Chickaboomer

2012-08-14T05:44:00.002-04:00

On my annual August vacation! Will return soon!

NYT's Bill Keller Has Hard-on For 'Romney Package'

2012-08-13T07:16:00.003-04:00

Bob Schieffer flew to High Point, NC Sunday after scoring the first interview with "The Romney Package" for 60 Minutes. CBS News Huff Post NYDN

Demoted NYT ex-exec editor now columnist Bill Keller kvetches on what you'll get if you buy "The Romney Package" which Keller whines is nothing more than a "conservative turnkey project." Number six of six:

THE TEAM OF RIVALS Just as Obama recruited Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden into his administration, a victorious Romney would reach out to Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain ... just kidding! Santorum does have a speaking slot at the convention, and he needs a job (secretary of health and human services would be a horrifying sop to social conservatives), but the Republican also-rans are most likely to play the role of visible and ornery watchdogs. I expect their only personal contact with President Romney would be in the green room at Fox News.

Related: Huff Post apologizes after falsely fingering Fox News for "doctored" Romney Ryan announcement gaffe. (H/t Johnny Dollar)

Fox's Carl Cameron Stiffs CNN's John King On Romney VP Pick

2012-08-11T16:48:00.000-04:00

Poor John King. The CNN ferret failed in the Romney veepstakes pick as Fox's Carl Cameron got it first Friday night at 11:03 ET.

FOX News:
23:03 Breaking news alert with Carl Cameron phoner (broke into O'Reilly Factor) calling VP Pick now imminent, announcement tomorrow at 9 am. Cameron says “All signs point to likelihood of Paul Ryan,” but cautions, “We don't know for certain.”

23:32 Second breaking news alert Carl Cameron repeats, "All indications Paul Ryan will be the nominee.”

00:28 Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes phoner saying prominent Republicans were instructed to prepare the case for Ryan candidacy.

01:03 Fox News cites AP report quoting GOP official saying Romney chose Paul Ryan as running mate.

CNN:
23:33 Breaking news update (Broke into Erin Burnett show reporting on Louisiana sink hole). Gloria Borger phoner saying Romney will announce Saturday 9 am. They call Paul Ryan "a leading prospect."

00:47 CNN reports several prominent Republicans sources saying Ryan is the pick.

MSNBC:
23:29 Breaking news update (Broke into Lockup prison documentary series) Romney will announce tomorrow at 9 am. Peter Alexander, travelling with Romney campaign in Norfolk VA, cites Fox News as making the call for Paul Ryan.

00:01 Chuck Todd cites three NBC News sources saying Paul Ryan is the pick.

This week the Huffington Post's media scribe talked up King "who has broken more VP picks than anyone over the past quarter century."

CNN hauled in King Saturday as well as the A-Team like the other cable networks.

Huff Post: NBC was the first to break the news of the Ryan pick on television, as Chuck Todd fortuitously found himself in a studio to announce his scoop. He was followed within minutes by The Huffington Post's Jon Ward. (Fox News' Carl Cameron had earlier said that "all signs" pointed to the Ryan pick, but he did not concretely say that Ryan would be picked.)

The networks began switching over to wall-to-wall coverage of the VP news. NBC broke in with a special report, as did ABC. CNN International began simulcasting in the US, with Wolf Blitzer and John King calling in over the phone.

Fox Business Network was the lone live voice on the business channels as CNBC and Bloomberg stuck with canned infomercial spam.

Related: How Ryan nearly foiled the media in a CIA-like exfiltration Friday whisked from Wisconsin to North Carolina. NBC News BuzzFeed.

Paul Ryan's High School Yearbook Media Smear

2012-08-11T13:22:00.003-04:00

Newsweek's partner in slime, The Daily Beast, trolls Twitter for titters: high school shots of Romney's VP Paul Ryan. A lot of them with the subhead:

Mitt Romney's new running mate was voted 'biggest brown-noser' by his senior-year classmates. See the hilarious photos from his yearbook being passed around on Twitter.

Daily Beast: "Paul Ryan was voted prom king (he's the one on the right)."

Apparently Obama's school scrubbers weren't available having suffered the same fate as Jimmy Hoffa.

Daily Beast media maven and CNN media watchdog Howard Kurtz suggests the recent Ryan buzz may have been planted by the Romney campaign:

Romney aides made known that he reached his decision on Aug. 1, right after returning from his foreign trip. That means the recent conservative media campaign on Ryan’s behalf, led by The Wall Street Journal editorial page and the Weekly Standard, did not sway the candidate but might have been encouraged by Boston headquarters.

Ex-CNN Anchor Campbell Brown's New 'Star Power'

2012-08-11T07:41:00.000-04:00

Two years after bagging CNN over bad ratings, ex-anchoress Campbell "No Bias, No Bull" Brown has found her voice. Exposing teacher sex predators protected by powerful public school teacher unions.

Brown started a Twitter campaign last month.

NYT: The posts began to draw the attention of Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, who wrote on Twitter, “Union protects against false allegations,” which elicited this comeback:

“Then how do u explain teacher asking child for striptease and not fired?”

The author of these missives was not a mayoral operative or a city education wonk. It was Campbell Brown, the 44-year-old former CNN anchor and mother of two young sons, who from her home in Lower Manhattan had begun to insert herself into an uncomfortable political fight in a conspicuous way.

The posts were just a part of it. Ms. Brown also spoke about teacher misconduct at a July 26 appearance in the Bronx before Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s education reform commission and in a July 30 spot on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” She also wrote an op-ed article on the issue that was published by The Wall Street Journal.

Then Ms. Brown became the story, at least on Twitter, when Ms. Weingarten reposted a message that pointedly raised Ms. Brown’s marriage to Dan Senor, who is Mitt Romney’s senior foreign-affairs adviser and, more to the point, is on the board of StudentsFirstNY, an education policy group close with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

This escalated the fight. Ms. Brown said she took the post as sexist, though she stressed that she still desired Ms. Weingarten’s help. “Disappointing that @rweingarten thinks I hold my views b/c im married to repub. Always thought she was great role model for women until now,” she wrote.

A local union operative then called any claim that the union defends sexual predators “equivalent to a blood libel,” a term frequently used in reference to an anti-Semitic accusation dating from the Middle Ages that Jews use the blood of non-Jews in ceremonies. The Anti-Defamation League called the statement “inappropriate and over the top,” and the union official apologized.

But the public spat made it clear: Ms. Brown had transformed into the most recognizable face of the combustible school-reform fight and in so doing had injected star power into a campaign the Bloomberg administration has been waging for months.

Romney: Ryan's Hope

2012-08-11T07:06:00.002-04:00

Mitt Romney-Paul Ryan 2012.

Maybe the media will stop harping on Romney's hair. "Desperation into disaster" NYDN. "Bold" Wash Post. "Joe Biden has a lot of debate prep ahead of him." Ezra Klein Wash Post. "Terrible" Newsweek's Michael Tomasky.

The leak came after midnight. Romney rolls out Ryan this a.m. in Norfolk, Virginia.

Related: "Mitt Romney's rivals didn't have to wait long for the first gaffe of the new GOP ticket" NYDN.

Obama made the same gaffe four years ago. Politico

CNN's Fareed Zakaria Caught Plagiarizing, Suspended

2012-08-10T08:09:00.001-04:00

Is CNN's Fareed Zakaria guilty of plagiarism? You be the judge.

Zakaria, host of CNN's Global Public Square (GPS) and TIME mag editor-at-large, seems to have snatched someone else's ammunition in this August 20th anti-gun diatribe. Hang him high in the global public square!

Late this afternoon TIME announced Zakaria's column is suspended "for a month pending further review." Politico

CNN also suspended Zakaria: "We have reviewed Fareed Zakaria’s TIME column, for which he has apologized. He wrote a shorter blog post on CNN.com on the same issue which included similar unattributed excerpts. That blog post has been removed and CNN has suspended Fareed Zakaria while this matter is under review.”

NewsBusters: Here’s a paragraph from his Time piece:

Adam Winkler, a professor of constitutional law at UCLA, documents the actual history in Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America. Guns were regulated in the U.S. from the earliest years of the Republic. Laws that banned the carrying of concealed weapons were passed in Kentucky and Louisiana in 1813. Other states soon followed: Indiana in 1820, Tennessee and Virginia in 1838, Alabama in 1839 and Ohio in 1859. Similar laws were passed in Texas, Florida and Oklahoma. As the governor of Texas (Texas!) explained in 1893, the "mission of the concealed deadly weapon is murder. To check it is the duty of every self-respecting, law-abiding man."

Compare that in its organization to this paragraph from a Jill Lepore New Yorker article from April:

As Adam Winkler, a constitutional-law scholar at U.C.L.A., demonstrates in a remarkably nuanced new book, “Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America,” firearms have been regulated in the United States from the start. Laws banning the carrying of concealed weapons were passed in Kentucky and Louisiana in 1813, and other states soon followed: Indiana (1820), Tennessee and Virginia (1838), Alabama (1839), and Ohio (1859). Similar laws were passed in Texas, Florida, and Oklahoma. As the governor of Texas explained in 1893, the “mission of the concealed deadly weapon is murder. To check it is the duty of every self-respecting, law-abiding man."

Update 4:18 p.m. Friday: Zakaria's CNN New York office in an email: "Media reporters have pointed out that paragraphs in my Time column this week bear close similarities to paragraphs in Jill Lepore's essay in the April 23rd issue of The New Yorker. They are right. I made a terrible mistake. It is a serious lapse and one that is entirely my fault. I apologize unreservedly to her, to my editors at Time, and to my readers."

Ali Zelenko, SVP, Communications for TIME: TIME accepts Fareed's apology, but what he did violates our own standards for our columnists, which is that their work must not only be factual but original; their views must not only be their own but their words as well. As a result, we are suspending Fareed's column for a month, pending further review.

A TIME spokesperson's earlier reax via email: "TIME takes any accusation of plagiarism by any of our journalists very seriously, and we will carefully examine the facts before saying anything else on the matter."

It's not the first time Fareed has been fingered for the same moral and ethical violation. Paul Farhi Wash Post.

Ann Curry's Clothes Line

2012-08-09T17:58:00.001-04:00

Did whining victim Ann Curry lose the Today show gig over flaming frocks and failure to wear f**ck-me stilettos?

Huff Post: "One day I wore a multicolored dress and someone asked if I was trying to be Toucan Sam. But I chose it because I thought, This will perk up America. I'm encouraged by my bosses to wear these ridiculously high-heeled shoes because women say, 'I love your shoes!' So if it makes women happy, I'll wear them. But I'm still going to be me... I've tried to wear clogs and flats on TV and it hasn't gone well with my bosses."

Curry's August Ladies Home Journal cover story was in the can before she was canned.

(H/t Vinney)

Al Gore Anchoring Current TV's Presidential Convention Coverage

2012-08-09T09:33:00.001-04:00

Weighing anchor: Gore gets a piece of his own network's action.

Al Gore news anchor? The former presidential candidate, Nobel Peace Prize and Oscar winner joins Current TV's presidential convention anchor team.

TV critic David Zurawik: This promises to be cartoon convention coverage -- a bunch of ideologues acting like they are "covering" these historic rituals of the election process.

Is there anyone else out there who remembers the glory years of CBS or NBC News when being part of the convention coverage team was one of the high honors of American journalism? Now it's Joy Behar and Eliot Spitzer and the guy who owns the channel.

Has Zurawik already forgotten MSNBC's biased, abysmal, deplorable coverage of the 2008 Republican convention anchored by Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews?

Premature Evacuation: NYC Shuts Down Trojan Free Vibrator Hotdog Carts

2012-08-09T08:55:00.001-04:00

Thursday update: Trojan's good vibrations are back with four thousand anticipating packing meat after getting free vibrators in NYC's Meatpacking District.

NYDN

NYC police interrupted a Trojan free vibrator giveaway Wednesday claiming the condom company did not have permits for the swelling crowd. Trojan set up hotdog carts where the lines grew long and many $30 and $40 vibrators (sold at Walmart and chain drug stores) were handed out before cops showed up.

Stimulus package.

NYP: "Thousands" were told to "buzz off." More like hundreds.

One lady left hanging "after walking 20 blocks" told the Post: "There’s a lot more important things the city should be worried about than a free vibrator giveaway. [NYC Mayor] Bloomberg doesn’t want anyone to have fun. You can’t have a giant soda. You can’t have a vibrator.”

Anticlimactic.

Trojan had planned 10,000 vibrator giveaways Wednesday and Thursday in locations including the Meatpacking District. Business Insider.

The event was even previewed by the New York Times.

NBC 'Today's' Matt Lauer Hides His Nuts From 'The Flying Squirrel'

2012-08-09T07:50:00.000-04:00

The new TV Guide survey of How Much TV Stars Make finds NBC's Today star Matt Lauer ranks #3 behind David Letterman (#2 $28 mil) and Judge Judy (#1 $45 mil).

Did NBC insure Lauer's aging bod with Lloyd's of London before he attempted Greco-Roman wrestling with Team USA's Ellis Coleman?

Lauer makes the mistake of asking how Coleman got the name "The Flying Squirrel." Watch.

CNN's John King: King of Presidential VP Picks

2012-08-08T07:26:00.001-04:00

Michael Calderone Huff Post: In July 1988, CNN's John King was camped outside the home of Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis when he got a sign the Democratic presidential nominee had just picked a running mate.

King, then a 24-year-old Associated Press reporter, noticed that top Dukakis adviser Paul Brountas looked more relaxed as he left the house than he had on previous nights King spent waiting out there. So King raced back to the AP's Boston bureau around 10 p.m., worked the phones all night, and confirmed that Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen was the vice presidential pick just in time for the network morning shows.

"It was a career-changing, life-changing break for me."

Finger in the wind. Short and tweet.

Will King, "who's broken more VP picks than anyone over the past quarter century," score again?

Related: If the veep falls in CNN's forest, will anyone hear it? Prime-time ratings hit a 20-year low last week. Deadline

NBC's 'Today' Turns Ratings Lead Into Gold

2012-08-07T09:55:00.000-04:00

Once the morning show gold standard but tarnished by rival GMA in the ratings, Today gold diggers are riding the coattails of NBC's Olympics coverage, mining big ratings. David Bauder AP

Obama Robbin' Hood: The Dark Knight Raises...

2012-08-07T08:03:00.002-04:00

...maybe two mil in the aggregate between a hotel fundraiser and Weinstein's $15.5 mil mansion where Obama had the balls to brand Mitt Romney's tax plan "Romney Hood" -- "Robin Hood in reverse." ABC News Connecticut Post

NYT's Peter Baker: President Obama finished an evening of fund-raising at a star-studded event at the Connecticut home of the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein on Monday night, and even offered his personal review of the latest Batman movie.

