At a local cafe, the baristas know Nicole Chvastek’s order: An extra hot almond chai latte. What they may not know, is that she has been intimidating Prime Ministers and the establishment for years, in order to, “keep the bastards honest”.
We’ve watched and listened to her hound politicians, expose injustices, and cover historic events like the Black Saturday Bushfires, and the bloody Underworld Wars.
Chvastek, a renowned journalist, is known by her colleagues as someone who built a career on asking the hard questions across both TV and radio. She spent years working for the ABC as an evening news reporter, anchor, chief of staff, senior producer for John Faine’s radio show, and hosting the daily ABC Radio Drive program.
In her line of work she only cares about one thing; the truth.
“I don’t care if you’re from the left, or the right, or the moon. So I sort of don’t care what label you put on yourself or other people put on you. Bring me the information, show me the evidence,” she says.
“The right-wings are the ones with the power at the moment. The right-wing politicians and media owners are the ones who are contaminating the minds of mass populations, in my view, through the algorithms, through the outrage sitting on social media. And that’s where the most serious problem lies at the moment.
“It’s important to know that climate change is real. You know, Murdoch won’t tell you that. Trump won’t tell you that. Zuckerberg won’t tell you that.
“They don’t care whether or not information has accuracy. But being informed with the truth is really important for your mental health. And for the health of your community.”
Chvastek regards her own community in the Macedon Ranges as, “peaceful for the soul”.
“I come here [to the cafe], and the owner knows me by name, keeps a table for me, knows my coffee. I say hello to people in the street, they say hello back. They ask me how my husband is. You realise how important it is to be treated as a human being in a in a community of human beings.”
When the media acts unethically, journalists have an obligation to call out their counterparts – it’s a self regulating industry. Dr Denis Muller, a political scientist and a former journalist (The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Times, London) teaches this to all his journalism students who pass through the doors at the University of Melbourne. Muller and Chvastek are long-time associates and the two veteran journalists have recently started a podcast, Truth, Lies and Media.
The show analyses the current political crises in Australia and the world and critiques mass media for its misleading coverage. It acts as a watchdog to bring factual information in an otherwise Goliath-like industry full of deceitful information. The second episode goes in-depth about Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton appearing on left and right leaning podcasts to promote their own ideologies. They don’t want to speak to actual journalists, says Chvastek. It could undermine them.
“We’ve seen our profession be appropriated by bad faith actors and contaminated and used to hurt mass populations. And so in our small way, we want to correct that imbalance.”
The first two episodes of the show are out now and available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or online at feeds.acast.com/public/shows/truth-lies-and-media.
