EXCLUSIVE: 'The best I’ve seen': Tom Malone on Ben Fordham’s Ben Roberts-Smith interview

Tom Malone has watched many people talk for a long time. He spent years at Nine, including three at 60 Minutes, where the sit-down interview is almost a religion. So the Tapt Media CEO’s verdict on 2GB’s Ben Roberts-Smith exclusive comes from someone who knows the format. It also comes from the man whose company is airing it.

“This is the most extraordinary long-form interview I have ever seen,” Malone told Mediaweek. “Ben Fordham takes Ben Roberts-Smith on a journey through his upbringing, military career, and the fight of his life. The VC winner answers every question with great humility, grace and authenticity.”

“In my time at Nine, including 3 years at 60 Minutes, I’ve watched plenty of long-form interviews – this is the best I’ve seen.”

The two-and-a-half-hour conversation between Walkley Award-winning broadcaster Ben Fordham and Roberts-Smith covers his childhood, his family, Afghanistan, the Victoria Cross, the war crimes allegations, his failed defamation claim, his arrest, his time in jail, and his bail. It is the first time Roberts-Smith has spoken in this format.

It will drop on the airwaves at 7am on 2GB Breakfast in Sydney and will stream on the 2GB app on Thursday 22 October and Friday 23 October. Highlights will play on Tapt Media’s talk stations 3AW Melbourne, 4BC Brisbane, and 6PR Perth. News clips will go out across the 230 commercial radio stations that syndicate Tapt Media’s news service.

Radio, made for YouTube

The full interview lands on YouTube at 9 am AEDT on Thursday. That is the part Malone seems keenest to talk about.

“It is a compelling piece of television, made by a radio host, for YouTube,” he said.

When Tapt Media announced the interview earlier this week, Malone presented it as evidence that the company is turning itself into a digital media business. “This is the future of our business,” he said.

READ MORE: James Willis takes over 2GB Drive in Tapt Media reshuffle

Who is Ben Roberts-Smith?

Roberts-Smith is a former SAS corporal and Victoria Cross recipient. In June 2023, he lost his defamation case against Nine’s newspapers. Justice Anthony Besanko found, on the balance of probabilities, that he was involved in the murder of four unarmed Afghan men. The Full Federal Court dismissed his appeal in May 2025, and the High Court refused him special leave that September.

In April this year, he was arrested at Sydney Airport and charged with five counts of the war crime of murder. The charges relate to his service in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012. He denies them and is on bail. The case requires orders under the National Security Information Act before the prosecution can fully serve the brief of evidence.

Last weekend, he launched a clothing brand, EPIC 1 TWO, named after his old military radio call sign. It sells T-shirts, hoodies, and caps priced from $49 to $85.

“The day I was arrested and escorted onto the tarmac, I had no idea the images would capture three words emblazoned on the aircraft behind me,” he told his online subscribers. “Spirit of Australia.”

Roberts-Smith has said he spent a decade trying to avoid the media. For two mornings this week, he will have all of its attention.