Berlusconi v Murdoch. Who said Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi thinks his private business interests are as important as matters of state? I hope it wasn’t his former best mogul friend, Rupert Murdoch, or Rupe’s operatives in Italy in the Sky Italia satellite Pay TV business. If it was, Rupe could be accused of being churlish and putting his self interest first and not looking to the national good of Italy. So all you doubters who have criticised PM Berlusconi putting himself and his media interests before those of the Italian state, think again.

Last Friday the Italian Government followed the likes of the UK, Germany France and Spain in introducing a stimulus package. To help meet some of the cost, the Berlusconi government lifted the take on pay TV subscriptions: in fact doubled it to 20%. A 25% tax on p-rnography was also included in the package.

The biggest Pay TV business in Italy is Sky Italia, so Rupe’s business will be doing its bit to help Italy survive the credit crunch. Silvio’s Mediaset company is the biggest TV broadcaster in Italy: free to air not Pay. It doesn’t show p-rn, which is on the Sky Italia satellite platform. Any benefit to Mediaset’s TV networks was a of course a subsidiary benefit and not to forefront of the Prime Minister’s thinking, or those of his hand picked Treasury head. — Glenn Dyer

Spooky reporting. Facts are optional on the late Heath Ledger’s rent commitments with The Tele leaving it all up to the reader.

— Crikey reader Chris Johnson

Hire a hoodie: Australia v Team GB. Having fallen upon hard sporting times following a significant disparity with the British gold medal haul in Beijing (19 to the Brits, 14 to the Australians — a situation neither side was used to) the Australian government has hired a hoodie to taunt the proud sporting nation and spark it into action for London 2012. Somewhat bizarrely, national sporting rivalry has gone so far these days that it has ended up in the hands of advertising agencies. — The Guardian

Pepsi opens a vein of controversy with new suicide-themed ads. There’s but one calorie in PepsiMax and, as we know, one is the loneliest number. So it only makes sense that a new flight of print ads from BBDO Dusseldorf show a cute but sad little personification of a calorie committing suicide in a few ultraviolent ways, including a gunshot, a hanging, self-immolation and even slitting his little blue wrist with a razor blade. Needless to say, message boards today have been popping with much anti-Pepsi sentiment, most of it centered on the claim that these kinds of ads are insensitive to the issue of suicide. — Advertising Age

Pepsi apologized to me for its suicide ads. There’s no way to isolate this kind of advertisement. And there is an inverse proportion between how badly you want your ad to remain niche and the sensationalism surrounding its discovery. It’s a really obvious point, but one still clearly worth stating: The internet makes it impossible for any marketer to control which geographies and demographics see any particular communication. You can’t even really control what media it appears in. Think you’re creating an edgy print ad that will only be seen in a German magazine? Think again. In the blink of an eye, your ad is on the web. You know, the world wide one. And all kinds of people are pissed off. — Advertising Age blog

Rupert Murdoch named co-chair of the Partnership for New York City. Next thing you know he’ll be running for mayor. Rupert Murdoch has just been named co-chair of the Partnership for New York City, which, in case you are wondering, is a “network of business leaders dedicated to enhancing the economy of the five boroughs of New York City and maintaining the city’s position as the center of world commerce, finance and innovation.” Good to know someone is! Of course his co-chair is the CEO of Goldman Sachs so there’s that. — FishbowlNY

The real reason Bill O’Reilly bailed on his radio show. It was announced Friday that Bill O’Reilly is leaving his radio program, the Radio Factor. O’Reilly’s excuse for bailing on his radio audience is that he can’t carry the load. His two daily hours on the radio plus an hour on TV (15 hours a week) is just too much for him. Of course, much of the real work is carried out by his assistants and producers. So he must have the stamina of a slug. — News Corpse