Mr. Obama, who has made Mitt Romney’s wealth a signature issue during this campaign season, had no problem hobnobbing with wealthy New York and Hollywood figures who joined him in the spacious house in Westport complete with swimming pool and badminton court within sight of Long Island Sound.

Two gold Oscar statues sat on shelves as Mr. Obama addressed 60 donors who forked over $35,800 each for the privilege. Among the guests were Anne Hathaway, who played Catwoman in “The Dark Knight Rises,” the new Batman film; Jerry Springer, the talk show host; Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue magazine; Joanne Woodward, the actress and widow of Paul Newman; Aaron Sorkin, creator of television shows like “The Newsroom” and “The West Wing”; and Gov. Daniel P. Malloy of Connecticut.

Mr. Obama made sure to single out Ms. Hathaway, who was wearing “a silver dress with puffed sleeves gathered from the elbow to the shoulder, and a tight bodice,” according to a pool report by Dave Boyer of The Washington Times. “She’s spectacular,” Mr. Obama said. “And I did get a chance to see Batman. And she was the best thing in it. That’s just my personal opinion.”

Mr. Obama also mentioned Mr. Sorkin, “who writes the way every Democrat in Washington wished they spoke.” And he paid tribute to Ms. Woodward. “Joanne and Paul were not only I think what was best about American film but also just embodied the American spirit in so many ways,” he said.

Mr .Weinstein, who hosted the event along with his wife, the fashion designer, Georgina Chapman, cast Mr. Obama as the leading man. “You can make the case that he’s the Paul Newman of American presidents,” Mr. Weinstein said.

Presumably, he didn’t mean Mr. Newman as Butch Cassidy, who didn’t do so well in his last election.

Related: Romney's money edge. Does it matter? Wash Post

Fox News Anchor Asserts Sikhs Are Jews

2012-08-06T07:53:00.000-04:00

Greg Jarrett, a Fox News anchor wrangling the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting Sunday, queries a puzzled Sikh source on if there had been "any anti-Semetic [sic] acts" against the temple.

Earlier Jarrett quoted a local newspaper claiming turbaned Sikhs are "often mistaken for Muslims."

Same thing at CNN. BuzzFeed

Update: Monday on CNN's ratings death row morning show Starting Point the clowns came back from a break after a Sikh temple shooting segment with Billy Joel's Only The Good Die Young.

The Wrap: The song includes the lines, "Well, they showed you a statue/told you to pray/They built you a temple and locked you away/But they never told you the price that you pay/Things that you might have done/Only the good die young."

The song was selected from "Starting Point" panelist Hank Sheinkopf's playlist. Sheinkopf is a Democratic political consultant who in this case had a tin ear.

"We aired a song from a guest’s playlist on the morning show following a three-minute commercial break and before a segment on presidential politics, unrelated to the Wisconsin shooting," the network said in a statement. "Given the news of the day, this was regrettable and we apologize to our viewers.”

Last week's Pink's Stupid Girls under a Sarah Palin Chick-fil-A visit was ruled -- by CNN -- as "unintentional."

Sure.

Why Obama is Avoiding Big Media for Local Yokels

2012-08-06T07:14:00.002-04:00

Huff Post zeros in on the obvious:

"Local media is much better strategically," said Mark McKinnon, global vice chair of Hill + Knowlton Strategies and chief media adviser for George W. Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns.

"Because they are generally so thrilled to have the access, local media [is] more likely to ask friendlier and easier questions," McKinnon continued via email. "Much better chance of controlling your message. Bottom line, you can usually drive local media like a truck."

U.S. Twit in Snit Over Brit Olympics Gold Gush?

2012-08-05T12:27:00.000-04:00

UK Daily Mail

How would Slate's David Sirota spin BBC Olympics commentators' euphoria as Mo Farah becomes the first Brit to win the gold in the 10,000 meter?

Sirota went public a few days ago advising his fellow travelers troubled by "liberal Americans' Olympic dilemma: how to root for their countrymen without appearing jingoistic."

Spoiler alert: "Don't chant U.S.A!" was Sirota's solution:

In a world of “asymmetrical” threats and shifting geopolitics, Olympic fandom is a haven for the simpleton in all of us. That Old Glory icon next to an athlete’s name distills the games into the good-versus-bad terms that are so elusive in the real world.And yet, as I’ve grown older, I find my “U.S.A.!”-chanting reflex increasingly interrupted by pangs of discomfort, and not because I’m ashamed of our country or our Olympians, but because the relationship between American nationalism and the Olympics has been slowly infused with a different — and politicized — meaning. In short, chanting the initials of our nation seems less like it did in 1984 than it has since 1992.
Those two Summer Games were the formative events of my — and so many others’ — Olympic fan psyche.

Sirota, permit me to direct you to Hitler's "politicized" 1936 Berlin Olympics Nazi triumph -- and another runner, Jesse Owens.

Watch the BBC crew celebrate British nationalism:

What's Worse? Obama Hijacking Wedding Gifts or an Assault Rifle Raffle?

2012-08-05T07:33:00.000-04:00

"Gravy boat." They're called "boats." Left-leaning Politico attempts to negate the negatives over Obama's desperate fundraising schemes, e.g. instead of wedding gifts, ask suckers to donate the dough to Obama's campaign, by fingering other pols' funny fundraising antics:

A “deli throwdown” competition to benefit New York Democratic Reps. Steve Israel and Jerrold Nadler.

The raffling off of an AR-15 assault rifle by state Rep. John McCaherty (R-Mo.).

Hunting gators with Rep. Jeff Landry (R-La.) or shooting doves with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).

Chowing down on Chunky Monkey while slugging Magic Hat No. 9 with Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), or tasting Irish whiskey with Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.).

Tailgating on Capitol Hill with Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.).

Going skiing with Utah Republican Sens. Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch.

Singing along to show tunes on Broadway with House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)

"Need not be present to win."

"Raffle for a semi-automatic assault rifle" is in the first sentence of Politico's "The lighter side of raising cash."

Newsweek's Romney 'Wimp' Writer Now Pimps Obama 'Landslide'

2012-08-04T17:58:00.000-04:00

The same liberal hack who brought you Newsweek's cover story on "insecure wimp" Mitt Romney, delivers -- a week later -- divination of an Obama "landslide."

It's in the bag.

Michael Tomasky crows: It's beginning to look like Obama can lose the big Eastern four—Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida: all of ’em!—and still be reelected.

"Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one." Clint Eastwood The Dead Pool 1988

NBC Olympics Gym Nasty

2012-08-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

NBC's Bob Costas: "Much of America has fallen in love with Gabby Douglas. Also safe to say that there are some young African-American girls out there who tonight are saying to themselves, 'Hey, I'd like to try that, too.'"

NBC then segues to a TV show pimp for the new series Animal Practice with the star -- a monkey -- swinging on gymnastics rings:

NBC: "No offense was intended." Huff Post

Related: Stupid cable news Olympics coverage "spoiler alert" tricks. Jon Stewart on NBC's gym dandy: "Only Brian Williams can pull off a news vault with such a high degree of difficulty."

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Rush Limbaugh Gets The Last Laugh On Fluke Advertiser Interruptus

2012-08-04T08:38:00.000-04:00

The head of a company that pulled spots on Rush Limbaugh's show after the Sandra Fluke brouhaha admits the move cost the company big time. "It turned out to be a bigger hole in our revenue than we had thought."

NewsBusters nails Carbonite CEO David Friend's "spin" that "things would've been worse" had he not bailed, while Huff Post headlines the quote.

On August 1 Carbonite released its 2d Quarter 2012 results, the first full quarter after dropping Limbaugh in March. The results shocked Wall Street, as Carbonite did not meet its growth targets, causing multiple analysts to drop the target price. The stock dropped 15% in a day. William Jacobson Legal Insurrection

Jon Stewart: Chick-fil-A 'Irritable Fowl Syndrome'

2012-08-03T08:32:00.000-04:00

Jon Stewart on the "Million Mouth March": Oh, and what better way to stand up and say I oppose gay people's rights to get married than to head down to a Chick-fil-A, grab ahold of two buttery buns, split 'em open and gobble down some of that hot, greasy cock. Special sauce all over your face. You don't want to swallow but you gots to. It just feels so good to be politically active.

But seriously, folks.

Stewart on the big city mayors who flouted the First Amendment by vowing to blocking Chick-fil-A stores in their cities: The right's always complaining about the government persecuting them for their beliefs. In this case I'm pretty sure they got something. Pretty sure you can't outlaw a company with perfectly legal business practices because you find their CEO's views repellent. I'm not sure what amendment covers that, but it's probably n the top one.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Conservative Columnist Chastises Romney Gaffe Press Police: 'Seriously, we send people to journalism school for this? Why not outsource the work to Media Matters and be done with it?'

2012-08-02T09:04:00.005-04:00

Shovel-ready. TIME August 13, 2012 cover: "A Rich Man's Game."

National Review editor and Fox News talking head Rich Lowry in Politico: Imagine if a cadre of journalists were recruited to cover the Obama campaign from 100 devoted Rush Limbaugh listeners living in the 230-mile corridor from Midland to Amarillo, Texas. Imagine they were overwhelmingly traditionalist on hot-button cultural issues and heavily evangelical, owned five firearms each and largely socialized with one another and other conservative Republicans. They could try their damnedest to be fair to the president whose politics they disdain. Still, their own predilections would inevitably show through. In the real world, journalists tend to have the opposite of all these qualities, and on top of them are usually self-important and willfully blind to their own biases. It’s a wonder they aren’t told “shove it” more often.

CNN's Hocus-Pocus Focus: 'Fixing' a Ratings Hole

2012-08-02T08:11:00.001-04:00

“To be clear, we are not satisfied with CNN's ratings and we are focused on fixing it.” The Hollywood Reporter quoting Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes Wednesday massaging analysts in the quarterly earnings conference call.


Mr. Fix-It: CNN in peril. Period.

“We’re going to do a better job putting on programming that will hold viewers. We see a strong demand for objective, comprehensive, non-partisan views. We need to do it in a more compelling, more engaging way than we’ve been doing of late. So that’s what we’re going to focus on next.”

“I think as we all know, it is a great brand.”

Branded Anderson Cooper and "cume" are CNN's only bright spots in the ratings.

Forbes sniffs Bewkes offers nothing more than "vagaries" in outlining "Time Warner's New Strategy for CNN: Find A New Strategy."

Chick Fillets Media, Pressures Presidential Debate Organizers To Pluck Female Moderator

2012-08-02T07:22:00.001-04:00

. Period. Lean backward. To go forward. Huff Post putting pressure on the presidential debate Powers That Be to name a woman moderator:

When ABC News' Carole Simpson was hired as the first female and African American presidential debate moderator in 1992, it never occurred to her that two decades would pass without another being chosen. But in the years since she slung questions at candidates George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot, not one woman has been chosen for the role.

The Commission on Presidential Debates, the organization in charge of selecting debate moderators, has chosen only one woman besides Simpson since it took over the debate process in 1987. PBS's Gwen Ifill presided over the vice presidential debates held in 2004 and 2008. The lack of female voices in the presidential debates highlights an issue that continues to plague American media: Men do the vast majority of the talking, even on issues of particular import to women.

Simpson says the reality that men controlled the media was never more clear to her than in 1998, when Viagra first hit the market. "ABC News was mostly middle-aged men, so we had Viagra stories up the kazoo. Every night, we did a story about Viagra, and all the women are like, 'Enough already!'"

Now that women's health issues are at the forefront of the political discussion in 2012, the timing seems ripe for a female moderator. The Change.org petition, which has nearly 120,000 signatures, suggests a few possible contenders: Gwen Ifill, ABC News' Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric, CNN's Christiane Amanpour and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.

None of the candidates mentioned by the petition, in Simpson's opinion, are quite perfect for the job. Amanpour, she says, is "fabulous on foreign issues," but not as experienced on domestic ones. The others are too closely tied with one political party or the other. Simpson says her picks would be PBS's Judy Woodruff or CNN's Soledad O'Brien.

Soledad O'Brien? The Aaron Sorkin Newsroom dip chick would be filleted . . .

Wash Post's Sally Quinn to Gays: Penetrate Chick-fil-A

2012-08-01T23:17:00.000-04:00

The Washington Post's Sally Quinn (married to ex-exec editor Ben Bradlee) digs into subversives' bag of tricks in attempts to neutralize Bible-thumping, anti-gay marriage Chick-fil-A. Achieve penetration. Don't boycott. Infiltrate:

Go all the way at Chick-fil-A!

A boycott is so clichéd. Even the kiss-in doesn’t really make the point. Gays and lesbians could start applying for jobs at Chick-fil-A. Get in there. Become managers, take over the places. Gays could begin patronizing Chick-fil-As and I don’t mean carry out. Make the restaurants the gay hangouts of the community. Gay partners and Married [sic] gays could begin taking their children there. They could start having birthday parties for their kids. They could have Gay pride events there. (They have an events manager – just call) [Unlike Obama's revised campaign slogan Forward., Sally forgot the period.] They could even have gay weddings there.

(H/t NewsBusters)

NBC's Having A Breast Stroke

2012-08-01T16:25:00.002-04:00

Olympics tit titters.

NBC's underwater camera live broadcast of a bare boob during women's water polo Wednesday. Deadspin NYDN

NBC Olympics: Tweet Meat

2012-08-01T08:22:00.003-04:00

Headline of the day from the New York Post:

Subhead: Did NBC underestimate social media? NBC, which hooked up officially with Twitter for the Olympics, is being pecked to death by critics via Twitter.

Related: "Olympics clocks huge ratings while The Trashing of NBC becomes a popular sport" Lisa de Moraes Wash Post.

NBC's Fail Guy

2012-07-31T19:17:00.001-04:00

The UK Independent's man in Los Angeles, Guy Adams, is unsuspended (is that like unfriended?) by Twitter after his account was frozen for tweeting a NBC Sports suit's email address. NYDN

This after fingering NBC's multitude of Olympic screw-ups in his newspaper, on a Twitter hashtag #NBCFail, and on his own Twitter account. Wall Street Journal

Reportedly Twitter started the ball rolling by fingering Adams to NBC. UK Telegraph

Do you believe that?

Romney Press Bouncer: 'Shove it,' 'Kiss my ass'

2012-07-31T08:43:00.001-04:00

"Kiss my ass." Huff Post

Politico: A Mitt Romney aide told reporters to “shove it” Tuesday morning after the American press corps here shouted questions at the presidential candidate.

As Romney was walking away from Pilsudski Square toward his vehicle, reporters asked him about his string of gaffes and whether he had any comment for Palestinians, some of whom took offense at the Republican’s suggestion Monday in Jerusalem that Israel’s economy is superior because of cultural advantages Israelis enjoy. Romney ignored the questions and got in his car.

