Nine News is looking for a new national political editor after Charles Croucher resigned overnight in protest of a report of his that “had been altered to make me look like I work at the ABC”.

My spies at the network tell me that Croucher was absolutely livid when his Tuesday night report over a community protest over Peter Dutton’s nuclear power plant plans had been tampered with by unknown colleagues in the production booth who inserted two separate segments of Dutton spouting general political propaganda lines!

My spies tell me Croucher shouted: “Those grabs made me look like a ‘Peter Dutton says’ journo over at Aunty, for fuck’s sake! Or that I work at the Queensland LNP’s Bowen Hills branch!”

Croucher was referring to two separate clips: the first blasting Labor over an election power-bill promise and the second saying that only an LNP government could provide Australians with cheaper, consistent and cleaner power.

I understand that a furious Croucher confronted his editorial seniors and demanded to know why his “professional and balanced” report had been turned into one showing such unfair bias to the federal Opposition.

He told his bosses that his report for balance had already included a clip from Darren Chester claiming Australians were not opposed to nuclear power plants and one from the Labor member for the Hunter region demanding to know timeframes and costings for the nuclear power plant plans.

I’m reliably told that Croucher said the “tampered and biased” report made him look like an LNP public relations officer and that in his next report on federal politics, regardless of what it covered, he’d have to run two clips from Albanese saying bad things about Dutton and his policies “for the sake of balance”.

I’m reliably informed that Croucher was put well and truly in his place, the station’s news executives telling him that doing that would make the network look unprofessional and, besides, the LNP were clearly the underdogs in next year’s election battle and needed all the help they could get. And that Peter Dutton would make a damn fine prime minister in any event.

Personally, I don’t believe Croucher was left with any other choice but to pack up his desk and exit the building. He left with his pride and his commitment to principled journalism intact.

Want to be alerted immediately a new blog hits Australia’s longest running and most offensive satire site? Simply click on the Follow sign or the link below to be emailed new yarns the moment they are uploaded! The very second we go far too far – and trust us we will – you can then quickly unfollow via the three dots!

Follow The Bug Online on WordPress.com