In more than three decades of journalism, I
can’t recall any application for a CEO position as public or bizarre as Eddie
McGuire’s tilt at the Nine job. Are we missing something here? Is there a reality
TV show being shot around this? It could be the ultimate media navel gaze –
watch CEO Eddie try to turn around Channel 9 on Channel 9.

Nine has been descending in a spiral of
weirdness ever since John Alexander began his run for control and then made a
mess of the prize when he won it. The SMH‘s David Dale outlines the low level it has fallen to just before official ratings start –
potentially making the CEO’s job a poisoned chalice.

The Nine mischief moved to another level though
with the death of Kerry Packer, allowing Alexander to publicly undermine acting
CEO Sam Chisholm by reversing his sacking of John Lyons. An interesting-sourced
rumour suggests Chisholm will be gone from Nine by the end of this week. We’ll
see.

Meanwhile the Today Tonight and A Current
Affair belated treatments of the disabled parking pass abuse missed a
frightening angle. More than 13 per cent of NSW vehicles have the passes (“NSW
– The Disabled State”). The SMH ran a
good campaign over the rorting all last week, which resulted in Premier Dilemma
promising to take unspecified action.

Given his track record, watch out for
10-year prison terms and the confiscation of legs.