Sally Faulkner, who has returned to Australia without the two
children she tried to retrieve from Lebanon, seen here with
estranged husband Ali Elamine.
Journalists can also break laws without doing anything ethically wrong. The ABC's Linton Besser and Louie Eroglu were detained, then thrown out of Malaysia, after trying to question the Prime Minister about a corruption scandal.
To draw comparisons between this, and the 60 Minutes crew, is mischievous.
The Malaysian authorities used their laws to intimidate reporters asking legitimate questions.
The Lebanese authorities used their laws to detain foreigners who barged in and grabbed two children off the street. What, exactly, is unreasonable about that?
The Lebanese police could have opened fire. An armed civilian might have tried to save the day. The children themselves could been hurt – or killed.
As I've said before, Ms Faulkner's distress is understandable. Did she exhaust every other option, though, before going down this path? And would 60 Minutes have paid her a large sum just for an interview? Or did they want her to spend her fee on a "child recovery" operation?
The 60 Minutes crew might scoff at all this. But if their plan was so great, how did they all wind up in jail, in the centre of a global media storm – and a major international diplomatic incident?
Tara Brown is a Walkley Award winner. I've commended her previously as a superb reporter and tough interviewer.
She should have known better.
On Sunday night, at the start of the program, Usher said: "There's one thing we want to state very clearly from the outset. We made mistakes."
He did not spell out those mistakes, explaining that an internal review was under way.
It would be wise for Nine to recognise that the public is not actually divided over this scandal.
Most, it seems, are simply appalled by the actions of 60 Minutes.
Twitter: @Michael_Lallo
