Yesterday's Talking Points

IT MUST have been chaos at the ABC yesterday as 7:30 prepared to go to air. They had a report ready and all set to go with the day before's talking points, the line that Tony Abbott incited the restaurant riot, when news reached them that a Gillard spinner had been caught out (and promptly thrown out).

What to do?

Well in quality-journalism ABC-style, the show began with a simple recitation of the press release announcing Tony Hodges' departure. He had contacted "a person", the talking head said, not bothering to wonder who that person might be, what he or she was told or why, per the PM's office, it was not a good thing to pass along information of the Opposition leader's itinerary. That box ticked, 7:30 went back to the original script.


The item can be found here. The Abbott smear comes at about the 2:20 mark