"Jana Wendt has long been a feature of Australia's media landscape," Tim Elliott explained. In her introduction, Jana told 'Dateline' viewers in 2000, "Dr Henry Kissinger, US Secretary of State to both presidents Nixon and Ford, says we're now entering a new era where old foreign policy remises no longer hold. And Dr Kissinger should know."
The rise of Jana Wendt in 1982 was one of the Australian success stories of the year. Then 24, Jana Wendt was the first female reporter on '60 Minutes'. At the time Jana, the only daughter of refugees who fled political oppression in their native Czechoslovakia, stressed, "I am in no way a token woman." In his memoir, Gerald Stone revealed, "(George) Negus, (Ian) Leslie and (Ray) Martin were furious – there's no other word for it – coming to me one by one to condemn my decision as a slap in the face to them and a terrible blow to '60 Minutes' hard-won reputation.
"What did a 20-something newsreader have to contribute to a program recognised for its world-class journalism? The only thing I could do was ask them to trust me enough to wait and see, and to give Jana a fair chance to prove herself. Meanwhile, I encouraged them to check her out for themselves." During the show's golden era, '60 Minutes' was watched by a TV audience comprised over 2.5 million national viewers a week.
The rise of Jana Wendt in 1982 was one of the Australian success stories of the year. Then 24, Jana Wendt was the first female reporter on '60 Minutes'. At the time Jana, the only daughter of refugees who fled political oppression in their native Czechoslovakia, stressed, "I am in no way a token woman." In his memoir, Gerald Stone revealed, "(George) Negus, (Ian) Leslie and (Ray) Martin were furious – there's no other word for it – coming to me one by one to condemn my decision as a slap in the face to them and a terrible blow to '60 Minutes' hard-won reputation.
"What did a 20-something newsreader have to contribute to a program recognised for its world-class journalism? The only thing I could do was ask them to trust me enough to wait and see, and to give Jana a fair chance to prove herself. Meanwhile, I encouraged them to check her out for themselves." During the show's golden era, '60 Minutes' was watched by a TV audience comprised over 2.5 million national viewers a week.
In promoting the book, 'Nice Work', in 2010, Jana Wendt told 'The Advertiser', "Television is largely a collaborative process, so if you go around the place producing the sort of programs I was producing on a program like '60 Minutes' and you travel with almost literally a caravan of people, basically the finished product is very much reliant on each of those individuals doing a grand job, which they mostly do."
Susan Anthony interviewed Jana Wendt for 'Cleo' magazine in April 1982 noted, "It’s a rigorous, non-stop schedule. Early mornings, long days, late nights, and little respite. It requires stamina, patience, and a cheerful disposition. For Jana, who will appear on camera, it also requires looking consistently presentable. Jana scores top marks on all counts.
"It's clear from the moment you meet Jana Wendt that this woman is pretty special. As time wears on, it becomes clearer why. Firstly, she has it all – beauty, brains, a good sense of humor, an easy confidence, a quick wit, geniality, thoughtfulness, professionalism, and good old common sense. But secondly, she knows instinctively how to make the most of it all. In three long, wearing days she handled the most difficult situations with guts and grace, the most trivial with lively repartee, and the most exhausting with good humor."
Penelope Debelle of 'The Advertiser' continued, "Wendt is probably at her most interesting when the subject is herself. She writes in the foreword about the power of work over people, 'the fierce pull of a vocation' that draws them in almost without their consent. Yet for her, this was not the case. She stumbled into journalism by accident, a graduate doing research for the ABC who heard there were positions going in the newsroom at channel Ten in Melbourne. She wandered in, got a job, and a star was born."
Of working on '60 Minutes', Jana told the ABC, it was pure luck, "the sort of luck that doesn't happen these days … it was a wild shot. Today (in 2010) I don't think it would happen, the whole field is so terribly competitive and there's so much scrutiny of people doing media jobs like that, I don't think I would've gotten a foot in the door these days."
