To many people the killing of Muammar Gaddafi by the revolutionary forces was in itself a major story with significant ramifications for the Middle East and the world. It was an event any serious national newspaper would report soberly and objectively.

Clearly  not up to providing an  insightful article on the implications for Libya, Murdoch illuminati Greg Sheridan and John Lyon have joined the triumphalism in the death of Muammar Gaddafi by embellishing their stories with exaggeration and false statements in an effort to further vilify and diminish the dead dictator.

Sheridan claims that not only has Gaddafi’s life ended with a whimper rather than a bang it ended in a sewer while  John Lyon has reported in the Weekend Australian that “Gaddafi died a horrible death after being pulled from a sewage drain begging for mercy”.

While one can understand that a hotel dwelling foreign correspondent like Lyon may not know the difference between a culvert and a sewer, there are many who would claim that Sheridan is particularly familiar with sewers and should know what they look like. Here’s a clue Greg, they don’t go under roads and like the Australian they contain a great deal of unsavoury material.

Lyon is either psychic or must have been on the spot to hear Gaddaffi’s final words otherwise I am at loss to understand how he is able to know that Gaddafi was begging for mercy when pulled from the sewer. Perhaps he can lip read foreign languages or heard it in the bar. It is interesting that Lyons version is factually different from the Arab networks who say that sound recording from the video coverage indicate he was defiant till the end.

In his article, brave John chides Gaddafi for running into the culvert implying that he was reneging on his promise to fight to the death. Now I wonder if NATO aircraft had bombed John and his fellow Murdoch news crew killing most of them, would John sit in his vehicle sipping his gin or take cover in the only safe spot.

A good quality newspaper should be able to be used as a source to inform future generations about important events. While Gaddafi is not my idea of a hero we should expect that a newspaper that poses as a serious news source gives us facts about his life and death not the fanciful nonsense served up by the “ Australian”.