As Tony Abbott made his final speech as prime minister yesterday, more than half of the press gallery assembled couldn’t hear what he was saying because Sky News was flying a helicopter above Parliament to film the packed prime minister’s courtyard. The chopper flew off about halfway through the speech, so the assembled journos still got to hear how it was all the “febrile” media’s fault for reporting anonymous leaks.

It is an almost fitting end to his prime ministership that in his final speech, Abbott couldn’t get his message out because he was drowned out by the media. Incidentally, this is the same helicopter that tracked a car that was believed to be Abbott’s down the streets of Canberra, OJ Simpson-style, until it stopped at a car wash and was thought to maybe not be Abbott’s car after all.

During the press conference, Ms Tips’ correspondent was also asked by ultra-conservative columnist Miranda Devine whether, during the press conference, Abbott was still technically PM. We are concerned that Devine would choose rely on the leftist media that apparently brought down Abbott for this information, but yes, Miranda, he was.

Malcolm Farr also used the packed conference to snap a photo of Devine and Crikey’s Bernard Keane together, because he thought it remarkable that the two could be seen together.

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