ABA Chair Professor David Flint has begun a lengthy, secretive and ultimately futile inquiry into whether he had a conflict of interest when investigating Alan Jones.
"These are very serious charges levelled against me," Flint announced. " So it is crucial for a transparent and exhaustive inquiry to be conducted by someone with a proven record of probing and independent investigation. Someone like me."
Flint denied he was the wrong person to conduct such an inquiry. "You have to realise that in Australia the broadcasting regulation industry is not very large, so I'm bound to have run into myself from time to time. But that doesn't mean I'll be pulling any punches against myself now."
Questions concerning his impartiality have sprung from a letter Flint wrote to himself, revealed by Media Watch, in which he expressed admiration for his own "extraordinary ability to ignore the most basic elements of proper procedure."
"Keep doing the things you do," the letter concluded.
But Flint defended his communiqué saying, "Yes, it is on the record that I have a great deal of affection for myself. But any suggestion that I have control over this inquiry is fanciful.
"Like every other inquiry, this will be controlled by Alan Jones."
While commentators say it is still too early to speculate about what conclusions Flint might draw about his own conduct, an ABA insider who has seen the draft report said, "Professor Flint's looking pretty good at this stage. But I can't say the same about John Laws."

This originally appeared in The Chaser http://chaser.com.au