In the first three weeks of June last year, the ABC’s Sarah Ferguson presented a three-part saga on the channel’s Four Corners program, which the ABC claimed was the “story of the century”.
It was a rehashing of all the claims against US President Donald Trump, which the American TV stations had gone over with a fine-toothed comb but which Ferguson seemed convinced still had something hidden for her to uncover.
At the time, a special counsel, former FBI chief Robert Mueller, was conducting an investigation into claims that Trump colluded with Russia to win the presidential election.
Earlier this year, Mueller announced the results of his probe: zilch. Zero. Nada. Nothing. A big cipher.
Given that Ferguson echoed all the same claims by interviewing a number of rather dubious individuals, one would think that it was time for a mea culpa – that is, if one had even a semblance of integrity, a shred of honesty in one’s being.
But Ferguson seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth. The ABC has been silent about it too. Given that she and her entourage spent the better part of six weeks traipsing the streets and corridors of power in the US and the UK, considerable funds would have been spent.
This, by an organisation that is always weeping about its budget cuts. One would think that such a publicly-funded organisation would be a little more circumspect and not allow anyone to indulge in such an exercise of vanity.
If Ferguson had unearthed even one morsel of truth, one tidbit of information that the American media had not found, then one would not be writing this. But she did nothing of the sort; she just raked over all the old bones.
One hears Ferguson is now preparing a program on the antics that the government indulged in last year by dumping its leader, Malcolm Turnbull. This issue has also been done to death and there has already been a two-part investigation by the Sky News’ presenter David Speers, a fine reporter. There has been one book published, by the former political aide Niki Savva, and more are due.
It looks like Ferguson will again be acting in the manner of a dog that returns to its own vomit. She appears to have cultivated considerable skill in this art.