A FRIEND OF the Billabong who works in Canberra writes:
It’s an open secret Gillard’s spinners blitzed the gallery to blame Abbott straight after the Lobby incident and it is an open secret the gallery wants this to go away in the worst way. Pyne should call on (a prominent journalist) to explain why he was telling colleagues it was Abbott’s fault within minutes.
The journalist’s name will not be shared with readers, as there is no evidence stronger than mere assertion that he compromised his ethics and professional standards by serving as an eager publicist for Gillard’s orchestrated smears.
That said, the message took hold double-quick, as this Australia Day tweet by Ten’s Hugh Riminton suggests. Notice how denying a slander is "spinning hard" and also the implied assertion that Abbott wanted Humpytown shut down. Oh, and just for the record, Ten's chief political correspondent was not the journalist named in this morning's email.
The Billabong’s correspondent suggests Abbott’s people pick through reporters’ tweets for the hours after the riot, identify the worst and threaten libel actions against those who sheeted home the blame to the Opposition leader. Reporters are cowards, the correspondent writes, scared to go against the gallery’s groupthink. But the threat of being dragged into court, that could be something even more scary than colleagues’ disdain, He might have a point. The prospect might just loosen a few tongues.
