Mark Latham’s mates and defenders have deserted him after his sacking from Sky News, with only Andrew Bolt and Michael Smith somewhat defending him in editorials so far. Bolt dedicated precisely 56 words to how “sorry” he was that Latham was sacked and his feeling that “we will all be poorer without his insights into the culture wars”. Meanwhile, Smith’s punchy, unadorned prose (“Like I said, I don’t like him. But I like Sky News even less than I like Latham. The decision to sack Latham is wrong.”) expressed concern about the “ratcheting down of our freedom of speech”. Is it that ratcheting down of free speech that’s caused Latham’s right-wing allies to be silent? Or do they think he crossed the line as well?