Apologies for coming a bit late to the thread (do pay attention, 007) - but I really have to say, ORAC, that you’ve made me quite grumpy. At least, I think you have, although I can’t be quite sure because you’ve removed the vital evidence. Whatever, I believe that your treatment of Mick Smith is surprisingly ill-informed, not to say thoughtless.
I realise that, to some PPRuNers, the mere mention of a journalist is enough to precipitate heaving heaps of pavlovian grumpitude - but I hadn’t thought you, ORAC, to be one of those. But have you considered the logical extension of your excoriation of Mick S? In his ST article, it seems to me, he was doing exactly the sort of thing that we desperately need the media to be doing - exposing misrule, misgovernment and plain penny-pinching incompetence on the part of our current (and recent past) elective dictatorships. Indeed, my big fear is that that we are rapidly approaching a national situation where democracy is replaced by presidential rule without the benefit of cabinet examination or parliamentary scrutiny.
In that situation, almost our only defence is a free and independent media. The trouble with that is that it is, well, free, and independent. Which, of course, means that there will always be reporting of the kind that virtually everyone on PPRuNe (me included) will despise. Sad to say, quite a lot of that will come from parts of the same appalling Murdoch empire that Mick Smith writes for. But I believe that Mick’s article was a model of journalistic competence. It was well researched and well argued, it exposed something that we needed to know, it was factual, and it didn’t contain groundless speculation. And, importantly, it was in an organ that the movers and shakers read. So, let’s not include Mick in the sad pantheon of muckraking, sensationalist scumbags.
If you want to sh1tbag journos, ORAC, please choose the ones who deserve it - which gives you a target-rich environment anyway - but lay off people like Mick Smith. He’s on the side of the good guys.
And, btw, if anyone’s interested, I have never met Mick, and I’m not familiar with his previous oeuvres. But I’ll be looking out for him.
Grumpitude ceased. Standing by for incoming.
airsound