730 Report on Costello Dinner

The details of the dinner were "reluctantly" agreed to be off the record by the reporters and treated as such for a considerable time.
The breach of this agreement by one of the journalists prior to an election could be reasonable construed as a self serving ("I need a headline story, so stuff the treasurer and the other journailsts").
The decision to join the pack by the 730 report could be reasonable construed as a mix of motives:

• don't want to miss out on the story regardless of ethics;
• don't want a politician to get away with denying a remark agreed to be "off the record" (short sighted if journalists want off the record remarks to continue to flow !);
• implying bias in that the politician and the topic are ones that are grossly over represented and over-emphasised in ABC publications

Overall, another instance of the ABC considering itself as a "balance" to the government and the other media and thus inherently biased towards the opposition. The ABC has lost my support (and that of many I know) due to its drift into partisan stances on so many national/ internation politcal/ social/ scientific issues.
I want to pay taxes for an objective review of the issues NOT a counter attack on some perceived hegemony.

Stephen Digby