I believe they have a saying in the press biz: “Scoop, or you’re just ice-cream!”

I never said it was a particularly witty saying.

A policy which appears to admit that The Australian newspaper, the publisher of the results, wants to scoop rather than be scooped

So what “scoop” are we looking for Ed?

Hey, I have an idea for next Tuesday’s headline:

THE AUSTRALIAN’S “EXCLUSIVE” ICE CREAM SCOOP! – FROSTY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HOWARD AND VOTERS CONTINUES

DB (03 July at 09:55 PM)

I just read this article in The Canberra Times
[link]

It shows you what a disgusting creep John Howard is….it explains how he has this tendency to use RACE as a vote winner. If you had any doubts about his motives on this aboriginal issue, you won’t after you read this.

And it’s written by a former Howard Government adviser.

And it is worth a look.

Both are in the business of communicating information to the public allegedly and both failed miserably to do so effectively.

.. this is a big punctuation no-no. At last I have the chance to shout it from the rooftops: put the spaces in, peeps.So we can read,happily,without or minds getting bent,like.

And yes, I know it was an accident.

Have I succeed in my cunning derailment plan?

anne of enmore (03 July at 07:44 PM)

Whoever becomes PM after the next election, I hope it’s a win for the preservation of our language. There are too many punctuation rebels indulging themselves in these blogs. As Shelley Gare observed in her book, “Triumph of the Airheads� too many seem to regard punctuation as a quaint fashion, much like wearing hats and gloves.In case some blog writers need reminding, punctuation is necessary for clear communication, something which may seem irrelevant when you are writing to yourself but is relevant if you want to be read by others. The word is “reader�, not “mind reader� !

I guess it shows a couple of things: no one’s immune to the temptation to snark and missing “obvious” sarcasm, in print, is a failing you’ll find across the political spectrum.

Conveying sarcasm in print is a drag – you have to pretty much lay it on with a trowel. Says some interesting things about the current reputation of the National Rupert that Price’s “obviously absurd” was a lot of other people’s “perfectly plausible”.

From Matt Price’s blog:

Explanation from Editor-in-Chief for absence of Newspoll:

It’s out next week. There is no conspiracy. We are trying to settle on a fortnightly cycle that doesn’t involve us coming out a day after Galaxy, as we would have had we come out this morning, or a day after Nielson. You may be aware we do not poll Thursday nights because of late night shopping. Neilson and Galaxy do, which we believe adversely affects their results. But it allows them to publish Monday while we publish Tuesday. Since we spend over $1 million a year on political polling I try to move it around so we don’t get scooped by Neilson or Galaxy. This has only become a problem recently because Fairfax is polling more regularly and the tabloids are polling monthly with Galaxy,

Cheers, Chris Mitchell

BTW, definition of pointless smart arse: Matt Price.

here’s another: The Australian wanted to do one on the weekend after pensioners got their $500 each and the tax cuts started rolling through. Start polling on Thurs/Fri/Sat and see if you get a bounce – more to do with hip pockets than indigenous child abuse.

…..it’s to get out of sync with Nielsen in Fairfax, which runs every 4 weeks. A recent long weekend, on which Newspoll didn’t poll, put them in sync. When they’re published in the same week, The Australian has to second-guess whether Fairfax will publish on the Monday to get in first. To be safe they (the Oz) publish on the Monday too (as happened two weeks ago).
Which is a lot of hassle. Newspoll staff have to crunch the numbers on Sunday night, which perhaps costs money in overtime and presents a greater risk of error; everybody at all stages of the process, eg Dennis/Steve, is rushed. Much better to have the whole of Monday to do it.