But his traveling press secretary was furious.

“Kiss my ass; this is a holy site for the Polish people,” said aide Rick Gorka. “Show some respect.”

Gorka then told a reporter to “shove it.”

Gorka later apologized, saying his comments were "inappropriate."

Fox's Greta Van Susteren, tagging along with Romney's regular press, complained:

There has been no press access to Governor Romney since we landed in Poland. We (press) are in a holding pattern (I can’t help but feel a bit like the press is a modified petting zoo since we are trapped in a bus while Polish citizens take pictures of us.) Under the headline “Governor Romney won’t like this” we saw a big sign in the crowd for Rep Ron Paul.

Morley Safer, Matt Lauer On Vanity Fair's 2012 International Best-Dressed List

2012-07-31T07:47:00.001-04:00

Octogenarian CBS 60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer beats the pants off NBC's Today mannequin Matt Lauer on Vanity Fair's International Best-Dressed List hot off the press Tuesday. Safer and Lauer are the only TV news fashion plates to make The List.

"In a circa 1964 Savile Row jacket and a tie made from fabric purchased at a street stall in Hyderabad, India."

Morley Safer #27.

"Wearing a Zegna suit and Eaton shirt with Zegna shoes."

Matt Lauer #71.

Lauer's colleague, Brian Williams, has a leg up on Lauer, "retired" after four appearances to VF's Best-Dressed Hall Of Fame.

Katie Couric's Male Mergers And Acquisitions

2012-07-31T07:07:00.002-04:00

"They were kissing in the driveway before driving away together.” NYP Page Six quoting a "witness" to a weekend encounter between Katie Couric and her latest younger man, John Molner, 49, head of mergers and acquisitions at a NYC bank that was once headed by George Bush 41's father.

NYT's Yellin' Keller

2012-07-30T07:49:00.004-04:00

What does this screaming tweet tell you about NYT ex-exec editor Bill Keller?

I thought the "FAKE OP-ED" was this one Sunday where Keller confesses hatred for disco music.

Huff Post

CBS 'Face The Nation' In Romney's Face With Newsweek 'Wimp' Cover

2012-07-29T14:14:00.000-04:00

CBS Face The Nation ambushes Mitt Romney with death row Newsweek out Monday:

Watch Mitt's reax:

The Daily Beast, the other half of Newsweek's two-headed monster, kicks off with Romney's London Olympics gaffe that triggered outrage in the British press and pols: Romney is the genuine article: a true wimp. Oh, there are some ways in which he’s not—a wimp lets himself get kicked around, and Romney doesn’t exactly do that.

In some respects, he’s more weenie than wimp—socially inept; at times awkwardy ingratiating, at other times mocking those “below” him, but almost always getting the situation a little wrong, and never in a sympathetic way. The evidence resonates across too many years to deny.

What kind of presidential candidate whines about a few attacks and demands an apology when the going starts to get rough? And tries to sound tough by accusing the president who killed the world’s most-wanted villain of appeasement? That’s what they call overcompensation, and it’s a dead giveaway; it’s the “tell.” This guy is nervous—terrified—about looking weak. And ironically, being terrified of looking weak makes him look weaker still.

You would no more cast Romney as Reagan than you would Pee-wee Herman as James Bond.

But if Romney is elected? Be nervous. A Republican president sure of his manhood had nothing to prove. Reagan was happy with a jolly little shoot-up in Grenada, and eventually he settled down to the serious work of arms control, consummating historic treaties with Mikhail Gorbachev. But a weenie Republican—look out. He has something to prove, needs to reassert that “natural” advantage. That spells trouble more often than not.

Still, there’s a campaign to get through first. At some point, an unexpected event more serious than the Olympics—a scandal, a smear—will put Romney under the interrogation lamp, and he’ll need to rise to the occasion. We’ll see then if he has it in him. So far, he wants to sneak into the White House through a side door, without having to do any of the difficult and controversial things candidates have to do. Voters want candidates who are harshly tested and emerge from those tests stronger. Romney is desperate above all else to dodge them—and when they have come, he’s failed.

Sally Ride Lesbian: 'Not something to be tucked into the bottom of a story'

2012-07-29T13:34:00.000-04:00

CNN's Howard Kurtz: "Did the New York Times bury the lead in the 38th paragraph" of astronaut Sally Ride's obit. Howard hectors the Times, contending "she was using the occasion of her death to come out."

Howard, ride, ride, ride, let it ride . . . (Bachman-Turner Overdrive)

CNN's Pink Slip?

2012-07-29T12:53:00.000-04:00

Code Pink: CNN producers purposely spin a song to introduce a Sunday segment on Sarah Palin's Chick-fil-A photo op. Pink's Stupid Girls:

(H/t NewsBusters)

It wasn't an accidental music bed.

NBC Olympics: Tinker, Tailor

2012-07-29T08:07:00.001-04:00

NBC commits a Mitt. Offends Brits by dumping out of a Olympics opening ceremony six-minute Brit terror victim tribute and instead pimping a boring Ryan Seacrest canned interview with swimmer Michael Phelps.

A NBC Sports spox scoffs: "Our program is tailored for a U.S. audience." Huff Post

A "U.S. audience" that's pissed off mightily after NBC didn't run Saturday's Phelps 400-meter loss live, delaying it until prime time. See #NBCFaiL. NBC anchor Brian Williams was put in the embarrassing position of having to report the news even before NBC ran the race.

TIME TV critic James Poniewozik: Way to be a considerate guest, NBC! (Apparently they’re in some sort of offend-the-British competition with Mitt Romney.)

Specific or general, a tribute to the missing seems like precisely the most sensitive section of a ceremony to edit out. And besides that, given the stranglehold NBC maintains on content for an event its audience has a massive interest in, why edit anything out?

When there is an event, like the opening ceremonies, that its audience is intensely interested in, it should show the whole damn thing.

NBC has, to its credit, been better about that this year, with its commitment to live-streaming every Olympic competition (albeit restricted to cable and satellite subscribers). Then it declined to stream the opening ceremonies live, offering the dubious explanation that the program was too “complex.”

American viewers give NBC a lot in terms of time and attention to lucrative ads. In exchange, NBC should give them the Olympics—all of it. Save the slicing for the fencing competition.

Brits' Socialized Medicine Olympi-Ad

2012-07-28T08:30:00.000-04:00

BuzzFeed's "25 Most Absurd Moments Of The Olympic Opening Ceremony":

14. "A tribute to the National Health Service."

15. "It involved real-life nurses, dressed up as nurses from some bygone era."

And "bouncing sick children on huge hospital beds." NYT

UK Telegraph: The NHS segment in particular underlined how surprisingly parochial this ceremony was. The idea of the Health Service as a beacon for the world is, bluntly, a national self-delusion. Most other Western European countries have better state healthcare systems – and healthier people – than we do. Does the average Chinese person even know what the letters stand for?

CNN's Piers Morgan on Jim Walton: 'A true giant of the network'

2012-07-28T07:48:00.002-04:00

“I love this already — mainly because it's so British it will be confusing the hell out of the rest of the world,” CNN’s British talk-show host Piers Morgan tweeted Friday night. Wash Post "Olympics open with rock and droll."

Like CNN. Confusing. On the departure of CNN's Jim Walton, Morgan tweets:

To which a tweeter responds: "They get anyone in there with brains you will be unemployed."

CNN President Jim Walton Out: Who Moved His Cheese?

2012-07-27T18:21:00.000-04:00

Finally. A head rolls over "nonpartisan" CNN's lousy ratings and the Scotus ObamaCare decision colossal screw-up.

Jim Walton. The big cheese for nearly 20 years. New Year's Eve rings out Walton. Here's his spin issued Friday:

TVNewser: After more than 30 years at this company and nearly 10 years as the leader of this great news organization, I have decided to leave my role at CNN on December 31, 2012.

For some time, I’ve been talking with Phil Kent about wanting to make a change, and he supports my decision. I’ve told Phil that I will cooperate with any transition timeline that he and Time Warner want to implement. Phil requested that I work out the year and be available after that if needed, which I’ve agreed to do.

I am proud of what we have accomplished together over these last 10 years – innovative programming, the development of great talent in front of and behind the cameras, expansion in digital and mobile, significant investment and expansion in international coverage, financial success and, most importantly, great and trusted journalism. Thank you for the role you have played in our successes.

CNN needs new thinking. That starts with a new leader who brings a different perspective, different experiences and a new plan, one who will build on our great foundation and will commit to seeing it through. And I’m ready for a change. I have interests to explore and I want to give myself time to do it.

The next few months will be filled with election news and other important events that will require all of our focus to report the news with the quality and expertise the world expects of CNN. I look forward to working alongside each of you, as I have over the past 30-plus years, to do just that.

"CNN needs new thinking." A gross understatement. The next head on the block should be Fred Willard lookalike Mark Whitaker. Speculation on contenders for Walton's gig? NYP

Huff Post: Walton, 54, began working at CNN in 1981 shortly after it started. His first job involved ripping paper scripts off wire machines and operating the TelePrompter [sic]* for news anchors.

*TelePrompTer.

Capital Punishment: Jay Carney's Capital Offense

2012-07-27T07:47:00.001-04:00

It was my friend of many years, veteran White House reporter Connie Lawn, who nailed callow Jay Carney on what Obama considers the capital of Israel during Thursday's White House briefing. It's not a geography question. Carney's minute waltz was all about not offending Palestinians.

Watch Carney dance like he's got ants in his pants:

Why the question in the first place? The BBC and the London Olympics.

Israel National News: The British broadcast authority, which has often been charged with bias against Israel, listed “East Jerusalem” as the capital for the “Palestinian Olympic team" while leaving Israel listed without a capital.

After Israel and Jews around the world complained, the BBC partly corrected its mistake and stated that Israel’s "seat of government is Jerusalem" while still omitting Jerusalem as the capital. Just to get its point across, it added, "Most foreign embassies reside in Tel Aviv."

Earlier this year, a British newspaper referred to Tel Aviv as the capital of Israel.

Tel Aviv Mayor of Ron Huldai has now come to the rescue in a YouTube video, in which he says that although his city is “one of the coolest cities in the world and Israel’s financial and cultural center, we are not Israel’s capital. Jerusalem is Israel’s capital.” (He obviously was not referring to the torrid temperatures when he used the word "coolest").

He wished Britain success in hosting the Olympics Games and invited the country’s Jews to visit Tel Aviv and enjoy its beaches and tourist sites.

Putting aside the longtime contest between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv residents over which is the better city, Huldai stated categorically that after tourists finish visiting all of the city’s attractions, “you are welcome to visit the historical and religious sites of the capital of Israel – Jerusalem."

ABC News on Brian Ross: 'We believe in him'

2012-07-26T18:37:00.001-04:00

ABC News president Ben Sherwood: "The buck stops with me."

What should have been an exercise in ABC News flexing Good Morning America ratings muscle over rival NBC Today atrophied as TV critics went for the jugular over ABC investigative reporter Brian Ross erroneously fingering a Colorado Tea Party guy with the same name as the Aurora mass murderer. Lisa de Moraes Wash Post

The Hollywood Reporter: The question about Ross’ gaffe, which he quickly corrected on the air while ABC News issued a swift apology, was first directed at Stephanopoulos, who was anchoring the network’s breaking news coverage on the morning of July 20.

“I’m sorry about the mistake, I know Brian is sorry about the mistake,” said Stephanopoulos, on a remote from GMA’s Times Square studios. “I think it was a mistake that was made in good faith. This was a breaking news story and people are going to make mistakes. I think the test of a good news organization is how you handle it.”

Stephanopoulos stressed that there was no political motivation for linking Holmes – who is alleged to have killed 12 people and injured dozens more at a midnight screening of the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises – to a conservative political organization. “We all know that our work can become political fodder,” he said. “I don’t think there was any political motivation behind the mistake.”

In owning up to the mistake, Sherwood pronounced: “The buck stops with me.”

“It was a mistake,” he continued. “We rectified it immediately. We corrected it. immediately. We apologized for it immediately. We know in that particular moment that [we] did not live up to the standards and practices of ABC News. Everybody realized that something had gotten on the air that shouldn’t have because it hadn’t been checked out properly. It was an obvious, clear error that we corrected immediately.”

Sherwood said that the episode has prompted a review of the news division’s protocols during fast-moving stories. And he added that he had “a very serious conversation” with Ross. “I assure you Brian feels sick about it. He understands that it was a serious mistake. Brian is an outstanding investigative journalist. We believe in him.”

Sherwood also stood by the ABC News producer's rendition of his phone call with the suspect's mother last Friday.

Katie Couric: 'I'm going to be able to flex all my muscles'

2012-07-26T17:46:00.000-04:00

"I'm going to be able to flex all my muscles." TV Guide

All you need to know about Katie Couric's ABC daytime talker is that the theme song is sung by Sheryl Crow.

ABC press release via TVBTN: Couric announced at a gathering of television critics today in Los Angeles that the show, which will feature a mix of in-studio segments and field pieces, will be introduced each day by a memorable theme song entitled “This Day,” performed especially for the show by Grammy-winning artist Sheryl Crow and composed by both Crow and her long time collaborator Jeff Trott.

Crow said: “Katie is somebody I can talk to about the things so many of us juggle: our children, careers, health, and balancing our personal and professional lives. Plus she is really fun! I think her show will reflect the same kind of heart and energy I try to give my music, so ‘This Day’ was a fun project to work on together, as friends.”

CBS 'This Morning' Over Hill

2012-07-26T13:55:00.000-04:00

It's just taking a long freaking time ...

After a mere six months CBS's New! Improved! morning show dumps Erica Hill for Norah O'Donnell. TVNewser:

“This is a very exciting development for our morning program and for all of CBS News,” says CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager. “Norah is an accomplished reporter with all the skills for the job. She’s a hard worker who knows her story and, as she has shown time after time at the White House, she can think on her feet on live television.”

O’Donnell joined CBS News a year ago, after spending 11 years at NBC News and MSNBC. She will continue as Bob Schieffer‘s substitute on “Face the Nation.”

No word on what's going to happen to Hill. O'Donnell debuts in the fall.

Mitt Wit: Romney Sticks It To NBC Nitwit Brian Williams

2012-07-26T10:02:00.002-04:00

Mitt Romney, in a wide-ranging interview in London Wednesday with NBC's Brian Williams, seamlessly and surprisingly smacks down the Saturday Night Live semi-regular and self-imagined wit with a put-down that surpasses SNL skit lines divined by big bucks writers.

Williams: A Republican official familiar with your campaign selection process told the folks at Politico you are looking for a quote 'an incredibly boring white guy' for your vice presidential nominee. Can you confirm or deny?

Romney: You told me you were not available.

