What a terrific discussion about the late Alan Reid last night on Radio National Late Night Live – when Phillip Adams interviewed (the never late) Ross Fitzgerald about the book he has co-authored with Stephen Holt, titled Alan Reid: The Red Fox – Pressman Par Excellence (New South, 2010).

MWD was most impressed by the Man-In-Black’s comment that Alan Reid was a journalist who was also a political activist and that, these days, only right-wing columnists fulfil such a role. This is the very same Man-In-Black who used his column in The Australian Magazine as recently as 23-25 May 2010 to brag about the political advice which he has provided to such Labor leaders as Kim Beazley and Kevin Rudd. [Is this the same Phillip Adams who backed the challenge by the loopy leftist Jim ("call me Doctor") Cairns against Gough Whitlam in the Labor leadership contest in the late 1960s?. See Paul Strangio Keeper of the Faith: A Biography of Jim Cairns (MUP, 2002, p. 175) - Ed.]

However, MWD was most impressed with the following exchange between Adams and Fitzgerald about the journalist Michael Schildberger, who appeared with Alan Reid in the Channel 9 Federal File program in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Phillip Adams : Is Michael [Schildberger] still around?
Ross Fitzgerald : Somebody told me he died quite recently. But I’m not sure.
Phillip Adams : Okay. [Michael Schildberger] are you still listening? If you are -

Here Ross Fitzgerald changed the topic by mentioning another name. Michael Schildberger died on 2 June and his death was widely reported in the media – an obituary was published in The Age yesterday. Needless to say, Michael did not phone in to advise Phillip that he was listening.