Holmes: FoI doesn’t mean freedom to spice up the factsJust because Freedom of Information requests cost lots of money and time, doesn’t mean that journalists should give in to temptation and beat up the facts to make the story ‘worth’ the effort, writes Jonathan Holmes.
Mark Riley
Abbott’s bad week has been months in the making
Tony Abbott had a wretched week, but the reasons stretch back well into last year.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Shame Channel Seven shame
Crikey readers have their say.
How shit happened for Tony Abbott
Seven had given Abbott’s office two-and-a-half hours notice of the story’s angle, including the “shit happens” remark in relation to the death of Australian soldier Jared MacKinney, and Abbott’s office had agreed to the interview.
Media briefs: Riley’s Wikipedia hack … ABC journo tweet retreat … T
Has Tony Abbot been editing Mark Riley’s Wikipedia page? PM Gillard looks like Pauline Hanson with the Australian flag and talk of Aussie pride, says ABC journo (before he deleted the tweet). Plus other media news of the day.
Political snippets: Playing at being an equal player
Call me old-fashioned or just old if you like; I cannot remember an occasion in my 50 plus years as a journalist when I called a politician by his first name during a public interview.
Maybe Tony should have gone the biff
The silence as Tony Abbott stared at Seven News reporter Mark Riley after being questioned on a comment he made in Afghanistan (“shit happens”) after being briefed on the death in action of an Australian soldier was truly eerie. Maybe Abbott should have punched him out, writes Richard Farmer.
Oakes and Seven scuttle Nine’s Canberra merger plan
An audacious attempt by the Nine network to close its Parliament House bureau in Canberra and merge it with the Seven network operation has failed, once Laurie Oakes found out the secret plans.
