AWB goes quietly into the night...

as lamented here.
There are a number of scary quotes in this reasonable op-ed piece. Take this one for instance:

This across-the-board media enthusiasm is a rare occurrence. In the 10 years since the Government was first elected, it has been unusual for all the broadsheet papers to sustain simultaneous interest in a single, complex issue for more than a week.

Isn't that sad? Less than a week for your average issue in the Aussie press. Watergate took several months and even i could handle a week of tough Today Tonight questioning while waiting for the next pay-per-interview 'i got lost in wallabrumbibrush' story.
Non-accountability is a piss poor excuse for failure on your watch. I remember a quote from the last company i worked at "the CEO gets paid more because he's responsible even when he's gardening". A more reasonable definition of accountability would be hard to find.

I do find the parallels between the US, Britain and Aussie very disturbing. The MO is identical: pick your US issue, London police execute Brazilian and then botch the cover up, Aussie AWB or children overboard. All are using plausible deniability and timing obfuscation when the only issue that counts is that the person at the top takes the blame for everything; that's the deal. Copping out of that makes the job easy!
You can't blame them too much though, if the electorate doesn't give a rat's, why go to all that effort?