The Media Monitors' Top 20

The Media Monitors’ Top 20

Julia Gillard continues her rise up the rankings, writes Patrick Baume.

Coming to the end of serious play for 2008, the Media Monitors’ Top 20 list seems to reflect the current state of media coverage pretty well, with Julia Gillard continuing her rise up the rankings, and the PM getting roughly three times as much coverage as a rotating group of his two most senior ministers, the Opposition Leader and the NSW Premier.

The big movement is in the latter half of the top 10, with Simon Crean as Acting Foreign Minister jumping 33 spots — mainly owing to the Mumbai attacks and the Bangkok blockade, but also the passing of his father, Whitlam minister Frank Crean — while Stephen Smith also received plenty of coverage on Mumbai before heading off to Brussels.

Julie Bishop scratched her way up to eighth position, although Joe Hockey was the only supposed candidate for her job that also made it into the list.

Andrew Robb came in 21st and Tony Abbott maintained his monk-like silence.

TW	Move	Position	Politician	Press Index	Radio Index	TV Index	Internet Index	Raw total	INDEX
1	0	PM	Kevin Rudd	956	1,000	1,000	990	*24,010*	986
2	1	Cabinet	Julia Gillard	284	359	325	332	*8,120*	325
3	3	Cabinet	Wayne Swan	193	375	471	254	*7,794*	323
4	0	Opp Leader	Malcolm Turnbull	215	344	254	346	*7,797*	290
5	0	Premier	Nathan Rees	160	237	83	397	*6,877*	219
6	-4	Premier	Anna Bligh	220	198	201	131	*4,038*	187
7	16	Cabinet	Stephen Smith	109	278	178	153	*4,591*	179
8	6	Shadow	Julie Bishop	65	180	198	90	*3,210*	133
9	33	Cabinet	Simon Crean	35	194	154	19	*2,233*	100
10	-2	Cabinet	Nicola Roxon	94	167	51	84	*2,465*	99
11	-4	Cabinet	Peter Garrett	80	46	51	157	*2,497*	84
12	0	Shadow	Joe Hockey	33	48	82	111	*2,029*	68
13	0	Cabinet	Penny Wong	62	98	17	82	*1,801*	65
14	-5	Premier	John Brumby	73	82	43	50	*1,431*	62
15	9	Cabinet	Lindsay Tanner	33	58	15	133	*2,078*	60
16	6	Premier	Colin Barnett	49	72	66	50	*1,425*	59
17	1	Independent	Nick Xenophon	54	42	57	34	*999*	47
18	3	Premier	Mike Rann	56	64	29	17	*827*	41
19	7	Backbench	Barnaby Joyce	20	81	37	24	*1,020*	40
20	-10	Cabinet	Anthony Albanese	59	23	16	61	*1,031*	40

Malcolm Turnbull will be happier with this list, as will Nathan Rees — nowhere to be seen.

Rank	Politician	Talkback
1	Kevin Rudd	425
2	Malcolm Turnbull	253
3	Julia Gillard	211
4	Wayne Swan	146
5	Anna Bligh	95

For once, the Old Norse words will be flying in a different direction in the Ramsay household, while we hear the working title for Gordon’s new seafood restaurant in Melbourne is ‘Caught on the Shag’.