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Andrew Bolt Wednesday, March 07, 2012 at 07:55am

Heres another thing I dont understand about the Finkelstein inquiry, which recommends more government control on a media it clearly disdains:

MEDIA executives and journalists are being offered the chance to attend a $500-a-head workshop.

The workshop will be on the recommendations of the federal governments Finkelstein media inquiry, despite no indication it will lead to a new regulatory regime.

And the co-commissioner of the $1.4 million inquiry, academic Matthew Ricketson, will deliver the keynote address at the event, despite not commenting so far on the taxpayer-funded inquiry.

I have known Matthew for years. His highest achievement is the profession that his inquiry now seeks to have controlled was media and communications editor for The Age from 2006 to 2009.

To be perfectly frank, I did not consider him to be very good in that job. He seemed to break few stories, or offer any penetrating observations. His writing is not sparkling. He was well outshone by The Australians Amanda Meade, for one, and I do not think I am being unfair. I recently spoke to a senior Age executive who endorsed my overall opinion.

So heres my astonishment: how does a man who rose to no great heights in the media wind up as the presiding expert in an inquiry to determine how much freedom to give it?

UPDATE

Tin Burrowes of Mumbrella:

More here:
How did Ricketson become the great media expert?