Tony Abbott admits he was fighting the urge to thump journalist in 2011 interview

In the densely packed annals of hostile encounters between Australian political figures and the journalists who report on them, it is hard to find a more mesmerising one than "The Stare-Off".

The Stare-Off took place on February 8, 2011, between then-opposition leader Tony Abbott and Seven News reporter Mark Riley.

Questioned by Riley in a Parliament House courtyard about deploying the phrase "shit happens" on a recent Afghanistan visit when discussing the death of an Australian soldier, Abbott did not — for the most part — reply verbally.

Instead, for 24 seemingly endless seconds, he stared levelly at his questioner, his only response an agonised and slightly woodpeckerish series of taut nods as Riley prompted him for an answer. 

The encounter — which went viral in the early days of virality — has since racked up more than half a million views on YouTube.

And nearly a decade and a half later, Abbott has confirmed what many transfixed viewers at the time suspected: the former Oxford boxing blue was struggling with his urge to thump Riley.

'A scornful silence' 

In an interview for Monday night's episode of Civic Duty, Abbott confirms that his silence was the result of a neural traffic jam.

"It took me quite a while to work out exactly what he was driving at, because I was thinking, what the hell?" Abbott recalls.

"I thought, what do I do here? I tell him to get stuffed? I get up and walk out? I hit him? Or I give the explanation that is impossible to give in grab-speak? You cannot deal with something like that in grab-speak. 

Riley points out that the encounter was arranged with the co-operation of the Abbott office at the time, and that Abbott knew exactly what he was going to be asked.

In the interview, Riley showed the opposition leader laptop footage in which he discussed the death of Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney, in a battle zone where Australian troops had reportedly been struggling with gear shortages. The Department of Defence footage showed Abbott in conversation in the field with Australian soldiers, including Major General John Cantwell.

Abbott recalls: "I said to General Cantwell, 'So you're saying that there was no lack of firepower, this was a simple case of shit happens'. And he said, 'You're right, Tony, it was a case of shit happens.'"

According to the original video, Cantwell does not say the words recalled by Abbott, but he does nod.

Abbott's view is that Riley tried to "take out of context that expression, 'shit happens', and present me as somehow making light of the death of Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney".

"Honestly, it was a contemptible thing to do. I'm not saying that Mark Riley is a, you know, terrible person, but I thought that was an unprofessional thing to do."

Riley's response: "Imagine if Julia Gillard had said that. Imagine if — this is what I thought — imagine if Kevin Rudd had said that. I mean, imagine if John Howard … and John would never have said that. You know, you can't conceive of it being said. 

"So, my question to Tony was: Well, explain what was the context of this? He said I had it out of context. And so, what's the context?"

Riley says the encounter was "no ambush".

"I had Tony's press secretary in my office for 20 minutes, showing them the vision that we had got under freedom of information. 

"We had to fight the Defence Department tooth and nail for months to get that vision."

The ABC's Media Watch program at the time judged that the context indeed explained Abbott's words, editorialising that Seven had pushed the story too far.

A subsequent Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) investigation found for Seven, ruling that, "An ordinary reasonable viewer of the segment as a whole would have understood what Mr Abbott's remark was about, its context and that it was not made in a cavalier or dismissive way."

The episode, however — in an age where video content can be summoned and viewed at any time outside the framework of contemporaneous news coverage — has become famous more for the Liberal leader's curious reaction than for the story itself.

A history of gallery faux pas

Monday night's episode of Civic Duty charts the revolution in political reporting over the course of the 21st century, in which the federal parliamentary press gallery — once enjoying a near-monopoly over the reporting of politics — has been disrupted by digital newcomers.

The Australian press gallery — which describes itself as the only such organisation in the world with an unbroken history of being embedded in the parliament on which it reports — has a long history of conflict with its subjects.

The late Sydney Morning Herald journalist Alan Ramsey became the only Australian journalist to be recorded in Hansard when he yelled "you liar!" from the gallery at prime minister John Gorton in 1971, in an episode he described to the ABC's Late Night Live in 2009.

Samantha Maiden, the political editor of news.com.au, says the management of relationships between journalists and politics is not for the faint-hearted.

"It depends on the sort of person you are, but I think at the end of the day … if you are going to give it, you're going to get it, and if you are going to give it, you can't be upset about occasionally getting it back. And if you are that sort of person … you're not in the right place, Toto!"

Maiden — a veteran of hostile encounters across the board from former Labor leader Mark Latham to prime minister Scott Morrison, the reporting of whose Hawaii holiday earned her a Walkley award — recalls fondly the time Liberal minister Peter Dutton accidentally sent her a text describing her as a "mad f***ing witch".

"It was just obvious that he had ballsed it all up," Maiden recalls.

"So I texted him back and I said, 'Mate. You've texted the mad witch — wrong number!

"And he was just beside himself going, 'Oh my God, I'm so sorry'. To his credit, he completely fessed up, and I was just in stitches because I thought it was hilarious."

Dutton made a public apology to the journalist, who was amused that the bungle became front-page news.

"And then I was getting calls from Malcolm Turnbull, who wasn't always much of a fan of Peter Dutton. He was like 'Oh my God, Samantha, I'm here with Lucy, we are just appalled — are you OK?"

Riley, long-standing political editor at Seven, tells Civic Duty that the relationship between politicians and journalists is always difficult.

"With the best practitioners of journalism and politics, it's like any relationship, like a good friendship, a marriage, a business relationship, it has to be built on mutual respect and trust," he says.

"So, I respect that these people are representing their electorates, that they have that at heart, and most do. It's easy to be cynical in this game and think, well, they're only in it for themselves, and there are glorious moments where that becomes true. But … I think in general, most, if not all, are there for the right reasons. 

"They're representing their communities, and they have to. So, I respect that.

"I respect the sacrifices that they make, and they make enormous sacrifices. I won't hear it that politicians are overpaid or underworked; neither of those things is true. You can't pay a person enough to do the job that they do."

Stream all episodes of Annabel Crabb's Civic Duty free on ABC iview.