Able was I ere I saw Albo: Is the Opposition Leader heading for his own Waterloo?

Plus: We call it right on Nine’s Lebanon costs and The Drum suffers a Brexit breakdown.

Fairfax Media’s Peter Hartcher with a scoop about Bill Shorten, The Sydney Morning Herald, yesterday:

Mr Shorten has confessed to being a fan of Napoleon Bonaparte …

And we all remember how that worked out. Report on The Australian’swebsite, yesterday:

Opposition Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen has refused to rule out nominating as a contender for the Labor leadership if Bill Shorten and the ALP lose the July 2 election …

Would Tanya Plibersek support a defeated Shorten? More from The Australian, yesterday:

We’re not going to go into any of that, we’re fighting every minute of every day to make this a win …

The Daily Telegraph with further suggestions of mutiny, yesterday:

Left-wing Labor powerbroker Anthony Albanese is expected to challenge Bill Shorten for the party leadership if Mr Shorten does not achieve a hung parliament result or better on Saturday …

American abolitionist Wendell Phillips with some historical perspective, November 1, 1859:

Every man meets his Waterloo at last.

The $3 million man. John Lyons estimates the cost of the Nine Network’s Beirut child abduction debacle, The Australian, April 21:

My estimate, based on having worked at Nine as an executive producer, is that Nine would have paid up to $3m to get out. Within Nine, it would be seen as money well spent …

Surely not that much? ABC News website later that day:

Legal sources say Nine agreed to pay him compensation, which would probably amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars …

Fairfax’s Latika Bourke quoting a local source, April 21:

According to local customs, any deal would not be declared officially and conducted under the table. One source did not deny a figure worth “several hundreds of thousands of dollars” could have been paid to secure the Nine crew’s freedom …

On the money. Paul Maley reporting in The Australian, yesterday:

The costs of the Nine Network’s disastrous child abduction story in Lebanon continue to escalate, with the network transferring more than $500,000 to its Lebanese legal team last week … The transfer … put the network’s costs well over $US2m in legal fees alone.

ABC’s The Drum goes full Brexit. Lawyer Michael Bradley, yesterday:

Ignorant, fear-inflamed stupidity will always exist. The question … is why, for the first time since the 1930s, is it in the ascendancy?

Writer and podcaster Tim Dunlop adds his two euros’ worth. The Drum, yesterday:

Instead of concentrating on the real reasons for joblessness, unemployment is being managed by xenophobia, with cynical elites shifting the blame on to immigrants. The Brexit referendum is a perfect example of this sort of manipulation.

Luckily composer Gordon Kerry has a way through. Headline, The Drum, yesterday:

The arts must rise above the Brexit fallout.

Perhaps Medicare ought to consider something similar for ABC commentators. Britain’s Daily Mail reports, yesterday:

An NHS trust has offered staff free counselling to help them cope with the Brexit result.