THE opposition has renewed its accusations of political bias by the ABC, claiming Lateline host Tony Jones adopted a more aggressive approach in an interview with a shadow minister than he did when speaking to his government opponent.
Liberal Senate leader Eric Abetz used an estimates hearing yesterday to compare Jones's recent interviews with Joe Hockey and Wayne Swan.
Senator Abetz claimed that Jones interrupted Mr Hockey 20 times but did not interrupt Mr Swan at all.
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ABC managing director Mark Scott defended the senior journalist, noting that different interview subjects required different treatment.
''Not all political interviews are the same,'' Mr Scott said.
''A good reporter following through on the answers that are given or the answers that aren't given will come in, will follow up, will ask the person being interviewed to answer the question or get to the point,'' he said.
The opposition also drew attention to the ABC's coverage on Twitter of Liberal leader Tony Abbott's response to the federal budget earlier this month.
West Australian Liberal senator Mathias Corman said that the ABC's tweet coverage had used the descriptor ''budgies'' to refer to the Opposition Leader's address-in-reply, in what appeared to be a playful pun on the budget and Mr Abbott's preferred bathing outfit.
Mr Scott said it was legitimate to question the use of the label, but said that it had been the most common tag used on the night by visitors to the micro-blogging site and made the ABC's tweets more easily found.
