The more substantial criticism of the media is the same as the substantial criticism of Gillard's government - that it has lost the public's trust. It is a crisis just as existential as that facing the hapless government, if only we'd admit it. Lenore Taylor, one of the more insightful gallery journalists, didn't shirk it in a Fairfax column a few days ago: Parliament and the media, both reliant on public trust for their existence, ''should give long pause for thought about how that trust can be regained . . . for the media it now has to come down to meeting, and explaining how we are meeting, our responsibilities to be reliable and informative and interesting and fair''.

That is about as likely as Gillard falling on her sword. The PM wants to ''move on'', as though recent events were a ''disappointing'' blip on the road to victory. The media seem equally loath to face their own self-inflicted wounds - how willingly, eagerly even, they were used by unnamed Rudd supporters month after month, not to report significant leadership rumblings, but to inflame them, even to create them. Many reporters did exercise the caution and checking Taylor says is vital to cover messy leadership stories, but the truth is they were drowned out by the weight, placement and sheer volume of stories suggesting a leadership change was just around the corner. It left the public not just confused but cynical.

So let's pause for a moment before we move on. On February 27 last year, Julia Gillard defeated Kevin Rudd in a leadership ballot by a thumping 71 to 31 votes. This is how The Australian reported it that morning: ''Julia Gillard is poised to win today's Labor leadership ballot but faces ongoing political turbulence, with her critics predicting MPs will seek to draft Kevin Rudd to the leadership later this year.''

That was before the ballot was even held.

A couple of months of bad polls and blunders later, Gillard's time was up. News Limited's Niki Savva had already declared that ''sorry Julia, it's over'', and senior journalists, including then Age correspondent Michelle Grattan, were suggesting Gillard should resign (a dramatic step that makes it hard not to be perceived as having a stake in the outcome).