Williams: Touché.

Mitt came off well. Watch the entire interview.

WSJ Editor In Hot Seat Over Cold Tweet

2012-07-26T09:10:00.002-04:00

Huff Post

What is it about Twitter that exposes users' true colors? This guy is the latest reporter to put his dick in the Twitterverse vise.

Twitter is more revealing than a psychiatrist's couch. After scrolling through James Taranto's tweets, Diagnosis: misogynistic sociopath.

Taranto later offered "a mea culpa for an errant tweet." A tweet he'd earlier called "challenging."

Jon Stewart: Analyze 'That'

2012-07-26T08:39:00.001-04:00

I am that I am. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Jon Stewart 'he told the truth on purpose": I see what happened here. By using the phrase 'you didn't build THAT' you create confusion by using the demonstrative singular pronoun 'that' instead of the plural anaphor 'those.' Which of course would be referring to the antecedent 'road and bridges.'

It is true, especially in politics, never say 'that' because the singular demonstrative pronoun points too specific a specific finger. Always use he plural 'those.' Then you don't get in trouble.

Roger that. Jon Stewart's been there, done that. I see what happened here. Obama's off teleprompter and that's the truth. That's that.

NBC Spanks The Monkey

2012-07-26T07:41:00.001-04:00

"The Barrymores of reality TV." Lisa de Moraes Wash Post: "Sarah and Todd Palin attend NBC’s press tour party, compete for attention with a monkey."

Sarah Palin showed up with her husband at NBC’s Press Tour poolside party at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Critics, who should not have been surprised, were, judging by the commotion her presence caused at the clambake.

“Sarah Palin was at NBC’s TCA party — I feel dirty,” reported HuffPost TV associate editor Laura Prudom via Twitter. (The tweet has since been deleted.)

“I gave her the evil eye,” chimed in Jethro Nededog, formerly a senior reporter at the Hollywood Reporter and a featured writer at Zap2it.com, now senior TV editor at Celebuzz.

Snide Lisa proclaims Crystal "soon to be known as The Monkey Who Saved NBC," the winner. The Hollywood Reporter went with Palin.

The jaded TV scribes, including NYT's Bill Carter, appeared obsessed with Palin.

CNBC's Extreme Makeover

2012-07-24T14:49:00.000-04:00

CNBC's answer to FBN's Lou Dobbs's repeated beating of Larry Kudlow at 7p? Reality TV!

This is hilarious! Except to the CNBC grunts reportedly laid off in the network's documentary unit. They had to know it was coming after CNBC hired a suit in February to divine reality shows. TVNewser

CNBC press release: CNBC is expanding its portfolio with the announcement of seven unscripted projects in development.

“Exploring new formats in primetime allows us to find new ways to attract a broader viewership at night while still appealing to CNBC’s highly affluent, educated and influential audience. These projects are an extension of CNBC’s distinct brand complete with bold characters, big stakes and of course one undeniable common denominator…money.”

CNBC’s reality slate includes:

FAKES AND FORGERIES (working title)

Has nothing to do with the media, doctored NBC 911 Zimmerman tape, ABC News Brian Ross.

Is that Warhol print worth millions or is it just a beautifully rendered fake? That $100,000 bottle of wine may be a great investment or it could be a cheap merlot with a carefully reproduced antique label. Welcome to the fascinating world of Curtis Dowling and his team of art investigators who work with clients that just may be the victims of a counterfeiter’s elaborate scheme.

AT YOUR SERVICE (working title)

“At Your Service” follows a high-end international concierge service that caters to a clientele that never needs to ask “how much.” They are dream makers who take on the most outrageous requests. Need 10 emperor penguins for a “Happy Feet” themed kid’s party? Looking for a 15^th century castle for a Henry the VIII fantasy vacation? Preparing a meal that requires truffles from a remote farm in Slovenia? When the task borders on the impossible, these are the people who make it happen. Anything is do-able when money is no object.

Related: Dobbs v Kudlow numbers.

'Batman' Carnage Coverage: 'Lean Forward' MSNBC Falls Flat

2012-07-24T14:00:00.002-04:00

TVNewser: Fox News continues to prove that it is very formidable when news breaks. The channel focused on reporting during the day, and was able to not only hold on to its audience, but grow it. That said, many FNC programs were only up slightly from a typical Friday. While that shows a remarkable consistency and loyalty in its viewing audience, it also implies that it is not necessarily attracting new eyeballs.

CNN, as usual, shines when there is breaking news. As we have noted before, CNN remains the default TV news channel for many people who are not regular cable news watchers. When something newsworthy happens–like the awful shooting–CNN is still the first place many people turn to. The network was up more than 100% across the board, particularly in primetime.

While MSNBC’s ratings were up in the morning and early afternoon, as news was breaking, it was down double digits in primetime, indicating that viewers were choosing to get their news from one of the other channels. While it is easy to blame politics-centric news on a day when politics was not the story, the bottom line is that MSNBC was able to leverage its relationship with NBC News to cover the event. Unfortunately for MSNBC, it does not have the “breaking news” brand that CNN does, or the ability to retain viewership that Fox News has proven.

TVNewser commenter: "CNN remains the default channel, because inmates and airports can't change the channel."

Read 'em and weep, MSNBC: weekend cable news ratings via TVBTN.

(H/t Johnny Dollar)

Jon Stewart: 'What story does a guy have to blow to get in trouble at ABC?'

2012-07-24T10:15:00.001-04:00

Jon Stewart jumps on ABC News investigative reporter Brian Ross for jumping the gun on the identity of the Aurora shooter by suggesting on the air Friday to George Stephanopoulos the shooter might be a Tea Party guy Ross found on Colorado's Tea Party website.

Stewart slams Ross for taking "two and a half hours" to correct the egregious error for which he did not apologize: "This dude doesn't even get grounded? Doesn't get detention?"

NewsBusters vid and transcript

Remember Ross's flaccid DC Madam Exclusive!

Ross owes the defamed Tea Partier James Holmes an apology. As for Ross, ABC should suspend him.

And what about the ABC News producer's cold call to the suspect's mother before sunrise a few hours after the post-midnight shootings Friday?

ABC News and the flock of media vultures ran with what the producer claimed she said: "you have the right person." Monday the mother, through a lawyer, recalled the unrecorded conversation entirely different. She meant herself and not her son.

Politico on the "steps" ABC is taking -- which appear to exclude a suspension for Brian Ross.

Obama 'Player' Sleeping With The Enemy?

2012-07-24T09:19:00.000-04:00

The Washington Post gossip girls giggle over an anecdote buried in a new book about the Obama stimulus fight in Congress and how Repubs "plotted to block the White House on all major votes. The book claims "GOP senators warned Joe Biden" that their leader Mitch McConnell “demanded unified resistance.”

Outside the Senate chamber the warning was being transmitted in the bed chamber to an Obama mole:

One Obama aide says he received a similar warning from a Republican Senate staffer he was seeing at the time. He remembers asking her one morning in bed: How do we get a stimulus deal? She replied: Baby, there’s no deal.

“This is how we get whole,” she said with a laugh. “We’re going to do to you what you did to us in 2006.

Wash Post Reliable Source gossip dominatrixes giddy after finding the above "tidbit" in a not-yet-released book on Obama's stimulus package: "We think it’s wonderful that an Obama aide was hooking up with a Republican Senate staffer.

But the girls are ticked that author Michael Grunwald won't budge. "Can’t you tell us who they are?"

“Obviously,” said the author, “this was told under the condition that I do not.”

Grunwald — a former Washington Post reporter now at Time magazine — assures us that the “Obama aide” is a genuine player. “It’s not some random intern. It’s somebody who I interviewed for the book.”

Oh yeah? Will we find him elsewhere in the book?

Long pause.

“I don’t want to play a narrowing-it game,” Grunwald sighed. “I’m too stupid, and I’ll fall into your wily trap.” He added that he interviewed more than 400 people for the book.

What about the Senate staffer? Interview her?

Long pause. “I think I shouldn’t go beyond what’s in the book.”

Well, are they still dating? To this, Grunwald responded with a long, agonized pause that basically never ended.

Why include this titillating little story? The author noted that while he had plenty of reporting about secret Republican strategy sessions, the Senate staffer’s pillow talk expressed the same message in more “funny, flip” style, “that these guys were not going to play.”

Yes. But that’s not why we’re talking about it now, is it? So, was he surprised that in this time of partisan rancor, a Democrat was sleeping with a Republican? This time, Grunwald laughed through his long pause.

“Not really,” he said.

Champing At The Bit: NYT Salivating Over Possbile Romney, Michelle Obama Olympics Encounter

2012-07-24T08:35:00.002-04:00

New York Times gold meddle headline: With the first presidential debate still a few months away, President Obama won’t have to meet his Republican challenger face-to-face for a while — but his wife may not have to wait.

Visiting London for the Olympic Games, Michelle Obama and Mitt Romney may cross paths across the pond on Friday, as the two are scheduled to wish Team USA luck and attend the opening ceremony.

Leading the presidential delegation, Mrs. Obama will start Friday with a breakfast of champions, where she will meet members of the Olympic team.

The Romney campaign announced that Mr. Romney would also be meeting with American athletes and attending the opening ceremony as part of the first leg of his trip to England, Israel and Poland.

Far from being a stranger to the Olympics, Mr. Romney ran the 2002 games in Salt Lake City. But this year, his interest is especially personal: a horse co-owned by Mr. Romney’s wife, Ann, will be competing as part of the U.S. Olympic dressage team.

Related: Barack Obama could fly to Games to watch basketball final UK Telegraph

Another Redhead In The News

2012-07-24T07:57:00.001-04:00

Two of Rupert Murdoch's News of the World ex-editors are charged in that Brit phone-hacking scandal. One, Rebekah Brooks, denies all.

Brooks, ex-chief executive of News International, faces two charges.

UK Guardian: I am not guilty of these charges. I did not authorise, nor was I aware of, phone hacking under my editorship. I am distressed and angry that the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] have reached this decision when they knew all the facts and were in a position to stop the case at this stage. The charge concerning Milly Dowler is particularly upsetting not only as it is untrue but also because I have spent my journalistic career campaigning for victims of crime. I will vigorously defend these allegations.

Six other News of the World staffers were also charged. Read the charges and the phone-hacking timeline.

The Jokers: Obama and Biden

2012-07-23T19:38:00.005-04:00

What's wrong with this picture on NBC's Miami affiliate's website?

See the before and after photos snagged by The Smoking Gun.

Media Have A Cow Over Mike Huckabee's Chicken Hawk

2012-07-23T16:35:00.002-04:00

Fox News host, Republican ex-presidential candidate, Arkansas former governor and preacher Mike Huckabee is drumming up business for Chick-fil-A after anti-gay marriage nuggets from the restaurant chain's CEO sparked boycotts.

Huckabee interviewed the still sharp Chick-fil-A founder on his Saturday night show -- never once uttering the word "gay" -- hawking August 1st as "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day."

Chick-fil-A: Cows have 700,000 Facebook fans.

So far more than 50,000 have signed up on the Huckster-created Chick-fil-A Facebook page.

Huckabee: I have been incensed at the vitriolic assaults on the Chick Fil-A [sic] company because the CEO, Dan Cathy, made comments recently in which he affirmed his view that the Biblical view of marriage should be upheld. The Cathy family, let by Chick Fil-A founder Truett Cathy, are a wonderful Christian family who are committed to operating the company with Biblical principles and whose story is the true American success story. Starting at age 46 Truett Cathy built Chick Fil-A into a $4 billion a year enterprise with over 1600 stores. At 91, he is still active in the company, but his son Dan runs it day to day as CEO.It's a great American story that is being smeared by vicious hate speech and intolerant bigotry from the left.

The Chick Fil-A company refuses to open on Sundays so that their employees can go to church if they wish. Despite the pressure from malls, airports, and the business world to open on Sundays, they still don't. They treat customers and employees with respect and dignity.

I ask you to join me in speaking out on Wednesday, August 1 "Chick Fil-A Appreciation Day.” No one is being asked to make signs, speeches, or openly demonstrate. The goal is simple: Let's affirm a business that operates on Christian principles and whose executives are willing to take a stand for the Godly values we espouse by simply showing up and eating at Chick Fil-A on Wednesday, August 1. Too often, those on the left make corporate statements to show support for same sex marriage, abortion, or profanity, but if Christians affirm traditional values, we're considered homophobic, fundamentalists, hate-mongers, and intolerant. This effort is not being launched by the Chick Fil-A company and no one from the company or family is involved in proposing or promoting it.

There's no need for anyone to be angry or engage in a verbal battle. Simply affirm appreciation for a company run by Christian principles by showing up on Wednesday, August 1 or by participating online – tweeting your support or sending a message on Facebook.

The media are having a cow and fixin' to choke the chicken. Mediaite

Batty Man: 'The Joker' Is Mild

2012-07-23T14:40:00.002-04:00

NYDN

New York Times: The hearing answered none of the questions about his state of mind, his motives or his decline from neuroscience graduate student at the University of Colorado in Denver to the sole defendant in Colorado’s worst mass shooting in more than a decade.

Mr. Holmes appeared impassive during the hearing, staring down toward the courtroom floor, his eyes sometimes bugging out wide, sometimes nearly closed. One of his lawyers had to nudge him to stand up when the judge entered the courtroom.

Answer: he's schizophrenic. Drugged up for court with Thorazine or Stelazine or Haldol. The vultures mining motives? I don't give a rat's ass about this murderer's "state of mind," "motives," and his "decline." Even before the victims were removed from the movie theater Friday, the bleeding heart liberal media and NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg were fingering society for failing this wack job with easy access to guns and ammo.

And before I'm accused of callous disregard for the mentally ill, I am the child of a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic mother tormented by inner demons until her death.

Time travel to 1967. A fate worse than death. To Titicut Follies "where people stay trapped in their madness."

A hellhole where I fantasize dispatching posthaste the national media voyeurs for the insane obsession with the killer and not the victims and their families, and "civil liberties" trumping treatment for the mentally ill. (H/t Charles Krauthammer via The DC)

Permit me to share an excerpt of a a 2007 Newsday column written by my network radio colleague Gil Gross:

What I think we can do, however, is remove the celebrity status. We can
make the victims the lead. We can put their faces on the screen far more than
his. We can refuse to track down everyone who knew him in school, and we can stop filling our airwaves and column inches with psychologists making absurd hypotheses about people who never creased their couches.

We can mention his name in passing to place the blame, but not grant him
the fame he wanted and others may then seek. When people make it clear they are hurting innocents to get a certain reward, why would we not at least pause and think about it, before becoming the vehicle by which such a sad wish is granted?

