"the nation's worst journalists"

"angriest parking warden ever"

         Now the infamous British blogger Madame Arcati has compiled  "Madame Arcati's 10 most stupid journalists of 2009 " we decided it was time to visit that strange website "Australia's Worst Journalist' to find the current state of play.

      Try as we might as have others, we still cannot uncover the author of this damning compilation of noted hacks but the list remains the same-just the pecking order is different.

       Paul Barry (right) who featured at No 1 a month ago with his top selling biography of billionaire James Packer has been knocked of his perch by the Human Headline Derryn Hinch who is labelled a " RECIDIVIST CRIMINAL previously incarcerated and highly likely again ..FAILURE...". While it's true Hinch did a short stint for naming a convicted sex offender in defiance of a judge's order he's hardly a 'criminal'. And is it fair to call Derryn a failure ?. He's never been out of work since he arrived from New Zealand over 30 years ago although he has been on the merry-go-round that most journos usually find themselves on during their career.      

          Hinch always bounces back even when he outraged half the country by claiming the King of Television Graham Kennedy had died of AIDs-shocking a million housewives who until then believed that Gra Gra had just never met the right woman. Rob Astbury, once Melbourne's top sports broadcaster put that myth to rest when he penned the bestseller  'King  & I about his long love affair with Kennedy. Hinch had the good manners to apologise publicly. Although one might re-call when he fronted a tabloid TV show with his ''Shame File" sledging  the odd dole-bludger and such, comedian Ben Elton dubbed him "like the angriest parking warden I've ever seen".

     At the site you can now vote on your choice of evil reptile and it should be noted that one of tSS's favourite scribes Annette Sharp of the Daily Telegraph has only garnered a pathetic 1.8% of votes.  Poor old  Ben Butler of Sharp's Melbourne stablemate the Herald Sun has scored a whopping 67% of votes. Ben's upset someone badly.

  

We're a little troubled though with the site's description of one scandal merchant -  "Numerous factual errors. Unable to transcribe accurately factual matters or deliberately engages in falsehoods to degrade his subject, and heighten his vitriole". We agree. Said hack is as  vitriolic in print as in public ( a sad trait of many Aussie hacks) and rarely checks his facts but can be saucy at times.

       And Annette Sharp who apparently ' fabricates articles, never names so-called "sources and breaches almost every code of journalistic ethics".Errr..we always thought that keeping one's sources confidential was part of the code of a journalist's ethics.

       As to Madame Arcarti's list, she is possibly correct in most of her choices including the chubby Perez Hilton who is yet to break an original story. tSS once had to share a lift at the Sydney Hilton with Perez who wore an ill-fitting bathrobe and had decidely pungent BO.

      But Arcarti has the temerity to attack an Australian icon, who after Mother Mary McKillop is to be named as Australia's first saint by Pope Benedict in March next year, is surely next in line-Germaine Greer. Send the evil Madame hate mail immediately !

 ****************************************************************************

"A week is a long time"

..in politics" famously said the former British PM Harold Wilson but it could well apply to show-biz.

What with Tiger Wood's fall from grace just a week after his Australian visit with his rampant libido on show for all the world to see (why hasn't ESSO signed him up for a "put a Tiger in your tank" advert campaign ?) and  Home & Away's Todd Lasance's career stalled just as Hollywood beckoned.

      

Now 2GB radio host Chris Smith, pictured right just over a month ago happily posing here with his wife Abbey and publicist Sally Burleigh for tSS at a Variety Club bash, has had his career put on hold indefinitely after it's alleged he 'groped' 3 girls at the radio station's Christmas party. Chris says he is bi-polar and has a drinking problem and cannot re-call the event. Chris also says Abbey and the kids have temporarily left the marital home

Meanwhile Sally Burleigh pictured left with ex-husband actor Steve Bisley in happier days ,was in the Downing Street Centre courts today telling of how Steve allegedly pushed her head against a wall leaving a dent and that "all hell broke loose"during a domestic at their Balmain home. Bisley has been charged with assaulting Sally, which he vigorously denies. Currently starring in Sea Patrol, Bisley also appeared in the famous Mad Max films

the shame file..

Mystery still surrounds the ownership of the website Australia's Worst Journalist.

