@ShellyHorton1 on her Trending Tony Tweet

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Margo Kingston

Co-publisher and editor-in-chief at No Fibs

Margo Kingston is a retired Australian journalist and climate change activist. She is best known for her stint as Phillip Adams’ ‘Canberra Babylon’ contributor and her work at The Sydney Morning Herald and #Webdiary. Since 2012, Kingston has been a citizen journalist, reporting and commenting on Australian politics via Twitter and No Fibs.

@margokingston1

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Shelly Horton

By Margo Kingston
March 11, 2013

Shelley Horton (@ShellyHorton1) writes for the party pages of the Sun Herald. ‘I normally tweet about reality TV shows and new clubs,’ she told me today. Last night, she tweeted her personal response to Tony Abbott’s interview on 60 minutes, and to the love story, on a man’s care for his wife with Alzeimers. To her, same thing, a personal response.

I don't think Tony Abbott is a reformed women-loving gay-accepting man. I just think he's been media trained to be polished liar #60mins

— Shelly Horton 💃🏻 (@ShellyHorton1) March 10, 2013

Already crying at the love story challenged as Alzheimer's "living death" takes over #60Mins

— Shelly Horton 💃🏻 (@ShellyHorton1) March 10, 2013

BOOM! When we spoke, 332 retweets and 96 favourites later, she is surprised and frustrated. ‘I got a note that it was trending in Sydney, then trending in Melbourne, now trending in Australia.

‘I don’t know why, I’m no expert on politics but I’ve never had a tweet go this crazy.’

‘I am now off completely from tweeting anything political at all. It was just a tweet as a punter but now my feed is completely clogged up with people I don’t want to have a conversation with. It’s 50-50 and I’ve blocked a couple of people who have personally attacked me.’

I'm shocked at the amount of interest my tweet on Tony Abbott has garnered. I'm not a political journo. I was just giving my opinion #chill

— Shelly Horton 💃🏻 (@ShellyHorton1) March 11, 2013

So, Shelly, how did you come to your opinion on TA?

‘I just felt riled looking at the Tony Abbott interview. To me he looked so uncomfortable trying to say whatever he had to say to get elected rather than what he actually believed. I thought his sister looked particularly uncomfortable.

‘I understand that they are blood and still love each other, but when he is so vocal about being anti-gay and anti-gay marriage and now to be saying it is OK to be gay but no to gay marriage – he sounded like he was cherry picking.

‘I based my opinion on the interview and his body language and the squirming he and his sister did.’

‘I would like to stress that I am not an expert and I am not voting for Tony Abbott or Julia Gillard, partly because neither fit my values. I am straight and in a relationship with a man. I marched in the Gay Mardi Gras this year and it was an incredibly positive experience.’