Andrew Bolt: How likely is it that an ABC Four Corners crew would be ready to film just after 6am without any idea of why?

Why was an ABC film crew alongside a group of maniacs intimidating someone in their own home? The excuses offered so far stink to high heaven.

The ABC’s laughable excuse for being caught with climate extremists outside a gas executive’s home at 6.45am is now falling to bits.

That’s because a photograph has emerged of an ABC camera crew on the driveway of the Perth home of Woodside boss Meg O’Neill, plus a curious statement from the activist who’d told them to get there.

This scandal started on Tuesday, when Disrupt Burrup Hub extremists turned up at O’Neill’s home just after dawn.

No one inside could know how far they would go. This group had already defaced a painting in the Art Gallery of Western Australia, and set off a stink flare that caused the evacuation of Woodside’s headquarters.

Woodside boss Meg O’Neill’s house was targeted by climate extremists and the incident was filmed by an ABC camera crew. Picture: Sharon Smith

So why was the ABC alongside such maniacs, intimidating people in their own home?

At first the ABC refused even to confirm it was a Four Corners crew.

Then it admitted, yes, a “Four Corners team attended the protest action to gather material for a potential report later this year”, but “in no way colluded with the activists”.

Honest! “Just prior to the action the team received a tip to go to an address, they had no knowledge what was at the address or that it was someone’s house. They had no knowledge of what action was going to occur there.”

Seriously? The ABC, with no prior warning, had a Four Corners film crew in Perth ready at dawn to hit the road, and never figured the address it got was someone’s home?

The ABC also claimed police beat them there, and the ABC team “remained on public land … and getting some vision, as journalists do”.

But then O’Neill released a photo showing the ABC crew on her nature strip and drive, filming her home with no police in shot. That in itself is intimidating and an invasion of privacy.

Now Jess Noakes, one of three activists arrested at O’Neill’s home, says the protest was organised “without any prior involvement or input from the ABC” – but didn’t say without its knowledge.

He adds he “did not confirm the location of the … protest to the ABC until after 6am”. So, only the location had to be confirmed?

Not the nature of the protest?

To repeat: how likely is it that an ABC Four Corners crew would be ready to film just after 6am without any idea of why?

This stinks to high heaven, and it’s time the ABC came clean.