Related: Politically Ill Leftists Exploit an Unspeakable Tragedy Rush Limbaugh
Murderer mother accuses ABC News of getting "you have the right person" wrong. ABC stands by its version.

Wash Post: 'Remember when it was a good thing to be a liberal?'

2012-07-23T08:30:00.000-04:00

Wash Post Reliable Source gossipistas: Remember when it was a good thing to be a liberal?

Democrats nostalgic for some old-fashioned, ignore-the polls idealism converged on the Newseum Thursday night to celebrate George McGovern’s 90th birthday. There was cake, of course, but it was really a reunion of folks who remember when they leaned left. . . or lefter.

“George, you taught me just how liberal my parents were — more liberal than they may have even known,” offered Nancy Pelosi in a parade of heartfelt toasts to the birthday boy. “Thank you for being born.”

Update Tuesday July 24th NYT: "Hasty and Ruinous 1972 Pick Colors Today's Hunt for a No. 2."

McGovern and short-lived veep pick Thomas Eagleton.

Obama Quote-Spaying Reporter Lapdogs Neutered?

2012-07-23T07:46:00.000-04:00

News organizations covering Obama's White House made a deal with the devil to sanitize quotes under threat of no access.

Last week the New York Times, ironically guilty of the aforementioned, exposed the sleazy quid pro quo triggering outrage, denials, and a promise to return to committing real journalism.

One of the exposed, The National Journal, has ordered reporters to cease and desist after scribe and Fox News ex-White House correspondent Major Garrett gave an unadulterated quote:

Those who did speak on the record said the restrictions seem only to be growing. “It’s not something I’m particularly proud of because there’s a part of me that says, ‘Don’t do it, don’t agree to their terms,’ ” said Major Garrett, a correspondent for The National Journal. “There are times when this feels like I’m dealing with some of my editors. It’s like, ‘You just changed this because you could!’ ”

Politico quoting The National Journal's memo to staff: A quotation is just as important as any other paragraph in your story. ... So how is ceding control of an interview or quote any different than letting a press secretary edit any other paragraph? The entire story? All your stories? It's not. Don't do it. If a public official wants to use NJ as a platform for his/her point of view, the price of admission is a quote that is on-record, unedited and unadulterated. Proposed exceptions can be discussed case-by-case with your editor. We can't hold leaders accountable while allowing them to pull our punches.

NYT: Both the Obama and Romney campaigns routinely demand that reporters consent to quote approval when giving interviews. If the reporters agree, quotations from campaign officials, advisers and candidates’ family members have to be sent to a press aide for the final go-ahead. Quotes sent back to reporters are often edited for style and clarity.

If reporters refuse, they are not granted an interview. National Journal is among several news outlets that have said they find quote approval to be troubling, especially now that it has become standard for many politicians.

The Times has said that it encourages its reporters to push back against sources who demand quote approval and that it is reviewing how its policies might address the issue. The Washington Examiner said last week that it, too, would not accept interviews granted under the condition of quote approval.

"Push back?" Really? The New York Times? White House leak spinners and purveyors of politically motivated skew jobs?

Rupert Murdoch Shedding UK Newspapers?

2012-07-22T08:39:00.001-04:00

While cable news continues to exploit the Movie Massacre, Batman Bloodbath, Theater Terrible Tragedy, Cinema Carnage -- whatever they're pimping it on teevee -- Rupert Murdoch's timing is exquisite in Saturday's announcement that the News Corp chief bailed last week from a bunch of UK newspaper boards.

Huff Post: Saturday's announcement suggests that Murdoch may be distancing himself from his British newspaper interests, which have been shaken to the core by a widespread phone hacking scandal.

UK Telegraph broke the story: Rupert Murdoch's grip on UK newspapers is loosening "finger by finger", as he resigns string of directorships.

Telegraph Australia: Murdoch has not commented yet, even on his favoured social media, Twitter.

Ah, but Rupert did send out a Saturday tweet supporting gun control.

NYT: According to company officials who claim to be familiar with his thinking, the scandal has convinced Mr. Murdoch that the British newspapers, including The Times and The Sunday Times, which have been racking up tens of millions of dollars in losses in recent years, have become a financial and reputational drag on the News Corporation’s other holdings. On both sides of the Atlantic, there has been mounting speculation among corporate analysts that he would seek to sell the newspapers once dozens of impending lawsuits stemming from the phone-hacking have been concluded.

Before his resignation from the British directorships became public, Mr. Murdoch had signaled a waning interest in his British operations.

It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Murdoch’s American newspaper and publishing interests would be affected by the moves announced Saturday.

Related: Canny Rupert Murdoch Announces News Corp Split On Obamacare Supreme Court Decision Day When Nobody Gives A Rat's Ass.

Media Manipulates 'Movie Massacre'

2012-07-21T08:06:00.000-04:00

In case anyone is puzzled because I've ignored the big headline: Movie Massacre. I refuse to write anything about this psychopath and the mindless, endless loop media speculation and inane chatter. The voyeuristic vultures circle, trot out clueless psychiatrists pontificating in generalities, wring their hands, scream gun control, point predictable fingers (ABC's Brian Ross) at the Tea Party, Rush Limbaugh ...

I'm sick about this slaughter, and it wasn't "random," as Fox News bonehead Peter Doocy proclaimed Saturday morning.

If I hear the redundant "terrible tragedy" one more time I'm going to bash the TV.

I probably should take down that photo of me with the AR-15 . . . But I'm not.

Tiki Barber's Bride and Joy

2012-07-20T07:32:00.000-04:00

With this ring. Barber, 37, and former NBC intern Traci Lynn Johnson, 25, make it legal Thursday. NYDN

At city hall eight days after Barber's divorce became final. NYP

NBC News Suits Deballed

2012-07-20T07:16:00.000-04:00

There's a new sheriff at NBC News. A chick. The heads of NBC News, MSNBC, and CNBC are demoted to deputies. Alpha male malcontents?

LAT: Taking steps to dissolve the company's various news fiefdoms, NBCUniversal Chief Executive Steve Burke on Thursday created a new centralized business unit that includes NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC.

NBCUniversal administration executive Patricia Fili-Krushel, who has not had direct involvement in a network news operation for more than 12 years, has been installed as chairman of NBCUniversal News Group.

Burke said the move would create "a structure that should help foster even more cooperation."

The consolidation also resolves lingering questions about which of the company's three powerful news chieftans, NBC News President Steve Capus, CNBC President Mark Hoffman or MSNBC President Phil Griffin, might nudge one another out to become the top newsman. Both Capus and Griffin were tight allies of former NBCUniversal chief Jeff Zucker and given wide latitude under his reign.

But in the end, Burke decided that none of the three would get the top job.
The move also could be viewed as a demotion for Capus, who has been struggling to reverse alarming ratings declines at the network's premier news program "Today." The show is now fighting for first place with ABC's"Good Morning America."

NYP: NBCUniversal chieftain Steve Burke shocked insiders with his pick to lead the company’s far-flung news operations, passing over several veterans for the top job.

Burke’s decision to appoint Fili-Krushell, a longtime confidante, was described by network news insiders as “crazy” and “bizarre” given her lack of news credentials.

Fili-Krushel ran human resources, business operations and strategy, although she was a former ABC Television president and had responsibilities for ABC News.

“The timing sucks,” said one person close to NBC’s news division. “[Burke] didn’t go out and hire a news person, he put an administration person in charge.”

The extra layer of management was viewed as bad for NBC News head Steve Capus and CNBC chief Mark Hoffman, who previously reported directly to Burke. MSNBC President Phil Griffin continues to report to Capus, a spokeswoman said.

Her position raises questions about the ability of the news chieftains to work together without adult supervision.

The NBC News division is on the hot seat, with the “Today” morning show continuing to slide in the ratings even after Savannah Guthrie replaced Ann Curry, whose badly handled exit from the anchor chair has been Topic A for weeks.

While NBC insiders were poring over Burke’s memo announcing the shake-up, Curry was spotted having lunch with her lawyer, Robert Barnett, at a power lunch spot, Michael’s, in Manhattan yesterday.

Related: Brian Stelter NYT

Savannah Guthrie: Not 'Today', I Have A Headache

2012-07-20T06:33:00.002-04:00

Strumming her pain.

NYP Page Six: Has the pressure of the ratings war after the bloody firing of Ann Curry become too much? “Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie is battling painful migraines while settling into her new spot on the couch for the NBC morning program, sources tell Page Six. Guthrie, who earlier this month replaced Curry, has been suffering from headaches so severe, she needs to see a doctor several times a week and wear dark glasses to alleviate pressure on her eyes.

“She goes to a doctor two days a week for treatment of the migraines, and is required to wear dark glasses when she’s not on set,” a source told Page Six, adding, “The pressure of taking over after Ann’s execution is taking its toll.”

'Anchorman' Star Jerked Off TV Show After Jerking Off In Public

2012-07-19T18:46:00.002-04:00

Let's pray it is not God's plan for CNN suit Mark Whitaker to wind up like lookalike "Anchorman" TV news director Fred Willard.

The septuagenarian actor was nabbed jerking off in a seedy LA adult theater Wednesday night and was fired within hours from his PBS TV show "Market Warriors." TMZ has the sordid details and the name of his next movie: "The Yank."

So far impotent Whitaker hasn't been able to ~~get it up~~ the ratings up at CNN ...

Related: Hot-off-the-press CNN press release: CNN #1 in Africa!
Willard Whacked Lisa de Moraes Wash Post

Emmys 2012: 'Mad Men', Cable TV Shows Smokin' Broadcast Networks

2012-07-19T17:34:00.001-04:00

The man crush of NBC's Brian Williams, Jon Hamm, assumes the position to make Emmy history as Mad Men racks up 17 Emmy 2012 nominations. Mad Men has won best drama the past four years.

Historic! NYDN UK Daily Mail LAT THR Wash Post

Watch NYT's media star Brian Stelter declare "the headline is cable beats broadcast!"

FOX News: Joker Obama's Bane

2012-07-19T07:53:00.000-04:00

"Few things seem to pique President Obama like Fox News." NYT:

Political experts said Mr. Obama’s swipes at Fox News then and now seem to be in keeping with a strategy to discredit his opponents, a tactic the campaign has deployed rather effectively.

“Whoever it is who may be a source of strength for Romney, they’re out there trying to discredit them in some fashion,” said David Gergen, an adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. “It’s an old tactic, and it often works.”

Yes, THAT David Gergen. Hired political gun at CNN.

The White House insists that the president does not have a preoccupation with Fox News, and that both of the president’s recent Fox quips were ad-libbed.

None of this has gone unnoticed inside the studios and executive suites of Fox News, which is rebuffing these White House put-downs as a denigration of the presidency.

“I think it lowers the office,” Michael Clemente, Fox’s executive vice president of news. “For it to come up as regularly as it does — and it’s not every day but every other week, I’d say — it’s just unusual.

The White House and the Obama campaign in Chicago both view Fox News with a degree of skepticism. “We work with Fox News and their reporters in a professional way every day,” said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary. “But we’re not naïve about their business model.”

“You would be surprised how low on the list of priorities this is,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director.

Mr. Clemente says he assumes that Mr. Obama feels frustrated with how he is covered, and from time to time likes to vent. The intensity of their dispute, he added, is far lower than it was in 2009.

“We’re examining and analyzing,” Mr. Clemente said. “And I think that can be annoying at times.”

After all, he noted dryly, “we’re not C-Span.”

In 2008 Obama observed "If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn't vote for me."j

Related: Economic Fears Hurting Obama, Poll Indicates NYT:

The poll includes a drop in Mr. Obama's favorability ratings, with 36 percent saying they viewed him favorably and 48 percent saying they did not. In April, 42 percent expressed a favorable opinion of him and 45 percent an unfavorable one.

But that change may have been affected by a reordering of this particular set of questions, which at this point in general election cycles are typically placed near the top of the survey. During the primary season, the questions about favorability were placed lower on the survey after queries about presidential job approval and other topics.

Barbara Walters Bags Chat After George Zimmerman 'made a demand'

2012-07-19T06:47:00.006-04:00

NYP Page Six: Barbara Walters walked away from an interview with Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman after the former neighborhood watchman demanded at the last minute that, in return for the chat, ABC put him and his wife up in a hotel for a month, a source told Page Six. Walters flew down to Florida early yesterday and met with Zimmerman and his lawyer to discuss the possibility of a lengthy TV sitdown. Her interview would have taken place after he was done talking with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, a situation that already made the newswoman leery, we’re told, as she prefers to land exclusives. But we’re told that Walters was “appalled” by Zimmerman’s hotel demand, and told him the deal was off. An ABC News spokesman confirmed that Walters met with Zimmerman, but refused to confirm what he asked for. “She went down there with every intention of doing an interview, but Mr. Zimmerman made a demand at the last minute that we could not and would never agree to,” the rep said.

Zimmerman would've gotten lots of dough in a quid pro quo had he sold ABC family photos and videos in a "licensing agreement."

Related: Zimmerman wants an apology from MSNBC media whore Al Sharpton. NYDN

Update: Babs blabbed more on Thursday's The View. ABC News
Zimmerman called into the show but Babs refused to put him on the air. NYDN NYP

Romney Bain Defender On CNN Payroll Was In Bed With Bain

2012-07-18T17:48:00.002-04:00

CNN dispatches paid political hired gun David Gergen to exploit his contacts at Bain Capital to get to the bottom of the Bain frenzy but when caught, outsources the media hit to a supposedly clueless CNN grunt.

The Huffington Post is pissed:

It seems unusual for CNN to ask a political analyst like Gergen -- especially one with ties to Bain -- to do independent reporting for the network.

A CNN spokeswoman explained in a statement to The Huffington Post why Gergen was asked to do reporting and said the producer making the request was unaware of Gergen's relationship to Bain at the time.

"Last week a CNN producer asked several reporters and analysts, including David Gergen, to follow up on questions about Gov. Romney’s exit from Bain. At the time, the CNN producer was unaware that David had past financial ties with Bain years ago. In a later conversation, when David disclosed this past relationship, all agreed that he would be transparent with a full disclosure when he appeared on CNN later that night. The disclosure was also included in David’s weekend op-ed."

The spokeswoman added that Gergen has no current relationship with Bain and hasn't had one for years. And if Gergen again discusses Bain on air, his past relationship will be disclosed.

In defending Bain and Romney, Gergen's "past relationship" has not been "disclosed" in the past.

FOX News Host's Husband Charged With Attacking Woman

2012-07-18T17:18:00.000-04:00

Fox News host's husband was ready for his close-up on charges of attacking a woman a month ago in a Greenwich, Connecticut restaurant. Pirro copped no plea in Wednesday's arraignment. Next court date: September 11th.

NYP notes Jeanine and Al are "estranged."

