The Media Monitors' Top 20

The big political issue of the week is ... whether Kevin Rudd said shit on telly, and whether he planned it, writes Patrick Baume.

ETS legislation and WorkChoices changes finally before parliament, World Bank tells the globe it’s economy is stuffed, Barack Obama says we’re losing in Afghanistan and of course the big political issue of the week is … whether Kevin Rudd said sh-t on telly, and whether he planned it.

While semiologists rush to put out theses on whether sh-t can still be classified as a swear word or has reached the same place as merde, the draft Peter Costello campaign fires up to new levels in certain sections of the media after a terrible poll shows the coalition’s vote rise 2 per cent after many had predicted a big drop following the opposition to the spending package … wait a minute…

The race looks to be tightening in Queensland with the leaders trading spending promises and claims of irresponsibility in the finest State traditions.

And yet again the focus swings to Nick Xenophon and Steve Fielding as the real politics begins in what will be a big test of negotiating ability for Julia Gillard and Penny Wong.

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	*18,808*	1,000
2	0	Opp Leader	Malcolm Turnbull	457	565	661	502	*10,468*	546
3	0	Premier	Anna Bligh	423	377	472	329	*7,132*	400
4	20	Backbench	Peter Costello	259	473	566	220	*7,187*	380
5	0	Cabinet	Wayne Swan	273	235	335	439	*6,440*	320
6	0	Cabinet	Julia Gillard	313	368	195	286	*5,540*	291
7	0	Opp Leader	Lawrence Springborg	351	271	185	247	*4,600*	263
8	3	Premier	Nathan Rees	218	263	51	347	*4,706*	220
9	14	Independent	Nick Xenophon	108	264	234	177	*4,078*	196
10	-2	Premier	John Brumby	155	189	115	267	*3,837*	181
11	-1	Shadow	Joe Hockey	70	76	154	203	*2,734*	126
12	17	Party leader	Bob Brown	72	102	125	110	*2,055*	102
13	3	Cabinet	Penny Wong	94	110	28	168	*2,176*	100
14	20	Cabinet	Lindsay Tanner	61	159	73	82	*1,982*	94
15	*	Candidate	Pauline Hanson	50	29	168	82	*1,543*	82
16	-2	Minor Party	Steve Fielding	81	104	37	81	*1,487*	76
17	1	Shadow	Julie Bishop	54	21	15	209	*1,854*	75
18	-9	Cabinet	Joel Fitzgibbon	40	41	20	150	*1,532*	63
19	-6	Cabinet	Peter Garrett	32	32	39	127	*1,373*	58
20	19	Shadow	Andrew Robb	49	40	34	90	*1,123*	53

Malcolm third best in this poll too … ahh to be Opposition Leader, what salad days.

Rank	Politician	Talkback
1	Kevin Rudd	616
2	Peter Costello	266
3	Malcolm Turnbull	192
4	Lawrence Springborg	96
5	Anna Bligh	79

Nothing useful left to be said here.

Press

Radio

TV

Internet

Total

INDEX

Brett Stewart

307

585

789

190

8,661

468

There’s more on the Media Monitors website.