In his 2011 memoir, 'Say it with Feeling', Gerald Stone disclosed media mogul Kerry Packer initially wanted Kate Baillieu, a journalist on 'A Current Affair' in the mid-1970s to be first choice as the first female reporter on '60 Minutes'. Kate Baillieu told 'The Australian' in 2009 '60 Minutes' never really suited her, "It was never my bag of tricks and despite my brother (former Victorian premier Ted Baillieu) I was never a political journalist but more a human interest person." After turning down '60 Minutes', "I went on and did a bit of work when Kerry Packer was setting up World Series Cricket. He had me involved in that in Melbourne and that was an adventure."
In "the testosterone-charged world of commercial current affairs", news chief John Westacott described working with Jana, "I like her as a bloke. And she's an excellent journo." 'The Sydney Morning Herald' reported in 1987, "There are 40 people at '60 Minutes'. When '60 Minutes' was launched, in 1979, at least 70% of its content was made overseas. It was breaking ground.
"Now (in 1987), about 50% of the stories are made in Australia. Last year (1986), '60 Minutes' was regularly top of the heap, with the ratings averaged the mid-30s (soaring to 44 for one week). Ray Martin proclaimed that working for the show was like 'having a blank check and an open airline ticket. We go anywhere in the world to cover any sort of story.'
"The globetrotting image, conceived as 'a way to sell the program' has stuck and so has the awe reserved for the idea of blank checks and open airline tickets. Now (1987) in its ninth year, '60 Minutes' has been well and truly sold. Its reporters have a higher profile than most of their subjects, its budget is the envy of the industry. It is following the awesome success of the American program of which it is a copy."
In June 1994, Jana Wendt, 'Variety' described as "Oz's equivalent of Barbara Walters", interviewed Yasser Arafat on '60 Minutes'. Jana recalled ten years later, "I was very intimidated interviewing Yasser Arafat one time, when he was holed up in Tunis. Very intimidated. At the end of one interview I did with him he was rip-roaring furious.
"He ordered his guys, who had been standing around with guns, to rip the film out of our camera. And so they did. A couple of nights later, he called us back, but the guys were still standing there with guns. And so I was required to do a second interview but I was genuinely concerned about the safety of all of us. That was out and out physical intimidation in a way, and it worked."
'The Age' reported, "During her 13 years (1982-1995) at Nine, she managed to impress not just her fellow journalists and bosses with her deceptively tough interviewing style, but the editors of glossy magazines for whom she embodied the glamorous super-achiever in a man's world. Today (in 2003), Wendt is relieved that her megastar days are over because, she says, the focus can shift from the woman to the work (at the time on the 'Sunday' program)."
Writing for 'The Daily Telegraph' in 2011, Jana Wendt recounted the interview with Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli for '60 Minutes' in 1982, "I had come to speak with the man who was regarded as one of the world's most unstable and unpredictable autocrats. Images of Gaddafi were everywhere, in public offices, at street corners and in restaurants. We had waited for the interview for two long weeks.
"When I finally got my chance in the tent, I asked him why he was so often described as a terrorist, a butcher, a gangster and a madman. He spoke through an interpreter, although I suspect he understood some, perhaps all, of my questions. His voice was thin and subdued. There were long, long, pauses between words. I looked into his eyes and, disconcertingly, they rolled to the back of his head. He laughed at questions that were not a bit funny and his gaze frequently wandered."
Speaking to Steve Dow in 2005, Jana Wendt considered a good interview to be, "The optimum achievement is where you reveal something new, or something that the person has not publicly revealed about themselves. That’s not just words, either; there can be revelations in gesture or in look or expression that speak volumes … Curiosity is the base metal. I’ll also do a dissertation on being older: to have lived enough of life to appreciate the many colors of people’s personalities and to have some respect for people’s weaknesses and people’s softer sides."
