The race is on and the markets are posted.

Mercury editor Garry Bailey’s announcement that he is quitting on January 5 and moving seamlessly on to ABC North airwaves (TT HERE) has stirred intense speculation (well, at least among dwindling Mercury staff) as to who will head up Rupert’s southern outpost.

There had been only one favourite: current Day Editor Martine Hayley. But, out of the blue has come speculation that former Mercury reporter Ellen Whinnett, who has been languishing on Rupe’s Herald-Sun for a few years, will be parachuted in to lead the troops into the brave new world without John Hartigan as News Ltd CEO.

Wilder speculation has former Courier Mail senior journo Steve (....)  - whose eyes have reportedly been popping since transferring fairly recently from the far north - taking the role. Even wilder speculation has it that one of Tasmania’s best journos Mike Ward - currently production editor for Pagemasters in Sydney - is Da Man. Pagemasters sub-edits both the SMH and The Age in reportedly super-efficient sub-hubs.

I, Edward J. Murrow, discount that last possibility. I reckon it’s more likely that the highly streamlined Pagemasters operation will set up in Hobart, ditching News Ltd’s current sub-editing hub in Adelaide; which reportedly has proven to be less than the bees’ knees (and so much less efficient than the discarded local subs whose demise The Fly, and her cohorts fought so hard to prevent.

I’m sure you are on the edge of your seats waiting for the outcome of these speculations. But the real question must remain: will the adulation of Princess Mary continue under the new editor. Will she continue to be pictured, walking, even breathing?

Now to more important matters: Bias and the Media. This report is from agitprop Newsstand:

It’s official! Bias exists within the Australian media and it’s endangering the ability of politicians and the public to engage in important policy debates.

After an exhaustive review, the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ) has released research showing news coverage of the carbon price debate in Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited papers had negative coverage outweigh positive coverage by 82% to 18%.1

But with this research confirming what we always suspected, there could be some light at the end of the tunnel: after 11 years of John Hartigan, a new News Limited CEO, Kim Williams, has just started. With a new CEO, News Limited has the chance to turn over a new leaf.

Can you take a moment to send the new News Limited CEO a message, letting him know we expect better?

http://www.newsstand.org.au/new-news-ltd-ceo

The ACIJ report is a stark reminder of why Newsstand and your involvement are necessary. Let’s take a look at just how unbalanced coverage of the climate change debate was:

• News Limited - the company that controls most Australian metropolitan newspapers, and The Australian - had a 4 times more negative coverage than positive coverage of the carbon price debate.
• 11% of news and features quoted no source and 30% of the rest quoted only one source, not testing claims about the likely impact of the carbon policy against the views of other sources.
• Bluescope Steel was quoted 71 times. This was more than the number of times all NGOs and scientists combined.
• The Australian used ‘tax’ in 44% of stories and only ‘price’ in 11% of cases.
Rather than treating the symptoms of the media’s ills, it’s time to start focusing on solutions at the source. This is a unique opportunity to tell News Limited’s new CEO it’s time to break from the past and provide Australians with news that’s fair and balanced:

http://www.newsstand.org.au/new-news-ltd-ceo

Newsstand was launched to help bring fairness and accuracy back to Australian news. When newspapers print fiction, we’ll respond with facts. When television shows trade in hypocrisy and hysteria, we’ll hold them to account. And when media do the right thing, we’ll do right by them.

Start today by encouraging News Limited to do the right thing as they begin this new phase with a new CEO.

Thanks for bringing back balance
Aaron, for the Newsstand team

1http://datasearch2.uts.edu.au/acij/investigations/detail.cfm?ItemId=29219