Where's the fire, buddy?

Sometimes I feel like a right proper knee Jerk. Maybe you've done something similar. You hear some very earnest person tell you some very disturbing "news" from some very credible sounding sources and off you go, jumping to confusion. I do it every day. When I've found that I've made an error, I do not mind owning up; how could I not? Not all errors are malicious; it's the nature of things that probably most errors are in good faith. But errors of whatever stripe need to be acknowledged, because a lot of people can get hurt by them.

So what's he on about now? This headline story in the SMH today:

"Their allegations ended the careers of several senior health officials and sparked a string of inquiries into claims of political corruption, cover-ups and record tampering.
Whatever their motives, the veracity of the whistleblower nurses from Camden and Campbelltown hospitals has been tested for the final time and found wanting.
A damning report by the Independent Commission Against Corruption examined the allegations of Nola Fraser, Sheree Martin and a handful of other nurses and discounted them as rumour and innuendo. "While the commission accepts that Ms Fraser and Ms Martin are likely to have personally believed that their allegations were true, it has concluded that the allegations were founded on nothing more than gossip, speculation and hearsay," the commission said yesterday.
Both nurses stood by their claims last night.
Every allegation of document shredding and tampering, conspiracy and political cover-up touted by Ms Fraser and taken up by the Opposition under its former leader, John Brogden, has come to nothing.
It is a damning indictment for the Opposition, for whom Ms Fraser ran as a candidate in the Macquarie Fields byelection, and the Government, which took the claims seriously enough to sack the executive and board of an entire area health service..." http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/icac-blows-whistle-on-nurses/2005/09/22/1126982184148.html

It is not always true that where there's smoke there's fire. And that's why we need fearless, independent, transparent legal institutions and processes to sort these things out.