While at Manchester, Aaronovitch was a member of the 1975 University Challenge team that lost in the first round after answering most questions with the name of a Marxist ("Trotsky", "Lenin", "Karl Marx" or "Che Guevara").

Aaranovitch began his media career in the early 1980s as a television researcher and later producer for the ITV programme Weekend World.

[8] Since June 2005, he has written a regular column for The Times that he set to depart from in March 2023 following an announcement he made in January 2023 on Twitter.

"[12][13] Since the invasion he maintains the view that it liberated Iraqis, and has played down the significance of Iraq's putative weapons of mass destruction.

[17][18] A Guardian readers' editor found that the newspaper had misrepresented Chomsky's position on the Srebrenica massacre, and that judgement was upheld in May 2006 by an external ombudsman, John Willis.

[19] In his column of 5 September 2013, Aaronovitch criticized the Labour leader Ed Miliband for allegedly providing no alternative to military intervention in Syria, after the use of chemical weapons in the Ghouta attacks of 21 August 2013.

"[22] During 2013, though Aaronovitch had vigorously supported the bombing campaigns against Iraq, Libya, and Syria, he became the chairman of the human rights organisation Index on Censorship, succeeding Jonathan Dimbleby in the role.

In response to Aaronovitch's article in an interview with Media Lens Greenwald commented on "the hilarious, inane irony of having someone who publicly cheered for the worst political crime of this generation – the attack on Iraq – trying to deny other people “journalist” status on the ground that they seek to “change the world” rather than simply report.

"[24] In August 2014, Aaronovitch was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.

[27] Aaronovitch later said that Brexit would eventually be reversed as the number of older voters, who typically voted for Britain to leave the European Union, gradually die.

[28] On 1 July 2024, Aaronovitch sparked controversy after tweeting on X, "If I were Biden, I'd hurry up and have Trump murdered on the basis that he is a threat to America's security #SCOTUS".