Splish-splash — Rudd’s taking a bath when it comes to press coverage. Kevin Rudd copped a fearful battering from the broadcast media this morning when he allegedly pulled out of attending Lawrie Lawrence’s Water Safety Awareness event on the front lawns of Parliament House, after event organisers had issued a press release last night informing all and sundry that the PM and Tony Abbott would be attending.

What better symbol of our political times than Iron Man Tony Abbott fronting up to the event while the besieged prime minister bunkers down in his office. After all, what sort of red-blooded Australian would prefer to meet the Singaporean foreign minister than the human excitement machine Lawrie Lawrence? Only problem was, Rudd’s office had told event organisers well beforehand he wouldn’t be unable to attend and were sending Wayne Swan — a man with slightly more affinity for the water than the PM — along. Not so, event organisers insisted — we have an email from Rudd’s PA, Sussan, confirming his attendance.

On closer inspection that email turned out to be from Tony Abbott’s diary assistant. The event organisers had stuffed up. Still, that didn’t prevent some outlets giving Rudd a good kicking, even after the stuff-up became apparent. When you’re cold, you’re cold. — Bernard Keane

Murdoch struggles to control online content distribution

“So how does Rupert Murdoch, a man who is fiercely certain of the value of content, restore it to what he sees as its rightful place as a money-earner in its own right? In effect, by making sure it stays off the wider internet”  — The Guardian

SBS drawing the crowds with its World Cup coverage

“More than a million Australians got out of bed for Monday’s 4.30am Socceroos game, according to overnight metro ratings from OzTam.” — mUmBRELLA

Perez Hilton in hot water over steamy snap of Miley Cyrus

“Gossip blogger Perez Hilton is drawing heat on the Interwebz after posting upskirt photos of 17-year-old actress Miley Cyrus sans underwear via his Twitter account.” — Mediabistro

Internet advertising is now officially bigger than print

“The online ad business, excluding mobile ads, is set to expand to $34.4 billion in 2014 from $24.2 billion in 2009, according to PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook for 2010 to 2014.” — The Australian

New York Times editor denies ‘tweet’ ban claims

“I had suggested that outside of ornithological contexts, ‘tweet’ should still be treated as colloquial rather than as standard English. It can be used for special effect, or in places where a colloquial tone is appropriate, but should not be used routinely in straight news articles. I had made this point before; my memo was simply a reminder.” — New York Times

iPhones and the internet may soon redefine citizen journalism:

“…I think the combination of two new tools may change the way we think about news and news distribution very soon. One is available now and comes from Google’s YouTube.”  — Mediabistro

The Facebooks of the world:

“Facebook is rapidly overtaking even the strongest local social-media brands to become the first truly global brand in this space. In Europe, for instance, Facebook is edging ahead of France’s Skyrock and Spain’s invitation-only Tuenti, which is still the cooler brand among young Spaniards, crushing Italy’s Splinder, and leaving the UK’s Bebo way behind. — Advertising Age