Here's the site's current top ten : Broadcaster Derryn Hinch (right) has been knocked off the top spot by Jamie Packer biographer Paul Barry.

• Paul Barry: A FAILURE YET AGAIN
• Adam Shand and Nick Coe : A Current Affair
• Kate McClymont : Sydney Morning Herald
• Jill Singer : Herald Sun
• Nick Tabakoff : The Daily Telegraph
• Ben Butler : Herald Sun
• Richard Hinds : Sydney Morning Herald
• Annette Sharp : The Daily Telegraph
• Andrew Hornery : Sydney Morning Herald

Annette Sharp cycling with actor Russell Crowe

The fact they have all written derogatory stories about soon-to-be married Dr Geoffrey Edelsten is entirely co-incidental.
Some of our best friends are journalists. Some of our best friends are these journalists. What a hoot.

how to lose a billion $$ or 2

Packer and ex-model Erika Baxter marry in France.(c)

Paul Barry's Who Wants to Be a Billionaire? The James Packer Story is about to hit the shelves and is eagerly awaited by those who are looking for an insight into whether the 'third generation' syndrome-where the grandson of self-made successful men can dilute the fortunes built up over decades and handed down through a family has come into play.

James Packer is son of the late media mogul Kerry Packer who transformed his father Sir Frank Packer's  one newspaper into Australia's dominant media company with TV stations and a magazine publishing empire.

It's reputed that James has lost two billion dollars on his Machau casino venture. Young James, it's claimed, ignored advice from various advisors to take note of Chinese superstitions about Feng Shui or indeed , taking on the Chinese at their own game and in a location where they dominate. He built on the "wrong" side of a river , is one claim,and was hoping to reap in a fortune at the gaming tables via sponsored gaming tours from the Chinese mainland.

This was complicated when the Chinese government began a crackdown on civil servants who were popping over to Machau and losing small fortunes of government funds at the roulette tables.

James Packer has divested himself of all his father's media assets including the once successful Nine TV network and Kerry's personal favourite that the Packer fortune was built upon-the Women's Weekly-once the biggest selling magazine in the world and still with a healthy circulation. In 2005 when the Shuttle attended the grand soiree thrown by big Kerry at his Nine studios to celebrate 50 years of the Weekly's publication, James was absent.

Insiders say unlike his father, known for his legendary grilling of business owners when about to purchase a corporation, James seems to rely on the advice of  investment bankers which can complicate a decision if a sale involves large fees from negotiations. They say his desire to outdo his father is so driven that he makes quick decisions that have seen him now reduced to the 4th richest Australian while Kerry was always number one.

Kerry Packer was regarded as a tough operator but always fair and was a low-key philanthropist who would think nothing of donating a few million dollars to purchase a fleet of ambulances outfitted with cardiac arrest units after a nearly fatal heart attack in 1990's. There are still dozens of older Packer employees who still live on generous pensions from Kerry long after they left his employment. Loyalty was the older Packer's trademark.

Father Kerry apparently despaired when James joined Scientology upon advice from his good pal, actor Tom Cruise. Although he has since left Scientology he still regularly holiday's with Cruise. James also sold Kerry's much loved Arctic P- a converted minesweeper on which James and newly wed wife Erika Baxter honeymooned on the Med with Cruise and Katie Holmes after their wedding in the South of France in 2007.

An example of James Packer's odd decisions was the launch of his new Nine's network season in 2001 at Garden Island when James spotted the Murdoch gossip columnist Ros Reines . Packer exploded at the sight of Reines. took her aside and berated her for 5 minutes about her intrusive articles about his private life.  It dominated the media for days, his TV season launch ignored.

An Eastern Suburb's hairdresser claims he took a recent call from James who remonstrated with him for commenting on wife Erika's hair to salon clients. 

Perhaps he should take advice from former partner Lachlan Murdoch, born on the same day as Packer, who left his father Rupert's empire and sold off his News Ltd shares to retire from public life. James and Lachlan together lost over $200M when they invested in Jodee Rich's One-Tel mobile phone company against their respective father's advice.

  James Packer & ex-wife Johdi Meares at Garden Island (c)
 

Paul Barry who wrote best-sellers about Kerry Packer and former entrepreneur Alan Bond is to launch his book in Sydney next week.