Is The Australian outing Bill Shorten as a bald-faced liar? Peter van Onselen reported Bill Shorten being distanced by Julia Gillard - or, in fact, vice versa: But Bill Shorten yesterday denied it: Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten has rejected reports that he had been shut out by the Prime Minister as ""baseless and inaccurate"..." Mr Shorten a key backer of the PM when she took over from Mr Rudd, said on Friday morning that he continued to have ""a strong working relationship with the Prime Minister"." Reader Truthbetold notes van Onselen's rightly angry response on Contrarians yesterday: Peter van Onselon, on Contrarians yesterday on Sky, left no doubt that the source if his front-page story in The Australian yesterday concerning the freezing out of Bill Shorten from the PM's inner circle, was in fact Bill Shorten himself. After dropping several hints early in the show concerning "degrees of separation" of his source from his subject, and the fact that a front-page splash would indicate it was a very close source, he later said words to the effect "I protect my sources even when they don't protect me." This viewer was left in no doubt what he was getting at. Can we really take Bill Shorten as a serious contender for a future PM when he is so duplicitous? Today The Australian virtually outs Bill Shorten as van Onselen's source and calls him a liar: We stand by our reporting of the current leadership imbroglio. Our journalists are bound by their professional ethics, not only to report the truth, but also to respect their confidences. Respecting both these obligations can sometimes see reporters dutifully convey important developments based on information supplied on the condition sources are not revealed, only to see their stories publicly contradicted... For all the half-truths and sins of omission in conspiratorial backgrounding by politicians, the usual practice has been to avoid outright lies. Journalists have respected the rights of ministers, MPs, advisers and other players to refuse to answer or expand on certain matters. But they do not expect deliberate deception... Yet now denigration of our reporting comes from - and sometimes is led by - people who had no objections before it went to print... We stand by our reporting; that crucial support for Ms Gillard from Paul Howes and the AWU has fallen away, that she has frozen out Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten, and pressure for more upheaval is building as this parliament enters its final week.