Fourth Estate

Summer Series: Mike Carlton Talks On Air

In a special summer edition of Fourth Estate, we turn the clock back to December 2018, when broadcaster and journalist Mike Carlton joined then host Peter Fray for a wide-ranging conversation about his newly published memoir, ⁠On Air⁠. The book traces Carlton’s long career across Australian journalism — from print to radio — offering a candid account of life behind the microphone, the shifting culture of newsrooms, and the pressures shaping public debate. Recorded during a period of profound upheaval in Australia’s media landscape, this conversation reflects on power, personality, and the responsibilities of broadcasters, themes that feel as resonant now as they did then. Plus ça change. Get in touch: We'd love to hear from you! Email us at ⁠fourthestate@2ser.com⁠ or tweet us at ⁠@fourthestateau Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Summer Series: In-Conversation With Lisa Millar

In this special Fourth Estate summer re-release, we revisit Tina Quinn's conversation with one of Australia’s most respected journalists, Lisa Millar, from September, 2021. From her years as a foreign correspondent with the ABC, first in Washington, then later on in London, to co-hosting News Breakfast, Millar reflects on an incredible three decades in journalism. Get in touch: We'd love to hear from you! Email us at ⁠fourthestate@2ser.com⁠ or tweet us at ⁠@fourthestateau Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Erosion: Press Freedom In The Trump Era

How is press freedom being tested in the Trump era? In this episode of Fourth Estate, Tina Quinn is joined by Media Correspondent with NPR, David Folkenflik and Chief Political Correspondent for The Washington Post, Karen Tumulty, examining the growing pressure on journalists in the United States. They discuss Trump’s personal attacks on reporters, lawsuits against major networks, access restrictions, media ownership battles, and upheaval inside legacy mastheads. If the First Amendment supposedly still stands, how is press freedom quietly eroding? Get in touch: We'd love to hear from you! Email us at fourthestate@2ser.com or tweet us at @fourthestateau Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Tragedy Is Weaponised: The Media And Bondi

After the mass shooting at Bondi, Australia became a global headline, and a case study in how tragedy is rapidly politicised. Before facts were established, misinformation surged, racial vilification followed, and political narratives hardened. Jewish, Middle Eastern, Arabic and Muslim communities were unfairly targeted, while debates over gun laws, antisemitism and national security were pulled into the news cycle at speed. In this episode of Fourth Estate, we interrogate how the Bondi shooting was covered, and how journalism struggled under pressure. Joining Tina Quinn to unpack the coverage and issues at play is Antony Loewenstein, an independent journalist and author of My Israel Question and The Palestine Laboratory, as well as Crikey's Daanyal Saeed and The Australian Financial Review's Jennifer Hewett. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Virginia Haussegger On The Unfinished Revolution In Australia's Media

Journalist, author and feminist thinker Virginia Haussegger joins Tina Quinn to examine why the feminist revolution — inside Australia’s media and beyond — remains unfinished. Drawing on her latest book, Unfinished Revolution: The Feminist Fightback, Haussegger traces the long arc of sexism, backlash and resistance — from the media mockery of feminism during International Women’s Year in 1975, through to the misogyny directed at Australia’s first female prime minister, and the explosive reckoning of the March4Justice movement in 2021. Despite women now slightly outnumbering men as reporters in Australian newsrooms, Haussegger argues that real power has barely shifted. Media ownership and executive leadership remain overwhelmingly male, reinforcing cultures of machismo, misogyny and resistance to accountability. She reflects candidly on her own career — thriving at times inside these systems — and on confronting the ways sexism shaped even her own assumptions. The conversation ranges from the treatment of women in political and media life, to the persistence of gendered violence, the silencing of feminist history, and Australia’s slide on global gender equality rankings. At a moment of global backlash against women’s rights, this is a searching discussion about power, media, history and whether feminism still dares to imagine revolution. Get in touch: We'd love to hear from you! Email us at fourthestate@2ser.com or tweet us at @fourthestateau Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices