I am happy to agree that the general quality of Oz journalism is not very high. The failure to provide any context is a longstanding and besetting sin.

It would be nice to argue that the ABC journos stopped looking for further context because it would blunt the "it was forced" point. But I suspect it was just general superficiality. In a choice between malice and incompetence, go for incompetence I say.

So why exactly are we required to pay for yet more not very good journalism?

After all, a fundamental justification for public broadcasting is to provide what other sources don't. Which they haven't. Hardly for the first time.