“Sh*t happens”: Seven News in face-off with Tony Abbott
Did Seven's Mark Riley make fair use of footage with a Tony Abbott quote or did he just land one of politics' weirdest moments?
- Published by David Knox
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Opposition Leader Tony Abbott was left silent during an interview with Seven News reporter Mark Riley. in which he was questioned about his response to a discussion surrounding the death of Australian soldier Lance Corporal MacKinney in Afghanistan.
US Colonel Jim Creighton briefed Abbott during his August tour of Afghanistan, noting concerns about the level of support and firepower that was available on the day of MacKinney’s death. Abbott said ”It’s pretty obvious that, well, sometimes shit happens, doesn’t it?”
When Riley questioned Abbott as to his response, he was accused of using the footage out of context and turning it into a ‘media circus.’
But after asking Abbott to clarify the context, the Opposition Leader stood silent.
Finally he said, ”I’ve given you the response you deserve.”
Abbott has since contacted the widow of the late McKinley, and apologised if she was upset by comments.
Seven News claims Abbott’s department had attempted to keep the Afghanistan footage from scrutiny but obtained it under Freedom of Information.
But there will now be division over whether Riley’s use of the quote was fair or whether he just snared one of politics weirdest moments this year.
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85 Responses
I can’t wait to see the rating numbers for Wednesday’s news
And to think this idiot was nearly our PM.
When you see the interview played out fully this is no ambush.I watched it in full on Sky News last night and Abbott’s silence and head wabbling for over a minute spoke volumes about the man,and then he came up with a useless answer.
Why did the Libs try so hard to bury the video if they had nothing to worry about then??????Hmmmm
Stan – that’s pretty cynical and hard hearted. Even the super cynical and supercilious Abbott praised Gillard’s sensitivity. Gillard showed great vulnerability
Both Abbott and Riley are idiots. Riley lost me with the Chantelois bizzo. I’m getting a bit sick of channel 7 and all the fake laughter on sunrise,,,,
Peoples,This is 2010. we all hear this almost everyday !
smiley Riley would have done the piece regardless of Abbott’s presence for 2 reasons: 1- they paid a sh1tl0ad for the FOI, and 2- he’s a mega ego who wont be told. SO now Ch Bevan have 2 grubby bogans on payroll- Riley And Duffy with the fake explosives outside the olympic games: abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3023099.htm
Im gonna delete chris bath from my smartphone contacts now…
Abbott always has been and always will be a complete tool but in this case Riley was the bigger one.
Asing (11:43am),
I’m not sure about SBS, but last night ABC1 & News24 initially buried this story in the middle of their bulletins, yet by this morning it rocketed up as top billing across television, radio & website.
At least it knocked off Gillard’s fake (spin doctor inspired) tears in Parliament yesterday.
“Sh*t happens” is a common slang phrase, used as a simple existential observation that life is full of imperfections.
Abbott won’t do it, but I believe that Mr Riley and the Seven network might well be in hot water over the misleading story they ran last night.
When the Host of Today Tonight introduced the story, the implication couldn’t have been more explicit – Tony Abbott had been caught out being disrespectful over the death of an Aussie Digger. That wasn’t misleading it was an outright lie and if it we’re me I would be suing for defamation. But Abbott won’t because he asks us with dignity to move on with respect for the greiving family. Sadly, Mark Riley in his explanation to Triple M this morning just doesn’t get it and denies contriving the edit which is incredulous given that this bloke sweated on exposing this material for 3 months.
Why are we defending Tony Abbott? He has made yet another guffaw. He, and only he is responsible for his actions. Please, haven’t we had enough? Would we all have been so sympathetic in our opinions if Julia Gillard had uttered these words and responded to questioning the same way? No, I say not!
Ditto what Guy said.
@Peter Young – ‘When confronted with such an offensive and insulting accusation Abbott was obviously furious and decided he was going to give Riley absolutely nothing more hence the total silence. Riley should think himself lucky Abbott didn’t sock him one.”
