Kevin and Malcolm show rates big. Last night’s Q&A was one of the most anticipated of the year thanks to the double header involving Malcolm Turnbull (looking more gaunt that he has looked for some time) and Kevin Rudd (looking more like a plump choirboy). Nearly 1.3 million people watched it in metro and national markets, with 840,000 watched in the five metro markets on ABC1 and a further 80,000 on ABC News 24. It helped the ABC and ABC1 finish third in most markets and second in some such as Perth and Adelaide. Those are very good figures for any TV program these days. It shows the pulling power of both men.

But did the ABC do a disservice to two interesting people who were marginalised by Rudd/Turnbull? The two other guests last night — Judith Sloan, economist and commentator, and Heather Ridout, former head of the Australian Industry Group and current RBA board member — were worth a panel of their own with other guests, less ego driven and expansive, to buttress what they had to say. Agree or disagree with either or both, what they said last night made more sense than some of the meanderings and point-scoring of Rudd and Turnbull, humourous as it was at times.

They appeared to be outriders and the appearance of being marginalised was accentuated by both being at each end of the panel — Sloan next to Turnbull, Ridout next to Rudd. That was also unfortunate. They know more about their relative areas of interests than Rudd or Turnbull, which was apparent from their contributions. We needed to hear more from them. — Glenn Dyer

Now that’s court reporting. We’re not quite sure what the ABC means when a news photographer is described as a “trial blazer” — a gun at taking photos of alleged criminals perhaps? The boo boo was in this story about an Age photojournalist who is suing the newspaper for an estimated $1 million in relation to alleged difficulties she suffered from covering the first anniversary of the Bali bombings (the typo has since been fixed).

Video of the day. Frostbite kills too, you know? A new “charity” calling itself Radi-Aid has released this vid to inspire Africans to donate their radiators to help cold people in Norway. Makes you ponder how patronising and ridden with stereotypes such campaigns are, whoever they come from …

Front page of the day. Violence continues unabated in the Israel-Gaza conflict. Here’s Monday’s front page of Lebanon’s Al-Mustaqbal. The headline reads “Aquarius family massacre in Gaza: 11 martyrs, mostly women and children”, according to Google Translate: