Genial ABC finance correspondent Stephen “Schlong” Long and Landline executive producer Peter “Pete” Lewis have buried the hatchet in their slaughterhouse dispute, with the sparring duo agreeing to break bread over beef rendang.

As Crikey revealed yesterday, Long, along with PM host Mark Colvin, went to war with Lewis after Aunty’s News and Current Affairs chief Denise Erikson issued an edict banning “slaughterhouse” in favour of “meatworks” and “cattle farmers” in favour of “beef producers”.

A stunned Colvin wasn’t having a bar of the crackdown, and Long followed up with an email wondering if “there is an element of industry capture in the terms we are being told to use on the advice of our rural reporting colleagues.”

But it seems all is forgiven. In the latest gripping installments, CCed to the ABC’s entire News and Current Affairs Division and obtained by Crikey, Lewis counters Long’s references to George Orwell with some meaty quotes from Mark Twain, under the subject line “Different Twain of Thought”: “It is not best that we should all think alike; it is a difference of opinion that makes horse races,” Lewis Googled.

Then, after Long agrees to let sleeping heifers lie, Lewis invites him to Landline‘s “bring a plate Friday”, a “quaint little team building exercise” in which struggling staffers are forced to whip up delicacies in their home kitchens to boost morale. This week, the rural kingpin will be bringing the rendang. If he can’t make it, he requests that Long buys him dinner at his “favourite Indonesian restaurant in Sydney”, Ubud, located at 584 Anzac Parade in Kingsford.

Crikey contacted Lewis this morning, who point blank refused to say anything “either on or off the record”. Long also declined to comment.

Here are the odd couple’s latest missives in full:

On 14/06/2011, at 8:24 AM, “Peter Lewis” wrote:

Stephen ,

I will see your George Orwell and raise you, a Mark Twain: It is not best that we should all think alike; it is a difference of opinion that makes horse races.

I guess it’s possible that there are some people out there who didn’t realise an abattoir or meatworks was a place where cattle were slaughtered – that is, until they saw the 4 Corners story.

But that doesn’t mean abattoir is a euphemism. It and meatworks are the terms in common usage.  Some might prefer we not use them but that’s a difference of opinion, not industry capture.

I’ve known since childhood that the meat I ate came from animals which were killed for that specific purpose. It wouldn’t have mattered a jot to my sensibility on this issue whether you called the place an abattoir, meatworks or slaughterhouse. And I know that a grazier is someone who ‘grazes’ livestock for human consumption and that a beef producer does just that – produces beef for human consumption by grazing livestock.

But slaughterhouse is really the pointy end of the argument here so let’s stick with that.

If we were to follow your  logic on the use of the term slaughterhouse, then we’d expect the people of the US and Canada to have a much more highly developed sensibility about eating meat for human consumption than we do, but there’s no evidence they have.

Like many in our business, I’ve been to an abattoir and it’s a pretty challenging environment. Our treatment of animals for human consumption and the farming and processing methods we use are part of a complex system which few of us stop to consider at the supermarket .

In that sense, objections to the term abattoir or meatworks rather miss the point – indeed they give an easy out, instead of answering the hard questions.

One can be a captive to language in several ways .

And a final Twain of thought:  The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

Let’s leave it there, eh ?

Yours,

Pete Lewis & the Landline team

From: Stephen Long
Sent: Tuesday, 14 June 2011 9:01 AM
To: Peter Lewis
Cc: Gordon Lavery; DG-News RCaff All; Donald Lange
Subject: Re: Different Twain of Thought

Peter,

A good riposte. Agreed — let’s leave it there.

If we ever resurrect the discussion let it be done over a good bottle of Aussie red and a top quality steak.

Date: 14 June 2011 11:20:55 AM AEST
To: Stephen Long
Cc: Gordon Lavery, DG-News RCaff All, Donald Lange
Subject: Let’s Eat !

Stephen,

We have a quaint little team building exercise here that we call BRING A PLATE FRIDAY.

Its on this Friday .

You and your good Aussie Red are most welcome .

I will be bringing beef rendang.  https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/7846/indonesian+beef+rendang) .

Otherwise I shall take a raincheck and allow you to shout me a meal at my favourite Indonesian restaurant in Sydney.  https://yourrestaurants.com.au/guide/ubud/

Selamat makan  (Bon appétit)

Pete.