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Steps On Rush Limbaugh's Cape

2012-07-18T11:52:00.000-04:00

Rachel mocks Rush. Via Huff Post.

Joker? Rush ruminated Tuesday after picking up on what Jon Stewart said Monday: Have you heard this new movie, the Batman movie, what is it, The Dark Knight Lights Up or whatever the name is. That's right, Dark Knight Rises. Lights Up, same thing. Do you know the name of the villain in this movie? Bane. The villain in The Dark Knight Rises is named Bane, B-a-n-e. What is the name of the venture capital firm that Romney ran and around which there's now this make-believe controversy? Bain. The movie has been in the works for a long time. The release date's been known, summer 2012 for a long time. Do you think that it is accidental that the name of the really vicious fire breathing four eyed whatever it is villain in this movie is named Bane?

There's now a discussion out there as to whether or not this is purposeful and whether or not it will influence voters. It's gonna have a lot of people. This movie, the audience is gonna be huge. A lot of people are gonna see the movie, and it's a lot of brain-dead people, entertainment, the pop culture crowd, and they're gonna hear Bane in the movie and they're gonna associate Bain. The thought is that when they start paying attention to the campaign later in the year, and Obama and the Democrats keep talking about Bain, Romney and Bain, that these people will think back to the Batman movie, "Oh, yeah, I know who that is." (laughing) There are some people who think it'll work. Others think you're really underestimating the American people to think that will work.

Rush responded with a clip of Jeopardy! where the contestants couldn't name Rachel Maddow even with a clue, and a jab that she's auditioning for Jon Stewart's The Daily Show.

Update Wednesday Rush show: "I never said that the villain was created to campaign against Romney. I said the Democrats were going to try to make that linkage."

Anthony Weiner Testing Political Waters With His . . .

2012-07-18T10:44:00.000-04:00

Toe.

Anthony Weiner's public rehabilitation has begun a year after he resigned from Congress over that sexting scandal. With leaks coming from Weiner that he's plotting a political second coming -- maybe as NYC mayor -- with $4.5 mil left in his campaign, the Weiners pimp family values and dance around the NYP's Weiner ejaculation Exclusively! to PEOPLE mag:

Weiner: "I'm very happy in my present life. The only next dramatic steps I'm planning on are Jordan's first."

Wife Huma: "It took a lot of work to get to where are are today, but I want people to know we're a normal family."

"Anthony has spent every day since [the scandal] trying to be the best dad and husband he can be," she says of her husband, who does all the laundry. "I'm proud to be married to him."

Obama's Jobs Council Sham

2012-07-18T09:57:00.000-04:00

Why hasn't Obama's Jobs Council headed by tax dodger outsourcer GE's CEO Jeffrey Immelt not met in six months?

Council bluffs.

Inquiring minds at POLITICO want to know: President Barack Obama’s Jobs Council hasn’t met publicly for six months, even as the issue of job creation dominates the 2012 election.

For starters, there’s the discomfort many business leaders may feel in appearing to embrace the president with his reelection bid in full swing.

Then, there’s the fact that some members of the commission have conspicuously declined to endorse him. And that Obama has conspicuously declined to endorse some of their recommendations. And that some of what Obama won’t endorse has been warmly embraced by Republicans, including likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

To cap it all off, several of the companies whose CEOs serve on the panel are involved to some extent in outsourcing — a fact that could undercut the ferocious attack Obama and his campaign are mounting on Romney over his alleged ties to the practice.

Obama named General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt to head the panel in January of last year as the president tried to mend his frayed relationship with the business community and highlight his commitment to job creation. Part of the council’s political value was to show Obama working closely with top business leaders on behalf of the American people. But the White House insisted that the council’s recommendations would lead to real action.

The panel held three “quarterly” sessions last year with Obama: in February, June and October.

“This has not been a show council. This has been a work council,” Obama declared during the January 2012 session, where the panel presented a report containing more than 60 recommendations aimed at stimulating job creation.

Even without a public meeting, the council has generated some awkward press for Obama. Last week, as his campaign stepped up its attack on Romney for allegedly outsourcing American jobs, The Huffington Post noted that several major companies whose executives serve on the council outsource products from China or other countries.

“Just because a company is on the Council doesn’t mean that we endorse its specific business decisions,” White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said in response to the report.

CNN's Diss Cam

2012-07-18T08:13:00.002-04:00

"If he refuses to release them, it is because one, he had a lot more money in tax shelters in prior years than he does now. Two, he did something shady. Or, three, he's stupid." CNN's comely cipher Erin Burnett on Monday demanding Mitt Romney hand over all his tax returns.

Since then, the Huffington Post has gotten nearly 13,000 comments on Burnett's educated opinion. Mission accomplished, CNN!

POLITICO's media scribe Dylan Byers: This isn't Chris Matthews or Rachel Maddow at MSNBC; this is CNN — a fact the Obama campaign, which has circulated the above video and transcript, greatly appreciates.

Burnett's venture out of journalism and into campaign advice (or admonition) seems bold and potentially risky for the network. CNN has long defined itself as the place people turn to for breaking news — and for this, it has struggled against Fox News and MSNBC, especially in the personality driven primetime hours. So perhaps this is an effort to inject some personality in the mix. But it's certainly not an effort to cover the news. In fact, it seems like an effort to create it.

Related: Mike Allen's POLITICO Playbook points out MSNBC's Morning Joe Romney tax graphic: "Point of No Returns." Wednesday's POLITICO Playbook brought to you by GE:

A message about What Works: Every 2 seconds an airplane, powered by GE technology, takes off somewhere in the world. At GE Aviation, we are developing new technologies so we can be even more efficient, quieter and cost effective. GE is putting the best people and the best technologies together to take on the toughest challenges. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. www.ge.com

CNN Ex-Wife Whacks Eliot Spitzer, TV News

2012-07-18T07:29:00.002-04:00

“We now give broadcast licenses to philosophies instead of people. People get confused and think there is no difference between news and entertainment. People who project themselves as journalists on television don’t know the first thing about journalism. They are just there stirring up a hockey game.” Retiring Democratic NY Congressman Gary Ackerman to syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker (ex-on-air spouse of ex-CNN's Eliot Spitzer).

Not tonight, I have a headache.

Parker (dumped by CNN at Spitzer's insistence before HE got dumped): Ackerman is, of course, correct. Most political talk shows have little to do with journalism — getting at objective truth — and everything to do with advancing an agenda. Many, if not most, talking heads come not from the reportorial trenches but from politics, think tanks or, increasingly, a prosecutor’s office somewhere. (Does anyone actually practice law anymore, or are law degrees merely licenses for “experts”?)

This isn’t to say that such people shouldn’t have a voice or a forum. Many make valuable contributions to our understanding. But the distinctions should be made clear, and viewers (and readers) need to be better informed about sources and the integrity of their contributions.

Unfortunately, the so-called “mainstream media” — that is, old media — have suffered a crisis of confidence, deservedly in some cases. But in most real journalism institutions resides a dedication to providing reliable information according to universally accepted standards and practices. Without them, our news would be limited to stories about sex, lies and the madam next door.

Did Kathleen just give hooker-loving ex-NY governor Spitzer, now starring on Al Gore's ratings bereft Current TV, a left hook?

WH Press Pool Forced To 'Witness' Kiss Cam 'Smooch' After Obamas Botch First Photo-Op

2012-07-17T10:15:00.003-04:00

Work up a sweat, lady?

Mike Allen's POLITICO Playbook: "President Obama arrived ... wearing jeans, sneakers, white shirt, dark blue Under Armor zip up. He spoke to the Olympics-bound U.S. women's national team and posed for a group picture. The U.S. team had just defeated the Brazilian women's team earlier in the day. He greeted the team with, 'Work up a sweat, ladies?' ... The team gave him a red USA jersey with Number 1. ...

"POTUS ... greeted with loud cheers from crowd, 'Born in the USA' by Bruce Springsteen played. He was joined by Vice President Joe Biden and former White House aide Reggie Love. Biden wearing a blue button-down and khaki slacks. Your pool is in the press box. ... During play, POTUS leaned out of his seat, craning his neck to see the action at the other end of the court. Could be seen clapping his hands together a few times. Stood up again at his seat drink the break before sitting back down and conversing with Reggie Love. Michelle Obama in the house, wearing navy blue strapless dress. FLOTUS and POTUS put on 'Kiss Cam' in Verizon Center. POTUS had his arm around his wife, both smiled, didn't kiss. Boos from crowd."

Wash Post: The crowd did a bit of trash talking, too, booing the first couple after the first lady playfully rebuffed Obama’s advances when they were featured on the “Kiss Cam” on Verizon Center’s overhead scoreboard.

Can I get a witness? POLITICO: "Second time's the charm for Obamas on kiss-cam."

The Obamas did share a couple of public kisses in the second half, the first of which elicited some cheers and chants of “four more years!” (Notably, the White House press pool, which had been moved from the arena to vans before the second kiss, was led back into the arena in time to witness the smooch, according to a pool report.)

Huff Post UK: Even public displays of affection can't sway the eminent coolness of the Obamas.

Huff Post US: The first lady went dressy casual in a blue tank top and a long floral skirt. (So on trend!)

NYT columnist Maureen Dowd: It’s hard for the haters to get traction when the president and his wife are looking so all-American, smooching for the “kiss cam” at the U.S. vs. Brazil basketball game here Monday night, as the lovely Malia excitedly looked on.

Related: MOTUS

Larry King's Back On The Block!

2012-07-17T09:38:00.002-04:00

CNN forced retiree Larry King returned to the air Tuesday hosting a half-hour celebrity interview show that can only be seen on the Internet. The nearly octogenarian's career was preserved by a nearly seamless segue from CNN to Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's Ora.TV.

Slim's the same savior who bailed out The New York Times.

Tuesday Hulu debuted King's first show shot at his house with Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane. THR

Hulu senior vp content Andy Forssell: “Larry King Now is Larry King doing what he does best: talking with top newsmakers, world leaders and entertainers and exploring issues and current events as no other interviewer can. We're excited for our partnership with Ora TV and thrilled to bring fans a daily dose of fascinating interviews from a man whose characteristic charm and distinctive style has impacted pop culture so greatly."

Is CNN is ruing the day it dumped Larry for Brit phone-hacking scandal-plagued narcissistic starf**ker Piers Morgan?

State-Controlled Media? Obama Campaign Censors Journalists' Quotes

2012-07-17T08:56:00.003-04:00

Huff Post

Under a tacit threat of losing access, reporters covering Obama are forced to submit quotes to Obama's Chicago campaign censorship machine. It's not a "trend." It's an edict taken to new heights by the Obama White House. Stockholm Syndrome scribes enduring a hijacking of the Fourth Estate.

New York Times: The quotations come back redacted, stripped of colorful metaphors, colloquial language and anything even mildly provocative.

They are sent by e-mail from the Obama headquarters in Chicago to reporters who have interviewed campaign officials under one major condition: the press office has veto power over what statements can be quoted and attributed by name.

Most reporters, desperate to pick the brains of the president’s top strategists, grudgingly agree. After the interviews, they review their notes, check their tape recorders and send in the juiciest sound bites for review.

The verdict from the campaign — an operation that prides itself on staying consistently on script — is often no, Barack Obama does not approve this message.

Quote approval is standard practice for the Obama campaign, used by many top strategists and almost all midlevel aides in Chicago and at the White House

It is a double-edged sword for journalists, who are getting the on-the-record quotes they have long asked for, but losing much of the spontaneity and authenticity in their interviews.

Jim Messina, the Obama campaign manager, can be foul-mouthed. But readers would not know it because he deletes the curse words before approving his quotes. Brevity is not a strong suit of David Plouffe, a senior White House adviser. So he tightens up his sentences before giving them the O.K.

Those who did speak on the record said the restrictions seem only to be growing. “It’s not something I’m particularly proud of because there’s a part of me that says, ‘Don’t do it, don’t agree to their terms,’ ” said Major Garrett, a correspondent for The National Journal. “There are times when this feels like I’m dealing with some of my editors. It’s like, ‘You just changed this because you could!’ ”

It was difficult to find a news outlet that had not agreed to quote approval, albeit reluctantly. Organizations like Bloomberg, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Reuters and The New York Times have all consented to interviews under such terms.

The Obama campaign declined to make Mr. Plouffe or Mr. Messina available to explain their media practices.

Reporters who have covered the Obama presidency say the quote-approval process fits a pattern by this White House of finding new ways to limit its exposure in the news media.

Fat City: ABC's 'Good Morning America'

2012-07-17T07:56:00.001-04:00

Chewing the fat: Today Monday July 16.

GMA outweighs Savannah Guthrie's Today show week debut.

ABC press release: ABC News' "Good Morning America" won the week in Total Viewers (4.570 million) for the week of July 9, 2012, according to Fast National Preliminary Live + Same Day Nielsen data, extending its run at No. 1 to 3 consecutive weeks, taking the top spot in 7 of the last 14. "GMA" led NBC's "Today" (4.213 million) during the week by its largest margin of victory (+357,000) in more than 17 years - since w/o 5/15/95. In addition, "GMA" earned its first back-to-back Total Viewer wins over the NBC program in nearly 17 years - since w/o 11/27 and w/o 12/4/95. Additionally, Goodmorningamerica.com on Yahoo! is the dominant morning news website, leading NBC's Today.com by millions of pageviews and unique users. In June 2012, 22.3 million people visited Goodmorningamerica.com on Yahoo!.

In Adults 25-54, ABC News' "Good Morning America" finished in a virtual tie for No. 1 with NBC's "Today" (1.709 million vs. 1.711 million) for the week. With only 2,000 Adults 25-54 viewers separating the two programs, "GMA" delivered its closest news demo performance with "Today" in nearly 17 years - since w/o 9/11/95.

During the week, "GMA" dominated "Today" in Total Viewers, beating the NBC program in 4 of 5 head-to-head telecasts (Mon: +392,000, Tues: +198,000, Wed: +658,000 and Thurs: +540,000) This marks the most single-day wins over "Today" in the course of a week in nearly 17 years - since w/o 12/4/95. Furthermore, "GMA" held the Top 4 most-watched telecasts of the week (Monday thru Thursday, respectively).

For the 2nd straight week, "GMA" ranked No. 1 in Adults 25-54 on 2 days during the week: Monday (+63,000 - 1.759 million vs. 1.696 million) and Wednesday (+111,000 - 1.831 million vs. 1.720 million). Further, "GMA's" Wednesday airing stood as the top Adults 25-54 telecast the week, marking the first time in nearly 5 years that "GMA" staked claimed to the week's top demo telecast - since w/o 10/15/07.

