The Day in Review Oct 17

- Stop all the presses. Hold all the phones. Tame Iti's bail was declined. It gets worse, but I'll get to that.
- 3 bucked the trend with its opening, opting instead for an exclusive with Customs over the types of weapons getting into Utopia. Everything from claymores to M-60s to tommy-guns. I can deal with the latter (kind of takes me back to Prohibition times), but the first two? Michael Morrah gave us the lowdown, pointing out that it was unlikely there was a link between this weaponry and terror camps (someone should let Mark Jennings know you're not meant to let the public in on their ignorance).
- One and Prime jumped on the terror bandwagon tonight - a story that never seems to end (or change). We had Tame, we had the support in Wellington for the detainees, we had Paul Buchanan giving an explanation of what terror is (he's no long a Former Lecturer at Auckland University, rather, he's been given the austere title Former Advisor to the CIA). 3, held off, just keeping to Tame later on in the opening bulletin.
- The Government's crackdown on youth binge drinking came in at number two for 3 and One, with Sia Aston and Kris Faafoi giving us a rundown of what the Government's planning to do. Most people are saying not much or nothing new.
- Kudos to 3 (and RNZ) for putting Lloyd Jones coming up short at the Bookers in at number 3; even if it did say "oh well, at least the book's selling a lot". Poor form to One for relegating it to the end of the second segment.
- One did do well in reporting on Geneva Finance and its pending failure, although Owen Poland couldn't quite land an interview.
- More kudos to 3 for going with the Ministry of Consumer Affairs' report into formaldehyde disputing Target's research. Ed Connolly at The Warehouse was well chuffed.
- Campbell and Close Up had a head-to-head battle with anorexia leading their openings. John followed that up with a drawn-out interview on breast cancer that didn't capture me too much, although I had to admit I couldn't really watch Damien O'Connor explain away the guvmint's youth drinking thing for too long.
- Prime and 3 are joint winners tonight for sharing a moment of utter filth: Mike King has no place in making any comment whatsoever. None. Especially when it's him pontificating on how the arrests in Ruatoki are about this Government trying to do some Maori bashing to get up in the polls. There were much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Good night.