Moore info on media mayoral campaign. Yesterday we reported, from reliable sources, that shock jocks at 2UE were working to bring down independent Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore with background from NSW Liberals. Which is perhaps true, but weekend presenter — and proud bike rider — John Stanley insists it’s “completely untrue” to suggest 2UE management is pushing the campaign. He writes:

“I editorialised on this two Saturdays ago on the weekend breakfast show on … 2UE. Expressing my view that there is a concerted push to tip Clover out of town hall, and that there is pressure on the NSW Liberals, in my opinion, to lay the groundwork for sacking the council. The campaign is being driven by The Telegraph in particular (again, my opinion ). I interviewed Barry O’Farrell and asked him specifically if he was considering sacking the city council and he replied no — he said successive new governments have found spurious reasons to sack the council and replace it with one of their own persuasion, and it never works. I also interviewed Clover two Sundays ago for about 10 minutes and asked her the same questions about the campaign against her, as well as talking about the bike paths which I broadly support and use.”

Still, the campaign from talkback and The Tele is fierce. We’re keeping watch.

You’re fired … but not yet. Fun and games at a Victorian government department. At a recent afternoon tea to farewell six staff (victims of budget cuts) the team was eagerly awaiting the boss to come and do the eulogy. Instead, reports one insider, two of the condemned were whisked off to be told they were not being sacked that day but due to an “oversight” would be able to stay on a little longer.  To add injury to insult, money collected by staff for farewell gifts was confiscated.

Ticks for AA, Air France, Garuda. Crikey‘s plane-talking contributor Ben Sandilands reports the credibility of the International Air Transport Association audits has been stretched by its passing American Airlines and Air France, as well as Garuda.  The audits that are relevant to Australian travellers are those conducted by CASA, which is actively reviewing aspects of  Tiger and Jetstar operations.

ABC web system on the mend. Remember the ABC’s $35 million, overseas-built web content management system that didn’t really, well, manage things properly? The one that was taking months to implement at News Online and other portals? Well, it works now, a staffer assures us. Good to know.

Is Qld Health payroll fixed? Queensland Health’s botched new pay system has been fixed, the state government has declared. But after the litany of complaints — Crikey has been detailing them for more than a year — it’s hard to believe the government claims that fewer than 0.1% of staff are having issues. And we know you know better — drop us a line or tip us anonymously with your experiences.

Our putrid, vulgar papers. A Crikey reader with a long memory recalls Brisbane’s Courier-Mail newspaper, now in the News Limited stable, used to run this under its masthead each day:

The full quote from the third president of the United States is perhaps prophetic as News battles its demons in London. Jefferson wrote in 1787:

“That the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. I deplore … the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those who write them … these ordures are rapidly depraving the public taste. It is however an evil for which there is no remedy, our liberty depends on freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”