Dead lucky

A SMALL segment of the population is unusually charitable, judging by the results of a poll at Ninemsn.com.au.

A SMALL segment of the population is unusually charitable, judging by the results of a poll at Ninemsn.com.au.

The poll question "Was [Kevin] Rudd wrong to give stimulus payments to the dead?" drew a predictably heavy response from the yes crowd (more than 60,000 when Strewth last checked), but close to 10,000 voted no. Perhaps some people are just comforted by the idea that even if you can't take it with you, you can have it sent on afterwards.

Air industry chiefs let fly

QANTAS boss Alan Joyce's broadside at airports for charging airlines too much was always destined to cause a flap. (Yes, that is an aeronautical pun.) Returning fire with some gusto is Brisbane Airport Corporation chief Koen Rooijmans, who went to the trouble of putting out a press release to express his "surprise and disappointment at the selective and populist claims" by Joyce. The release continues: "(Rooijmans) said BAC would not comment on Mr Joyce's remarks that airports would charge for oxygen if they could, especially given the move by airlines to charge passengers for everything from leg-room, water, food and blankets, even toilets." Joyce, meanwhile, is defending his airline's decision to slug the flying public up to $160 extra for an emergency row seat, stating in the time-honoured fashion that "Qantas is giving people more of an option". So it doesn't sound like much will be changing for the rest of us.

Bureaucrats spill beans

MOST budget leaks come from governments wanting to break the bad news ahead of the big day with the aim of softening up punters so the final document seems somehow less bad than everyone is expecting. In the miraculously transparent democracy of Tasmania, however, a flood of leaks ahead of the June 11 budget has stemmed from disgruntled bureaucrats acting against their masters' will. There have been at least four largeish budget leaks to local media and the opposition Liberals and Greens. All have been severely embarrassing for the Bartlett Government, ranging from a decision to axe the entire Department of Environment, Parks, Heritage and the Arts, to income and expenditure across the forward estimates. A red-faced Premier David Bartlett yesterday tried to turn the tables, saying the leaks gave the Liberals no excuse not to produce a detailed alternative budget. "We've given you all the material you need," he told them.

Pyongyang's paper tigers

SOME journalists get misty-eyed for the days when newsrooms clattered with the sound of typewriters and James Dibble read the news as he had done for decades, perhaps even centuries before, with the aid of sheets of paper. How refreshing, then, to see that North Korea's media feels the same way, stoutly resisting the remorseless spread of the autocue and that unconvincing television news studio prop, the laptop. The presenter on Korean Central Television gets to read, and often shout, the news from a handful of A4, and a truculent affair it is, too. Readers desirous of some official Pyongyang rage should visit the Northern Korean Random Insult Generator at www.nk-news.net/extras/insult--generator.php where they can enjoy bona fide bijous of bile ranging from the florid, "You psychopathological lackey, you will be dealt a thousandfold retaliatory blow!", to the concise: "You anti-socialist political dwarf!" And, yes, the exclamation marks are very important.

Media under fire

WHILE North Korea has us wistfully gazing at the media's past, Ralph Peters is looking to its future. Writing in The Journal of International Security Affairs, the former US Army officer and author is on a crusade against the West's pussyfooting approach to war. But despite (or possibly because of) being a regular contributor to Fox News, Peters sees war reporters as the "hostile third party" in any fight, even "killers without guns". But while some would be content to sit unproductively on the sidelines and snipe, Peters at least suggests a solution: "Pretending to be impartial, the self-segregating personalities drawn to media careers overwhelmingly take a side, and that side is rarely ours. Although it seems unthinkable now, future wars may require censorship, news blackouts and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media." We thought Hoodoo Gurus singer Dave Faulkner was a bit harsh the other week when he said he couldn't stand journos, but at least he wasn't calling for napalm.