Last year Tony Jones won Crikey’s Media Practitioner of the Year award. This year he has been gazumped by the increasingly impressive performance of his Ultimo stablemate Fran Kelly. But ABC TV’s Lateline remains the television current affairs program de jour and Jones remains its relentlessly cool presenter. Apart from Andrew Denton, Jones is the ABC’s best interrogator and it is in this role that he dominates the late-night screen. Without his centrepiece interview Lateline would be no more than another evening news wrap — in fact, irritatingly, much of its content is repeated from earlier news and current affairs programs. Which suggests that maybe it’s time for a revamp.

Crikey readers say:

SBS’s Insight – David Smartt

2005 Winner: ABC TV’s Insiders.