Further down the production line come the other ingredients that go into quality journalism: verification, editing, presentation - all the things that require skilled journalists, in fact.
A skilled journalist and broadcaster, he was one of the most articulate voices of Australian conservatism for more than 20 years.
This was changed during the 1980's in response to complaints from many columnists, as well as many journalists skilled at trafficking in profundities.
Not many years ago, the sentences delivered by orotund newscasters were read from scripts edited by skilled journalists like Gilbert Millstein, once an editor at this magazine.
"Yet when a publisher overturns the judgment of skilled journalists, we wonder whether that has implications for the journalistic integrity of the newspaper."
Or might they just be gifted journalists, uncannily skilled at recording the irrational realities of their perverse land?
Smith was a skilled journalist who with his good memory and fine library could produce an excellent article on almost any subject at the shortest notice.
My father was a journalist, skilled in looking at things from all angles.
- but he should be forgiven), as well as a skilled former journalist who knows how to capture personality in print.
He imported skilled journalists but followed a deliberate Africanization policy.