I could throw a stone from here and hit at least a dozen blogs decrying the capering goblins at News Ltd, but no amount of disapprobation from the outside can damage News' reputation the way they damage themselves with this sort of infantile drivel.

The few remaining hermits who haven't read exhaustively about Grogsgate yet can catch up here, but suffice to say that News reached new heights of sanctimonious, self-serving personal attacks, anorexically cloaked as serving the public interest.

Grogs came back last week, to rousing cheers from the twitterati, with a typically razor sharp analysis of Tony Abbott's misadventures in Afghanistan. James Massola, possibly in a misguided attempt to kiss and make up with a disgruntled twitter, tweeted Grogs saying "Welcome back, I'm glad you're still blogging". Crikey's Bernard Keane retweeted Massola, adding a sardonic "What a cunt", which made up in perspicaciousness whatever it may have lacked in gravitas.

None of this would really be worth more than a couple of jokes at Friday night drinks, were it not for The Oz doing another one of its ludicrous impressions of a poor little orphan being bullied in the schoolyard when it published its bleating tale to teacher last Friday.

Other than proving that Bernard Keane is not afraid to call a twat a cunt, what is the point of this article? Twitter is evil and uses Bad Words? Public Servants (both current and former) are not be trusted - so no wonder Tony Abbott goes outside the PS when he needs unbiased affirmation of his policies? Independent Media, and anyone else who isn't News Ltd, are lefty pinkos that no sensible person should waste time on? People are being really mean to The Oz? Why won’t Twitter leave James Massola alone *sob*?

Once upon a time The Oz had the gravitas it thinks it's entitled to now. It earned that by maintaining the highest standard of editorial and journalistic integrity in the country. Now that they've dropped those standards to the level of gutter tabloids, they make themselves utterly ridiculous by attempting to blame everyone else for their concurrent decline in public respect. When The Oz uses its size and weight to attempt to discredit or damage people who are daring to do its job better than it has for at least the last 10 years, it stops being just risible and becomes a malevolent presence in the Australian mediascape. Nothing and no-one can do more damage to its credibility, and hopefully saleability, than that.

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