from Crikey .....

We trust Laurie Oakes and George Negus to bring us the news. But not Alan Jones and Andrew Bolt.

And the news is worse for Bolt, the nation's pre-eminent conservative crusader, with more than half of respondents to an Essential Research survey not knowing who he is.

Essential put a number of journalists and commentators to its weekly online panel to ask who they most trusted. The results perhaps aren't surprising, and skewed with state-based stars, but show among the trustworthy and reviled that some of the nation's hot-headed megaphones aren't as famous as they might think.

Negus, the former 60 Minutes globetrotter turned host of Channel Ten's struggling 6.30 bulletin, shared the most-trusted title with Nine's veteran political reporter. Both scored 75% in the trust stakes, though Oakes polled slightly higher (33%) than Negus (27%) in the "a lot of trust" column.

Radio rabble-rouser and chief government critic Jones was the most disliked, with almost half saying they had little or no trust in the 2GB breakfast host. A third said they had no trust in him as a commentator whatsoever.

A trio of Victorian-based commentators had their figures dragged down by a lack of recognition. ABC Radio's Jon Faine and 3AW morning rival Neil Mitchell both scored 40% in having "no trust" or "not much trust", while The Age's political editor Michelle Grattan came in at 34%. Less than half of respondents to the survey could name the three, with Faine the least recognised at just 33%.

Bolt's national TV profile -- after quitting the ABC's Insiders he now hosts a Sunday morning platform on Channel Ten -- hasn't done much to boost his fame: almost half (48%) said they didn't know who he was.

Despite Tony Jones' lower recognition factor, the ABC Q&A and Lateline host was third behind Oakes and Negus as the journalist or commentator most trusted. Grattan was fourth.

meanwhile ......

Bolt talks up anti-pokies campaign, fails to disclose association

Say what you like about Andrew Bolt, Australia's most read newspaper columnist normally remains true to his socially conservative philosophy.

Whether it's family values, law and order or cracking down on sinful industries, Bolt is usually good for positions that are supported by the religious Right.

Indeed, given that Australians are the world's biggest gamblers, you would expect Bolt to side with Family First, the DLP and the Christian Democrats as a supporter of measures to reduce the huge damage caused to families by pokies.

However, consider this from Bolt in his column published in the Saturday Herald Sun:

Last Sunday, independent Andrew Wilkie said he was deadly serious about his threat to vote down the government if it did not honour its promise to him by May to impose mandatory pre-commitment technology on poker machines to limit losses: "If they don't pull off this reform I will withdraw my support."

There is no way Labor can agree to Wilkie's demand. Its MPs in NSW have been stunned by the anger of many Labor-voting punters in the massive leagues clubs, particularly ones in Labor seats, against this "licence to bet".

This means an election within 10 months is likely, especially with the Liberals unofficially saying Wilkie would get their preferences, almost guaranteeing him his own seat.

Bolt pushed a very similar line at the top of his Network Ten show, The Bolt Report, on Sunday morning:

"But Labor MPs can't give Wilkie what he wants. MPs in NSW seats know punters at the leagues clubs are fuming about this so-called licence to punt. Many are Labor voters."

First, Bolt's use of the phrases "licence to punt" and "mandatory pre-commitment" are highly contentious, as was explained in this Crikey story on June 20.

The Wilkie committee shifted to focusing on introducing low-intensity machines, rather than mandatory pre-commitment of high intensity machines, after the pokies industry had gone off prematurely with its misleading "licence to punt" campaign.

Then you have Bolt's daft political analysis. If Labor is primarily getting slaughtered by the carbon tax, why on earth would it voluntarily go to an early election before it has even been introduced?

The lower Labor's vote, the more likely it will implement the Wilkie pokies reforms to delay getting wiped out in an election.

However, Bolt's worst offence over the weekend was to grossly exaggerate the impact of the NSW pokies backlash while failing to disclose his financial association with those involved in the campaign.

