Crossed signals at the ABC

Old habits really do die hard, especially at the ABC. There was Malcolm Turnbull on last night’s 7.30, newly installed in the Prime Minister’s office and, despite the misgivings of many, leader of the Liberal Party. Yet how was he being treated? With an adoring deference and respect, no less! Why, he was even graced with an apology when compere Leigh Sales felt obliged to interrupt another extended expounding of the new leader’s guiding revelation: we are all living in the Twenty-First Century and isn’t all very exciting and so rich with opportunity.

Such insights, deep as may be, always went over well when the Member for Wentworth was deemed by Mark Scott’s minions the pretender to the Liberal throne, with the interruptions and general rudeness reserved for then-Prime Minister Abbott and his treasurer. Clearly, Ms Sales had not grasped that, love god though he may be reckoned in the Southbank and Ultimo cafeterias, Turnbull is now the man opposing, sort of, the Labor/Greens agenda.

A rich night’s taxpayer-funded viewing followed: Australian Story‘s hagiography of Turnbull, Four Corners‘ explanation of his inevitablility, Media Watch‘s “all fair” because Fairfax’s snide and sly mis-reporting of Abbott was somehow justified by the Telegraph‘s open disdain for Rudd — all this leading up to Bill Shorten’s solo spotlight on Q&A.

Then came Lateline, where Emma Alberici, somewhat faster on the uptake than Sales, recognised a Liberal when she saw one and knew that a good verballing was in order. It was her misfortune that the Liberal happened to be Mal Brough, who energetically protested his host’s quoting of an adverse court ruling that, much to her surprise, turned out to have been roundly scuttled on appeal. That oversight rather diminished the worth of Alberici’s attempt to equate Peter Slipper, of taxi-chit fame and midnight rambles through Taylor Square, with Tony Abbott.

ALBERICI: And Peter Slipper was in fact acquitted by the courts and it was about $1,000 that was being argued. Tony Abbott, by contrast, paid back more than that after wrongly using taxpayers’ money to attend a colleague’s wedding. On reflection, do you regret the cost to taxpayers of pursuing that case, the cost to Peter Slipper’s health and reputation?

Some to-and-fro followed, culminating in this observation:

BROUGH: …the matter was appealed, why will you not read out precisely what the full bench found? Isn’t that what our justice system is about? You have elected to read out a earlier finding which was overruled by the full bench of the Federal Court. I find that an extraordinary thing for you to do.

Alberici immediately changed the subject. But not to worry; tomorrow is another day and there are plenty of other matters of fact to get hopelessly wrong. Things will settle down very soon, with the Coalition getting the full measure of what the national broadcaster considers good for it. When he stops advising the nation that is 2015, Turnbull might like to watch Lateline‘s attempted mugging of Brough. It will remind him of what he, too, can expect when all ABC hosts are once again reading off the same Teleprompter.

Alberici’s flubbed gotcha can seen, and the transcript read, via the link below.

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