WEEK OF 7/9/12            TOTAL VIEWERS     ADULTS 25-54
ABC                        4,570,000        1,709,000
NBC                        4,213,000         1,711,000

(H/T Wash Post TV Column)

NBC's 'Today' Big Gulp: 'Fat sex'

2012-07-16T08:28:00.000-04:00

Starting off your Monday morning Today show right, Willie Geist teases: "When we come back we'll take a look at a problem that affects millions of Americans: fat sex."

Willie, it's waaaay too early . . . A new cause for NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg?

(H/t Dave Barber)

Today show video

MSNBC's Ed Schultz Taunts: 'Tax Returns are the new Birth Certificate'

2012-07-16T07:47:00.002-04:00

MSNBC's Ed Schultz Sunday: George Will appeared on ABC This Week and said what the rest of us are thinking. "Mitt Romney is losing at this point, in a big way." Will went on to question why Romney didn't tidy all this up long ago, considering he knew in 2008 he would run again.

MSNBC's Ed Schultz Saturday:

Democratic Underground: NOTE: This is not about Bain, this is about Romney releasing his tax returns like all other presidential candidates have done. He cannot be allowed to slide on this. The use of the Birth Certificate notion is to remind people that such pursuits are not unusual, and Obama actually ended up complying. So why won't Mitt? He needs to have tremendous pressure brought to bear on him, regardless of whether he releases the documents, because it shows he is NOT TRANSPARENT. Even the right wing dislikes that. Don't worry about the BC association, the idea is to keep this pressure going. You can "Like" this post on Facebook - it's going viral with hundreds of Likes and Shares.

NBC's $300 Million Microsoft Divorce

2012-07-16T07:22:00.000-04:00

New York mag

At the stroke of midnight MSNBC.com -- the umbrella for all things NBC News digital -- became NBCNews.com. Same strokes for same folks. A New! Improved! MSNBC.com returns next year devoted only to MSNBC. Oh, what a tangled web NBC weaved . . .

Dear readers, fans and friends,

For 16 years, it has been our privilege at msnbc.com to bring you one of America’s favorite sources for insightful and compelling news and information. We’ve been your source for breaking news, one-of-a-kind stories, segments from NBC News and MSNBC shows, and live video coverage of the most important news events of our time. Our team has never stopped working to satisfy your curiosity, whenever and wherever you are.
Today we’re taking on a new name — NBCNews.com. While our name is changing, our commitment is not. In fact, in the weeks and months ahead, we’ll be bringing you more of what you love today, and NBCNews.com will stay true to its mandate of delivering the news you need with the innovative spirit you’ve come to expect across all of our digital platforms. Over the years, we’ve won dozens of awards for our digital coverage, but the real reward has been serving you, our audience.
So while you’ll notice some changes to our logos and navigation, nothing’s going away.
In fact, there’s more to come: MSNBC TV will launch a new digital home in 2013, as an extension of the MSNBC TV on-air brand, creating in-depth content and a community for the passionate audiences of MSNBC programs. Until then, MSNBC TV’s digital content will continue to be available on this site, right where you’ve always found it.
We’re more excited than ever for the future of digital news and look forward to many more years of keeping you on the cutting edge. In the meantime, if you have questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you on Facebook and Twitter or email us .
Keep on keeping curious,

Jennifer Sizemore
Editor-in-Chief

NYT's media star Brian Stelter reports it cost NBC News $300 mil to snatch sole custody of MSNBC.com.

This divorce between Microsoft and NBC News may also loosen the reins of objectivity on MSNBC -- at least online. Eric Deggans Tampa Bay Times

Obama's Tarnished Penny From Heaven

2012-07-15T07:38:00.000-04:00

The Obama campaign leaks a story to the New York Times to shame Chicago Hyatt Hotels billionairess Penny Pritzker into funneling pennies from heaven to Obama in danger of being "outspent" by Romney. If it weren't for Pritzker's support going back to 2004, Obama wouldn't be in the White House.

For Mr. Obama, Ms. Pritzker’s wealth and business experience are huge assets but also potential liabilities. He considered nominating her for commerce secretary but did not, because her fortune risked making her radioactive. She does plan to join him on the campaign trail this month, but that could prove awkward, given that the president is pounding Mr. Romney for some of the same practices of which Ms. Pritzker or her family business is accused — housing significant wealth in offshore trusts and treating workers poorly.

She wanted to be commerce secretary, friends say. But shortly after Election Day, while she was still raising money for Mr. Obama — more than $53 million for his inauguration, on top of the $745 million for the campaign — she withdrew from consideration. (She and campaign officials say it was her choice; others say the president-elect had no interest in a confirmation fight at a time of public anger over the advantages of wealth.)

A bank owned in part by her family had been so mired in toxic subprime loans that the Pritzkers and other owners eventually paid a $460 million settlement to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. And her nearly $2 billion fortune exploits a network of trusts, including some held offshore, to minimize tax liabilities.

Now that Mr. Obama is in danger of being outspent by Mr. Romney and his allies, the pressure on Ms. Pritzker to increase her efforts is mounting.

Like many of Mr. Obama’s wealthiest donors, she has not given to the “super PAC” supporting him, saying she objects to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which paved the way for unlimited fund-raising by outside groups.

Many in the party now believe that Mr. Obama’s fate could turn on checks from Ms. Pritzker and others like her. And even some of her friends believe she may yet find herself pulled into the money race at an entirely new level.

Obama Campaigning In Virginia: Someone Left The Fake Out In The Rain

2012-07-14T20:10:00.002-04:00

Apologies to Jimmy Webb's MacArthur Park.

"An awesome photo opportunity for the Obama campaign." BuzzFeed pimps 30 shots of an all-wet president who kept up the Bain attacks on Mitt Romney Saturday in Virginia without mentioning Bain by name. Politico

Fire and rain: "We're going to win." NYDN Politico

Just try and stay out of my way. Just try! I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!

I'm melting! melting! Oh, what a world! Oooooh, look out! I'm going!

Related: NYT Wicked ad ripping Romney a new one hit the airwaves Saturday in Virginia and eight states:

Mitt Romney: For He's A Jolly Good Felon

2012-07-14T07:28:00.001-04:00

FOX News The Five cohost and Bush 43 ex-press sec Dana Perino: "You can't have it both ways. You can't say that Romney is both this squeaky clean, too white, too weird, too Mormon guy, and also say he's a felon."

(H/t Mediaite)

Romney Media Manipulator?

2012-07-13T21:31:00.000-04:00

Huff Post: Mittsburg? I'm not getting it. Full Romney, yeah. Kinda sounds like Full Monty. How about Bain de Soleil? So Romney goes on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX News, CNN in a "hastily scheduled response to the swirling controversy surrounding his ties to private equity company Bain Capital."

Although the Bain thing is a nothingburg, the Obama multimedia rat-tat-tat is selling. Perception v reality.

So Romney's using the media to fight back:

The interviews also marked a departure from Romney's usual media strategy. Since embarking on his 2012 campaign, the candidate has largely favored Fox News for his appearances.

He stayed off Sunday shows for twenty consecutive months before appearing on "Fox News Sunday" in December 2011. Romney recently expanded his press exposure to CBS, ABC and CNN. He spoke with CBS News' Bob Schieffer in June for his first non-Fox News Sunday show appearance of the current campaign.

Related: Mitt counter-punches on Bain POLITICO

Obama Accuses FOX News of Peddling Lies to 'Stubborn' Viewers

2012-07-13T20:59:00.000-04:00

Obama takes another swing at FOX News. This time during a campaign stop Friday in swing state Virginia:

“So, just in case some of your friends or neighbors or, you know, Uncle Jim who’s a little stubborn and been watching Fox News and, y'know, he thinks that somehow I raised taxes, let’s just be clear. We’ve lowered taxes for middle class families since I came in office."

(H/t Hot Air)

Obama-Driven Media Attacks: Blowing Romney's Bain Out

2012-07-13T11:20:00.003-04:00

Muahahaha! All pawn and no Bain.

CNN hired gun, ex-Clinton hack, and Obama paid campaign comrade Paul Begala crows: "Bain will never go away!"

Politico's Dylan Byers: Begala is biased, but he isn't the only one advising Romney to address questions about his Bain tenure head-on. Several Republican strategists have also said that Romney would better serve his candidacy by releasing more information about both his financial sector service and his finances in general.

And, Begala's critique gives you a pretty good indication of how the Dems intend to play this -- and tells you that they intend to play it straight through November.

Byers reproduces a Bain SEC filing that CNN got its hot little hands on as "the smoking gun" evidence Romney was Bain's big cheese after 1999 -- the year Romney claims he quit Bain.

One of the Obama campaign's media attack dogs, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow moves forward the sortie by giving the Boston Globe reporter a platform Thursday to expound on his story blowing the lid off Romney's Bain tenure. Huff Post Mediaite

Al Gore's ratings bereft Current TV enlisted rather than wait to be drafted into the service of Obama:

(H/t Mediaite)

Politico's Byers runs the Romney campaign email response to the Boston Globe story requesting a correction which the Globe refused. The email reads in part:

Mitt Romney left Bain Capital to run the Olympics in February of 1999. Your article on Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain asserts that Mitt Romney remained “at the helm” of Bain Capital beyond his retirement from the firm in February of 1999. This is inaccurate. Bain Capital after this time was managed by the other partners in the firm.

Due to the sudden nature of Mr. Romney's departure, he remained the sole stockholder for a time while formal ownership was being documented and transferred to the group of partners who took over management of the firm in 1999. Accordingly, Mr. Romney was reported in various capacities on SEC filings during this period."

Related: Billionaire NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg is different from Romney because he's "a man of the people." Rich ex-ad man and paid contributor Donny Deutsch on Friday's MSNBC Morning Joe segment "Bain and Suffering." NewsBusters

NYT Columnist On 'Why Elites' Like MSNBC's Chris Hayes 'Stink'

2012-07-13T09:57:00.001-04:00

NYT columnist David Brooks in "Why Our Elites Stink" takes issue with MSNBC's Chris Hayes's book on the subject. Like the rest of MSNBC's advocacy hosts, Hayes, following management's blueprint, is using MSNBC as a vehicle for political and social change.

Brooks: Christopher Hayes of MSNBC and The Nation believes that the problem is inherent in the nature of meritocracies. In his book, “Twilight of the Elites,” he argues that meritocratic elites may rise on the basis of grades, effort and merit, but, to preserve their status, they become corrupt. They create wildly unequal societies, and then they rig things so that few can climb the ladders behind them. Meritocracy leads to oligarchy.

Far from being the fairest of all systems, he concludes, the meritocracy promotes gigantic inequality and is fundamentally dysfunctional. No wonder institutional failure has been the leitmotif of our age.

It’s a challenging argument but wrong. I’d say today’s meritocratic elites achieve and preserve their status not mainly by being corrupt but mainly by being ambitious and disciplined.

The corruption that has now crept into the world of finance and the other professions is not endemic to meritocracy but to the specific culture of our meritocracy. The problem is that today’s meritocratic elites cannot admit to themselves that they are elites.

Everybody thinks they are countercultural rebels, insurgents against the true establishment, which is always somewhere else. This attitude prevails in the Ivy League, in the corporate boardrooms and even at television studios where hosts from Harvard, Stanford and Brown rail against the establishment.

As a result, today’s elite lacks the self-conscious leadership ethos that the racist, sexist and anti-Semitic old boys’ network did possess. If you went to Groton a century ago, you knew you were privileged. You were taught how morally precarious privilege was and how much responsibility it entailed. You were housed in a spartan 6-foot-by-9-foot cubicle to prepare you for the rigors of leadership.

The best of the WASP elites had a stewardship mentality, that they were temporary caretakers of institutions that would span generations. They cruelly ostracized people who did not live up to their codes of gentlemanly conduct and scrupulosity. They were insular and struggled with intimacy, but they did believe in restraint, reticence and service.

Today’s elite is more talented and open but lacks a self-conscious leadership code. The language of meritocracy (how to succeed) has eclipsed the language of morality (how to be virtuous). Wall Street firms, for example, now hire on the basis of youth and brains, not experience and character. Most of their problems can be traced to this.

If you read the e-mails from the Libor scandal you get the same sensation you get from reading the e-mails in so many recent scandals: these people are brats; they have no sense that they are guardians for an institution the world depends on; they have no consciousness of their larger social role.

The difference between the Hayes view and mine is a bit like the difference between the French Revolution and the American Revolution. He wants to upend the social order. I want to keep the current social order, but I want to give it a different ethos and institutions that are more consistent with its existing ideals.

Related: MSNBC's Chris Hayes 'Rhetorically Proximate' To Stupid, Chris Hayes: Heroes & Zeros

Columbia Journalism Review Fingers Female MSNBC Non-Journalist as One of 20 'eXXcellent talents we'd bet on to map the future of the media business'

2012-07-13T07:30:00.000-04:00

MSNBC chick Melissa Harris-Perry is the only cable news "journalist" to make Columbia Journalism Review's list of 20 women to watch. And the smug black Rachel Maddow is unwatchable, in my humble professional opinion.

Professor Harris-Perry was plucked from liberal academia to host a weekend MSNBC show bearing her name after acing MSNBC's talking head tryouts. Like her liberal young MSNBC colleague Chris Hayes, Harris-Perry is a columnist for The Nation.

CJR: "A by-no-means-complete list of eXXcellent talents we’d bet on to map the future of the media business."

I want to see the XXX list.

CJR also runs "The Divine Sisterhood: All hail the 40 who changed the media business in the past 40 years."

To illustrate that you cannot believe what you read, consider the CJR blurb on this pioneer:

Christine Craft A 40-something TV news anchor who sued for age discrimination (she was demoted in 1981 after a focus group said she was “too old, too unattractive and wouldn’t defer to men”).

Christine was 36 when my former EP at WJBK-TV in Detroit, Ridge Shannon, who had moved on to KMFB-TV, took her off the anchor desk at the Kansas City station after sexist Ridge enlisted a news consultant to remake her into Jane Pauley and she balked. Ridge never liked ballsy women. Probably the same consultant (Al Primo and his creepy assistant in a Dracula cape) who attempted the same with me. Craft sued and won a half mil.

Dickhead Media Reporter Disparages Neil Cavuto's 'Dwarfish Dick' On Twitter

2012-07-12T18:30:00.001-04:00

You can literally hear Neil Cavuto's weird, dwarfish Irish-Italian dick fill with blood every time he reports negative economic data.
— Anthony Crupi (@crupicrupicrupi) July 11, 2012

AdWeek scribe and self-pimped "untouchable boy genius" Anthony Crupi sticks his dick in the Twitterverse vise like many invincible reporters before him. Daily Caller

This is Crupi's Twitter photo:

This is Crupi's Twitter and Facebook profile avatar:

Crupi's self-skewered testicle.

