Federal government departments are spending eye-watering sums to know what the public is thinking and what the media is saying about them, new documents show.

In some of the more surprising disclosures, the Department of Defence is spending more than $500,000 a year on pay TV and, between July and October 2014, splashed $454,125 - or about $5000 a day, on newspapers, magazines and other publications. Another department also spent nearly $90,000 on books over four months.

In an interview with People magazine published on Wednesday, Mr Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, said that before moving into the White House nearly six years ago, they faced prejudice, stereotyping and had trouble catching taxis.

"There is no black male my age, who's a professional, who hasn't come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn't hand them their car keys," Mr Obama told the magazine, adding that this had happened to him.

Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting fell into the "I'm not a feminist" trap and had to apologise to extricate herself.

A win for feminism or a win for anti-feminism? Maybe more like a win for tweet-shaming.

Cuoco-Sweeting, star of The Big Bang Theory, stepped into a wasps' nest when she made a mild comment about whether she considers herself a feminist in an interview with Redbook.

"Is it bad if I say no? It's not really something I think about," she mused. "Things are different now, and I know a lot of the work that paved the way for women happened before I was around. ... I was never that feminist girl demanding equality, but maybe that's because I've never really faced inequality."

America is a meticulously constructed brand; it is the indispensable nation with exceptional power. There is no country as adept at branding as the United States.

Popular international mega-brands like Apple and McDonald’s sell neat pre-packaged pieces of the American dream to eager international consumers. A complimentary national branding strategy sells "freedom" and "democracy" over international airwaves, in movie theatres and through diplomatic influence.

But if Brand America is the sum of the effects of its soft powers, can we really separate this cultural imperialism from the nation’s use of hard power?

From Victoria Rollison

Abbott must be having a horrible Christmas break. He can’t have missed that his old buddy, his mentor Rupert has completely dropped him and in doing so, has given permission for his newspapers to admit that PM Abbott is a dud.

Fluffus clouds passing low through the city of Sydney, like "fog" patches. Unlike fog though, fluffus clouds are low altitude dependant, are not at ground level and are not dispersed by windy conditions. Picture by Gus Leonisky

As usual, News Limited were the only MMMM media following Abbott's racket about Xmas...

There could be an argument in favour of using the illusion of Santa Claus to jollify our lives — especially when we don't know what we're doing or what the future shall bring us. At least we can fudge things for a few moments, though for some people, Christmas can be a time of sadness and loneliness...

Milne told reporters on Monday that while Abbott was spruiking the abolition of the carbon tax, his government had undermined services to women such as legal aid in domestic violence cases and homelessness support.

“He might as well have said that by abolishing the carbon price he’s been able to give women more money to buy a new iron and stay at home and do the ironing more often,” Milne said.