Jana had stated, "I’m not going to tell you about my politics because it would undercut what I do." Speaking to Margot Kingston in 1995, Jana elaborated, "If you decide you're going to be a journalist, and I still have the old-fashioned view of a journalist in my mind, it means that you try awfully hard, where possible, to maintain some kind of impartiality.
"To me, it's the only respectable way to operate because, obviously, people very often ask me to lend my name to lots of things, but I just don't believe a journalist should neuter his or herself by clinging to a cause. Once you start doing that, you simply have to be honest with yourself and say, 'I'm giving journalism away and I'm going to be a publicist now.'"
At the 1997 Andrew Olle lecture, Jana argued, "Journalists are the people on whom we rely to tell us about the world. To tell us about how we are being governed - to give us the base materials - that is facts - without which we cannot make intelligent judgments about our own lives. Unlike 'Baywatch' or 'The Footy Show' or 'The Best of the World's Worst Drivers' which are there to distract us from reality, news needs to be real, that is, anchored in plain, solid fact."
It was reported in 1995, the American '60 Minutes' wanted Jana Wendt to go to New York as a full-time reporter. However at the time there were complications with Westinghouse in the process of taking over CBS from previous owner, Larry Tisch. As understood the takeover process would not complete until well into 1996. Toward the end of 1995, Jana Wendt decided to sign a three-year contract with channel Seven to host the big budget public affairs show, 'Witness'.
Producer Anthony McClellan made known, "The deal with Jana was discussed and signed within seven days, I think. She would have been told (she was) going to be a linchpin of the ('Witness') program, that's just logic. You don't hire a person like Jana to put her in the cupboard." At the time, Margot Kingston remarked, "The always tricky dynamic between the intellectual bent of Wendt and the commercial pay-offs of her popularity has become even trickier."
Of 'Witness' ratings in its first year, Peter Meakin told 'The Sydney Morning Herald', "Jana is not driven by commercial considerations in terms of story judgment. Jana gave us all a stiff lecture about how we'd all dropped the ball and she was going to show us the way to the promised land. The thing ('Witness') needs to do is more stories with mass appeal and to be a little less self-indulgent. It's not really a commercial program yet. I wouldn't have launched that sort of show anyway. But Seven would have to leave the show where it is for at least the rest of this year (1996) and probably next year (1997) as well. You don't hire a talent like Jana Wendt then pull the show after a couple of months."
In discussing '60 Minutes' in 1989, Peter Meakin made the point, "We've got to get people to watch, bums on seats, we have to grab the audience. The fact is we are a populist program, and that naturally provokes criticism from 'serious' journalists because they are far more comfortable with 'Four Corners' and 'Sunday'. I get the word 'sensationalist' thrown at me all the time. Sensationalist, in my book, means appealing to people's emotions, but when most journalists use it they mean 'beat up'. We ('60 Minutes') don't do beat-ups, but I happen to think that the best stories have an emotional factor."
Susan Anthony interviewed Jana Wendt for 'Cleo' magazine in April 1982 noted, "It’s a rigorous, non-stop schedule. Early mornings, long days, late nights, and little respite. It requires stamina, patience, and a cheerful disposition. For Jana, who will appear on camera, it also requires looking consistently presentable. Jana scores top marks on all counts.
"It's clear from the moment you meet Jana Wendt that this woman is pretty special. As time wears on, it becomes clearer why. Firstly, she has it all – beauty, brains, a good sense of humor, an easy confidence, a quick wit, geniality, thoughtfulness, professionalism, and good old common sense. But secondly, she knows instinctively how to make the most of it all. In three long, wearing days she handled the most difficult situations with guts and grace, the most trivial with lively repartee, and the most exhausting with good humor."
Penelope Debelle of 'The Advertiser' continued, "Wendt is probably at her most interesting when the subject is herself. She writes in the foreword about the power of work over people, 'the fierce pull of a vocation' that draws them in almost without their consent. Yet for her, this was not the case. She stumbled into journalism by accident, a graduate doing research for the ABC who heard there were positions going in the newsroom at channel Ten in Melbourne. She wandered in, got a job, and a star was born."
