Monash Journalism staff: Peter Manning
Peter Manning is one of Australia’s most respected and distinguished journalists. He has worked in all media genres. He has been a reporter, producer, program editor and senior executive and won various awards for the programs he has led. He has taught journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney, and compiled a substantial academic research record. He is a media commentator, opinion writer and book author.
Peter’s career began at "The Sydney Morning Herald" as a cadet in 1968. He worked both on the "Herald" and the Sunday "Sun-Herald". In 1970 he began the first of two stints as a feature writer at "The Bulletin" magazine. In 1972 he was asked to be a reporter on the ABC’s daily current affairs TV program, "This Day Tonight", and spent two years there. His stories included revelations of police corruption in the NSW police. In 1975 he began his own local newspaper in inner-city Sydney, "The Leichhardt Local", and exposed corrupt practices in the local Council. In 1977 he took over as Editor of the national satirical weekly magazine, "Nation Review", and used Michael Leunig’s cartoons and Mungo MacCallum’s wit and humour to critique the Fraser government. In 1979 he worked on ABC radio at the national talks network (now called Radio National) and at the youth station 2JJ (now Triple J).
The 1980s saw Peter’s return to television. He re-joined ABC TV’s daily current affairs team, "Nationwide" as a reporter in 1980 and moved to "Four Corners" as a reporter and producer in 1982. He worked as a producer with Chris Masters on the famous "Big League" program which exposed how a Chief Stipendiary Magistrate perverted the course of justice in protecting a Sydney Rugby League boss. He worked with Jim Downes on corrupt business practices in Fiji. And he worked with Chris Masters again in Vietnam to show the effects of the chemical 2,4,5-T. He was appointed Executive Producer of "Four Corners" in 1985 and oversaw a series of blockbuster documentaries that all won awards: police corruption in Queensland, asbestos mining in Western Australia, the French bombing of a Greenpeace anti-nuclear ship in Auckland Harbour and threats to the environment in Antarctica.
In 1989 Peter was promoted to be Controller of all ABC TV News and Current Affairs. In the next three years he created the programs "Foreign Correspondent", "Lateline" and "Landline", introduced broadcasts from the national Parliament and the National Press Club and opened a new wave of foreign correspondent posts in South Africa, Hong Kong, the Middle East and Moscow. He commissioned a documentary series on Labor’s years in power in the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1993 Peter became General Manager of ABC Radio’s talks station, Radio National. In this capacity he reintroduced current affairs to ABC RN’s breakfast, beefed up the station’s commitment to world music, and introduced a range of new programs in religion, the arts and education. In 1995, he was asked by Managing Director Brian Johns to set up a new ABC web presence . Peter created www.abc.net.au in 1995. It is today one of Australia’s most-visited sites.
In 1996, Peter was sought by the Seven Network to begin a new weekly current affairs to compete with "60 Minutes". He recruited Jana Wendt from Nine and a range of other reporters and producers from the ABC and Nine to form a new Tuesday night program, "Witness". The program won its timeslot but did not cover its costs. Peter was transferred to head up Seven’s expanding current affairs presence while a new presenter took over at "Witness".
In 2000 he left Seven to take up a position as Senior Lecturer in Journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney. There he lectured in Television Journalism, Investigative Journalism and Print Features. In 2003 also he conducted a major research project on how Sydney’s two daily newspapers had covered Arab and Muslim issues in the year before and the year after September 11, 2001 and published it in the refereed journal Media Information Australia and then again with more statistical evidence in 2004 in a book, Dog Whistle Politics and Journalism. He has published several research studies along the same line since, some of them leading to a second book, Us and Them: a journalist’s investigation of Media, Muslims and the Middle East (Random House, 2006). Since 2006 Peter took a break from lecturing, was appointed Adjunct Professor of Journalism at UTS and has pursued his doctorate on how Palestinians are portrayed in the media.
He appears on television as a regular media commentator, writes articles for "The Sydney Morning Herald" and the "Financial Review" and is on the Board of the Macquarie University Centre for Middle East and North African Studies and the NSW Writer’s Centre.
