Week 11: It's Abbott's turn to visit Afghanistan

5 articles: SMH, news.com.au, The Daily Telegraph, The Australian & ABC

http://www.smh.com.au/national/abbott-thanks-aussie-troops-in-afghanistan-visit-20101010-16dj2.html

http://www.news.com.au/national/tony-abbott-visits-troops-in-afghanistan/story-e6frfkvr-1225936672180

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sunday-telegraph/abbotts-afghanistan-visit-welcomed/story-e6frewt0-1225936702671

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/defence/tony-abbott-visits-troops-in-afghanistan/story-e6frg8yo-1225936621042

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/10/3034090.htm

I blogged on Gillard’s visit to the “war-torn” nation last week, but not to be outdone, this week Tony Abbott visited Afghanistan.

His visit was covered widely across the media, with much emphasis placed on his rejection of a joint visit with Gillard last week.

But to that in a moment.

SMH covered the trip, as did news.com.au and The Daily Telegraph. However, a cursory glance of their articles revealed the same AAP article word-for-word. Not this again! (See Week 8 blog entry.)

Multimedia was similar across the three – a couple of photos, some related coverage, a comments section for news.com.au and the Telegraph (55 comments on the news.com.au story compared with 0 for the Telegraph suggest it was more popular). SMH has a photo of a jubilant officer shaking Abbott’s hand, but all I could think was: “where was Abbott’s flak jacket?!”

All articles refer to Abbott’s “widely criticised” dismissal of a visit with Gillard due to preemptive concern over jetlag (!). Immigration Minister Chris Bowen’s comment that Abbott had wanted to be embedded with troops, like journalists often are, made me think: “step off our turf, Tony!”

The Australian also reported on the visit, their article compiled by “staff writers”, “with AAP”. Hmmm… BUT! Although their article is clearly drawn from the same source, extra paragraphs demonstrate further research. They reveal Gillard’s reaction to Abbott’s refusal: “Ms Gillard took political advantage by saying she had managed to visit Afghanistan… without ill-effect”. And Abbott’s rebuttal: “Abbott accused the Prime Minister of playing politics about his travel movements, in a cheap attempt to raise doubt about his commitment to Australia's participation in the conflict”.

A short video with snippets of his trip gives us a sense of the visit but the audio is a bit jumpy.

ABC’s – original - story was shorter but contained most essential information. I liked the included video – a short clip from ABC’s Insiders. Host Barrie Cassidy and a few others discussed the trip and mentioned declining public support for the war, plus the upcoming parliamentary debate on the war for November.

My vote goes to both The Australian and ABC this week.