James Thomas
Mr James Thomas
Journalist, Today Show, Channel Nine
James Thomas joined the Today Show as morning researcher in 1996. Relishing in the immediacy and the rush of live crosses, Thomas has covered live: the collapse of Ansett, twin tower attacks on New York, S-11 anti-globalisation protests at Melbourne's crown casino and the 2001 federal election.
Hard pressed to define one moment as the best, one highlight was receiving a Quill (Melbourne Press Club) award for an investigative report on concerns over EPIRB (Electronic Position Indicating Response Beacons).
Thomas says his greatest achievement is writing and producing a documentary, which followed movie director Phillip Noyce around the country (Broome, Perth, Adelaide, Flinders Ranges and Fitzroy crossing) in his journey to find three unknown aboriginal girls who would star in his film, Rabbit Proof Fence. After running over five days on TODAY the story was also shown on Channel Nine's Sunday Program.
After graduating from school James headed to Costa Rica where he lived with a family for one year and learnt Spanish. On his return he completed a degree in communications and then fled to New Zealand, where he worked as a bus driver and a waiter in the skiing town of Queenstown.
After New Zealand Thomas had the skiing bug. In 1996 he became a snow reporter for Thredbo doing reports on Channel 7's 11AM. Looking for angles for reports he heard a famous athlete was in Thredbo and thought it would be great to interview him. But, even more famous was one of the athlete's friends. It was none other than, Liz Hayes. Impressed with his persistence in chasing the athlete for an interview, Liz rang Thomas two weeks later and asked if he would be interested in joining Channel Nine.