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Mike Munro began his career as a journalist in 1971 as a 17-year-old copy boy on The Australian and The Daily Mirror newspapers.
After completing his cadetship he remained with the Mirror for seven years before joining Sydney’s Channel 10 News in 1978. Eleven months later he returned to newspapers and was posted to New York by Rupert Murdoch to work in News Limited’s American bureau and The New York Post.
In 1982 Munro and his wife Lea returned to Australia to start a family and he again joined Channel 10 News. After two years at Channel 10 and almost deciding to "go back to newspapers once and for all", Peter Meakin, Nine’s Director of News and Current Affairs, persuaded him to join the Willesee show.
Munro joined Willesee in June 1984 and soon after won the Thorn Award for Best Current Affairs Report for his investigation into a Sydney child pornography racket and was named winner of the national Thorn journalist Award for his report on “Heroin ’84.” In 1985 he won the Logie for Reporter of the Year and the Penguin Award for Best Current Affairs Journalist.
In May 1986, Munro left Willesee to replace George Negus at Nine’s top-rating current affairs program, 60 Minutes.
During almost seven years on 60 Minutes Munro produced many standout stories including “Ward 10B: The Cover-Up,” a bizarre psychiatric unit in Townsville and an expose on the bungled “Mr Bubbles” case, one of the most notorious child sexual abuse cases in Australian history.
His candid and cheeky interviews featured some of the world’s most famous women, including Katharine Hepburn, Bette Midler and Barbra Streisand. His interview with Jan Murray, former wife of the Hawk Government’s Minister for Sport, John Brown, created front page headlines with her “love on the desk” revelations. Another Munro favourite was running with the bulls in Pamplona, which he remembers as “one of the greatest adrenalin buzzes I’ve ever had.”
Spending eight months each year away from his family took its toll and in 1993 Munro left 60 Minutes to join A Current Affair.
Although he has a reputation as a tough newsman Munro personally plays down the image of investigative journalist, saying there’s a much softer side to him.
In 1995 audiences saw this other side when Munro became the new host of the re-vamped series This Is Your Life on the Nine Network. Since its return to the small screen This Is Your Life has not been out of the annual top 10 regular programs for all its six years and averages a national weekly audience of more than two million viewers. “It’s a show about honest raw emotion which is positive and builds up our tall poppies rather than cutting them down,” Munro says. “Most importantly for me it promotes family values.”
In January 1999 Munro replaced Ray Martin as the host of A Current Affair, which continues unrivalled in it timeslot and is regularly in the nation’s top 20 highest rating programs. Leaving A Current Affair in 2003, Munro covered hundreds of stories in that time including the investigation that exposed paedophile Phillip Harold Bell and his 20-year link with a police paedophile ring. Munro’s story alerted authorities to Bell and led the NSW Police Royal Commission to investigate, capture and convict him.
Munro continues to present This Is Your Life; his autobiography, A Pasty Faced Nothing, was released in 2003.
Travels from New South Wales
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