11 Results

WA Newspapers still shedding readers (and profits), Westpac’s knee-deep in bananas, the earnings power of Top Gear and the latest on the Japanese and European economies in today’s business briefs.

Nine’s A Current Affair has been forced into an embarrassing backdown over a “hoon driver” story, after Crikey exposed it as a sham.

Man vs. Wild on SBS was the surprise winner last night. Will Tony Abbott vs. Kerry O’Brien on The 7.30 Report tonight be the second bout?

Nine is paying about $450,000 an episode to secure the rights to air Top Gear next year and hopefully score itself more male viewers. That’s a lot of money for a network that is $3.8 billion in debt.

Crikey readers weigh in on the hysteria over asylum seekers, the prospect of Tamil Tigers being in Australia and climate currency leakage.

Why did SBS news include a three-minute story on putting automatic stabilisers into Australian cars? Perhaps because it was just a convenient cross-promo for another SBS show.

Seven won the night, but only because it was the best of a bad bunch. Seven News was dominant, ditto Today Tonight.

Odd how three separate Australian media companies have settled on the figure of 80% as the size of the cuts in their dividends or distributions to long suffering shareholders, writes Glenn Dyer.

News.com.au months behind on the economy… Hef jnr quits Playboy… Tribune files for bankruptcy… Pultizer Prize goes online…

Falloon disengagement begins … Satin safari watch … Less foreign news than ever before! … Top Gear loses its stig … Miley boosts VF sales … Newspaper massacre .. Newsroom backstabbing.