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Antarctic junket leaves me cold

Despite all the media attention being paid to Sir Edmund Hillary’s latest “last-ever” trip to Antarctica, I’m hungering for some actual news from the frozen continent.

So far, the coverage I’ve seen has offered little more than sentimentality towards the 87-year-old Sir Ed, a man who has already received numerous accolades – including a knighthood – for his achievements. Yes, I know he’s a hero – at least in New Zealand – because he disobeyed instructions and beat his British boss to the South Pole. But it hardly takes a dozen of the country’s top journalists travelling at taxpayers’ expense to remind us of that fact.

What are the chances our media companies will throw the same sort of reporting effort at, say, the effects of global warming on Antarctica, or the annual slaughter by Japan of a thousand whales in the Antarctic whale sanctuary? Probably not very good.