Loss of Tony Abbott as prime minister is a time of sorrow (Brilliant piece explains what happened)

Herald Sun (Melbourne Australia) ^ | 28th September 2015 | Andrew Bolt

[naturalman1975]

NOW Tony Abbott is gone I can finally tell the truth about him. Folks, you made a big mistake with this bloke.

No, no. The mistake wasn’t that you voted for him.

In fact, you got one of the finest human beings to be Prime Minister.

.....

And he did all this in the face of astonishing heckling and even vilification from our media class, and despite often feral opposition in the Senate.

But your mistake was not to care about all that. Deeds didn’t count with you. Image was all.

And so you told the pollsters you didn’t like Abbott. You believed the vicious crap written about him, until his MPs finally panicked and dumped him.

Your mistake was that you couldn’t look behind the flim flam — the way Abbott looked, the way he spoke, the way he walked, the way he ate an onion — to see what he’d actually done for you and for your country.

You even laughed at some of his finest qualities and emblems of his public service. Journalists ridiculed his work as a lifesaver by mocking his costume and body hair. They dismissed his firefighting service as just a photo-op. Wrote off his patriotism as bigotry.

[naturalman1975]

This article - written by one of Australia's most prominent conservative journalists who knows Abbott quite well - probably does the best job I've seen of explaining what happened to Tony Abbott and why his party dumped him. He was the victim of an incredibly hostile and dishonest media who deliberately highlighted even the smallest negatives - at times, creating them out of nowhere - and then 'ordinary people' on social media who spread things even further. Horrible allegations - such as racism and misogyny - were simply repeated over and over again, without any evidence being offered for them at all, and a lot of people seemed to just accept them because "everybody knows it." It was common to caricature him in cartoons wearing a tightfitting swimming costume, ignoring the fact that the times we saw him wearing that, it was because it is the 'work uniform' of surf lifesavers who patrol our beaches to save lives, and who wear that clothing because it's the fastest stuff to swim in - that one really annoys me - surf lifesavers are the largest volunteer life preserving organisation in Australia and worthy of nothing but respect. And the media tried to turn that into a cheap joke.

[RinaseaofDs]

Bmfl

[Ann Archy]

I liked Abbott a Lot.....very sad......but he did bring a lot of it on himself.

[Hostage]

> “He was the victim of an incredibly hostile and dishonest media who deliberately highlighted even the smallest negatives ...”

I think we know well this enemy.

[Gay State Conservative]

Dishonest,vicious media? Sadly,you'll find it in all advanced nations. There's a very well known talk host here in the US named Rush Limbaugh.You possibly (and understandably) might not have heard of him but he's big,influential (and controversial) here.He once discussed a lengthy,scholarly,paper on the American media which,among other things,included quotes from a number of students at the Columbia School of Journalism in NYC,perhaps the most respected journalism school in the world.And it is,BTW,where many writers for the NY Times,the Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle (among other "prestigious" news outlets) got their start.

Each and every one of the students interviewed,when asked why they chose journalism as their profession,said they did so in order to *change the world*.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what kind of journalism *they'd* practice and which individuals and which ideas they'd support/espouse.

[Wayne07]

I couldn't read the article at the link provided but this worked: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB8QqQIwAGoVChMIv_v-3sOYyAIVkS2ICh0fIwxi&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.adelaidenow.com.au%2Fnews%2Fopinion%2Floss-of-tony-abbott-as-prime-minister-is-a-time-of-sorrow%2Fstory-fnj45fvd-1227546307247&usg=AFQjCNHwsaZenGLADmvySESCGyFEk3e5kQ&sig2=XeUya7PukSHhQHZdHdnaJQ

[Wayne07]

Here is a link guaranteed to work..

http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=BSuY6Zkp

[Chgogal]

I am very sad for Australia.

[BillyBoy]

>> you got one of the finest human beings to be Prime Minister. And he did all this in the face of astonishing heckling and even vilification from our media class, and despite often feral opposition in the Senate. But your mistake was not to care about all that. Deeds didn’t count with you. Image was all. And so you told the pollsters you didn’t like Abbott. You believed the vicious crap written about him, until his MPs finally panicked and dumped him. <<

Excellent article here. It summarizes the fate of Tony Abbott nicely. Australians got one of the finest men in there as Prime Minister. During his short tenure as PM, when he was genuinely embarking on many positive things, all they did is buy the non-stop media garbage about him, and ridicule and trash him at every turn until he was gone.

I see a parrell situation with the fate of Pope Benedict XVI. The man was a solid conservative and traditionalist, who vigorous enforced dogma and had a brillant scholarly mind to boot. But during his short reign as Pope, the media just relentlessly ridiculed him, and Christians went along with it and did nothing but sneer and complain about an nasty, evil old geezer he was. I don't recall ANYONE coming to his defense except a handful of hardcore Catholics. Now he's gone and freepers are begging to have Benedict back?

In both cases...you had your chance and blew it, big time. You didn't realize what a good man you had until he was gone.

[Rusty0604]

Wasn’t he ousted by someone in his own party? I hope the good he accomplished during his short time is not undone.

[Rusty0604]

I’ve read that the Pope was outed by church leaders that wanted to be more progressive.

[naturalman1975]

Wasn’t he ousted by someone in his own party? I hope the good he accomplished during his short time is not undone.

Yes, but the new Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, comes from the 'centrist' moderate part of the party, rather than the conservative part Tony Abbott comes from. For the moment, it looks like Turnbull will hold the line on most Abbott policies because of deals he had to make in order to get the votes to take over - but if he wins the next election (due by the end of next year, but he could go to the polls earlier) he will probably see himself as having a mandate to shift the party towards the centre. That's still better than a Labor government, but it won't be as good as a true conservative one.

[GOPsterinMA]

Like the song goes: “Don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone.”

This is a big reason why I love Donald Trump: If the media comes up with crap, he tells them to “FOAD”.

My cousins in AU are pissed about the change down under. Not happy.

And Jim Jones was a better church leader than this SJW.

[NFHale]

RE “...astonishing heckling and even vilification from our media class, and despite often feral opposition ...”

We are completely familiar with that here as well. They are no longer objective; just subversive now.

[Impy]

This really blows.

But if Kevin Rudd could make comeback though maybe Abbott can as well, a more successful one hopefully.