100% agree with you! I also think the silence was absolute anger and he thought it better to say nothing that open another can of worms – or a can of Whoopass on Riley!!
When Chris Bath intro’d this garbage she claimed that the next story would reveal Tony Abbott being caught out, on footage that the Libs didn’t want us to see, making disrespectful remarks about a deceased Aussie Digger. Not only was this piece of crap an outright lie, Abbott never even mentioned the digger in the entire piece, the much vaunted hard fought Freedom of Information footage that was shown was edited in a manner which held back the content which would have put Abbott’s remarks in context. The missing content didn’t suit the agenda of reporter Mark Riley, quite possibly the most gutless and insensitive journo going around. When interviewed by Steve Price on radio in Melb he claimed it wasn’t his intention to assert that Abbott was denigrating the digger. Duh? Well how did Chris Bath set the scene so eloquently? Which beggars the question why do the story at all? What was the point and why reawaken the tragedy of the digger’s passing for those family memebers and loved ones.
Seven advises there was no ambush. The interview was agreed to by Abbott’s team.
David, you are well within your own blog’s charter to cover events in television like this one. It is a political brain-fart of epic proportions; and is–for better or worse destined to become a part of TV history.
I feel for Tony Abbott. He made a comment that clearly reflected a sense of hopelessness and frustration at the loss of a soldier’s life… who was, let’s not forget, fighting a war.
I don’t think any reasonable person could conclude that Abbott was being dismissive or insensitive.
Sh*t indeed happens. And what happened to that poor soldier was indeed the sh*ttiest of all possible happenings.
However… doorstop ambushes are just a plain, old fact of political/media life.
You have got to be able to think on your feet. And Tony just didn’t.
What makes the clip all the more bizarre is he must have known that something like this was coming. Surely he (and his handlers) would have had time to formulate a cogent response to this inevitable line of questioning.
Instead we got big ears doing a noddy.
‘Like most people, I will be changing stations as soon as Mark Riley appears on the screen. Tony Abbot should have decked him.’
Now that would have made a good story!
I just think it’s all over blown and yes ‘sh*t happens’ even in a war zone!
I think Andrew hit the nail on the head
“Am I an Abbot fan….no….but I’m less a fan of sleazy sensationalist gutter reporting.. Mark Riley, your tactlass, vile exploitation of this sound byte is deplorable, shame on you and Channel 7. This ‘depth’ of journalism is precisely why we don’t watch 7 ‘News’…. just plain inflammatory garbage”.
It’s the kind of thing i’d expect from TT or ACA.
Go Tony Abbott. Yet another reason to switch off Channel 7.
In wider views of the incident, you see a camera pointed at Mr Abbott’s face. Where is this footage? Why haven’t we seen that? Only the shot from behind. Has anyone seen it?
See the thing here was Abbott wanted this squashed and was trying to stop Seven for the past 3 months but they won in the end. Seven actually did air the whole footage too where the soldier said “Yeah, it certainly does” It wasn’t totally audible but it was there.
Mr Abbott said nothing and thats what makes this more prominent. Its not the fact Seven went after the story but the way he answered, well didn’t answer, that is the problem for me and he nearly became our PM. He is an arrogant but also weak weak person. It disgusts me. Regardless he could have turned it in a positive spin and he didn’t do a thing. Thats why i didn’t want to elect this person at the last election.
Seven did disappoint me though to drag it up but then again imo this had to be told. If it wasn’t Seven it would more than likely have popped up on another network and they would have done the exact same thing if they had the footage. Sorry but its fact and in a way we did have a right to know regardless.
They don’t call Abbott “the Mad Monk” for nothing.
It wasn’t Seven News that made Abbott look aggro. That was entirely him.
I just heard the dead soldier’s brother on the radio. He is disgusted that CH7 has dragged this story out. Mark Riley, you and your network truly owes this family a huge apology.
$#*! my opposition leader says.