The One Nation sting was totally ethical

We will remember such highly-regarded whistleblowers as Toni Hoffman in our own country or Bradley Manning overseas .Tony Hoffman was the nurse in Bundaberg hospital who exposed the botched surgery of Dr. Jayant Patel. Hedley Thomas, a journalist at The Courier-Mail, who won a Walkley Award for his part in uncovering Patel's past, published reports about the injuries and death caused by Patel's operations. Chelsea Manning spent seven years in a Marine Corps jail in Virginia, for revealing airstrikes during the Iraq war, which killed, among others, two Iraqi war correspondents working for Reuters. Edward Snowden is another who exposed wrongdoing. He will go down in history as one of America's most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg ( the Pentagon Papers) and Bradley Manning. The Pentagon Papers revealed that that the Johnson Administration "systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress". Snowden revealed the all-consuming surveillance activities the National Security Administration. Then there was Mark Felt, Deputy Director of the FBI, who dobbed in Richard Nixon, President of the United States, and was essentially responsible for Nixon's downfall.

Using hidden cameras and microphones was attacked for being undercover. However, they were, and still are, powerful tools for revealing wrongdoing. People believe them. The Apache helicopter attack in Iraq, revealed by Manning, which WikiLeaks titled Collateral Murder, showed that the crew encountered a firefight and laughed at some of the casualties, among whom were civilians and reporters. That film did more to reveal the misguided, and morally dubious actions of the United States in Iraq, than any other.

Second is Peter Greste's concern with entrapment: Whistleblowers use entrapment also. Very few reveal their misgivings early on. Most would not be believed. Witness Toni Hoffman, possibly Australia's most outstanding whistleblower. She was a voice long crying in the wilderness before her evidence was convincing.

Then there is the successes of Investigative journalism .The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' examination of the Panama papers scandal resulted in the resignations ofseveral political leaders . Included is the former president of El Salvador. Lucas Graves, lead author of the study, said the Panama Papers analysis is part of a broader project that dives deep into outcomes to better understand the circumstances that make substantive findings from investigative journalism more likely. Graves used the word " study" to describe their work. In short, Journalists do examine, as well as report.

Law enforcement authorities also use a sting, sometimes with great success. Read about some of them here. Covert policing is the last bastion of pure policing "and is one of the best methods of getting the highest numbers of convictions."

These are the reasons why this article argues that undercover exposure of wrongdoing is the most powerful way that we have in bringing about a more ethical society. And that Al Jazeera was more than totally justified in its "sting". It was leading the way to a more moral society. Future journalistic stings such as the Al Jazeera exposure are only to be encouraged.

Steve Dickson has resigned from One Nation after he was caught groping a woman in undercover footage filmed in a Washington DC strip club. Perhaps not a issue of national importance, but still undercover filming that tells us what sort of person One Nation's Queensland leader is.

In responding to the Al Jazeera documentary, One Nation has said that it has referred Al Jazeera to ASIO and the AFP. This article is a small attempt to convince those authorities not to waste even a dollar of taxpayer funding to initiate an investigation.