Insiders presenter Barrie Cassidy says the media has failed to hold Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to account for his prevarications on asylum seekers and the carbon tax.

When Jon Faine interviewed Tony Abbott on ABC's 774 on Tuesday, something unusual happened.

The Opposition Leader's careless use of words was actually challenged.

Abbott, discussing the asylum seekers issue, asserted:

Frankly, we've had 22,000 illegal arrivals, almost 400 illegal boats ...

Faine responded:

They're not illegal. Tony Abbott, do I need to remind you that the use of words in this is critical? They are not illegal arrivals. There is nothing illegal about seeking asylum when you are a refugee.

Abbott:

Well, I'm making my point Jon ...

Faine:

Well, so am I making mine! And I think it's been made to you before.

Tony Abbott did not further dispute the point. Like an errant school kid, he seemed to accept the admonishment. Yet within 24 hours, he was again referring to asylum seekers as illegals. Nobody in the media pulled him up. He knew they wouldn't. They rarely do.

For the record, he is wrong in domestic and in international law.

The Migration Act 1958 allows for those seeking asylum to enter Australia, with or without visas. The same situation is covered by the United Nations Refugee Convention, of which Australia is a signatory.

This is important for two reasons. Firstly, the truth matters. Secondly, the use of the word "illegal" suggests the Coalition is supporting tougher action against asylum seekers as "punishment" for breaking the law, whereas the publicly held position is that the measures are being adopted to discourage asylum seekers from taking a dangerous journey by boat.

Dennis Atkins wrote in the Courier Mail this week about Abbott's "relentless negative assault on the price impacts of the carbon tax", describing that, and his campaign to "brand Julia Gillard as an untrustworthy liar", as "the most reckless and audacious politicking most observers, including this one, can remember."

Atkins wrote:

The Liberal leader is taking the demeaning tactic of not caring what he says to new depths.

Now Mark Latham has taken up the same issue in the Financial Review, writing that:

In 35 years studying Australian politics, I have never seen a political leader so vulnerable to criticism yet treated so lightly by the media. Perhaps the Canberra press gallery has become so accustomed to finding fault in Julia Gillard it has forgotten how to hold her opposite number to account.

Latham pointed to Abbott's claim that the carbon tax would be "a wrecking ball through the economy"; data since then has demonstrated employment is holding up and the economy is still growing strongly.

Latham surveyed the media on Friday and Saturday when the data was topical and found just two critiques of Abbott: a report on the ABC Radio's PM and an article by Tim Colebatch in The Age.

It is a cop out for some in the media to argue, as they have, that opposition leaders are never subjected to the same scrutiny as prime ministers. Andrew Peacock, John Howard during his first experience as opposition leader, and Kim Beazley were all tested in the media and brought to account when they needed to be.

The Opposition Leader, no less than the Prime Minister, has an obligation to educate and inform the public and not mislead.

The media never misses Julia Gillard when she screws up, and that's as it should be. She has taken a hammering this week for embracing a policy on asylum seekers that she and the Government derided for years; a solution that, at least in part, the Opposition has been advocating since the Howard years.

It was embarrassing, and she was made to feel embarrassed.

But Tony Abbott too shifted position. He supported the 22 recommendations of the expert panel just weeks after saying that he would not heed their advice, and that, "we don't need a committee to tell us what our policies are".

Abbott embraced the recommendations even though they contained just one of his three previous bottom line demands - not a gold medal capitulation like the Prime Minister's, but one worthy of mention just the same.

Barrie Cassidy is the presenter of ABC programs Insiders and Offsiders. View his full profile here.