Crikey

Mitchell’s concerned about your safety. Do you feel safe? Do you need to be safer? Neil Mitchell — the bearded one on 3AW, Melbourne’s top-rating shock jock — wants to know. Law and order — that trusty staple of talkback radio — will be a hot-button issue in the Victorian state election campaign, Mitchell has declared, and as part of his listening campaign he’s mailed some 65,000 residents asking for their views.

“I am really anxious to establish exactly what the people of Victoria think about what I believe is one of the most important issues we face: Law and Order,” he writes in his letter to the “householder”. “With luck, hard work and the right questions, we may achieve change.”

There’s some 23 questions to answer, everything from “do you feel safe in your local street at night?” to “is violence racially motivated?”. A simple yes or no will do; there’s no room for nuance in Mitchell’s campaign.

The final question: “If you wanted to improve Law and Order what 3 areas would you want focused on… you can only choose 3 !!!” Mitchell is hoping nobody choses option 10: “less media exposure”. — Jason Whittaker

Student pollies list — ever-expanding. Crikey has received some impressive additions to our student politicians list after our story on Friday detailed the bloodsports a substantial minority of federal MPs were involved in during their youth. At last count, around 34% of the House of Representatives and about 20% of the Senate once huddled in campus cafes doing the dodgy preference deals that would stand them in good stead for a career in Canberra. But we’re sure there’s plenty more. Among the updates this morning:

• Gary Humphries: Member of the Young Liberals at ANU in the late 70s and general bag carrier for then Young Liberal big shots Michael Yabsley and Alistair Walton.
• Wyatt Roy: Ran for President of La Trobe University SRC on the Liberal ticket against Peter Batchelor’s son Lachlan in 2008, lost. Was cautioned by the Returning Officer for campaigning shirtless.
• David Feeney: In 1991, led all right-wing aligned Labor students to split from National Organisation of Labor Students and from Student Unity. The trigger for the split was the NOLS-supported NUS Presidential candidacy of then-independent Natasha Stott Despoja. Also, signed up to the Adelaide University Labor Club by Don Farrell.
• Richard Marles: Labor Right-aligned General Secretary of NUS, 1989.
• Scott Ryan: One of only a handful of Liberals ever elected to the National Executive of the NUS in the mid-90s.
• Malcolm Turnbull: Penned an article in The Bulletin on 7 Feb, 1978 in which he sledged Tony Abbott as a master of “rather boisterous and immature rhetoric”.
• Adam Bandt: Not strictly to do with student politics, however … Adam Bandt wrote his Phd. on Marxism: “Work to Rule: Rethinking Marx, Pashukanis and Law” at Monash University.

Send your additions, clarifications and corrections to boss@crikey.com.au and we’ll keep the list updated.  — Andrew Crook

Grand finals ratings. The two AFL Grand Finals and last night’s NRL Grand Final were lauded by the media and the codes as being ‘great’ because they were being played between heartland clubs, not outsiders. In fact they were poor in terms of the TV audiences, showing once and for all the dangers of remaining parochial when the message from both codes is determinedly national. The TV audiences were not good, especially the NRL final on the Nine Network last night.

Saturday’s replay of the AFL did OK in terms of audiences, 2.679 million people watched the game in the five metro markets. Only 2.299 million watched the presentation, unlike the first time the previous Saturday when more people (2.88 million) watched the presentation compared with the 2.77 million who watched the drawn first final. Melbourne’s audience saw the biggest fall (so much for the greatness of a hometown final). 1.311 million people watched in Melbourne live on Saturday, against the 1.513 million a week earlier. Audiences were down in Adelaide and Perth, up slightly in Sydney and Brisbane.

But the NRL Grand Final took a really big hit from having the game played between St George and Easts, two of the older Sydney clubs in the NRL. The first ratings this morning show that 2.091 million people watched nationally, the lowest since 2008 when Melbourne Storm and Manly played (Manly won) with 2.050 million people watching. The audience in Sydney, the main market for the NRL, was 1.127 million which reflected the two local teams playing, compared with 1.163 million last year who watched Melbourne play Parramatta, and the record 1.280 million who watched Melbourne beat St George in the 1999 GF. The audience in Brisbane, the other heartland NRL market was up to 635,000 last night from 562,000 in 2009.

The big difference was in Melbourne, just 221,000 watched last night, against 682,000 who watched the Storm last year and the 871,000 who watched the Storm lose the 2006 GF to Brisbane. Unpalatable as it might be to the true believers in both codes, they are both national and draw the biggest TV audiences when well performing out-of-towners play in the last and biggest game of all. — Glenn Dyer

NT News Watch #1. First up is today’s front page dedicated to a reader’s ‘flying saucer’ snap…

NT News Watch #2. …and inside there’s the latest in the Top End tabloid’s haunted house series.

Second sign of the Apocalypse? We’ve already got the locusts, now there’s a Collingwood premiership. Get the bomb shelter ready, it’s time to start stocking up on canned goods.

Channel Ten drop televangelist over gay comments

“Ten recently advised US Ministry Kenneth Copeland it would not be renewing its contract for the Believer’s Voice of Victory after a broadcast in June discussing homos-xuality.” — TV Tonight

UK tabloid baron calls a halt to Fleet Street price war

“Richard Desmond has called a halt to his two-year price war with rises planned for the Daily Star and Daily Express from Monday. Sly Bailey, the chief executive of Trinity Mirror, recently said that the price cutting strategy failed to have its intended effect of hurting rivals with a “minimal” impact on the Daily Mirror.” — The Guardian

Regime governing TV sports rights to go before cabinet

“Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, basking in the glow of his team Collingwood’s Premiership victory, will hold meetings with key stakeholders, expected to include all TV networks and major sporting bodies, in coming weeks to clarify final positions, although one executive noted ‘it’s all done and dusted.’”   — The Australian

Taliban game backflip after outcry

“Players of a highly anticipated yet controversial upcoming shooter game will not be able to play as the Taliban after the developers responded to a global outcry from soldiers and their families.” —  Sydney Morning Herald

Is the Facebook movie a hatchet job?

“Millions of the moviegoers who made “The Social Network” the top box-office draw of the weekend saw an unflattering portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and chief executive of Facebook.” — New York Times