Amanda Hart: The protest was launched by Aborigines from the nearby Aboriginal tent embassy, sparked by Tony Abbott, who said the embassy, now in its 40th year, should be shut down ... — Channel Ten News, 26th January, 2012

Welcome to Media Watch 2012. I'm Jonathan Holmes. And as everyone knows by now, Tony Abbott didn't say that the aboriginal tent embassy should be shut down.

Here, once again, is what he did say to an ABC reporter on Australia Day morning:

Tony Abbott: I think the indigenous people of Australia can be very proud of the respect in which they are held by every Australian and yes, I think a lot has changed since then and I think it probably is time to move on from that. — ABC News 24, 26th January, 2012

"Time to move on from that". But that's not what the protesters heard.

Tent embassy founder Michael Anderson reportedly told wire service AAP on the afternoon of the protest:

"He said the aboriginal embassy had to go, we heard it on a radio broadcast," ... — AAP Report, WA Today, 26th January, 2012

Read the WA Today story

Perhaps someone heard this, on Sydney's Radio 2UE at a couple of minutes after 1 o'clock that day...

Clinton Maynard: Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he'd like to see the tent embassy shut down ... — Radio 2UE, 26th January, 2012

That's the first reference we've found anywhere to Abbott wanting the embassy shut down - certainly as far as we can tell, nothing like it was aired on the ABC that morning.

2UE tells us it got the story from AAP, though AAP claims it wasn't until 6 minutes later that it put out its first report on Tony Abbott's remarks.

Time for tent embassy to fold, says Tony Abbott — AAP Report, Adelaide Now, 26th January, 2012

Read the Adelaide Now article

It read, in part,

Mr Abbott said he understood why the tent embassy was set up "all those years ago". However, it was time it was disbanded, he said. — AAP Report, Adelaide Now, 26th January, 2012

Read the AAP Report

For some hours that was the most easily accessible account of what Abbott had said, posted on news websites around the country.

As AAP admitted last week:

... it simply was not a good performance ... The simple explanation is that a quote from Mr Abbott was misinterpreted and a paraphrasing of his quote was inaccurate. — Tony Gillies, Editor in Chief, AAP, 1 February, 2012

Read Tony Gillies email copied to Media Watch

AAP claims it corrected its story within the hour, but the tone of the media's coverage had been set.

Of course we don't know precisely what the PM's press flak Tony Hodges said to ACT Union boss Kim Sattler, or what she told aboriginal activist Barbara Shaw.

But when the nation's principal wire service misinterprets a sensitively-worded comment, it's perhaps not surprising that lots of other people do too.

On the bright side, AAP editor-in-chief Tony Gillies writes:

What I can say without reservation is that our reporting of this story was not motivated by a political agenda or malice. — Tony Gillies, Editor in Chief, AAP, 1st February, 2012

Or, as Tony Abbott might have put it, "shit happens".