Independent Australia
posted by admin
Contrast this with the extraordinary coverage over several years now of the empty allegations relating to Julia Gillard and an ex-boyfriend back in the early 1990s, long before she was even in Parliament. Just count the articles raking over old relationships, speculating about possible jail time, and generally trashing the PM’s character. Yet with not one single item of plausible evidence, let alone a judge’s decision on a further court appearance.
The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday reported the judge’s decision to adjourn the matter pending Ettridge’s homework in a bare 215 words attributed to AAP. Instead of leading with the obvious news element that matter is set to proceed, it headed its report ‘One Nation co-founder’s lawsuit stalls’. The story focussed on Ettridge’s problems, which it seems legal advice can rectify, rather than Abbott’s, which now seem somewhat more substantial.
The ABC ran the same brief AAP story on its website but nothing on PM. The Australian ran a similar story to The SMH. Headline was ‘Get legal advice, judge tells David Ettridge’ with the content focussing on Ettridge’s failures so far.
No newspaper or other mainstream outlet has attempted anything but the most superficial coverage of the bare news elements. Just bizarre.
So we wait until 6 June. Or, as now seems likely, a negotiated settlement beforehand.