He pounded out the foul tweet after midnight July 11th. Was he drunk tweeting? Crupi composed a nasty tweet disparaging Aaron Sorkin July 9th at 2 a.m.

I can literally hear Anthony Crupi's dick shrivel . . . when Adweek suspends him.

CNN Bottom Feeder Piers Morgan Relegated To Barbara Walters Reject Robert Blake

2012-07-12T16:05:00.001-04:00

Wacked-out washed-up TV cop "Baretta "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time" Robert Blake pimping his memoir to CNN'S Piers Morgan Wednesday:

"We're not blowing smoke up your ass. I mean this with all of my heart. I'm deeply grateful that I'm here with you because In the past I could do any talk show I wanted in the world. But Barbara Walters said, 'You know, I love you Robert, but you can't be on 'The View.' Why? 'Because we sell toothpaste and if we get a letter from some PTA lady who says 'What are you doing with that accused murderer on your show?' So all of that was denied me. And I said, well, to hell with them."

And went on the last resort for rejected losers -- CNN --where, because of a historic 21-year ratings low, they don't sell much of anything any more. CNN's Piers Morgan, desperately requiring a twitter explosion which he got after fielding an expletive-bleeped multiple personality septuagenarian schizo train wreck, eagerly snapped up the bizarre Blake for the entire hour. Watch here. CNN Mediaite

Morgan claims Walters had "no comment" on Blake's recollection. In 2002, sniffing an exclusive, Barbara befriended Blake in jail where he spent nearly a year before getting sprung on bail.

Oh, wait! Not the only talk show. PBS's Tavis Smiley interviewed Blake seven months ago.

Blake makes Charlie Sheen look like Beaver Cleaver.

Katie Couric: 'I felt bad for Ann'

2012-07-12T07:52:00.002-04:00

Press scrum buttonholed Katie Couric at Indianapolis Speedway Tuesday where she was interviewing driver Danica Patrick for her ABC daytime TV show debuting in September.

Wash Post: Asked about Curry, Couric first said: “That is such old news. Are you guys really still writing about that?”

“I felt bad for Ann and I felt bad for the whole team on the show. Transitions like that are really tough. But I know she’ll go on and do great things.”

Baghdad Drinks Katie Couric's Cool Aid

2012-07-12T07:04:00.000-04:00

New York Times: At more than two dozen locations around this city, officials have posted giant billboards of Ms. Couric, billed as “America’s Sweetheart” during her time as a host of the “Today” show on NBC.

The Electricity Ministry is making only halting progress in solving the country’s power woes, so it is trying to burnish its image with a public relations campaign that demonstrates a degree of Madison Avenue sophistication, not to mention a disregard of copyright law.

“We were looking for a bright and optimistic face that inspires the people to imagine a better future for electricity,” said Musaab al-Mudarrs, the spokesman for the Electricity Ministry, who said designers had plucked Ms. Couric’s image from the Internet.

Mr. Mudarrs said the face of an American woman was sought for the campaign because showcasing an Iraqi woman would violate cultural taboos. And Ms. Couric, he said, was dressed appropriately in the picture — she was wearing a brown Max Mara blazer — and was the right age. “We didn’t want someone to be very old or very young, and she was in the middle,” he said. Mr. Mudarrs did say he was a bit worried that “when she finds out, maybe she will file a lawsuit against us.”

But in a telephone interview, Ms. Couric took the news in stride. “I’m calling my lawyer,” she said, adding quickly, “I’m kidding.”

Ms. Couric, who has reported from Iraq, said the billboards were “bizarre and slightly amusing.”

So it was Ms. Couric who unwittingly became the public face of one of Iraq’s most implacable problems. (The backup choice, for those wondering, was Laurie Dhue, a former anchor for Fox News.)

Loses cool.

Why FOX News 'The Five' Is Kicking Ratings Ass

2012-07-11T13:10:00.000-04:00

Basic Instinct's brilliant screenwriter Joe Eszterhas scribbled the bones of his next spec movie on a paper napkin which sold for $4 mil 20 years ago.

FOX News' brilliant boss with the Midas touch, Roger Ailes, divining a show to replace the incendiary, radioactive Glenn Beck, wrote two words on a napkin. The Five.

The Hollywood Reporter: Insiders say Ailes created the The Five simply by writing down the words – inspired by the timeslot and the number of panelists he envisioned -- on a piece of paper a few weeks before Beck’s show was to end.

“When Glenn Beck left Fox and there was an open slot, I sent Mr. Ailes an email saying 'I’d kill for that slot.' He emailed back, saying, ‘yeah, you and 300 other people’,” recalls Eric Bolling, an anchor on Fox Business Network and also a regular on The Five.

“We tested the concept a few times and it seemed the right five people were sitting in those chairs. As the story goes, I think Ailes wrote it on a napkin one afternoon, and boy was he right.”

It was billed as a summer replacement ensemble show featuring a rotating cast of five from a pool of seven in-house FOX News talent.

The show, celebrating a year today, has become so successful that in recent weeks it has surpassed longtime FOX News shows in total viewers and in the golden 25-54 demo.

TVNewser: For the month of June, “The Five” is up +14% in Total Viewers and +5% in A25-54 viewers vs. June 2011, Beck’s final month on Fox News. So far, for July “The Five” is averaging 1.83 million Total Viewers and 405,000 A25-54 viewers. That’s up +43% and +46% over the same time period last year. (There was a week between Beck’s finale on June 30 and the launch of The Five on July 11.)

Two weeks ago the Roger Ailes-created show had its best week ever; on June 28 it hit an all-time high with 2.1 million viewers and on July 2 had a demo high with 515,000, making it the #1 show on cable news.

Why it works: The regulars on what's evolved into a news reality show -- the admittedly flawed human, crusty liberal lug Bob Beckel; goofy, irreverent, rubber-faced Greg Gutfeld; buxom, brainy, leggy Puerto Rican princess/temptress in five-inch Christian Louboutin stilettos, Kimberly Guilfoyle; hunky business guy Eric Bolling; Greek goddess with humble family restaurant beginnings, NYDN columnist Andrea Tantaros; the irascible Juan Williams; and the glue that holds this TV news Romper Room together, George W's former press secretary, the diminutive Dana Perino -- have been permitted the latitude to showcase their personalities and lives on the air and in social media. Check out their Facebook page.

The Five mixes hard news chatter delivered in an entertaining manner with self-deprecating humor, unlike FOX's competitors' tinny, whiny, preachy, accusatory, one-dimensional nattering nabobs of negativism. Liberal cable news networks have and are suffering the same fate as liberal (progressive) talk radio: unimpressive ratings, lack of sponsors, and eventual evaporation into radio and TV etherland. What progressive media doesn't get is that viewer and listeners want to be informed AND entertained. Witness the phenomenal success of Rush Limbaugh's personality-driven format.

Democrat old political hand Bob Beckel appears to have simmered down in recent months, his angry edge and foul mouth tempered by many trips to the FOX News Kool-Aid dispenser? Maybe that July 4th trip to the dunk tank cooled him off!

Cable news' first reality show: reality bites.

The Five has critics and copycats.

THR: One media executive who has appeared as a guest on the network, for example, says that each of the cast appear to be “playing a role” rather than engaging in honest debate.

“It's unwatchable," said the executive. "But Fox News is so popular you could put up pictures of snails at 5 p.m. and it would get good ratings."

Sour grapes, counters Beckel.

“People who do serious shows are jealous that we get to have a little fun. Whoever said that hasn’t got the guts to last three minutes on The Five.”

Copycats: MSNBC's The Cycle at 3 p.m. with a similar ensemble cast of two men and two women which debuted last month. (See "MSNBC Names New Show After Women's Monthly Curse.")

Last week Beckel, claiming he was in a "rough mood," jumped on The Cycle for peddling The Five's format.

Bob, you'll know for sure if one of the tight-assed Cycle chicks emulates Kimberly Guilfoyle's July 4th erotic wing-eating contest.

Role-playing: Greg Gutfeld (tongue-in-chic) "Swallow, Kimberly, swallow!"

Related: Five Questions for 'The Five' TVNewser

Michelle Obama: Middle Class Brass

2012-07-11T09:15:00.000-04:00

$540 Lanvin shoes at DC food bank.

Jimmy Choo "gardening" boots

Politico headline: "Michelle Obama is the president's middle-class messenger."

As she speaks at fundraisers and grassroots rallies — including the two she did Tuesday in Florida — Michelle Obama turns back to her roots to contrast herself with the always-comfortable Romneys: She grew up in a “little-bitty apartment” on Chicago’s South Side that her mother still lives in (when not at the White House), her father working long days at a city water plant while fighting multiple sclerosis, and both parents pushing their children to work hard and achieve more in their lives.
The Obama campaign is well aware of how powerful the first lady is in making this case.

Speaking Tuesday at a rally in Miami, the first lady “Growing up, I saw how my parents saved and sacrificed, and poured everything they had into me and my brother. They held us to the same high standard of excellence because they wanted us both to have the kind of education they could only dream of,” the first lady said Tuesday in Miami. “How many people can relate to that?”

Middle class dreams are “what’s at stake” in this election, she continued, repeating lines from her standard stump speech. “That’s what we’re fighting for — that fundamental promise that no matter who you are or how you started out, if you work hard, you can build a decent life for yourself and an even better life for your kids. That is the American Dream. That is it.”

The first lady isn’t trying to attack the Romneys with the implicit contrast between her life and theirs, a Democrat close to the first lady insists, but that her story tacitly underscores the differences between the two potential first families is a fringe benefit that Obama allies don’t mind having.

The first lady’s mentions of her past are also a way to tell voters that a few years in the White House haven’t changed her, and that she and the president are still the people they were before they moved in.

Sure.

Related: Obama's War on Women American Crossroads

TV Antidote To Obama's Phony Class Warfare Venom

2012-07-11T07:50:00.000-04:00

While whining, hypocritical Democrats churn class warfare that a) doesn't exist and b) poll data show Americans don't buy, in Haiti, where class difference is disturbingly stark, the have nots have an outlet to assuage resentment:

A TV show that ridicules rich, spoiled, privileged Haitians.

Alessandra Stanley NYT: Regards Croisés,” which translates roughly as “Viewpoints,” has been on the air a little more than a year and is a runaway hit with middle- and working-class Haitians who live, as people in the capital put it, “down the hill.” The show’s improvised skits, which feature all-too-familiar character types — the ill-trained schoolteacher, the mercurial embassy consul — gently send up Haitian daily life, particularly the class divides and crushing hardships that make so many Haitians desperate to get out.

Haiti is a poor, aid-dependent country rich in political instability, corruption and disaster. People here have a deep craving for comic relief.

The success of “Regards Croisés” is a little unlikely — it’s a comedy show in a nation full of tragedy — and that says something about Haitian resilience.

The limit of its popularity says just as much, though, about the rigidity of Haitian society, the inflexibility of the country’s class boundaries.

It doesn’t have commercial sponsors, it’s not expertly produced nor is it well promoted. Its reputation has spread through word of mouth, without promos, viral YouTube video campaigns or fancy Internet fan pages. Haitians who don’t have televisions at home watch on the street, crowded around sets in barbershops, beer stands and on sidewalks. In Port-au-Prince, those in slums and tent encampments watch TV with power siphoned off the city grid.

The 90-minute show is spirited but the lighting is dark, the three cameras ill coordinated, and, though taped in advance, it’s barely edited.

Like Al Gore's Current TV -- but with far more viewers. Perhaps CNN and MSNBC should consider channeling their roiling resentment and anger into comedy with the potential payoff of better ratings ...

Related: Romney pit bull laughs at MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Hot Air
John Sununu Laughs at Andrea Mitchell Defending Obama's Use of Bogus Romney Outsourcing Claims NewsBusters

New Gallup Poll: Liberals Losing Confidence In TV News

2012-07-10T20:56:00.000-04:00

Gallup poll (June 7-10 before SCOTUS ObamaCare ruling): Americans' confidence in television news is at a new low by one percentage point, with 21% of adults expressing a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in it. This marks a decline from 27% last year and from 46% when Gallup started tracking confidence in television news in 1993. The decline since last year in confidence in television news among liberals did not coincide with a similar decline among Democrats. Democrats this year are the most confident in the television news media among key subgroups. Interestingly, postgraduates, who tend to be Democrats, are now the least confident.

Liberals and moderates lost so much confidence in television news this year -- 11 and 10 points, respectively -- that their views are now more akin to conservatives' views. This marks a turnaround from the pattern seen since 2009, in which liberals expressed more confidence than conservatives. Conservatives' views of television news were last similar to liberals' in June 2008, before the last presidential election. However, moderates are significantly less confident now than they were then, 20% vs. 28%.

It is not clear precisely why Americans soured so much on television news this year compared with last. Americans' negativity likely reflects the continuation of a broader trend that appeared to enjoy only a brief respite last year. Americans have grown more negative about the media in recent years, as they have about many other U.S. institutions and the direction of the country in general.

Confidence in television news could plummet further after the high-profile errors CNN and Fox News made in their coverage of the intensely anticipated Supreme Court healthcare law ruling that some have called a "Dewey defeats Truman" moment. CNN has promised an internal review, and its handling of the outcome of that review could help to bolster confidence. More broadly, these and other networks -- and the news media as a whole -- will have to renew their efforts to show Americans that they deserve a higher level of confidence than what they enjoy today.

(H/t Jim Romenesko)

Romney Licks, Obama Spoons Ice Cream Cone

2012-07-10T19:55:00.002-04:00

Who is the elitist?

Real men lick.

Tongue tied waffler: Spoon-fed liberal.

BuzzFeed: IMPEACH! In Iowa, Obama eats his mint chocolate chip ice cream cone with a spoon. In a "surprise" visit.

Romney was born with a silver spoon in his mouth; for Obama, it was a quickly acquired taste.

'Today' v 'GMA': NBC's New Princess a Pumpkin in the Ratings

2012-07-10T19:04:00.000-04:00

ABC's Good Morning America beats Today's Monday unveiling of Matt Lauer's new on-air wife, Savannah Guthrie.

'Today' hits a sour note. Wash Post

Ann Curry's got to be laughing her ass off. GMA pulled in more viewers and, more important, more eyes in the golden 25-54 demo.

TVNewser: In preliminary fast affiliate numbers for Monday, “Good Morning America” topped “Today” in both Total Viewers and younger viewers. It’s the first time in six years, since February 2006, that “GMA” won a Monday in both ratings measurements.

“GMA” led “Today” by just +6,000 A25-54 viewers (1.680M vs. 1.674M) and a much more decisive +356,000 Total Viewers (4.425M vs. 4.069M). As preliminary numbers go, these are subject to change.

Earlier: Savannah Guthrie Assumes The Position

Related: ABC's Good Afternoon America Monday debut draws 1.9 mil viewers. TVBTN