Bugger the Melbourne Cup stopping the nation. Today it will be wall to wall Schapelle Corby as the Nine Network and Seven go head to head with live coverage. Nine goes to Bali at 11.30am, half an hour before Seven’s cross at Noon. Nine advanced its cross from 2pm which was promoted last week in the wake of the appalling Mike Munro-hosted ‘Untold Story” on Corby.

Nine is boasting that Corby will be talking to A Current Affair regardless of the verdict tonight. For both networks it’s a battle to see who can exploit the situation to the fullest degree. I bet the Bali Nine don’t get the same sort of coverage.

Nine’s use of Mike Munro continues to draw attention within the Network as newsroom staffers wonder if this is another subtle move by management to advance Munro at the cost of the 6pm Newsreader in Sydney, Mark Ferguson. Reports from the Nine Sydney newsroom suggest that Mike Munro wants the weekday 6pm gig and that Nine management is not standing in the way.

When Brian Henderson, the legend, stepped down from the Sydney 6pm newsreaders slot he had dominated for years, a number of people at Nine were interested. Jim Waley of course succeeded Hendo, who retired at the end of 2002. Waley read the news in Sydney from the start of 2003 to the end of 2004. He was flicked in January of this year and Mark Ferguson was slotted in to much fanfare by Nine management.

But it has now emerged that one person who was also interested was Mike Munro. At the end of 2002 Munro was in the process of being replaced by Nine management as the presenter of A Current Affair. The program’s ratings were sliding and Nine was looking for a new host, despite assertions to the contrary from Nine’s then head, David Gyngell. Ray Martin replaced Munro at ACA but Munro was overlooked for the news reading gig. The ambition remains.

Meanwhile Munro’s news reading efforts on the weekend drew this letter to the Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday: “I watched Mike Munro read the Nine news on Sunday. He seemed to disapprove of every item, even the weather. Perhaps he shouldn’t do it if it upsets him”.