The troubles of a live cross. This is true car crash television, from Nine News this morning. If the car in the background wants to make an insurance claim, here’s video footage of the accident…
‘Queen on a tram’ headline watch. A perfect opportunity for the nation’s newspaper subeditors to bring their respective A games. We’re not sure if they nailed it …
The Age
The Daily Telegraph
The Australian
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Advertiser
The Courier Mail
The Cairns Post
Meanwhile, we’re not sure why the Courier Mail used this crowd shot of the Queen considering you can hardly see her, but we’ll give them a tip of the hat for making it into a Where’s Wally? game:
We turned to Crikey sub Mick Vaughan, who came up with: “GLAM, TRAM, THANK YOU MA’AM”. And according to Mick:
“If Crikey had anything to do with the Queen’s tram itinerary, we’d have had her checking out the delights of Queen Street, Elizabeth Street, King Street (OK, no delights there), do a quick run down Royal Parade, turn it around and make sure it stopped at Crown … and perhaps even a stop near the Duke of Kent Hotel, perhaps for her squeeze, the Duke, to grab a quick pint. Yeah, then there’d be questions … we’d want to know whether she used Myki and liked it, or did she flash the royal senior’s card? Or did she nip into 7Eleven and grab a two-hour Metcard?”
McCrann, sans subeditor. Today’s Herald Sun business column by Terry McCrann was an interesting read. Are we the only ones who can’t comprehend the sentence: “For it appears he just can’t let the day pass merely as only for the race that stops a nation.” And: “The new forecasts won’t have a ‘three-point something’ anywhere in them over the next two years (except the December headline number which will still include the March quarter flood inflation).”
Headline of the day. From today’s Port Douglas and Mossman Gazette, on page 2. That’s right — page 2 (it was also on the front page). For the record, Blossom the cat “suffered a bad bite to her face and some internal damage, but nothing too serious, and underwent surgery on Tuesday afternoon”.
Front page of the day. From today’s UK Daily Express. Let’s panic like it’s 1939:
The Department of Corrections. To be fair to today’s edition of Canada’s Luneberg County Progress Bulletin, both Tanzania and Tasmania are third world economies …
Phone hacking inquiry to begin next month
“Lord Justice Leveson’s inquiry into phone hacking and media standards and ethics will begin hearing evidence from witnesses next month, it was announced yesterday. ” — The Independent
ABC staff hang on tender result
“ABC employees fear job losses if the broadcaster loses the $223 million Australia Network contract, sources at the corporation say, and they have not ruled out industrial action. ” — The Australian
Hussein ordered execution of journalist
“Saddam Hussein personally ordered the execution of the Observer journalist Farzad Bazoft to punish Margaret Thatcher and humiliate Britain, secret recordings released in Washington reveal.” — The Guardian
BBC launches impartiality review of Arab Spring
“The BBC Trust has launched a review of the impartiality of the BBC’s coverage of the Arab spring. The review will examine the coverage of events in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria and Yemen across TV, radio and online platforms, but will exclude coverage by the BBC’s local, regional and national services, and the World Service.” — journalism.co.uk
How to be a citizen journalist without getting killed
“Before you grab your iPhone and head to the nearest riot, here are some tips to help keep you safe, and to help you bring your photos, videos, and words to the masses.” — Gawker
A small problem for the tram itinerary proposed for the Queen — “… Queen Street, Elizabeth Street, King Street …” — is that there are no tramlines on Queen Street or King Street.
Hopefully Michelle Grattan noticed that the Queen walked on two legs yesterday, a sure sign that Rudd is planning a spill.
From Phillip Coorey:
“Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd has again refused to buy into the poker machine debate, a move that will further push opposition claims that he is manoeuvring for the leadership.”
Jesus wept.
Son of Ford – if Rudd had made a comment on the poker machine debate he would still have been accused of ‘manoeuvring for the leadership’. I look forward to breathless articles along the lines of ‘Rudd has extra sugar in his cup of tea, a sure sign he’s getting ready for a leadership challenge’.
Leone
Well, we didn’t have to wait long for Ms Grattan’s great piece of policy analysis on the issues that are most important to the Commonwealth Heads of State. First she gives us:
“His advantage at CHOGM week is that he can take a very high profile and no one can say that he is exceeding his brief.”
Well, no-one except Ms Grattan for – quelle sorprendo! – lo and behold she once again does the Coalition’s bidding:
“One of these issues is the government’s push for legislation to attack problem gambling by bringing in a precommitment scheme. Rudd flatly refused yesterday, as he had earlier on Wednesday, to enter the row. He says it’s not his area, and of course he’s right, but those watching the leadership manoeuvring read a wider message into his reticence.”
If only she’d put a full stop instead of a comma after “and of course he’s right”.
So it goes.