Tony Abbott has a private conversation with senior Army Officers in Afghanistan and a low life reporter from Ch 7 trolls through tapes of the conversation hoping to find something to make Abbott look bad.
Aha! See here…he says “..shit happens” during a conversation about casualties. Maybe if we edit the tape so the public can’t see the Army Officers agreeing with Abbott then people may think he is talking about a specific death and then we can accuse him of being insensitive.
Well, that worked a treat, didn’t it?. Tabloid TV thrives on comments taken out of text so they start leading news items like Abbott accused of being insensitive and setting up polls on websites that asks Do you think Abbott was insensitive?
Well, no. I don’t think Abbott is insensitive but I do I think Riley is. He selectively edits a tape of a private conversation taking two words out of context, links it to the death of a digger and then tries to suggest Abbott is insensitive.
Riley, or Ch 7, then make it worse by seeking the opinions of parents of deceased diggers by asking if they think Abbott saying the words Shit Happens is insensitive. No context and a suggestion that Abbott is talking about the death of their son brings about the predictable result.
The fact that Abbott isn’t talking about their son is not mentioned.
Have they no ethics at all?
It quickly became obvious that Abbott wasn’t being insensitive, so to try and maintain pressure on him the media changed the line of attack to ‘What he said was OK but now the story is all about Abbott’s reaction to Riley ambushing him”
Look at him…stunned mullett…a man who can’t think of a reasonable answer to Riley’s below-the-belt attack can’t possibly be considered for PM.
When I watched to interview I was speechless with rage at Riley’s unethical, immoral and biased behavior and I can only imagine Abbott, being the actual target, felt it more so. You can almost see him thinking – what on earth is this scruff on about?
Abbott should have just turned and walked away. He didn’t and his reaction, or lack of it, gives the loony left something to salivate over for another day or so. However, I do think you’ll find that the general populace will see Abbott as a victim of poor journalism and Riley as a biased, unethical scruff.
At least, that’s how I see it.