The story of Kevin Rudd’s alleged rudeness to Lily Fontana, his make-up artist for his second debate with Tony Abbott has had its day of glory on the front pages of the Murdoch media and presumably run its course, but no doubt tucked away for any mud throwing if and when useful for such. Within minutes of preparing the make-up to both Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott for the debate, Ms Fontana took to Facebook with the suggestion that Kevin Rudd was rude to her.

I say alleged rudeness because I don’t believe the full story, but I’ll return to that shortly.

Just how feral were the Murdoch media about this incident? You can see for yourself from this Media Watch episode from 26 August which provides an excellent summary.

Now for my doubts about the validity of the incident.

There are a number of obvious questions that no-one, it seems, thought of asking. I’ll ask them.

Why would a political journalist, after a debate between the two men who aspire to lead this country after the forthcoming election race to the Facebook page of the make-up artist to see what she had to say? What an odd thing for a political journalist to do. One would have thought that a political journalist would be more interested in politics, especially the just completed Abbott/Rudd debate.

Isn’t it odd, too, that journalists in one state know the names of television make-up artists in another state? How likely is it that a Sydney journalist has appeared on Sky News in their Brisbane studio? I’m not saying it’s never happened, but it does seem odd.

How did the journalist know which Lily Fontana to find on Facebook? There are a number of them. The two political leaders of this country had just finished a debate yet one of the leading political journalists found time to ignore all that in preference to searching through all the Lily Fontanas on Facebook. Don’t you find that odd?

Why is it, that stories from a witness who disputes the claim has now been removed from media sites?

Why did Ms Fontana remove her entry from Facebook? Apparently she is embarrassed. Might I suggest disgusted? Disgusted at being manipulated by the media.

Was Ms Fontana complicit with the media? This is mere speculation but is it possible that this might be the case.

Lily Fontana, in my opinion, was made a media stooge. The media, in my opinion, set this up.