“In defence of the Tele that’s what most people say”.

Does he really hold us all in such contempt? Does the Prime Minister truly believe that the average Australian is so morally bull-necked that he or she could only be outraged by the complex tragedy of a new mother’s abandonment of her baby?

Here’s how this thing plays:

A woman is so desperate, so much the victim of who knows what circumstances that she decides she cannot care for her child and leaves it at a Melbourne hospital.

The Daily Telegraph thunders in outrage “HOW COULD SHE”, so certain in its umbrage it doesn’t even offer a question mark.

The paper reaps the instant gratification of notoriety.

The Prime Minister jumps gratuitously to the Tele’s defence. He wouldn’t dare offend them in an election year.

He drags us all into this shabby little conspiracy of outrage and populism by assuming our complicity and lack of fellow feeling. And there’s every chance that is what he really thinks of us.