Come in, spinners!
Document reveals just how many journalists are on the ministerial pay role
How many spin doctors does it take to try to control the narrative for a state government?
I ask, not out of disrespect for those who do or have done that difficult job — many are friends and/or former colleagues of mine — but because it’s been an issue in the past and I haven’t heard it raised yet about the current government.
A list of media contacts reveals 37 names as representatives of the Premier and his Ministers. That seems like a lot. (And, of course, there are many more working in the various departments.)
Since the number of spin doctors employed by the former Labor government was an issue — especially on commercial talk radio (and there’s an example of that here) — I expect to hear and read a lot of huffing and puffing about the situation under David Crisafulli.
Or perhaps not.
Susie trips the light fantastic
Former swimming superstar and Nova 106.9 Breakfast host Susie O’Neill has announced her next move — and it’ll be on the dancefloor.
O’Neill will join the line-up of Dancing with the Stars, where — as I understand it — she expects to be a fish out water.
All the best to her — although she’ll face significant competition.
The contestant list includes the very dapper Shaun Micallef, actor Rebecca Gibney, former serial reality show host Osher Günsberg, boxer Harry Garside, Home and Away star Kyle Shilling, radio host Brittany Hockley and comedian Felicity Ward.
Correction
In keeping with Muphry’s Law*, I made a small error in my item about The Sunday Mail in the previous newsletter. The web version now correctly states that the week-old article is on page 2 not page 3.
On closer examination of The Sunday Mail, it seems that Stellar is now run-of-press — that is, part of the newspaper rather than a standalone pre-printed magazine. I take that as yet another sign that newspapers are in cost-cutting mode.
I have uncomfortable memories of a story headlined “TV Extra goes big” — referring to the television magazine undergoing the same treatment as Stellar — in the Sunday Sun not long before that much-loved newspaper closed.
*“Muphry’s Law” is not a mistake, it’s the adage that says: “If you write anything criticising editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written.”
Disclaimer: Brett Debritz used to work for News Corp and Nine Radio and even, for his sins, spent a very short time working in a government department (but not as a ministerial spinner.)