Thin end of The Oz‘s wedge. In Bad News, Robert Manne’s Quarterly Essay pointing the bone at The Australian, the La Trobe academic suggested that the newspaper was trying to “own” Kevin Rudd by using its front page to guide his thought processes and distance him from the awful Left. With a Rudd-revival in the too hard basket, could history be repeating with new Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten?

Today’s Oz front page — “Shorten rejects unions’ IR push” — used a few sparing quotes from Shorten — that he first uttered nine days ago — to wedge the ambitious networker between the line pushed by the ACTU and the business lobby on the looming review of the Fair Work Act. It’s an interesting tactic from the paper, which now has to compete with daily IR-themed splashes from former staffer Michael Stutchbury’s Australian Financial Review. As Shorten edges ever closer to the dispatch box, expect the heat on the GG’s son-in-law to reach furnace levels. — Andrew Crook

Adelaide Now‘s bad spelling. Oops …

Kim not that famous. Seems that for The Age Kim Jong-il’s death was the second most important newsworthy death of the day on Monday …

Front page of the day. North Korea’s neighbour, South Korea, continues to follow the story of the death of Kim Jong-il …

High death toll for journalists in 2011

“At least 43 journalists were killed around the world in direct relation to their work in 2011, with the seven deaths in Pakistan marking the heaviest losses in a single nation. Libya and Iraq, each with five fatalities, and Mexico, with three deaths, also ranked high worldwide for journalism-related fatalities.” — Committee to Protecting Journalists

Piers Morgan faces the NotW parliamentary panel

“Piers Morgan, appearing somewhat magisterially on video from Los Angeles before the Leveson Committee of the British Parliament, spent a rugged hour getting grilled. Mr Morgan proved to be a good witness on his own behalf, answering narrowly and carefully about what he knew about hacking and when he knew it.” — The New York Times

YouTube’s biggest hits of 2011

“One hundred years into the future, when our great-grandkids look back to what was capturing the world’s imagination on YouTube in 2011, what will they make of us? Will they still be delighted by babbling babies? Will they still be ‘so excited’ about the weekend? And will they be any closer to understanding the mystery of the space-traveling toaster pastry cat?” — YouTube blog

New York Times legends take the redundancies and run

“The Observer was recently passed on a series of communiques from the Times in-house blog detailing who took the buyouts. In addition to Mr [George] Vecsey, a 30-year veteran of the paper, they are …” — The Observer

A third of newspaper jobs cut this year

“The number of jobs eliminated in the newspaper industry rose by nearly 30% in 2011 from the prior year, according to the blog that has been tracking the human toll on the industry for the last five years. ” — Reflections of a Newsosaur