One of the reasons low-rating Melbourne radio station MTR lost $6.3 million last year was Bolt's hefty six-figure salary to appear in the Richmond studio after 8am every weekday with breakfast presenter Steve Price.

This salary is partly funded by 2GB controlling shareholder John Singleton, the bloke whose ad agency was hired by the pokies industry to come up with the "licence to punt" advertising campaign. Singleton also owns several Sydney hotels with pokies.

Media Watch criticised 2GB breakfast presenter Alan Jones in May this year for only mentioning this Singleton connection twice during his many hysterical raves against the Wilkie reforms.

But at least Jones mentioned it.

Over the weekend, Bolt went on national television and into the pages of our biggest selling daily newspaper, complete with a front-page promotion, without disclosing his financial connection to John Singleton and the pokies campaign.

Bolt's MTR gig is likely to end shortly given the losses and low ratings, but he is no doubt hoping the rumours are correct and Gina Rinehart has teamed with John Singleton to buy 3AW from Fairfax Media.

It was Rinehart, Lachlan Murdoch and James Packer who got together to take effective control of Network Ten last year, a move that led to Bolt being given his own show.

Singleton is an old friend of the Packer family and James Packer has a clear incentive to head off pokies reform given his interest in Melbourne's Crown Casino.

When Bolt speaks so definitely about how spooked NSW Labor MPs are about pokies reform, he might be relying on lines being pushed by Karl Bitar, the former federal secretary of the ALP, who is now Crown's government affairs manager.

Anyone who runs a noisy political campaign likes to talk up the impact it is having in an attempt to frighten the targeted politicians from implementing the proposal.

However, ACMA has codes of practice for these matters and News Ltd also has a Professional Conduct Policy, which includes the following:

20.4: Contributors must comply with provisions relating to conflicts and must declare any real or potential conflict of interest arising from material submitted for publication and supervisors must do their utmost to ensure no conflict exists. Any association which may have a bearing, or appear to have a bearing, on a contributor's view, must be identified with the published material.

In my opinion, Bolt breached this by grossly exaggerating the impact of his radio paymaster's advertising campaign. Herald Sun editor Simon Pristel should immediately intervene and add a disclosure to the bottom of the online version of Bolt's Saturday column. Bolt should also voluntarily disclose this pokies campaign connection in his Wednesday Herald Sun column.

elsewhere .....

Milne an Insiders out, future at Oz unclear

Glenn Milne is no longer an Insiders panellist, that much is clear. But as to his future at News Limited, well let's just say we're waiting to see what happens when the columnist returns from the naughty corner.

The man has endured a horror week since his column in The Australian last Monday was pulled from the online version of the paper for containing unverified claims about prime minister Julia Gillard.

Milne has since been axed from his plum slot on ABC's Insiders, one of the few areas where he was able to extend his reach beyond the commentariat of Holt Street.

And the backlash could only be getting started. Milne is absent from the national broadsheet today, with no word as to his future at News Limited. On his bio Milne is promoted as having a "weekly political column in The Australian". However it seems "weekly" hasn't been the case for some time.

Chris Mitchell, editor-in-chief of The Australian, told The Power Index this morning that Milne "did not have a weekly column" at the paper and that he alternates with stablemate Chris Kenney. Mitchell declined to be drawn on Milne's future at the paper.

ABC News head of policy Alan Sunderland confirmed on the weekend that Milne had been dumped ahead of his slated appearance on yesterday's Insiders. Sunderland said Milne had been informed by executive producer Kellie Mayo last Thursday the ABC "wouldn't use him this week and we probably won't be using him again''.

Sunderland also said there were other factors in the dumping of Milne: "The issue this week played a part, but there were also other issues in the past that I don't want to go into," he told The Sunday Age.

The Power Index understands a recent column by Milne on the The Drum regarding Tony Abbott's chief-of staff Peta Credlin may have helped lead to his demise at Insiders. In the piece, Milne published allegations of supposed travel rorts by Credlin, despite her issuing vehement denials. Again the column was removed.