miranda divine on the abbott story

a read of the miranda divine blog, is worthwhile

according to divine, that riley guy had the story for a few weeks

"The timing of Seven?s story was notable too. Riley had apparently had the footage for several weeks and chose to air it on the day Parliament was paying tribute to Corporal Atkinson - also the day PM Julia Gillard showed her soft side by breaking down during a condolence motion for the victims of Queensland?s floods. "

from divines blog

?Was it tragic? Absolutely,? says Colonel Creighton, during a lengthy explanation to Abbott about what happened the day MacKinney was killed.

?But we?re all in the knowledge that all the stuff [weaponry] you see here and more was available on the day.?

Abbott turns to him and says gravely: ?No, it?s pretty obvious that, well, sometimes shit happens, doesn?t it.?

At which point General Cantwell says: ?It certainly does, yeah.?

The final proof, if you needed it, that the story was a hatchet job was the fact that Seven edited out that crucial Cantwell quote in the story that went to air. It only appeared later appended to an online story.

Riley couldn?t say yesterday why Cantwell?s comment was cut. There was ?nothing sinister in the intention,? he told radio. ?It wasn?t an edit to make it look different.?

Hard to believe when the entire story was designed to make Abbott looked bad.

divine goes on with the following

"What was Abbott to do?

He had already told Riley: ?Look, a soldier has died, and you shouldn?t be trying to turn this into a subsequent media circus.?

He found the insinuation that he had disparaged a soldier to be so contemptible that he refused to play the dirty game. ?My God, has it really come to this?? he must have thought.

But if he walked away from the camera it would make him look guilty. He couldn?t punch Riley. So he stared him out.

Finally he said: ?I?ve given you the response you deserve.?

It seems the public yesterday also gave Channel 7 the response it deserved. By lunchtime, Riley had become the story, leading radio news bulletins and slammed in polls and on the Twittersphere.

In one of several radio and TV interviews, Riley said: ?I think the media landscape has changed. If we just are presenting news blandly I don?t think we?re doing our job.?

That?s one way of justifying a vicious beat up. "