Johnny Weir should pass a “gender test”: Canadian commentators. As Eddie McGuire stumbled through his homophobia mea-culpa with US ice skater Johnny Weir on Nine last night, the Francophone world was busy dealing with its own Weir controversy. In a eerie parallel of the McGuire and Mick Molloy debacle, commentators on French-Canadian network RDS also had immense trouble controlling their red-blooded reactions to the flamboyant performer.

“This may not be politically correct,” RDS host Claude Mailhot said, “but do you think he lost points due to his costume and his body language?” Good buddy Alain Goldberg replied: “They’ll think all the boys who skate will end up like him…it sets a bad example.”

In earlier RDS coverage, Goldberg and Mailhot suggested Weir wasn’t all there: “We should make him (Weir) pass a gender test at this point,” Goldberg said, with Mailhot claiming Weir should compete as a “woman”.

While Nine’s spinners have remained silent, RDS executives promptly issued a statement condemning the duo. “All discriminatory statements, or those appearing discriminatory, have neither a place in society nor in media. Mr. Mailhot and Mr. Goldberg made tactless comments on the appearance and manner of a figure skater. As soon as they were made aware of the reaction their comments sparked, and because they never meant to defame an individual or a sexual orientation, they decided to offer an apology.”

Meanwhile, Weir continues to dine out on the publicity generated by the scandal, telling Eddie he would love to makeover his spare room during his next trip to Melbourne. — Andrew Crook

You say Christina, I say Kristina. It’s a hard-knock life for NSW Premier Kristina Keneally. Not only are political commentators slamming her for breaking yet another transport promise and writing off her chances of winning the next state election, they can’t even be bothered to spell her name correctly.

The Sydney Morning Herald misspelled the Premier’s name in a story on her cancellation of the metro project in today’s edition, and also on its website. This has been going on since she became Premier, since when she has variously been reported as Christiana Kenneally, Christina Keneally and Kristina Kenneally.

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The Australian isn’t much better.

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Most of the errors are killed off pronto. But today’s errors on the SMH website have persisted for at least nine and a half hours. Is anybody paying attention anymore? — Ben Sandilands.

Foxtel’s attack dogs caught barking up the wrong tree. There is some interesting subtext to the furious war of words between Channel Nine and Foxtel over their coverage of the Winter Olympics.

In case you missed it, the spat began last week after snow-boarder Torah Bright won Australia’s first gold medal in Vancouver and Foxtel’s spinners sent out a press release titled “Channel Nine’s Winter Olympic Games calamity continues”. Foxtel also got into Eddie McGuire and Mick Molloy for their homophobic comments relating to a US ice skater. Nine hit back with a release of its own, saying:

“A press release issued by Foxtel’s public relations department this afternoon criticising the Nine Network’s coverage of today’s Winter Olympics action is both erroneous and inflammatory. Foxtel CEO Kim Williams has subsequently apologised to Nine CEO David Gyngell regarding the contents of the release, which Mr Williams described as ‘disgusting’, along with an undertaking that such behaviour will not be repeated.”

Nine and Foxtel have jointly bid and won the rights to the winter games and the 2012 Summer Games in London for $US126 million. On top of that they have to pay the best part of another $50 million or more in production costs for both games and other activities.

Even thought ad rates are firming, both networks have been doing it tough. Nine’s coverage didn’t crack the million viewer list at all in the first week. The average audience for the first week is now under half a million viewers a day, down from the 780,000 at the last games in 2006.

Foxtel has been paying back the $65 fee for the games coverage on four dedicated HD channels. The rebates have gone to long-standing customers. What about newer customers who signed up? — Glenn Dyer

It’s a fine, fine line between news and cross promotion. The Nine Network sent out this press release last Friday:

“This Monday, A Current Affair features a gripping interview with Laura De Gois — the daughter of Maria Korp, the murder victim who tragically became known as ‘the body in the boot’… This is one interview you won’t want to miss.”

Yes, especially if you are the Nine Network drama and promotions department. That’s because the series about the attack on Maria Korp, her death and what led to it will be shown on Nine starting next Sunday. Last night’s 20/20 cricket was full of promos for the series, which stars Vince Colisimo and Rebecca Gibney.

All networks use news and current affairs programs to plug high profile or continuing programs. It’s called a free kick and its one of the most objectionable parts of TV. And it’s not just the commercial sector that does it — the ABC is a culprit, especially its radio networks when programs and producers are interviewed before programs air to drum up pre-publicity and interest in potential audiences. — Glenn Dyer

Seven Network chairman and biggest shareholder, Kerry Stokes, has rejected claims there was something untoward in his skiing in the US last month with Broadband Minister Senator Stephen Conroy. And he told a Sydney media briefing that federal opposition leader Tony Abbott was “wrong” to suggest that the $250 million licence fee rebate to the three commercial Free To Air TV networks was a “bribe”.

Mr Stokes had been asked questions at the briefing (for the proposed merger of his privately owned Westrac group with the Seven Network Ltd) about the $250 million fee, the skiing with Senator Conroy and Mr Abbott’s comments.

Mr Stokes said Mr Abbott’s comments were :disappointing. “He was wrong”.

He said he and Senator Conroy “didn’t talk about industry issues. He said “we had an enjoyable time skiing” and went onto to add that the last thing he was interested in was business. He said there was no time to talk about issues like that while skiing. He said obviously some people have never skied.

He said he “on on holidays” and has people like David Leckie (at Seven media Group) to take care of issues like the rebate.

Mr Stokes said the rebate of the licence fee would be worth “$15 million to SNL” next year. “It is more important to Seven Media Group.” — Glenn Dyer

Chinese unis deny cyber attacks on Google.

China has hit back at the New York Times’ “baseless” accusations that two of its universities were used as the base for cyber attacks on the internet giant Google last month. — The Australian