Off-topic: Stuart Littlemore, the original 'Watcher'

This is a rather tangential posting, but I think this is important and I want to have my say. And I can't do so anywhere else.

Quadrant, through a link to Australian Conservative, has noticed that the ABC's retrospective of its Media Watch program failed to include footage of the now classic Lateline interview on 11 November, 1997, in which then Media Watch host Stuart Littlemore appears with US journalist Steve Brill, Jennifer Byrne in the compere's seat, and a rather dishy Pilita Clark.

Littlemore has been criticised for being pompous and arrogant, and his appearance here was heralded as his downfall.

But I invite you to watch the clip without prejudice, and listen to what Littlemore says. For mine, the only misdemeanour I can accuse him of is to have lost his temper.

At the beginning of the clip, you can see that Littlemore wants to be constructive, and responds to provocation by pointing out the shortcomings in his interlocutors' thinking. I actually find him quite reasonable: even when asked whether he or his staff have made any mistakes, he doesn't say 'no we haven't', but rather 'none that I am aware of, and none have been brought to our attention'.

Littlemore's critics leapt onto his assertion towards the end of the program, that he worked for free. In fact, Littlemore did receive a salary. But I would invite you to compare the salary that he received for his Media Watch work, which was likely to be rather small, to how much he could have earned by devoting his Media Watch time to his barrister's practice - as a QC, he would have been entitled to many, many times more the money per hour that he earned on Media Watch. Stuart, you weren't working at the ABC for free - it was actually costing you money! But this just emphasises the fact that money was not Littlemore's motivation - he genuinely wanted to raise standards in the media.

Around a month after this episode, and after Littlemore had announced that he was going to retire from the show, I was working in a summer job as a 'gopher' in a barristers' chambers in Sydney. Littlemore's chambers were in the same building, on another floor. I once caught a lift down to the ground floor with him. He was very tall and stood with a stoop - actually I was surprised how old he appeared. I wanted to say 'Mr Littlemore, thankyou for your show', but being a nervous young man, and possibly intimidated by his character, I stayed stumm.

So, let me now say: Mr Littlemore, thanks for the show. I appreciate what you were trying to do. You inspired this blog. I can only hope that I have the same positive impact on someone 'out there' that you had on me.

And I'll try not to lose my temper :-)