Missing the Scoops

While Fairfax Media's share price continues to plunge, down 8% to 48c and with printed circulation dropping around 24% every six months, perhaps it's endless campaign to mimic News Ltd's more downmarket tabloids is finally beginning to hit home.
The UK Guardian's local edition has rocketed into the top ten within 4 weeks of opening with an average readership of over a million a day and although Fairfax's aggregated daily views tops approx 2.8M, the notion that this will continue when they introduce a pay wall for readers to gaze upon their cold potato offerings ( often 48 hours after the tales have appeared on UK & USA sites) is wishfull thinking.
 Whilst Fairfax along with most commercial outlets were agonizing over the death of actor James Gandolfini with their LA based TV critic offering a bizarre load of tripe and an irrelevant eulogy on ABC radio claiming the actor was someone the younger generation "identified " with, real news stories are sliding by them and local outlets are picking up scoops.                                                                                 
And one such story is the explosive claim in the First Nation Telegraph that the Prime Minister in waiting Tony Abbott 'inappropriately touched" respected award winning Aboriginal writer Ali Cobby Eckerman in a Darwin cafe earlier this week. Eckerman says Abbott sidled up beside her and rubbed his finger up and down her arm. NSW Labor MP Linda Burney is demanding an explanation from Abbott and still, deathly silence from the mass media.
 Meanwhile Tony Abbott's main rival in the LNP, multi-millionaire MP Malcolm Turnbull (pictured) joined 350 others to sleep out on Thursday night at the Carriageworks to support St Vincent de Paul's WinterSleepout that raises funds for the homeless. And it was bloody freezing !
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 Introducing Matt Wilson a 24 year old carpenter from Bondi Beach who has just landed a gig as the new 'face' of Diet Coke.

                              

exclusive : Why Rebekah Brookes Visited Australia

While media mogul and US citizen Rupert Murdoch was visiting Darwin this week and castigating the ruling Labor Party over the 457 visas, the former CEO of his British newspaper interests, Rebekah Brooks was staying at Lachlan & Sarah Murdoch's lavish Bellevue Hill mansion.

Brooks and her husband racehorse trainer Charlie Brookes hit the town with the Murdochs playing tour guides. The Icebergs restaurant at Bondi Beach was a particular favourite with the foursome dining there twice.

The Shuttle can now reveal the reason for Brookes visit that coincided with Rupert Murdoch's annual check-up of his Aussie interests : she is being lined up to become boss of Rupert's new Australian operations when his publishing interests come under a new regime as he splits his newspapers from his movie and TV interests.
Brookes still has to face a UK court later this year over the hacking scandal but an impeccable News Ltd source tells the Shuttle that Murdoch is determined that Brookes heads up his local publishing interests for at least 3 years with the expected election of a Tony Abbott LNP government in September.
 When the hacking scandal exploded in the UK last year and Murdoch flew into London, he declared that looking after Rebekah Brookes was his first priority and when she was forced to resign, he gave her a reputed $20M payoff.

ShiBo & Joel Rock !

These two kids walked onto the stage last week at X-Factor and simply blew away the audience. It's time to re-visit these amazingly natural talents ahead of next weeks Factor: 14 year old Shiane Hawke from Darwin  and 15 year old Joel Goncalves from Brisbane who sang a Michael Jackson song with the most beautiful voice.