The Media Monitors' Top 20

The Media Monitors’ Top 20

The PM again had a blinder of a week, writes Thomas Raymond.

The PM again had a blinder of a week, followed by the other half of the deficit dynamic duo, Wayne Swan. Rounding up the top three was Malcolm Turnbull, with his rendition of “Ya just can’t trust ‘em”.

Several Premiers had a sharp increase in coverage this week. While the residents of SA and Victoria were left in a sweaty stupor, the oppressive heat did nothing to slow down the speed in which Mike Rann and John Brumby raced with hand outstretched to Kevin and his sack of economic stimulus packages.

Up north, Lawrence Springborg made an appearance in the Top 20 after a long absence. Springborg donned pom-poms to cheer on LNP Daddy Warbucks, Clive Palmer, in his litigation against Premier Anna Bligh.

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	*18,926*	1,000
2	3	Cabinet	Wayne Swan	341	583	479	231	*7,476*	409
3	0	Opp Leader	Malcolm Turnbull	209	430	338	166	*5,383*	286
4	8	Premier	John Brumby	245	261	552	53	*4,117*	278
5	-1	Cabinet	Julia Gillard	201	162	295	282	*4,552*	235
6	-4	Premier	Nathan Rees	251	73	228	356	*4,465*	227
7	0	Premier	Anna Bligh	283	227	199	47	*2,751*	189
8	1	Backbench	John Della Bosca	108	163	77	132	*2,481*	120
9	7	Premier	Mike Rann	85	85	69	24	*1,041*	66
10	*	Shadow	Julie Bishop	58	101	60	23	*1,072*	60
11	-3	Cabinet	Peter Garrett	129	36	8	43	*749*	54
12	-1	Premier	Colin Barnett	65	46	46	15	*630*	43
13	4	NSW Opp Ld	Barry O’Farrell	31	66	41	14	*692*	38
14	-8	Cabinet	Lindsay Tanner	70	42	3	37	*657*	38
15	*	Opp Leader	Lawrence Springborg	69	39	12	18	*503*	34
16	1	Party leader	Bob Brown	37	40	6	42	*659*	31
17	6	Shadow	Ted Baillieu	32	24	45	9	*404*	27
18	-8	Cabinet	Stephen Smith	57	27	0	25	*441*	27
19	-6	Backbench	Tony Kelly	37	48	7	14	*476*	26
20	*	Shadow	Tony Abbott	25	16	28	6	*264*	18

NSW Lib leader Barry O’Farrell may have been well down the list in terms of the most referenced pollie, but he prompted the second highest amount of talkback caller comment, bettered only by the Social Democrat/Economic Conservative himself. In one radio interview, Barry assured talkback caller Margaret he will be a “credible alternative choice to vote for come the next election”.

Rank	Politician	Talkback
1	Kevin Rudd	176
2	Barry O’Farrell	162
3	Nathan Rees	145
4	Mike Rann	75
5	John Brumby	69

Following the published photo of the eight gold medals winner “inhaling from a glass pipe” it looks like the only thing faster than Michael Phelps is the speed with which his endorsement career has gone up in smoke.