Together, let us sit upon the ground, sing sad songs and chronicle the end of John ‘Sam’ Newman’s television career:

Thursday – Newman sees footage of Tasmanian tourism minister Paula Wriedt, finds her attractive and expresses a desire to “come on her”. He is pulled into line and castigated by James Brayshaw, who Newman tells to “shut up”. He writes off the incident as a misinterpretation.

Friday – Nine defends Newman for the umpteenth time. The producer of The Footy Show  suggests he’s done “nothing wrong”, and that Newman is “horrified” his comments might have been taken in a sexual context. Despite apparently having nothing to apologise for, Newman ‘phones Wriedt to apologise.

Saturday – Female MPs predictably call for Newman’s removal from the show. Wriedt’s father admits that she was upset by the incident.

Monday - Wriedt attempts to take her own life and is rushed to hospital for emergency treatment.

Now, nobody in their right mind would suggest that ‘Sam’ Newman is directly responsible for Wriedt’s suicide attempt. Reports suggest that Wriedt had many more pressing issues in her life than a single smutty remark: a second marriage breakdown, separation from her two children, the burden of being a state minister, a failed bid for the deputy leadership and declining voter support. But it cannot have helped. The crass comment drew unwanted media attention to Wriedt at what was obviously a difficult time in her personal and professional life. Newman was not aware of Wriedt’s personal situation but that’s precisely why more respectful and circumspect commentary or ‘comedy’ is necessary.

This could be the last straw for Nine, which has ridden with Newman over many blips and freefalls but has probably had about enough. To use a term from one of ‘Sam’s own personal obsessions, he may find himself ejaculated from television forever.

The West Australian has responded to the Buswell chair affair with a little get-even dirt-digging. The West Oz’s journos had to delve back to 2004 to find anything of note: a boozy ALP function where Labor premier Alan Carpenter allegedly lifted the top of MP Jaye Radisich and exposed her bra.

‘Commenting‘ on the story, Andrew Bolt just can’t help himself and engages in the kind of base sexism and personal denigration we’ve come to expect from certain low-brow bloggers. He inserts the above pic as ‘ftgg.bmp‘ (as all sub-editors would know filenames for pictures are rarely random; draw your own conclusions what it might mean) and captions it with:

I suspect that [WA Labor MP Jaye] Radisich would certainly have noticed had [WA premier Alan] Carpenter attempted the job of lifting her top.

The Boltmeister then goes on to suggest that Carpenter’s alleged bra-lifting is actually worse than Buswell’s chair-sniffing because it is more “direct”, whereas Buswell was just “alarmingly inventive”. How cute. And all this moralising is predicated on an event that Carpenter denies, Radisich has never mentioned let alone complained about, and staff at the aforementioned function apparently did not witness. Not that either Bolta or the West Oz are likely to let the facts get in the way of a good smear job.