There has been a bit of chatter lately about journalists taking Abbott's lines hook, line and sinker, and I think she didn't want to fall into that trap. Also, Chris Uhlmann normally takes the big political interviews, so I think she wanted to show she could be as tough as he is.
Did she go over the top? I think so, in a couple of parts, but I don't think it's bias. I think it was a combination of trying to be tough, and Abbott's answers, (or non-answers) which she was determined to challenge.
We have become accustomed to seeing political leaders get away with saying anything in interviews, and not being challenged. Challenging the alternative PM to actually answer truthfully is not a bad thing.
It's a pity it's become so rare.
Sales must have responded to something another ABC journalist wrote last week. Barrie Cassidy from Insiders.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-17/cassidy-a-rare-challenge-for-abbott/4203120
Insiders presenter Barrie Cassidy says the media has failed to hold Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to account for his prevarications on asylum seekers and the carbon tax.
When Jon Faine interviewed Tony Abbott on ABC's 774 on Tuesday, something unusual happened.
The Opposition Leader's careless use of words was actually challenged.
From the same article
Dennis Atkins wrote.
The Liberal leader is taking the demeaning tactic of not caring what he says to new depths.
Now Mark Latham has taken up the same issue in the Financial Review, writing that:
In 35 years studying Australian politics, I have never seen a political leader so vulnerable to criticism yet treated so lightly by the media.
Perhaps the Canberra press gallery has become so accustomed to finding fault in Julia Gillard it has forgotten how to hold her opposite number to account.