澳九频道著名新闻主持Peter Hitchener接受采访时坦诚出柜

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RESPECTED newsman Peter Hitchener is Channel 9's perfect 10. Warm and engaging, Hitchener celebrates his 10th year as Nine's weeknight news presenter in November.

It is a milestone worth marking and comes as Hitchener and Nine are fighting back after enduring the toughest news ratings battle ever against arch rival Channel 7 last year.

The stoush for ratings and viewers was fierce and unrelenting. In the Monday to Friday Hitch v Mitch battle between Hitchener and Seven’s newsreader Peter Mitchell, Seven won 20 weeks, Nine won 19 and there was one tie.

Nine, however, claims it triumphed in that tied week, meaning, in their eyes, the stations were equal in the number of weeks won.

Only 635 people separated the bulletins, with Seven averaging 382,835 viewers to Nine’s 382,200, marking Seven’s first win in the Melbourne news race in almost

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30 years.

The fight is equally tough this year. So far Nine is performing much better, having claimed the Monday to Friday battle in five out of the six completed official ratings weeks.

Hitchener acknowledged that last year’s loss in the news ratings had made everybody pick up their game.

"It made us all concentrate much more on what we were doing," Hitchener said.

"(We had to) think about how we put stories together, about how I present stories, all sorts of things that maybe – maybe – had been taken for granted.

"I think it was probably in some ways a very good thing because it helped focus my attention on what I was doing and how I could contribute to the service and I think the service these days is much better for it.

"It (the news service) is feeling good so far this year. Things ebb and flow and nothing can be taken for granted. We are working away, but there are more satisfying results from our point of view this year."

This is a year of milestones for Hitchener, 62, who grew up in outback Queensland. Not only does he mark a decade fronting the news in TV’s toughest timeslot, having taken over the reins from veteran newsreader Brian Naylor in 1998, 2008 also sees him clock up 35 years as part of the Nine Network family.

"I can scarcely believe that 10 years has passed," Hitchener said.

"It seems like only yesterday that the announcement was made and the transition happened and Monday to Friday became permanently my focus."

Hitchener was no fly-by-night replacement for Naylor. He had been reading the weekend bulletins as Naylor’s deputy for 20 years and his transition into the top job was
seamless, though he privately admits there were nerves.

"I just could not believe it when it happened," he said.

"I started working with Eric Pearce. So, having worked with Eric and then Brian, I was quite
accustomed to being the weekend reader, the number two, if you like, in the presentation team.

"Then I suddenly found myself as having taken over and it was only the afternoon – the first afternoon when I was reading the news after the big announcement – that it dawned on me that I had extremely big shoes to fill."

Hitchener joined Nine in Sydney in 1973 as a young news presenter after a seven-year stint at the ABC. Before the year’s end he had moved to Melbourne to join this city’s news team, where Sir Eric Pearce became a mentor and inspiration for the boy from the bush.

"A wonderful person, a wonderful mentor, a wonderful friend. Eric was someone who was very warm and very generous, and very funny and very witty, and also a stickler for doing things correctly," Hitchener recalled.

"Even when he retired from newsreading and was community services director here, which he was for a very long time, at the end of a bulletin you just knew if something had gone wrong the phone would ring and it would be Eric and he would say, ‘Dear boy, it is done this way, not that way. Don’t do that again please. Goodnight.’

"I think Eric’s philosophy, and it is one that I believe in, was that we are there to serve the audience, not the other way around.

"We are just providing a service to the people who want to watch our news bulletin and so you have to be accurate and fair and just focus on the story. The story is what is important."

Despite spending 3 1/2 decades behind the newsdesk, Hitchener said he had never contemplated doing anything else.

"Along the way I have had some radio experience and I have done some special reports on various things, so I enjoy doing that, but I love the news and I don’t ever want to do anything else," he said.

There have also been tempting offers over the years from other media organisations, offers that he has rejected.

"There have been opportunities in the past to work elsewhere and I am very much still here," he said.

News and Channel 9 play a significant role in Hitchener’s life.

Away from the hustle and bustle and adrenalin rush of the newsroom, Hitchener enjoys simple pursuits.

"I am a private person," he said.

"I am very proud to be a Melburnian even though I grew up somewhere else."

He is devoted to his family – "I have the most wonderful support" – is a passionate supporter of the St Kilda football club – "they have also had a good start to the year" – and enjoys tending his garden.

"Like so many Melburnians, I am trying to keep my garden going through the drought," he said.

"I know a lot of people will be up at 6am two mornings a week to get things watered. Mine is looking a little like the Sahara Desert in places."

Hitchener works regularly with top personal trainer Donna Aston who has him working out on the roman rings and the horizontal bars in the gym.

"I am sadly forever fighting the battle against the bulge," he admits.

And he also enjoys the challenge and frustration of a round of golf.

"My handicap is my utter and complete lack of ability at the game," he laughs.

He is not in a relationship.

"I am a single person and given that we are on private issues of private life, I am choosing to share with you today that part of my life that I have not spoken about before: that I am gay," Hitchener said.

"That is part of who I am and with that disclosure, or acknowledgment, I just also need to say I am still the person I was yesterday. I am still the same person and I remain committed to my job and my family and my service and so on.

"It is not something that has ever come up before. I have never been asked about it before. There is never a right time, or an easy time, to talk about these personal issues, but this is the right time to say it and to move on."

Channel 9’s director of news, Michael Venus, said he fully supported Hitchener’s decision to speak about his personal life.

"I am acutely aware of how difficult a decision this has been for Peter. Indeed I know he has agonised over it for a very long time," Venus said.

"But it is a decision which has our full support and in no way diminishes his standing as one of Australia’s pre-eminent broadcasters.

"And why would it? His professionalism and credibility is without peer. He is an enormously popular and much-loved public figure who continues to do an outstanding job.

"He enjoys the respect of everyone in the newsroom and this revelation – sensitively done with such dignity and style – further endears him to us all.

"He is a great communicator and has wonderful warmth and credibility. People believe what he says. He has a quite unassuming style and I think to most people he is an authoritative, joy to watch.

"And he is without doubt the best newsreader in the country."

Nine Network’s executive director and GTV9’s managing director Jeffrey Browne said Hitchener was an integral part of the network.

"Peter is a distinguished and highly respected newsreader who has shown great dignity and courage in talking frankly about his private life. I have assured him on behalf of the network, of our support and commitment to him," Browne said.

"National Nine News is a staple for Victorians. It is the news they trust and in no small part that enviable reputation is attributable to Peter’s professionalism, his dedication to bringing the latest news first to Victorians and his warmth and empathy with his audience.

"He is an integral part of the team which makes National Nine News Melbourne’s best."

Hitchener has two years left on his current five-year contract with Nine and has no plans to put his feet up at its end, describing hosting the nightly bulletin as a privilege.

"I am 62 and I feel that I am as committed as ever to the news and I would like to continue on (after this contract ends)," he said.

"I have had wonderful support from management and I am very happy to be working where I am and I hope to remain a member of the team for a long time. I am incredibly proud and I am so thrilled to be involved in the (news) team.

"To have people like Jo Hall, Tony Jones and Livinia Nixon to work with every day, and the reporters and everybody in the crew, is wonderful.

"I think we are presenting a great product. I believe it is the best one in the country – but maybe I am a bit biased."

[ 本帖最后由 choz 于 25-1-2010 01:02 编辑 ]