Of working on '60 Minutes', Jana told the ABC, it was pure luck, "the sort of luck that doesn't happen these days … it was a wild shot. Today (in 2010) I don't think it would happen, the whole field is so terribly competitive and there's so much scrutiny of people doing media jobs like that, I don't think I would've gotten a foot in the door these days."
In his 2011 memoir, 'Say it with Feeling', Gerald Stone disclosed media mogul Kerry Packer initially wanted Kate Baillieu, a journalist on 'A Current Affair' in the mid-1970s to be first choice as the first female reporter on '60 Minutes'. Kate Baillieu told 'The Australian' in 2009 '60 Minutes' never really suited her, "It was never my bag of tricks and despite my brother (former Victorian premier Ted Baillieu) I was never a political journalist but more a human interest person." After turning down '60 Minutes', "I went on and did a bit of work when Kerry Packer was setting up World Series Cricket. He had me involved in that in Melbourne and that was an adventure."
In "the testosterone-charged world of commercial current affairs", news chief John Westacott described working with Jana, "I like her as a bloke. And she's an excellent journo." 'The Sydney Morning Herald' reported in 1987, "There are 40 people at '60 Minutes'. When '60 Minutes' was launched, in 1979, at least 70% of its content was made overseas. It was breaking ground.
"Now (in 1987), about 50% of the stories are made in Australia. Last year (1986), '60 Minutes' was regularly top of the heap, with the ratings averaged the mid-30s (soaring to 44 for one week). Ray Martin proclaimed that working for the show was like 'having a blank check and an open airline ticket. We go anywhere in the world to cover any sort of story.'
"The globetrotting image, conceived as 'a way to sell the program' has stuck and so has the awe reserved for the idea of blank checks and open airline tickets. Now (1987) in its ninth year, '60 Minutes' has been well and truly sold. Its reporters have a higher profile than most of their subjects, its budget is the envy of the industry. It is following the awesome success of the American program of which it is a copy."
In June 1994, Jana Wendt, 'Variety' described as "Oz's equivalent of Barbara Walters", interviewed Yasser Arafat on '60 Minutes'. Jana recalled ten years later, "I was very intimidated interviewing Yasser Arafat one time, when he was holed up in Tunis. Very intimidated. At the end of one interview I did with him he was rip-roaring furious.
"He ordered his guys, who had been standing around with guns, to rip the film out of our camera. And so they did. A couple of nights later, he called us back, but the guys were still standing there with guns. And so I was required to do a second interview but I was genuinely concerned about the safety of all of us. That was out and out physical intimidation in a way, and it worked."
'The Age' reported, "During her 13 years (1982-1995) at Nine, she managed to impress not just her fellow journalists and bosses with her deceptively tough interviewing style, but the editors of glossy magazines for whom she embodied the glamorous super-achiever in a man's world. Today (in 2003), Wendt is relieved that her megastar days are over because, she says, the focus can shift from the woman to the work (at the time on the 'Sunday' program)."
Writing for 'The Daily Telegraph' in 2011, Jana Wendt recounted the interview with Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli for '60 Minutes' in 1982, "I had come to speak with the man who was regarded as one of the world's most unstable and unpredictable autocrats. Images of Gaddafi were everywhere, in public offices, at street corners and in restaurants. We had waited for the interview for two long weeks.
"When I finally got my chance in the tent, I asked him why he was so often described as a terrorist, a butcher, a gangster and a madman. He spoke through an interpreter, although I suspect he understood some, perhaps all, of my questions. His voice was thin and subdued. There were long, long, pauses between words. I looked into his eyes and, disconcertingly, they rolled to the back of his head. He laughed at questions that were not a bit funny and his gaze frequently wandered."
Speaking to Steve Dow in 2005, Jana Wendt considered a good interview to be, "The optimum achievement is where you reveal something new, or something that the person has not publicly revealed about themselves. That’s not just words, either; there can be revelations in gesture or in look or expression that speak volumes … Curiosity is the base metal. I’ll also do a dissertation on being older: to have lived enough of life to appreciate the many colors of people’s personalities and to have some respect for people’s weaknesses and people’s softer sides."
