“Shit happens” as ACMA agrees with Seven
Remember when Tony Abbott stood blinking at Seven's Mark Riley? ACMA decrees it wasn't imbalanced against him.
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“Shit happens” according to Mark Riley’s interview with Tony Abbott, but not according to media watchdog ACMA.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has ruled against a complaint that Seven airing the Opposition Leader’s comments was selective and designed to show Abbott in a poor light.
The infamous moment occurred in February when Riley was asking the Liberal leader about remarks about the death of Australian soldiers during his visit to Afghanistan.
Abbott said “It’s pretty obvious that, well, sometimes shit happens, doesn’t it?”
When Riley questioned Abbott as to his remarks, he was accused of using the footage out of context and turning it into a ‘media circus.’
After asking Abbott to clarify the context, the Opposition Leader stood silent. Blinkingly silent.
But ACMA has ruled in Seven’s favour that the segment was factually accurate, and presented fairly and impartially.
“The Australian Communications and Media Authority found that the judgmental language and tone of the segment’s opening was countered by the weight of contextualising material and the inclusion in the segment of the entire interview with Mr Abbott. The ACMA also found that the ordinary reasonable viewer of the segment as a whole would have understood what Mr Abbott’s remark was about, its context and that it was not made in a cavalier or dismissive way,” it said in a statement.
“For these reasons, no breach was found.”
And shit still happens.
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12 Responses
the “unhinged one” had a Shaky McShake Attack! This is what will happen
if He becomes PM + One manufactured crisis after another every day, and him
leading every news bulletin with the manufactured crisis.
@Moanique in Brisbane
If Abbott does become PM they have to bring Costello back as deputy pm so we can have Abbott & Costello again and have a complete laughing stock government.
With all the ambush journalism that goes on with 7 I thought this was one of the fairest interviews they have done, they gave Abbott the opportunity to speak his piece and put the context on the remarks that he said was denied him. But instead of taking that opportunity he acts like a crazy person, he must have known his own limitations and that he would have put his foot in his mouth further, but staring like a madman was no better.
at the end of the day, if he didnt wanted to say those words, he didnt have to and Seven wouldnt have any way to manipulate it. At the end he chose to say it and now after ACMA verdict, it was done in that manner, he is responsible for his action. Absolute disgrace
I wih Abbott had decked Riley. Worst political reporter out there IMO.
I pray Tony Abbott never becomes PM, how embarrassing it would be to have him represent us on the World stage. Abbott is a bumbling fool.
I don’t know why this even went to ACMA.Abbott did this to himself by staring stupidly at the camera for so long,and should just take responsibility for his actions for once.
I normally don’t like Tony Abbott much, but this interview marks the point where people began to feel sorry for him. The reporter was incredibly biased, asking the most insultingly stupid of questions – for one purpose: to make Tony Abbott do something he’d regret. He didn’t.
That ACMA could not see the bias shows ACMA is biased.
It was fair, If it wasn’t fair, they would not have let Tony Abbott have his say about it – But Abbott didn’t have much to say about it though.
Good decision. Personally, I thought Abbott’s remark was a complete disgrace and he deserved to be publicly called on it.
Abbott’s reaction was all kinds of weird. All kinds.
This is an outrage!
If seven also “understood what Mr Abbott’s remark was about, its context and that it was not made in a cavalier or dismissive way”, then there would be no point in them airing the story (it had nothing of interest). Instead, they created a media stunt (as they always do with politicians from both Liberal & Labor). Why also did they edit out the end of the clip further removing its context?
Clearly they did have an agenda against Abbott when this story went to air!