THE FOURTH ESTATE:

Leaked CCTV footage has revealed the exact moment an inexcusable brain fade and audible comment led to a newspaper reporter’s instant dismissal and with it any hope of another chance in journalism anywhere in Australia.

The footage handed to The Bug overnight is purportedly from the general newsroom at The Australian in Sydney and shows the exact moment late yesterday afternoon – at 3.44pm to be precise – when a relatively senior general reporter committed the sackable offence of saying out loud that he thought Kevin Rudd would make a fine ambassador to the United States.

As colleagues stared on in shock and dismay, security guards moved in quickly and escorted the reporter, 39, from the building (below).

The reporter, who asked not to be named, told The Bug later: “I still can’t believe I said that aloud.”

“I can’t see any future for me in the craft now. I would have been rightly shown the door if I had said such a stupid thing at any News Corp Australia masthead – or one of the Nine Herald papers or the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for that matter.”

Across town, Eryk Bagshaw, North Asia correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, told us: “I just can’t believe that chap’s stupidity.

“Anyone working in a modern Australian newsroom would know instinctively they’d have to rail against Rudd’s appointment if they knew what was good for them.

“Both myself and my colleague James Massola have opined that Rudd will face enormous difficulties in Washington unless he makes his peace with Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump.

“Mr Murdoch is going to be around for a long, long time yet and Mr Trump could easily be the next US president. James thinks Trump will be a shoo-in if just 51 per cent of Americans get to meet Melania.

“Rudd’s got to mend his fences with these two great Americans if he wants to succeed in his new role. It’s the only way forward for him, really.”