The Press settles

Around a year ago there was the incident when Pete Hodgson manhandled Madeleine Flannagan to prevent her from having her placard criticising the PM from getting in camera shot. Hodgson claimed he thought Flannagan was a threat to the PM.

Now The Press ran with the Hodgson spin and further claimed Flannagan boffed the reporter on the head with her billboard (which was in fact a piece of paper).

The Press soon ran a retraction, but I understand this week they have just paid out to settle a threatened defamation suit. Such settlement details are confidential as to amount, and of course does not admit liability, but a payment was made to settle.

The lesson here should be not to repeat Pete Hodgson’s claims and not to embellish them further. Regardless of the fact Madeleine is a controversial character she had the same right as every other person to protest against the Govt, and when a senior Cabinet Minister physically intervenes to deprive her of that right, she is not the one who should be copping flak from the media – Hodgson should have been.