Joe Hildebrand: Why Four Corners has officially lost the plot

It’s not clear what is happening in the offices of Four Corners, writes Joe Hildebrand, but someone should tell a grown-up about it.

I’m not entirely sure what is happening in the offices of Four Corners but someone should probably tell a grown-up about it.

Monday night’s much hyped, hard fought and supposedly explosive episode about the Prime Minister and his alleged links to QAnon had about as much impact as a Matchbox car hitting a Mack truck.

For anyone who missed it the story was this: The PM’s wife’s friend’s husband has got caught up in a bunch of nutbag online conspiracy theories.

But wait! There’s more!

The PM then used the word “ritual” in a press conference, which is apparently some kind of secret code that he’s going to unleash the armies of righteousness against the forces of Satan.

Now if you think all this sounds next level batshit crazy you are not alone. Indeed the only two groups of people who appear to have taken it seriously are QAnon themselves and whoever let this hot mess go to air.

If Four Corners was a person, their friends would be staging an intervention right about now, says .Joe Hildebrand.

The irony of course is that it’s actually a pretty ripping tabloid yarn when told in the vein of “GOTCHA!” to the soundtrack of a slide-whistle doing a whoopsie. And guess what? The website Crikey did just that, publishing
the same connections, pictures, quotes and claims that appeared
in Monday’s Four Corners story.

The only major difference was that they did it in October 2019.

So why on earth, in the midst of an unprecedented level of scrutiny, accusations of bias and lapses in reporting standards, a landmark defamation case and angry senate estimates hearings, would the ABC’s flagship program for journalistic excellence nail its colours to an 18-month-old rehash from an online political and media gossip site?

For the life of me I have no idea, but if Four Corners was a person I’m pretty sure their friends would be staging an intervention right about now.

Meanwhile, something that really is worth drawing attention to is the scourge of homelessness, and if you’d like to help do something about it please donate to the great work of Vinnies via my CEO Sleepout page here: ceosleepout.org.au/fundraisers/joehildebrand

Now where’s my Walkley?

Joe Hildebrand is on 2GB Nights with John Stanley on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8pm