Moving into television in 1967, he first appeared on the ABCTV This Day Tonight as a reporter before being appointed a news director for the Nine Network in 1975.
Mike Willesee came to prominence in 1967 as a reporter for the ABC's new nightly current affairs program This Day Tonight (TDT), where his aggressive style quickly earned him a reputation as a fearless political interviewer.
One notable example of its sometimes controversial editorial approach was a musical comedy sketch that satirised the actions of then-NSW Premier Robert Askin, who was reported to have ordered his driver to "run over the bastards" when anti-war demonstrators threw themselves in the front the car in which he and visiting U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson were travelling.
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Noted Australian journalist, author and filmmaker Tim Bowden also worked on the show as a producer.
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One of these protests, outside the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Headquarters on 11 July 1972, protested the refusal by ABC Management to show a segment on Gay Liberation featuring Dennis Altman as part of the programme This Day Tonight; it was during this peaceful protest that McDiarmid was arrested, the first such arrest at a gay rights protest in Australia.