The Media Monitors’ Top 20

Just to prove that perception is reality, the constant media refrain this week that “now we have a game on our hands” was reflected in the amount of coverage the two party leaders received, with the PM leading in press and internet and the Opposition Leader number one in the broadcast media.

It will be interesting to see if Turnbull can stay close to Rudd in volume of coverage, as Rudd himself did as Opposition Leader which Nelson only managed on his way out the door.

Plenty of movement on the list this week, with Anthony Albanese receiving lots of coverage on infrastructure and as class warrior number one, while Stephen Smith beavers away to make sure our Kevin can protect the world on the Security Council. Oh and “where’s the beef” Murphy sneaks into the Top 20 for the first (and last?) time.

On the Opposition side, new super shadow ministry man Robb got a big lift to his usually subterranean profile, Barnaby Joyce deeply enjoyed unrequiting Malcolm’s love and the new Shadow Treasurer learns the joy of number retention.

TW	Move	Position Thanks for signing up We look forward to seeing you bright and early with your need-to-know talking points and tidbits for the day ahead. Get Crikey FREE to your inbox every weekday morning with the Crikey Worm. Email Please enter your email address Sign up	Politician	Press Index	Radio Index	TV Index	Internet Index	Raw total	INDEX
1	2	PM	Kevin Rudd	1,000	886	851	1,000	25,805	934
2	2	Opp Leader	Malcolm Turnbull	898	1,000	1,000	776	25,193	918
3	-2	Backbench	Brendan Nelson	470	149	149	672	10,468	360
4	2	Cabinet	Wayne Swan	293	293	320	399	9,575	326
5	0	Premier	Nathan Rees	224	251	160	619	10,660	313
6	10	Shadow	Julie Bishop	203	301	265	224	7,262	248
7	-5	Backbench	Peter Costello	248	81	112	450	6,814	223
8	5	Backbench	Morris Iemma	123	91	38	495	6,861	187
9	0	Cabinet	Julia Gillard	158	130	103	193	4,243	146
10	18	Cabinet	Anthony Albanese	61	35	77	203	3,145	94
11	18	Cabinet	Stephen Smith	61	112	44	146	3,086	91
12	0	Shadow	Tony Abbott	90	57	26	180	2,859	88
13	-3	WA Opp Ld	Colin Barnett	22	97	27	180	3,182	81
14	13	Backbench	Barnaby Joyce	54	106	79	84	2,509	81
15	4	Minor Party	Steve Fielding	57	85	44	134	2,680	80
16	23	Shadow	Andrew Robb	82	69	25	131	2,405	77
17	4	Party leader	Bob Brown	38	56	52	156	2,655	75
18	-1	Independent	Nick Xenophon	54	50	37	147	2,429	72
19	-4	Premier	Anna Bligh	121	17	12	100	1,499	62
20	*	Parl Sec	John Murphy	45	57	121	16	1,474	59

Neck and neck on talkback as well as the relative riches, both financial and intellectual, of our political leaders was discussed at length.

Oh and they give a little achievement award to one of the players too, do they? That’s nice … keep them from getting too bored.

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