I have done a little work alongside Hedley Thomas and I know the character of the man.   No one tells Hedley Thomas what to write.   He does not engage in "get her/him" campaigns.   He puts his name to what he writes because it's his - his words, his view, his story.   Hedley is guided by the single thing he values most.   The truth.

Jon Faine used the ABC's platform and his quasi-journalist status today to verbal Hedley in a despicable, gutless and manifestly false slur.   I know Faine is wrong because I've worked with Hedley jointly writing stories on The AWU Scandal.   I can say with unique confidence that for Hedley it's the truth that counts and nothing else. 

Faine is a barracker, an unembarrassed booster for cause Gillard.   Good on him for that.   But he and his editor in chief would do well to keep that status in mind - and not to pass it off as journalism.

Here's the offending slur, broadcast on ABC Local Radio Melbourne between 11AM and midday.