In June last year, Leigh Sales signed off after 12 high-pressure years hosting the ABC's nightly current affairs show, 7.30. She returns to ABC TV in 2023 as host of Australian Story and opens up to Backstory about her new gig, the need to re-think the nature of news and dealing with the sudden death of a friend who stood beside her in the 7.30 studio every night.
What does your Australian Story role entail and what does it mean to you to be hosting the program?
The details are still being worked out but my most visible public role will be as anchor. I've been spending recent weeks doing a deep dive into the Australian Story archives, suggesting program ideas, learning their workflows and meeting their team. I've been getting up to speed with innovation in news around the world, audience data and a whole lot of other things. We've been working out a new look and feel for the opening.
The thing that most amazes me with Australian Story is how high the quality of the program has been for so long, and how much they do on so few resources. They are an incredibly talented and motivated team with terrific leaders.
It means a lot to me to host this program, mostly because I've always thought it's brilliant. I am also a huge admirer of the original executive producer, Deborah Fleming, and the original presenter, the late Caroline Jones. When I was 21 in Brisbane and just starting out, Deb gave me a shot at doing some stories for the local version of 7.30 and she was really helpful and encouraging, even though I was so green. She has kept in touch and been a great encourager all through my career. I think she did an amazing thing starting Australian Story. It was so far ahead of its time. Caroline was also the most wonderful source of support over the years, not just to me but to so many journalists. She was such a warm and positive person, always with a kind word or email. The current leaders, Rebecca Latham and Caitlin Shea, carry on the tradition admirably.
When we last spoke, as you were finishing up at 7.30, you said you planned to switch off during your six-month break and not watch any news and current affairs. How did you go?
I went cold turkey. It was great for me. I've definitely not returned to my previous level of news consumption and I think my wellbeing is better for it.
After 12 years hosting the program, was it hard to adjust?
Strangely enough, it really wasn't because it was very much the right time for me to move on. I miss my 7.30 colleagues but I don't miss the relentless pressure of having to front the program every night.
Not long after I finished, my long-time 7.30 cameraman and floor manager, Mick Walter, died after a very short and brutal bout of cancer.
We had worked closely together every day for years and years. I honestly don't know how I could have gone back into the studio after he died. I was so relieved I had already finished and didn't have to somehow do that.
I am still avoiding going anywhere near that area because it's like a punch in the face that Mick isn't there in our old green room eating his chicken chips and taking the piss out of me. I'll tell you what our relationship was like: He would walk into the green room when I was pressing my clothes for the show and he'd hear the bubbling water of the clothes steamer and go, "Firing up the bong before the show again are you? If only the viewers knew what you're really like."
What views did you form by stepping away for a time?
I think we need to reconsider the nature of "news" and I don't have any easy answers for this. But I think the traditional model of the news is contributing to the mental health crisis in this country. The nature of news is that it emphasises the aberration or the rare occurrence over the most likely outcome. So, for example, 200 helicopters fly safely on any given day and the one that crashes makes the news. That was fine back in the days when people saw one TV news bulletin per day or there was one daily newspaper, but now with social media and 24/7 news. You might see 25 references per day to that helicopter, complete with detailed images. I know from research I did for my book, Any Ordinary Day, that to the human brain, that feels like 25 helicopters crashed, not one. I believe that the news is making people fear things they don't need to be fearful of. It gives people a skewed sense of what is actually dangerous in life.
Let me give you an example: 3,747 Australians died of catastrophic falls in 2021, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (by contrast, COVID deaths were 1,122). I guarantee the possibility of a fatal fall is not front of mind for most people, even though it is one of the most common causes of death in Australia. But if every single day, the media started covering the 10 people who had died in falls, and we had their families crying on TV and calling for action, and we had "experts" going, "We have to do something about all the people dying from accidental falls," I'm sure it would spark mass public anxiety. People would start thinking they were at significant personal risk of dying from a fall and suddenly we'd be seeing politicians announce non-slip floor mats are mandatory everywhere and there would be new regulations for shoe soles and so on.
The other thing that I think causes the public unnecessary anxiety is the over-emphasis of doomsday predictions on the opinion of one so-called "expert". It's the equivalent of crystal-ball gazing and we need to stop treating it as if it's news. Those kinds of stories are endemic. "Housing prices set to fall 25 per cent" will scream the headline. Then you read on and the fortune-telling is based on one person's opinion. The story will also neglect to mention that it's a 25 per cent worst-case scenario prediction off the back of a year of crazy 30 per cent price rises.
There's plenty to be anxious about in life without the unnecessary fearmongering. Like I say, there are no easy answers to this. But we journalists need to think about it, otherwise people are going to increasingly turn their backs on the news media.
What other projects do you have in the pipeline?
Plenty of stuff going on behind the scenes! I don't feel any great need to be on TV the whole time. I like coming up with ideas for other people too and I like working on interesting projects in any capacity. I like both training and learning from younger journalists. I'm fascinated by uber-short-form storytelling (under two minutes) on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. I've been having lots of chats with Australian Story about sidebar projects we could do that align with the program's values and integrity. I'm open to lots of different possibilities, on and off camera.
I also have a book coming out later this year that I started during lockdown. It's called Storytellers: Questions, Answers and the Craft of Journalism. It's a series of conversations with top journalists, breaking down the building blocks of the trade: How do you make contacts? How do you find a new angle on a story? How do you know when to interrupt in an interview with a politician? Some amazing journalists agreed to talk to me for it – Laurie Oakes, Nikki Savva, Tracy Grimshaw, Kate McClymont, Hedley Thomas and many others. It was a really enjoyable thing to do in my spare time. I felt I learned a lot of interesting stuff that I can use myself!
Australian Story returns February 27, 8pm (AEST), on ABCTV and ABC iview. The season starts with entrepreneur, inventor and advocate for electric households, Saul Griffith.
