The Media Monitors' Top 20

The ever-so-slowly smoking Gunns has launched Peter Garrett up to number three in the latest Media Monitors’ Top 20 list, with not so much a bullet but more of a stay, delay, veto or as Tony Abbott puts it, non-decision.

There are plenty of other big movers for the first list of 2009, with Julie Bishop starting work as early as possible, soaking up all those first-week-of-January column inches with a multitude of releases on the iniquities of the banks and the Government. Mike Rann also started early on the Lower Lakes.

Joel Fitzgibbon is another big mover in the first week of the year, ripping into the Navy on asbestos and also sadly owing to the death of another Australian serviceman in Afghanistan, while Jenny Macklin’s defensive duties have been of a more political nature, copping seasonal flak for routine pointless government advertising.

TW	Move	Position	Politician	Press Index	Radio Index	TV Index	Internet Index	Raw total	INDEX
1	0	PM	Kevin Rudd	1,000	991	1,000	1,000	*8,778*	998
2	0	Cabinet	Julia Gillard	497	761	815	469	*4,958*	635
3	9	Cabinet	Peter Garrett	377	1,000	788	213	*3,802*	594
4	-1	Opp Leader	Malcolm Turnbull	219	710	278	323	*3,363*	383
5	2	Premier	Anna Bligh	333	90	57	169	*1,332*	162
6	-2	Premier	Nathan Rees	131	146	29	297	*2,013*	151
7	18	Shadow	Julie Bishop	69	247	219	38	*867*	143
8	5	Premier	John Brumby	215	125	125	86	*924*	138
9	-4	Cabinet	Wayne Swan	173	65	47	147	*1,075*	108
10	-2	Spokes	Christine Milne	38	136	163	68	*789*	101
11	21	Premier	Mike Rann	160	161	32	38	*591*	98
12	4	NSW Opp Ld	Barry O’Farrell	63	141	26	134	*1,043*	91
13	26	Cabinet	Jenny Macklin	90	90	71	70	*660*	80
14	4	Cabinet	Anthony Albanese	57	178	0	60	*654*	74
15	19	Cabinet	Joel Fitzgibbon	19	163	22	88	*793*	73
16	4	Premier	Colin Barnett	149	47	14	56	*486*	66
17	-3	Party leader	Bob Brown	70	39	3	56	*421*	42
18	4	Independent	Nick Xenophon	13	104	2	18	*276*	34
19	-2	Backbench	Peter Costello	51	16	1	46	*315*	29
20	-5	Shadow	Tony Abbott	23	9	0	61	*372*	23

Malcolm Turnbull is the most talked about man in radio land for the whole year… so far — and all thanks to a bit of old fashioned tough talk on Gitmo tourists. You’ve gotta love a long hop in the first over.

Rank	Politician	Talkback
1	Malcolm Turnbull	144
2	Kevin Rudd	121
3	Julia Gillard	95
4	Mike Rann	42
5	John Brumby	18

We knew that so many Crikey readers would be delighted to see John Howard as the first celebrity for 2009 that we couldn’t say no. We’re looking forward to listening to George Michael warbling along in the background as that other George gets in close and bestows his honours upon the former PM… oh, what do you mean, not that sort of freedom?