The Media Monitors' Top 20

It was a week where the big guys took centre stage. Due largely to all that stimulus talk, the PM jumped from a total of 18,926 media mentions last week to 35,079 this week, while Malcolm Turnbull leapt from 5,383 last week to 14,585 this week.

Julie Bishop went crashing out of the out of the top ten, and was curiously MIA due all that confusing economic talk. Stepping up in her absence were Peter Costello and Joe Hockey, who were both keen to promote the Opposition’s stimulus alternative/audition for the leadership position.

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, Rudd placed three orders for $950 worth of long-stemmed roses to court Nick Xenophon, Steve Fielding and Bob Brown. Each of whom made a leap in prominence/relevance this week.

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	*35,079*	1,000
2	1	Opp Leader	Malcolm Turnbull	358	527	380	336	*14,585*	400
3	1	Premier	John Brumby	177	236	418	161	*8,750*	248
4	-2	Cabinet	Wayne Swan	166	153	154	306	*7,299*	195
5	1	Premier	Nathan Rees	122	127	74	276	*5,853*	150
6	-1	Cabinet	Julia Gillard	127	101	126	206	*5,092*	140
7	9	Party leader	Bob Brown	70	72	248	106	*4,400*	124
8	*	Independent	Nick Xenophon	78	123	102	88	*3,624*	98
9	-2	Premier	Anna Bligh	121	99	120	79	*3,435*	105
10	*	Minor Party	Steve Fielding	60	137	65	81	*3,381*	86
11	*	Shadow	Joe Hockey	18	88	158	30	*2,810*	73
12	-4	Backbench	John Della Bosca	41	28	2	147	*2,274*	54
13	*	Backbench	Peter Costello	75	66	80	51	*2,262*	68
14	-2	Premier	Colin Barnett	70	72	68	42	*2,118*	63
15	-1	Cabinet	Lindsay Tanner	22	59	37	80	*2,088*	50
16	-3	NSW Opp Ld	Barry O’Farrell	15	69	10	52	*1,622*	36
17	-8	Premier	Mike Rann	49	59	26	30	*1,421*	41
18	-7	Cabinet	Peter Garrett	42	6	1	92	*1,316*	35
19	-9	Shadow	Julie Bishop	27	35	11	45	*1,131*	29
20	*	Backbench	Barnaby Joyce	14	39	36	22	*1,090*	28

Talkback callers were out in force this week with cheers and jeers towards Rudd and Turnbull’s economic responses. In the red corner caller Nick supported Kevin Rudd’s stimulus package, and says he has not heard a plausible argument from the Liberal Party about what they would do with the money. While in the blue corner, caller Neville is dead against Rudd’s stimulus package and says each government that comes in makes themselves unpopular because they are always paying the debt off caused by the previous Labor government.

Rank	Politician	Talkback
1	Kevin Rudd	668
2	Malcolm Turnbull	412
3	Wayne Swan	169
4	Joe Hockey	147
5	John Della Bosca	112

Audio of Christian Bale’s expletive laden rant on the set of Terminator Salvation to the hapless director of photography raced around the world. While a contrite Bale said he “was a punk” for the outburst, Gordon Ramsay was said to have been “f-cking impressed”.