The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about? Not if you’re John Howard.

APEC and leadership woes mean the PM has clocked up an amazing 32,536 mentions to come in at No. 1 by a mile in the Crikey/Media Monitors Top 20 for the week of 4-10 September.

APEC also boosted Alexander Downer up to third and Mark Vaile up to seventh.

And it also gave NSW Police Minister David Campbell his first appearance in the Top 20 thanks to those naughty, naughty Chaser boys.

TW
(Move)

Politician

Press

Radio

TV

Internet

Total

1
(0)

John Howard

1,890

15,136

7,113

8,397

32,536

2
(0)

Kevin Rudd

974

7,545

3,687

4,872

17,078

3
(15)

Alexander Downer

448

3,354

2,010

1,757

7,569

4
(2)

Peter Costello

412

2,596

425

2,052

5,485

5
(2)

Morris Iemma

144

1,509

1,698

1,126

4,477

6
(-1) 

Peter Beattie

216

677

553

1,630

3,076

7
(13)

Mark Vaile

94

607

1,047

531

2,279

8
(-5)

Peter McGauran

67

632

60

1,320

2,079

9
(-5) 

Malcolm Turnbull

122

897

19

1,029

2,067

10
(3)

Tony Abbott

140

913

2

886

1,941

11
(-2)

John Watkins

32

884

391

625

1,932

12
(2)

John Brumby

142

675

181

771

1,769

13
(-5)

Julia Gillard

94

522

254

755

1,625

14
(3)

Kevin Andrews

59

289

30

1,002

1,380

15
(-3)

Brendan Nelson

101

418

319

473

1,311

16
(*)

David Campbell

45

550

241

307

1,143

17
(9)

Wayne Swan

56

510

229

305

1,100

18
(-7)

Joe Hockey

97

306

142

474

1,019

19
(-9)

Peter Garrett

85

241

9

547

882

20
(3)

Warren Truss

94

408

45

265

812

John Howard has hung onto the No. 1 spot in the talkback charts:

Rank

Politician

Talkback

1

John Howard

1,310

2

Kevin Rudd

1,166

3

Alexander Downer

304

4

Malcolm Turnbull

278

5

Peter Costello

264

And how does the PM compare with other falling stars? Here’s how:

Britney Spears

26

161

634

400

1,221