Media’s cheap tactics

I note with interest the article ‘Bully tactics came out early in Abbott, says former rival’
written by Damien Murphy on 8 September 2012. http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/bully-tactics-came-out-early-in-abbott-says-former-rival-20120907-25joi.html and http://m.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/bully-tactics-came-out-early-in-abbott-says-former-rival-20120907-25joi.html

Mr Murphy makes allegations against Tony Abbott based on Barbara Ramjan’s statement.  The same Barbara Ramjan who, in a article by Kerry-Anne Walsh and Candace Sutton, July 18, 2004, in The Sun-Herald claimed after defeating Mr Abbott for the SRC presidency in 1977, she remembers the night of September 7, 1977 when officer elections were held.

Two letters she wrote then to Honi Soit, a student newspaper, outlined her version of the evening. One letter described how throughout the evening Mr Abbott and his mates, including a dentistry student, harassed and insulted the women standing for election.

Outside the meeting, one woman “was confronted by J [the dentistry student], who decided to ‘have a bit of fun’ and exposed his genitalia to her as well as urinating against a tree,” Ms Ramjan wrote.

“He dropped his pants [perhaps for Abbott's entertainment, he seemed highly amused] and bowed in Abbott’s direction, flashing his bum towards the woman,” the letter said.

In letters of reply, Mr Abbott compared the accusations to Nazi propaganda and said that the “facts” presented were “bare-faced lies or gross distortions”.

Ms Ramjan is quick to try and discredit Mr Abbott for the action of others, and yet never mentioned this latest claim at that time.  As she was obviously trying to embarrass Mr Abbott in 2004 it seems strange she would neglect to mention a incident which she alleges he came right up close to her and punched the wall each side of her.

To strengthen the links to the Left, it was Ms Ramjan who wrote a obituary for Gary Nicholls in 1987 a man who joined the Communist Party of Australia during his schooldays, and later the ALP. He was active in student and left politics while a student and philosophy tutor at Sydney University, being a member of the national executive of the Australian Union of Students, and honorary secretary-treasurer of the Sydney University Students Representative Council.

An Obituary that Australian Society for the Study of Labour History have embraced on their website?
http://asslh.org.au/hummer/no-19/gary-nicholls/

It seems to me this article is an embarrassment to a journalist that has failed to check their facts.  It couldn’t be that Ms Ramjan’s strong left affiliation managed to discover a memory in 2012 that she hadn’t remembered even as recently as 2004 could it? Or this Left philosophy may in fact be a reason for her attack on the Leader of the Liberal Party?

It seems neither Mr Murphy or Mr Marr made any rudimentary investigations to ascertain the credibility of this lady, but have used it as an excuse to sell copy and to take a cheap shot at the Opposition Leader.