Jana had stated, "I’m not going to tell you about my politics because it would undercut what I do." Speaking to Margot Kingston in 1995, Jana elaborated, "If you decide you're going to be a journalist, and I still have the old-fashioned view of a journalist in my mind, it means that you try awfully hard, where possible, to maintain some kind of impartiality.
"To me, it's the only respectable way to operate because, obviously, people very often ask me to lend my name to lots of things, but I just don't believe a journalist should neuter his or herself by clinging to a cause. Once you start doing that, you simply have to be honest with yourself and say, 'I'm giving journalism away and I'm going to be a publicist now.'"
At the 1997 Andrew Olle lecture, Jana argued, "Journalists are the people on whom we rely to tell us about the world. To tell us about how we are being governed - to give us the base materials - that is facts - without which we cannot make intelligent judgments about our own lives. Unlike 'Baywatch' or 'The Footy Show' or 'The Best of the World's Worst Drivers' which are there to distract us from reality, news needs to be real, that is, anchored in plain, solid fact."
It was reported in 1995, the American '60 Minutes' wanted Jana Wendt to go to New York as a full-time reporter. However at the time there were complications with Westinghouse in the process of taking over CBS from previous owner, Larry Tisch. As understood the takeover process would not complete until well into 1996. Toward the end of 1995, Jana Wendt decided to sign a three-year contract with channel Seven to host the big budget public affairs show, 'Witness'.
Producer Anthony McClellan made known, "The deal with Jana was discussed and signed within seven days, I think. She would have been told (she was) going to be a linchpin of the ('Witness') program, that's just logic. You don't hire a person like Jana to put her in the cupboard." At the time, Margot Kingston remarked, "The always tricky dynamic between the intellectual bent of Wendt and the commercial pay-offs of her popularity has become even trickier."
Of 'Witness' ratings in its first year, Peter Meakin told 'The Sydney Morning Herald', "Jana is not driven by commercial considerations in terms of story judgment. Jana gave us all a stiff lecture about how we'd all dropped the ball and she was going to show us the way to the promised land. The thing ('Witness') needs to do is more stories with mass appeal and to be a little less self-indulgent. It's not really a commercial program yet. I wouldn't have launched that sort of show anyway. But Seven would have to leave the show where it is for at least the rest of this year (1996) and probably next year (1997) as well. You don't hire a talent like Jana Wendt then pull the show after a couple of months."
In discussing '60 Minutes' in 1989, Peter Meakin made the point, "We've got to get people to watch, bums on seats, we have to grab the audience. The fact is we are a populist program, and that naturally provokes criticism from 'serious' journalists because they are far more comfortable with 'Four Corners' and 'Sunday'. I get the word 'sensationalist' thrown at me all the time. Sensationalist, in my book, means appealing to people's emotions, but when most journalists use it they mean 'beat up'. We ('60 Minutes') don't do beat-ups, but I happen to think that the best stories have an emotional factor."
Jana made the observation, "Just by the way, it is interesting to note that as Executive Producer of CBS' '60 Minutes', Don Hewitt has proved that it is possible to create a quality current affairs program for commercial television. A program that for nearly thirty years (or since 1968), has attracted a mass audience and as a byproduct, made buckets of money for the network. It is positioned in the middle of the most tabloid TV market in the world and yet it succeeds."
Of TV journalism, Jana told the ABC in 2010, "As journalists we are called upon to be jacks of all trade. We are asked to delve into wildly disparate subjects and become quickly expert. I don't know that we always achieve that, but we give it a red hot go."
Of TV journalism, Jana told the ABC in 2010, "As journalists we are called upon to be jacks of all trade. We are asked to delve into wildly disparate subjects and become quickly expert. I don't know that we always achieve that, but we give it a red hot go."
