Journalism examined with patience and consequence.
Fourth Estate treats journalism as both craft and public institution. Recent episodes move from war-crimes reporting and the ABC strike to long-form profiles, political legacy arguments, and the dangers facing reporters in Gaza.
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Fourth Estate is a serious Australian program about journalism, media institutions, and the political forces that shape public life. Its center of gravity is the newsroom conversation. The show favors careful setup, extended context, and questions that test what is known, how it was verified, and why the record matters now. Recent episodes show that method clearly. A discussion of Ben Roberts-Smith follows the years of investigative reporting, the landmark defamation case, and the beginning of criminal proceedings after his arrest and war-crime murder charges. The ABC strike episode uses an industrial dispute as an opening into deeper concerns about stalled careers, insecure contracts, risk aversion, and the condition of public broadcasting. The Virginia Trioli profile episodes are more biographical but still craft-focused, tracing court reporting, newspaper work, broadcasting, Lateline, and the pressure of daily media. The Amy Remeikis conversation uses John Howard’s legacy as a way to talk about political memory and the divisions she argues still shape Australia. Other episodes widen beyond Australia. Gaza and Jerusalem coverage foregrounds the deaths of journalists and media workers, the collapse of a ceasefire, and the difficulty of reporting under bombardment. The Geoffrey Robertson QC archive conversation connects international justice, human rights, Julian Assange, Russia, Ukraine, the Middle East, and the limits of accountability. David Marr’s profile draws on legal training, investigative journalism, ASIO, deaths in custody, and public interrogation of powerful institutions. The result is not a breezy industry recap. It is methodical and often grave. Fourth Estate is at its best when a single news event becomes a route into process, history, and consequence. It listens for detail. It gives journalists and commentators time to explain what they saw, what they checked, and what institutions resisted. The show suits people who care about how public facts are made.
Made for: For listeners interested in Australian journalism, public broadcasting, investigative reporting, media ethics, political history, and accountability. It especially suits people who prefer detailed context over fast commentary.
What sets it apart: Fourth Estate treats media coverage as evidence, labor, and institutional record. Its interviews often move beyond the headline into reporting process, workplace conditions, legal consequences, and the public stakes of getting a story right.
Every week, we discuss how the media has covered the news and analyse issues affecting the industry - with some of the biggest names in journalism in Australia and around the world. Broadcast live on Sydney's 2SER 107.3FM, with the financial assistance of the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Fourth Estate turns Australian media scrutiny into clear accounts of reporting craft, institutional pressure and the public consequences of editorial decisions.
Fourth Estate follows the people, institutions and pressures that shape Australian journalism. Tina Quinn moves between career-spanning conversations and close examinations of newsroom conflicts, giving subjects enough room to explain how reporting decisions are made and…
Virginia Trioli's newsroom dread came handwritten: 'come see me.' You can feel the stomach drop.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A decorated soldier's public image is tested by the reporting and court findings that challenged it.
Fourth Estate follows the arrest and charges against Ben Roberts-Smith on multiple counts of war crime murder, placing them within a longer story shaped by investigative reporting, a landmark defamation case, and a federal court finding that key allegations were substantially…
An ABC strike becomes a clear look at insecure work, risk aversion and the broadcaster's future.
The episode frames the ABC walkout as more than a fight over pay. It presents a dispute about where the institution is heading, with staff pointing to stalled careers, rolling contracts, little long-term security and work that feels overlooked.
A concise career profile following Virginia Trioli from newspapers to 774 ABC Radio Melbourne's drive program.
Tina Quinn's profile of Virginia Trioli gathers momentum as Trioli moves from newspapers into broadcasting, bringing a hard-news discipline and a sharp interviewer's ear to radio.
Virginia Trioli reflects on court reporting, editorial pressure, and the fight to earn page one.
Fourth Estate's first part with Virginia Trioli keeps its focus on the pressure and discipline of learning to report properly. The court work gives the episode its shape: strict limits on what could be published, constant judgment calls, and the newsroom push to make page one…
A focused seminar on Indigenous perspectives, historical context, and newsroom responsibility.
"Truth-Telling and the News Media" follows a seminar conversation about how journalism frames Indigenous aspirations, especially inside white-dominated media spaces.
Laura Tingle's account of The Australian places today's media conflict in a longer history of newsroom culture and technological change.
Laura Tingle's archival interview gives the current News Corp-ABC conflict a longer memory. She recalls The Australian in the 1980s and 1990s as a newsroom with a conservative economic agenda, but also a clear sense of itself as a paper of record.
Creative lives, talked through carefully.
Curiosity followed into newsrooms, museums, parks and wartime Vietnam.
Sam Harris interviews scientists and journalists on AI risk, religion, and US politics.
WSJ reporters unpack the Epstein files, surrogacy industry abuses, and true-crime court battles.
Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway argue through tech, media, and Trump-era politics twice weekly.
Dan Carlin's solo essays connecting executive power, historical collapse, and American democracy.
Archie Thomas frames 'Truth-Telling And News Media' around the Voice to Parliament referendum, the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart, and the question of whether Australian newsrooms are ready for truth-telling.
This episode revisits a 2021 interview with ABC chief political correspondent Laura Tingle, conducted by host Tina Quinn.
Tina Quinn interviews investigative journalist Caro Meldrum-Hanna about her documentary series Exposed, which re-examines the Kelly Lane case and the Luna Park ghost train fire.
["Fourth Estate follows the arrest of Ben Robert Smith at Sydney domestic airport, where police charged the former Victoria Cross recipient with multiple counts of war crime murder after years of reporting.", "Tina Quinn, Nick McKenzie, and Michael Bachelard trace the story back to 2017 reporting work, Nine's 2018 investigations, and the June 2023 federal court finding that key allegations were substantially true on the balance of probabilities.", "McKenzie describes corroborating accounts from SAS soldiers and Afghan witnesses in Kabul, including the Ali Jan cliff-kick allegation and details from the Helmand River crossing.", "Bachelard explains how the defamation case, Kerry Stokes' backing, and the resulting legal fight widened the evidence base and now sit behind the criminal proceedings."]
Fourth Estate follows more than 2,000 ABC staff who walked off for 24 hours, the broadcaster's first strike in two decades, after rejecting a 10% pay rise over three years.
Forth Estate profiles Virginia Trioli's move from newspaper journalism to 774 ABC Radio Melbourne Drive, where she became the first woman to host the program in June 2000.
Fourth Estate opens its 2026 In Profile series with Tina Quinn and Virginia Trioli, a two-time Walkley Award winner, former ABC News Breakfast anchor, and author of Generation F, Sex, Power and the Young Feminist.
Journalist Amy Remeikis discusses her book arguing that John Howard's policies created lasting divisions and inequalities in Australia.
Journalist Tina Quinn discusses the collapse of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and the targeting of journalists in Gaza.
Tina Quinn interviews human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson about international justice and his book 'Bad People and How to Be Rid of Them'.
David Marr discusses his unexpected editorship of the National Times and lessons learned from the role.
David Marr discusses his career as a journalist and his investigations into ASIO's Cold War mentality and Aboriginal deaths in custody.