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Late last week, the ABC announced Linton Besser as the new Media Watch host, taking over after Paul Barry steps down on December 2 after over a decade in the role.
Besser joined the ABC in 2013 from the then Fairfax papers, and is a four-time Walkley Award winner, having most recently won last week for his investigation alongside Ninah Kopel on high-profile strata company Netstrata taking kickbacks and charging excessive fees.
He also won a Walkley in 2016 for a Four Corners investigation into former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, as well as in 2012 alongside Kate McClymont at The Sydney Morning Herald for a report on the harbourside front company created by former NSW Labor minister Eddie Obeid’s family to hide business interests. Besser’s 2010 win was for his investigation into extravagant Department of Defence spending, which included the likes of private Learjet hires, overseas sporting trips and exclusive golf club memberships, all at the taxpayers’ expense.
Besser told Crikey he felt “obligated” to take the role, after having “spent 20 years doing my best to ask tough questions of all the other big institutions, you know, big business, government, ministers, whomever else.”
“And all along the way, I’m acutely aware that the media is among, you know, the most influential, if not the most influential, centre of power, and I’ve asked very few questions of it,” he said.
“And so an opportunity like this comes along, and I think I always would have regretted not giving it a shake. It’s a very daunting thing to take on, especially following someone like bloody Paul Barry!”
Asked about the proposition that the Media Watch role was one taken by those who intended to leave journalism afterwards, owing to the necessity of criticising a wide variety of employers in the industry, Besser said: “I don’t agree with that proposition, and I don’t intend to leave journalism whenever I finish doing this job.”
“I think people have that view because you do have to be tough and you can’t pull your punches, and you know, we’re all human, and some people take the criticism personally and can’t get beyond it. But I’m going to be as rigorous and as fair as I can be, and let the chips fall where they may.”
The state of play
Asked whether he had a prevailing concern for the state of the industry and any threats to journalism in Australia, Besser said the increasing fragmentation of the industry also presented challenges for its survival.
“I think there are two things going on. One is that there has never been a greater appetite, I think, for trustworthy information, and there’s never been a greater means by which people can go out and get this information. I mean, even when I started in journalism, to get a copy of The New York Times was difficult, and now it’s part of my daily reading habit,” he said.
“And you know, really, everyone I know has a media consumption menu in their morning which is unique. People will read different mastheads in the morning and at night and they’ll be global.
“And so I think, it’s two sides of the same coin, and that fragmentation is fantastic for consumers, but it’s been dastardly for the industry. The gatekeepers of the media have crumbled, and so much more power is now in the hands of an ordinary consumer to select what it is that they’re interested in reading about. This is the challenge for all of us in the industry, is how to attract eyeballs to our journalism when we’re in competition with all of these other outlets.”
Besser cited a remark from business journalist Robert Gottliebsen as part of accepting his Outstanding Contribution to Journalism Award at last week’s 69th Walkleys: “What Bob Gottliebsen said at the Walkleys — he didn’t quite call it the golden age, but he said we should all take great comfort from there now being a kind of proven business model where people are paying for stuff that for however long, 20 years (or so), was being put online for free, and I thought that was an interesting point to make.”
Besser also looked to investigative reporter Gerard Ryle, who led investigations into the Panama Papers and has mentored Besser in the past.
“He’s always quite optimistic about this and just says, you know, the appetite for information is enormous and growing, and if you do good journalism, there are audiences there for it.”
Asked whether he felt user-pays models were sustainable in the context of an ongoing cost of living crisis, Besser was philosophical.
“I don’t know, is the answer — that’s definitely not my bailiwick. I’m not an economist, but sure, people will cut back on their subscriptions long before they’ll cut back on their electricity bills,” he said.
On keeping the youth interested
Asked about how the media industry should go about capturing youth audiences and whether anyone had “cracked the code”, Besser pointed Crikey to the ABC’s own youth-focused current affairs radio program on triple j, Hack, which this week also won a Walkley for its report on sexual assaults in mental health wards.
“I think Hack kind of cracks it … it’s not a new outlet, I used to listen to Hack, and my kids, they take an interest in Behind The News … the diet starts at a different age for all of us,” he said.
“I assume that even 40-50 years ago, people didn’t become, if you like, serious about the issues afflicting our society until they were grappling with them themselves, when they had larger responsibilities, when they had some years in the workforce, when they had bigger bills to pay and mouths to feed, and they were affected more keenly, perhaps, by interest rates and the broader economy and therefore the political economy.
“So, you know, I think we can sometimes become a little bit too hung up on, if you like, chasing the youth audience. I think as people age, they come to information in their own way and at their own speed.”
Asked whether Media Watch could do anything differently and what he would like to focus on as he led it, Besser said people in the media industry sometimes “lose sight of who it serves”.
“We all [watch] it for gossip about our peers, but that’s not the audience. The audience is there to be gratified by seeing this really powerful and often self-important industry be brought to account for its failing and poor practices and its lapses of ethics, and that’s at the core of the program.
“That’s something that I think Paul Barry has done exceptionally well, and I would hope to be able to continue in that tradition.”
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