The Media Monitors' Top 20

Expect the Churchillian "national security" talk to continue, as the PM starts to enjoy the media dominance of a time of crisis, writes Patrick Baume.

Expect the Churchillian “national security” talk to continue, as the PM starts to enjoy the media dominance of a time of crisis, getting three times as much coverage as Opposition Leader Malcolm “see I was right again, but this time I promise I’m not going to gloat” Turnbull.

Lindsay Tanner continues to become a lot better known to Shane Public, while Barry O’Farrell gloried in a drover’s dog weekend of epic proportions and the Sydney media wrote off the NSW Government a staggering two and a half years before the election, while Nathan Rees began to think about what retirement at 42 will look like.

Tony Burke leaps up the ladder on the back of regional radio coverage, the indigenous intervention review gets Jenny Macklin and Tony Abbott back in the Top 20 and Barnaby Joyce lets the Reserve Bank know how accountants deal with money out on the Balonne.

TW	Move	Position	Politician	Press Index	Radio Index	TV Index	Internet Index	Raw total	INDEX
1	0	PM	Kevin Rudd	1,000	1,000	1,000	1,000	*30,109*	1,000
2	0	Opp Leader	Malcolm Turnbull	243	294	300	505	*11,170*	336
3	0	Cabinet	Wayne Swan	289	296	251	488	*10,701*	331
4	0	Premier	Nathan Rees	199	258	116	451	*8,794*	256
5	4	Cabinet	Lindsay Tanner	73	118	131	93	*3,306*	104
6	0	Premier	John Brumby	128	80	94	111	*2,924*	103
7	6	Independent	Nick Xenophon	60	168	45	106	*3,322*	95
8	4	Cabinet	Nicola Roxon	100	93	50	130	*2,906*	93
9	17	NSW Opp Ld	Barry O’Farrell	14	89	46	182	*3,287*	83
10	-5	Premier	Anna Bligh	152	47	30	84	*1,841*	78
11	-3	Cabinet	Julia Gillard	63	71	31	106	*2,227*	68
12	4	Backbench	Theo Theophanous	65	80	82	44	*2,002*	68
13	-3	Shadow	Julie Bishop	32	93	59	52	*2,011*	59
14	4	Party leader	Bob Brown	51	82	24	66	*1,821*	56
15	2	Backbench	Peter Costello	69	43	39	62	*1,515*	53
16	8	Cabinet	Jenny Macklin	45	58	25	54	*1,445*	46
17	8	Shadow	Tony Abbott	32	44	24	60	*1,339*	40
18	1	Premier	Mike Rann	45	60	17	29	*1,126*	38
19	19	Cabinet	Tony Burke	35	63	10	32	*1,131*	35
20	12	Backbench	Barnaby Joyce	26	31	45	31	*1,033*	33

Kevin Rudd’s dominance even stronger on talkback, with plenty of praise but as always a few brickbats as well, some pensioners even outrageously claiming they are going to save the handout rather than get into the trenches and spend, spend, spend.

Rank	Politician	Talkback
1	Kevin Rudd	915
2	Wayne Swan	142
3	Nathan Rees	78
4	Malcolm Turnbull	77
5	John Brumby	73

Nice to see Madge can still get some coverage (in fact 50% of the PMs on TV), and we look forward to her attempts to find another film director who’s so keen to shack up with her he’s even willing to put her in a movie.