweight, but raises questions. Plus an old-school comedian reaches out to an old acquaintance - ABC Chair Kim Williams - for help scoring interviews.
Episode 13
Election surprise: Labor's landslide win - why some media failed to sway voters. SBS's new family DNA show, with a big-pocketed partner backing it. Plus a touching greyhound racing story in the Herald Sun shows the tail wags the dog.
Episode 14
Holy smoke: How the election of a new Pope caught some in the media off guard. Nine's travel lift out showcases a new destination a little too far off the beaten track. Plus WA media gives the cold shoulder to its new NRL team.
Episode 15
One of Australia's most decorated soldiers loses another battle in his long running defamation case, 2GB fluffs up a scandal about children dressing up as animals plus the NRL appoint Seven's news boss to run the Perth Bears.
Episode 16
The Coalition's chaotic split given the Mills and Boon treatment by the media, Trump silences a lonely bastion of journalistic integrity in Asia, and The Chicago Sun-Times reading suggestions a little too far outside the box.
Episode 17
Live from censorship central, it was Dubai week on Nine's Today show. A front page story about a transgender child at a sports carnival filled with errors. Plus why a controversial ABC Gaza interview was taken offline.
Episode 18
What the Trump-Musk fallout tells us about the social media megaphones they own, charities left empty handed after being involved in a Channel 7 show and commercial news overlook a tragic custody death in the NT.
Episode 19
LA protests cast a shadow over press safety in the age of Trump; The drone advocate who happens to also be a drone investor; Plus a prominent reporter's secret trip bankrolled by a major defence company.
Episode 20
As the US bombs Iran, the fog of war descends over the media; A wild car chase on the streets of Melbourne given the hero treatment; plus The Herald Sun splash that got Tony Mokbel bashed and led to a big pay day.
Episode 21
Journalist Antoinette Lattouf has won her blockbuster legal showdown, so what does it mean for trust in your ABC? Plus from Donut Day to Free Chicken Day, the proliferation of 'National Food Days' helps sneak food ads into our news diets.
Episode 22
Outrage over the Adelaide Advertiser's racy treatment of a tragic killing. The automotive journalists who engaged in a financial engagement with the carmaker they were reviewing. Plus an AFR article's anti-red tape screed that conveniently leaves out an important fact.
Episode 23
Much room for mushrooms: What to make of the all-you-can-eat buffet of mushroom headlines, podcasts and TV specials. Plus a breakfast show's fast-food love-in prompts unsavoury questions.
Episode 24
A press picnic with the release of convicted criminal Salim Mehajer. China extends a warm welcome to Albanese, but not the journalists with him. Plus Sunrise's foot doctor with credentials that don't quite foot the bill.
Episode 25
In defence of a free press, South Park links arms with an unlikely ally in Rupert Murdoch. As photos of hunger shock the world, even those taking them begin to starve. Plus the AFR struggles to disclose its sponsored content.
Episode 26
Episode 27
Episode 28
Recently Updated Shows
The Repair Shop
The Repair Shop is a workshop of dreams, where broken or damaged cherished family heirlooms are brought back to life.
Furniture restorers, horologists, metal workers, ceramicists, upholsterers and all manner of skilled craftsmen and women have been brought together to work in one extraordinary space, restoring much-loved possessions to their former glory.
Many of these items have incredible stories behind them and a unique place in history: from an accordion played in the Blitz by a woman who is now in her 90s, to a beautifully crafted clock made by a father who was completely blind; a Pinball machine that is currently being used as a kitchen counter, and a Davenport desk with its trademark fake drawers which fooled burglars - and their crowbar.
The Repair Shop is an antidote to our throwaway culture and shines a light on the wonderful treasures to be found in homes across the country.
Watson
In Watson a year after the death of his friend and partner Sherlock Holmes at the hands of Moriarty, Dr. John Watson resumes his medical career as the head of a clinic dedicated to treating rare disorders. Watson's old life isn't done with him, though — Moriarty and Watson are set to write their own chapter of a story that has fascinated audiences for more than a century. Watson is a medical show with a strong investigative spine, featuring a modern version of one of history's greatest detectives as he turns his attention from solving crimes to addressing the greatest mystery of all: illness, and the ways it disrupts our lives.
Project Runway
Project Runway designers are given an opportunity to launch their careers in fashion.
The Gilded Age
The American Gilded Age was a period of immense economic change, of huge fortunes made and lost, and the rise of disparity between old money and new.
Against this backdrop of change, the story begins in 1882 — introducing young Marian Brook, the orphaned daughter of a Union general, who moves into the New York City home of her thoroughly old money aunts Agnes van Rhijn and Ada Brook. Accompanied by Peggy Scott, an accomplished African-American woman, Marian inadvertently becomes enmeshed in a social war between one of her aunts, a scion of the old money set, and her stupendously rich neighbors, a ruthless railroad tycoon and his ambitious wife, George and Bertha Russell.
In this exciting new world that is on the brink of the modern age, will Marian follow the established rules of society, or forge her own path?
The Sandman
A rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven, The Sandman follows the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he mends the cosmic — and human — mistakes he's made during his vast existence.