It’s okay to spruik on the ABC if it suits the ABC. Gerard Callinan was wondering where all the money at the ABC was coming from to fund digital radio. Nice management speak in response:

ABC Gippsland (Sale)

Mornings – 09/12/2008 – 10:37 AM

Gerard Callinan

Interview with Mark Spurway, head of transmission with the ABC, on the prospect of digital radio in Australia. He says the digital radio will bring CD quality audio, along with moving pictures and sideshows. He says Australian researchers are currently refining European technology for the introduction into the Australian market some time next year. He says the digital radio is not a replacement to existing AM/FM services, unlike the television scenario. He says the initial phase will be the implementation in the five mainland capitals, and stage two will involve planning to move to regional Australia. Spurway asserts that commercial stations will have viable access to the technology. He says retailers such as Harvey Norman, Domain and Bing Lee will carry the digital radio sets from next year.

News.com.au months behind in economic news. Today News.com.au has a story on Harvey Norman store closures. Items 3 and 7 in the “Most Popular” box accompanying the story are “Double Digit interest rates ‘within months’” and “Rates tipped to fall to less than 3%”. How can they both be right?

The ANZ is indeed predicting double digit interest rates within months. The only problem is the article (even though labeled as – Latest News – in the top title bar) is actually dated May 28! So not only is news.com.au recycling alarmist and very old stories, they are recycling stories that demonstrate all the eminent economists quoted therein were so far off the mark as to make them appear negligent or incompetent. Or both.

How does a report that’s seven months old and full of woefully incorrect forecasting suddenly become “Latest News” and third “Most Popular”? — Crikey reader David Curtin

No fine for Top Gear after Jeremy Clarkson’s joke. The UK’s Office of Communications has cleared BBC2’s motoring programme Top Gear despite receiving 339 complaints about its presenter Jeremy Clarkson’s joke about lorry drivers murdering prostitutes. During a sequence in which he was driving a lorry in a November 2 edition of the show, Clarkson said to the other presenters: “What matters to lorry drivers? Murdering prostitutes? Fuel economy?” A few minutes later Clarkson added: “This is a hard job [driving a lorry] and I’m not just saying this to win favour with lorry drivers: change gear; change gear; change gear; check your mirrors; murder a prostitute… ” The regulator said that the comments were justified by the context in which they were made and did not breach its programming code. — The Guardian

Local TV news producer blasts local TV news. NBC Chicago morning producer Ben Bowman rails against stupid, overblown weather coverage and shows a clip of a walrus playing a saxaphone to demonstrate newsworthiness. — YouTube

Pulitzer Prize now a menace to web publications, too. A little late, no? The Pulitzer Prize, conventional journalism’s most sought-after award, is opening its doors to Web publications, eleven years after Internet reporters first tried to submit their work. The good news: Most online publications won’t be eligible! In a press release, the committee says it will only consider online news organizations which “are primarily dedicated to original news reporting, are dedicated to coverage of ongoing stories and that adhere to the highest journalistic principles.” Considering what the pursuit of the Pulitzer has done to past laureates, any website still excluded from the race should consider itself a winner. — Gawker

Christie Hefner to step down as Playboy CEO. Christie Hefner plans to step down next year as chairman and chief executive of Playboy Enterprises Inc after two decades on the job, the adult entertainment company said on Monday. Shares of Playboy rose 14 percent in morning trading after Hefner, 56, daughter of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, said she would relinquish her role as CEO on January 31. She will stay on the company’s board until a new CEO joins Playboy, which publishes one of the world’s best-known adult magazines. — Reuters

Times Co. takes out a mortgage. The New York Times Company plans to borrow up to $225 million against its mid-Manhattan headquarters building, to ease a potential cash flow squeeze as the company grapples with tighter credit and shrinking profits. The Times Company owns 58 percent of the 52-story, 1.5 million-square-foot tower on Eighth Avenue, which was designed by the architect Renzo Piano, and completed last year. The developer Forest City Ratner owns the rest of the building. The Times Company’s portion of the building is not currently mortgaged, and some investors have complained that the company has too much of its capital tied up in that real estate. — New York Times