Lost souls

THERE was an inadvertently blood-congealing moment during Senate estimates yesterday.

AN inadvertently blood-congealing moment during Senate estimates yesterday came when ABC staff spokesman Graeme Thomson suggested that ABC TV has "lost its way".

("A good public broadcaster that lost its way" would have been spookier, but we work with what we've got.) For a couple of moments, we had a sudden vision of Aunty big banana Mark Scott giving a teary, apres-coup press conference, and then, 12 or so months down the track, the public broadcaster self-laceratingly wondering why its ratings had fallen through the floor.

False alarm

AS well as having her follicles extended, Kristina Keneally has been a blur of activity since her stint as NSW premier was brought enthusiastically to an end by voters. After someone tweeted to her, "Any attraction is natural, but gay marriage & gay family is artificial," Keneally responded: "So is my hair. Doesn't make it a sin." Not necessarily a debate-ender, but a novel tack.

Reputations trashed

READING between the lines, we get the feeling Trade Minister Craig Emerson wasn't overly enamoured of The Daily Telegraph's story yesterday about the Coalition preparing for a resurrected Kevin Rudd prime ministership. "It's trash journalism from a trash newspaper and it really doesn't warrant a serious response," His Emmonence hinted to ABC News Radio. Still, as Emmo is a man with a sparkle in his eye, we trust that on some level at least he appreciated the placement of another piece -- namely "Labor's panic opens way for Rudd", which included a festive photo of Rudd whooping it up with Hillary Clinton -- sitting heavily atop a small, vaguely squashed-looking opinion piece by Julia Gillard. (Incidentally, if Gillard types Rudd and Bob Geldof into YouTube's search engine, she can see Rudd getting "throttled" by Geldof in New York. Says Geldof, "I thought he was an Australian comedian.")

Bank off-message

THE Commonwealth Bank announced its 100th anniversary advertising campaign at its Sydney HQ yesterday. There were outgoing and incoming chief executives ready to answer questions, a giant high-definition TV to give a preview of the ads, and the announcement of a hefty lift in its funding for all manner of community resources. Its head of communications, Bryan Fitzgerald, even made the point of asking assembled hacks to keep their questions to the campaign launch. Fifteen minutes later, after chief executive Ralph Norris had been grilled on everything from Greece to the need for an interest rate cut and a balanced budget, Fitzgerald finally pleaded for a question about the advertising launch and 100th birthday. An advertising trade journalist politely agreed to help the bank get its press conference "back on message", duly asking a campaign-related question. It proved a temporary reprieve, alas; two more finance questions later, Which Bank gave in and called stumps on question time.

Wayne's word

MILEAGE is still being had from Wayne Swan's anointment as finance minister of the year. Here he is in Washington, being interrogated gently, if inevitably, about the previous Australian winner:

Journo: "Have you spoken to Paul Keating since you were announced as the winner of the award?"

Swan: "No, I haven't spoken to him since the award was announced but I do talk to him from time to time."

Journo: "Right, do you have any idea about his feelings as to you being the recipient of this award?"

Swan: "Well, he's made it very clear in his comments to Euromoney magazine that he's very supportive of the award and very happy about it."

Alas, no mention of Keating's other, joyously quoted responses to the magazine, which is a pity as we'd love to hear Swanny say "buggery" or deploy the F-bomb.

Trouble, by George

OUR first thought when we saw this lurking in our email was that Nigerian-style spamsters had simply relocated their BS to milder climes. "My name is Rt Hon George Osborne. I am the new Chancellor of the Exchequer in the United Kingdom. I am writing you with regards to your stalled funds transfer you have been expecting all these years." But given the state of Britain's finances, we can't entirely rule out the possibility this missive from Osborne (or, as Spectator columnist Rod Liddle described him recently, the man engaged in the "important work of destroying the British economy") is real.

Whine glut

THE lead story on page 3 of The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday: "Giant wine companies blame tax for the glut", by health correspondent Mark Metherell. The lead story on page 5 of The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday: "Giant wine companies blame tax for the glut", by health correspondent Mark Metherell. At first we thought we might be seeing double due to close encounter with said wine glut the evening before, but no. Still, a story worth reading twice.