On Friday, Crikey documented the media fawning over James Packer of late, with dozens of full-page ads for his gaming business combined with un-probing front-page puff pieces in the national papers. We thought it couldn’t get any worse.
We were wrong.
“I feel great, mate,” Packer told journalist (and training buddy?) Nick Tabakoff in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph. “I’m getting fit as I’m hitting a very busy time for me, in a business sense, in my life … Mate, I am not a zealot. I’m just a bloke doing my best. Like there’s a whole bunch of punters out there doing their best to get fit … I’m the fittest I’ve been for 10 years, and it’s the right time for me to be fit because I’ve got a lot on at work.”
The “exclusive interview” timed nicely with the launch of Crown Casino’s television advertisements over the weekend, spruiking the development of new facilities in Melbourne and Perth and extolling the company’s commitment to staff training and the community.
One leading national PR practitioner told Crikey last week that James can “demand the front page whenever he wants it”.
We wouldn’t believe it if it didn’t keep happening.
it is absolutely disgusting, he got front page in the smh about his plans to build a 6 star hotel in sydney, to cater for ironically the billionaires from the state owned chinese enterprises that tony abbbott says should not be allowed to invest in australia
the special treatment of james packer in the mainstream australian media is a sympton of just what australia has become
lets face he makes his money from desperate people losing in his casinos where they simply can not win and of course he owns just about all of the casinos in australia
I had no idea he was so articulate, mate.
I know you know Mr Alors but mate to the mob is like shoosh to a crying baby.
And everyone wonders why Wayne Swan has a go at the very ugly billionaires in this country? They are all about “me, me, me….” Disgusting!!!
I was going to rant & rave about how disgraceful it is that he … but everyone else above made all the necessary points. Anything more from me would be otiose.