So who was Telstra chairman Donald McGauchie referring to when he said “it’s all bullsh*t, that was an absolute fabrication.. a lie dreamt up by somebody, goodness knows who”? My theory is that Sam Chisholm was probably responsible. The fingerprints of string pulling Sam appear to be all over the knife job on Sol Trujillo by Katrina Nicholas in The Bulletin.

Trouble is that no matter who Katrina relied on, The Bulletin was forced to retract and the original story has now been pulled from the web too. Chisholm and Nicholas have a history because he used to serve her snippets while she was at The AFR. She’s one of the many business journos in the country who received the inside oil from the original floor polish salesman – always anonymously, of course, but increasingly easy to spot.

Chisholm is very close to Federal Finance Minister Nick Minchin.They dine together regularly and Telstra is usually on the menu. Minchin, as Alan Kohler pointed out in The Age, is the shareholder minister of Telstra.

Kohler also dismissed the claim that McGauchie rang John Howard after the big Canberra meeting last month to warn Trujillo might walk. This was a direct refutation of Nicholas’s bald assertions along those lines in The Bulletin story. Nicholas claimed that in the Howard meeting Trujillo frustrated others present including finance minister Nick Minchin, who couldn’t get a word in. For those who know the Chisholm-Minchin link, that was a dead giveaway.

Chisholm, pushed off the Telstra board after the proposed Telstra buyout of Fairfax was leaked to Bulletin-Nine reporter Ross Greenwood, might go off the record with journalists – but his tough talking around town gives him away.

Chisholm actually dined with Minchin the very day Katrina Nicholas broke the story of Trujillo’s hiring on Channel Nine. Coincidence or what? Chisholm subsequently went around bagging Trujillo to anyone who would listen, including to surprised colleagues at a Sky board meeting and some at News Ltd.

Nicholas had only just joined Nine and was struggling when she got her break. Chisholm took over as interim CEO and then Katrina gets an amazing jump on the biggest corporate story around. Chisholm went down to the Business Unit in the Nine newsroom and, in front of colleagues, effusively praised Nicholas for breaking the yarn.

Most people in the business and journalistic industry still believe Chisholm was the deep throat for Greenwood’s February 22, 2004 expose of Telstra’s designs on Fairfax. This signalled the end for Bob Mansfield and Ziggy Switkowski.

For whatever reason, Chisholm resented Trujillo from day one. Trujillo has been upsetting the government – with Minchin one of the most frustrated. However, it should be remembered that Chisholm is still close to two Telstra directors, aspiring Future Fund chairman Charles Macek and Coles Myer CEO John Fletcher.

The Bulletin‘s stunning backflip bears closer scrutiny because it has backfired in a big way, although Sam has still effectively added to the frenzy of anti-Trujillo reportage.

Sam likes to wield power, curry favour with Canberra and live up to his legend. Fiddling with the future of Telstra – while buying him brownie points where it counts – is part of his “that’ll show ’em” style. All the while, Sambo is struggling to prove he’s still got it at Nine.