Age-old exclusive: Honestly, we just don’t get it. If The Age is so desperate to claim an exclusive, any exclusive, at least put some sauce on it. On today’s front page, we are treated to three bylines and a big red *EXCLUSIVE* tag for a story with the headline (“Joyce still to decide future”) that rivals “Worthwhile journalism initiative” and “Surprises unlikely in Indiana” in the dull headline stakes:

The Age (Image: Supplied)

Okay, so the exclusive part is actually that they interviewed Joyce, but given what they were able to glean from him, The Sydney Morning Herald’s approach — pointing to the interview and giving prominence to “wait, did Joyce really stand in front of a clock below an exit sign?” photo by the great Alex Ellinghausen — makes a lot more sense. —CL

The Sydney Morning Herald featuring Barnaby Joyce (Image: Supplied)

AI don’t like this one bit: Matildas star Hayley Raso recently hit the 100-game milestone. The team’s social media accounts celebrated the achievement with this disconcerting AI animation of Raso over the years:

Fans hated it, condemning the use of AI with comments like: “Ewww not the AI slop pleaseee… Raso is an icon and doesn’t deserve to have her image disrespected like this” and “There is still time to delete this”.

It’s not the first time the Matildas have published questionable AI marketing content. During the 2024 Olympics, Football Australia produced a “podcast” narrated by an uncanny AI version of Steph Catley that was unable to correctly pronounce her own name.

But Tillies fans can find small comfort in knowing this is far from the worst AI rendering of female athletes in the past few days. The International Cricket Council posted this absolute abomination to spruik the Women’s Cricket World Cup semi-finals:

There is a point to be made about how — because AI-generated imagery reinforces patriarchal stereotypes — women’s sports teams and associations should be cautious about using it. But also: those pictures are fucking terrifying. —CA

Flight suit: Anthony Albanese made headlines last week when he stepped off a Royal Australian Air Force flight returning from Washington wearing a Joy Division t-shirt. For example: “Cocky Albanese gives the finger to RAAF plane protocol” was the headline in The Australian Financial Review. 

Nine News covered the shirt choice too, and one comment on the broadcaster’s Instagram post would surely have made the prime minister stoked. 

“Will I see you on my Aussie tour in July then,” wrote Peter Hook, one of the founders of Joy Division and the band’s successor, New Order. Hook is nowadays performing as Peter Hook and the Light, and that band will make a stop at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre, a venue Albanese is certainly familiar with. —AN

The Bureau BOMs again: The passions inflamed by last week’s $4 million revamp of the Bureau of Meteorology website are clear elsewhere in Crikey today. But even if several of our writers weren’t moved to weigh in on the change, it would be impossible to miss. Even the agency’s own employees are open about their disdain: “I don’t like it myself,” conceded BoM’s Livio Regano on ABC Radio earlier this week.

The main thing that stood out in the coverage? The fact that no-one was referring to them as “The Bureau”. You may remember that in 2022, as parts of Victoria, NSW and Tasmania were subject to severe flooding, and La Niña entered its third consecutive year, the BOM issued a press release requesting media organisations refer to it by its full name in the first instance, and “The Bureau” thereafter.

This is “more crucial than ever”, the release said, given “an ever-increasing number of severe weather events”, which didn’t follow quite as logically as the authors may have thought. Collectively, we noted at the time, the rebrand, which cost $69,300 and was undertaken without securing all the necessary social media, landed as a monumental prank. That literally no-one seems to have paid any attention and just kept on calling them BOM only strengthens that conclusion. —CL