When Fairfax business columnist and ABC TV presenter Alan Kohler made what he now says was a throwaway remark about his ABC colleague Kerry O’Brien at an Industrial Commission hearing earlier this week, something must have hit the fan somewhere. How else to explain this letter which appeared in the Herald Sun today:

Nothing beserk about Kerry

My remark about Kerry O’Brien at the Industrial Commission hearing into the ABC versus Barakat matter was nothing more than a jocular and inappropriate aside meant to illustrate a point that sometimes raised voices are a normal part of a tense newsroom environment.

For the record, I have never seen Kerry O’Brien go completely beserk, or for that matter go beserk at all, and I don’t believe he does.

Alan Kohler, Melbourne