(Image: Nine)

Sir Prince Vale Sir Prince Philip, gone much too soon at just 99 years of age. There is little more predictable in this world than a high-profile death spurring a flurry of poorly edited obituaries, as each publication races to be the first to get those coveted high-profile death clicks.

Hence news.com.au‘s revelation that Philip had died from XXXX; the Nine papers saying he died in hospital in the headline to a story that states he had left hospital three weeks earlier; and probably weirdest of all, the misspelling of his name on Channel Nine (Philip with one “L” really is the scourge of subeditors everywhere).

With the greatest respect, the duke had looked like death cooled down for quite some time now. You guys had time to check.

(Note to editors: make sure there aren’t a bunch of typos in here that will make me look like an idiot. Don’t leave this in, obviously.)

De mortuis nihil nisi bonum Hot on the heels of that, of course, come The Takes. The predictable if not unmerited examination of why Philip’s addiction to public racism was so often written off as harmless gaffery, and revelations of gossip that could never run while he was alive — our favourite so far being that he apparently called The Times a “Murdoch rag“. And, of course, The Guardian‘s opinion continuing to do its real work: ensuring the parody headline generator is never revived due to redundancy.

But of course whatever your achievements in life, you are no more than culture war fodder. And so Andrew Bolt leads this morning by slamming the Greens for their insufficiently respectful response. Meanwhile Sky News’ credibility graveyard Outsiders displayed that respect by claiming Prince Philip as a climate change sceptic.

Hachette job? We were as intrigued as anyone by The Australian‘s “Media Diary” item on the upcoming Peter van Onselen book, which allegedly contains a quote from “an unnamed male member” of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s inner circle, saying that the PM “plans to handover power after the next election, retiring before completing another full term”.

The item ends by predicting “a question or two for ScoMo on that very subject from the press gallery this week”.
As ever, we like to get in first, so we asked the Prime Minister’s Office whether there was any truth to this passage? Failing to break the habit of a lifetime, the PMO didn’t get back to us before deadline.

Breaking news Speaking of getting in first: The Australian Financial Review has a great yarn this morning about Kennedy MP Bob Katter’s family connections to the CopperString project, a transmission line in northern Queensland which Katter has been vigorously trying to secure public money for. And to be fair, the fact that Katter is the uncle of the company’s managing director Joseph O’Brien is a revelation to many. But not to us here at Crikey.

Much as we hate to blow our own horn, Crikey’s Bernard Keane, in collaboration with the great investigative reporter Wendy Bacon, revealed Katter’s conflict a mere decade ago, in late 2010.

Look at the state of it A tipster got in contact to point out that the LNP in Queensland was advertising for a new state director.

And what a time to take the job on, months out from an election loss — exiting director Michael O’Dwyer denied that was the reason he left — not to mention while Olympic-level piss-taker Andrew Laming continues to hang around.