PM’s numbers back to a more usual level as the Olympics hype reduced to a high level roar after the hell’s bells cacophony of the first week, while the Opposition Leader got plenty of his usual high quality coverage from his dear friends in the Press Gallery, no doubt enjoying this week’s Four Corners about what an ogre –well, mildly cranky bloke — his dear friend Malcolm is. I’m sure he enjoyed Tony Abbott’s audition to be Malcolm’s Deputy as well, which certainly did the trick for Tony’s recent flagging media numbers, this week anyway.

And on the side with the big chairs, Julia Gillard moved up from her usual near invisibility to the Top Ten as she played tough with delinquent parents and tried her best to hide her glee about the oncoming union onslaught. There’ll be far fewer “union hack”  taunts after she smashes those wobblies by allowing the ABCC to survive a couple more years, we’ll bet… or maybe not.

TW

Move

Position

Politician

Press Index

Radio Index

TV Index

Internet Index

Raw total

INDEX

1

0

PM

Kevin Rudd

1,000

1,000

1,000

1,000

23,754

1,000

2

1

Opp Leader

Brendan Nelson

443

448

589

472

10,688

488

3

3

Premier

Morris Iemma

505

333

216

477

9,020

383

4

0

Cabinet

Wayne Swan

394

227

267

275

5,872

291

5

2

Backbench

Peter Costello

246

155

169

265

4,900

209

6

2

Premier

Anna Bligh

438

115

163

117

2,930

208

7

-5

Independent

Nick Xenophon

247

193

122

152

3,689

179

8

-3

Premier

Alan Carpenter

246

117

81

160

3,135

151

9

10

Cabinet

Julia Gillard

200

137

89

151

3,167

144

10

1

Shadow

Malcolm Turnbull

116

121

145

186

3,558

142

11

20

Shadow

Tony Abbott

79

130

136

79

2,281

106

12

1

Premier

John Brumby

174

68

108

72

1,736

105

13

2

Cabinet

Peter Garrett

191

62

33

86

1,691

93

14

4

NSW Opp Ld

Barry O’Farrell

23

115

80

153

2,891

93

15

-1

WA Opp Ld

Colin Barnett

20

101

75

133

2,526

82

16

-6

Minor Party

Steve Fielding

130

65

20

78

1,546

73

17

-5

Cabinet

Penny Wong

102

36

9

121

1,808

67

18

-9

Cabinet

Stephen Smith

87

31

17

121

1,790

64

19

3

Party leader

Bob Brown

102

106

9

24

1,140

60

20

7

Cabinet

Jenny Macklin

43

85

24

55

1,364

52

And this week beaten by Malcolm… Doctor, please make it stop.

Rank

Politician

Talkback

1

Kevin Rudd

605

2

Morris Iemma

237

3

Colin Barnett

124

4

Malcolm Turnbull

115

5

Brendan Nelson

82

Last week we had the whole man as our celebrity comparison, this week all we needed was his hot bod, mentions of which outscored all but three pollies on the box this week, thanks to Queen Rice of the Cube.

Press

Radio

TV

Internet

Total

INDEX

Talkback

Phelps’s pecs

252

41

224

47

1,614

141

87

There’s more on the Media Monitors website.