Victorian MP Bernie Finn does not want to be Facebook friends with Obama, gossip from the Press Gallery, the various troubles of Richard Lupin and more from Crikey’s top tipsters.
October, 2009
Tips and rumours: Tips and rumours: Why Bernie Finn dislikes Obama
Hedge fund operators fiddled while investors burned
The secretive world of hedge funds disclosure has been exposed in a report published in the US, which reveals that up to half of funds and managements lied in their disclosure to customers and investors.
White House doesn’t wear the Fox hat
Travelling through the US, Simon Burrow reports on the battle of Fox News vs. the White House. Has open war broken out between old and new media?
Your ABC and their News Limited: the media’s empire games
A speech last night by ABC chief Mark Scott was a pre-emptive strike in what will be the main media battle of the first quarter of this century — between paid content and public broadcasting.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Readers heat up over climate change
Crikey readers weigh-in on climate change, float ideas on asylum seekers and chew the fat on Lap-Band surgery.
Stevens still sees the sunny side up
RBA Governor, Glenn Stevens, has rejected claims that the Australian economy is “too strong”. We may have escaped the global crunch but he’s determined not to fluff the recovery.
Media briefs: NT News, we salute your Ex-poo-sive … @McCainBlogette twit fight
NT News, we salute your Ex-poo-sive. Poo puns are always fun. Plus, Vice TV gets an Aussie makeover and Meghan McCain gets into a tit for tat on Twitter.
Guy Rundle: The basic right to fight and kick and scream to find refuge
With the 260 Tamil refugees refusing to leave their boat in Western Java and threatening to set fire to it, the asylum-seeker issue is the only game in town.
Experts get it very wrong on rentals
The rental market is fairly uncomplicated, but business journalists are commonly thinking of reasons as to why rents go up or down. This is only one reason: the number of vacant rental properties.
The Media Monitors' Top 20: Turnbull dominates (the news)
Malcolm Turnbull stays number one with a sizeable gap in broadcast coverage to not so Joltin’ Joe Hockey and Currently Quiet Kevin Rudd. Plus, Frank Farina’s sacking makes him popular.
An NT News Ex-poo-sive
The NT News, bless their little cotton socks-and-sandles, had another corker front page yesterday, with poo jokes a-plenty and some of the gold-standard pun-age.
Why your kids should suffer boredom
Ahh, the good old days. When kids got creative because they weren’t being ferried off to pilates or playing Wii. Why can’t we let just them roam free? asks Gerard Oosterman.
Seeing red over pink-ribbon products
It’s that time of year again, when advertisers paint their products pink in order to cash in on breast cancer awareness. But as one activist argues: “If shopping could cure breast cancer it would be cured by now”.
Speaka my language: a finalisation of the revitalisation of corporate communication
It’s no to next-generation scenarios and yes to plain English in business, especially since GFC blame is being laid on confusing corporate speak. Will Australia follow the US’s plans to introduce plain English rules?
Goldman Sachs to dish out $23b in bonuses
Insurance firm Goldman Sachs will give out $23 billion in bonuses this year — twice as much as last year — despite America’s ongoing recession and the fact that the company had to be bailed out by the US government last year.
rumour 
Is the WSJ hemorrhaging money?
Tipsters tell Gawker that the News Corp-owned Wall Street Journal is on track to lose $100 million this year. Given the Journal is Murdoch’s big paywall success story, the news could cause a lot of red faces if true.
Meet the president of hell on earth
In Somalia — the “land of a thousand gunshots” — Mark Scheffler interviews Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, who’s battling his fledging presidency with violence, extremists and pirates.
Become a fan of Auschwitz
Because one’s social network can never be wide enough: Auschwitz is now on Facebook. Shock your friends with a newsfeed that says “[your name] is a fan of Auschwitz”. Then lock your doors.
MySpace is now worthless
A few years ago, Rupert Murdoch purchased buzzing social network site MySpace for the bargain basement price of $580 million. How much is it worth these days? Next to nothing, estimates Henry Blodget.
Interview with Iranian blogger: stuff nuclear weapons, what about people’s lives?
Prolific Iranian blogger Mojtaba Saminejad updates the NY Times on the anger still bubbling inside Iran and why sanctions for nuclear weapons misses the human rights issues.
US military bans photos of war dead in Afghanistan
The US military has officially banned embedded journalists from taking photos or recording footage of soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Is it press censorship, or just giving the deceased and their families the respect and privacy they deserve?
The 2009 Walkley finalists
The nominees for the 2009 Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism have been announced. Crikey didn’t get any love, but it’s nice to see such a diverse field of three whole media organisations sweep the pool.
Get your batons out ladies, it’s time to start smashing
If Australia’s top companies don’t put more women on their boards then the government should impose quotas, says the Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick. Time to get rid of that glass ceiling.
Video of the Day: Welcome to the most polluted place on earth
Take a trip to the coal-mining town of Linfen in Shanxi Province, China — the single most polluted place on earth. If you haven’t had your “Oh Shit” moment yet, this might just be it.
