The moral of the story is not that “we all make mistakes”, but that ABC radio and the vast majority of media constantly serve up uninformed dross rather than using their substantial resources in a way that does justice to the issues. As an example from Tasmania, about a month after the head of the EPA went against the agency’s policy and licensed new mines in the Tarkine wilderness (the EPA’s obligations on their website were deleted to cover it up), he had a very pleasant interview on ABC radio and the issue was not even raised. I spoke to the ABC producer who claimed not to have heard of the controversy, despite it making the pages of that obscure rag The Australian just weeks earlier. This story is similar to the Pilger story in that in both cases our ABC chose the lazy option of not doing even the most basic research, and instead gave credibility to the status quo… that the senior public servant is a good chap, and Pilger is a propagandist that reasonable people should dismiss. Unfortunately most ABC presenters seem committed to mediocrity.