David Corn
On Thursday, Richard Armitage went on CBS News and confessed: he was the original source for the Robert Novak column that outed Valerie Wilson as a CIA officer. He apologized to Valerie and Joseph Wilson. In an interview with The New York Times, Armitage said, "It was a terrible error on my part. There wasn't a day when I didn't feel like I had let down the president, the secretary of state, my...
Art Levine
ABC's right-wing screenwriting hacks are even under attack from a few honest fellow conservatives. ( And it could have been even worse -- see below.) As the Center for American Progress reports on its blog:
Today on CNN's Situation Room, Richard Miniter -- conservative author of "Losing bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror" -- confirmed that scenes in ABC's Path to 9/11 are based on "Internet myth."Miniter singled out a...
Eric Boehlert
In a statement released late this afternoon, education publishing giant Scholastic announced it is permanently withdrawing the materials it originally created for classroom use in conjunction with "The Path to 9/11." Materials that Media Matters for America first noted, was "rife with conservative misinformation."
According to Scholastic Chairman, President and CEO Dick Robinson, the materials "did not meet our high standards for dealing with controversial issues." New materials will be...
from YouTube.com
From the Comedy Central Insider blog: Wacko Westboro Baptist Church Pastor Fred Phelps, also known as the charming man who leads nutbar protesters at military funerals with "God Hates Fags" signs, is miffed that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert stole his "Godless Sodomites" line at the Emmys: Apparently, you're not a godless Sodomite until he says you are, and also everybody else. Says Phelps: "America has become a nation of Godless sodomites, who mock and scoff about their Sodomite sins, thereby demonstrating that America is a nation of fag-enabling fools, because only fools make a mock at sin. Prov. 14:9" Who can argue with logic like that?
CCInsider scooped the clip off YouTube, and we're pulling an NYT and blatantly ripping it off, except we're giving them credit. See how that works?
Radar's been back for approximately 29 hours and so far they've been rocking fairly hard, with scoops like Anderson Cooper, Superspy getting picked up 'round the blogosphere (and even by Anderson himself!), its movie-mogul poll getting passed around the industry (so sez a pal in the biz, and the Hollywood Reporter blog), and John Cook's weird feature story on NBC's predator-catching Xavier Von Erck making news itself today in the New York Daily News.
And then there's that James Frey story.
Astute readers will recall seeing Radar's juicy scoop bright and early Tuesday morning (5:59 am), reporting that fabricating fabulator James Frey and Random House were on the verge of settling their lawsuit with readers over his fictionalized non-fiction book A Million Little Pieces.
Fast forward to today, New York Times: "James Frey And His Publisher Settle Suit Over Lies," by Motoko Rich. Guess how many times the Times mentioned Radar, or scoopy reporter Jeff Bercovici? If you guessed zero, you'd be right!
We've said it before and we'll say it again: The MSM does not get a free pass to plunder the blogosphere for whatever news nuggets it deems worthy of scooping up and passing off as its own. It's not transparent, it's not ethical, and it's cheap and tawdry theft. The NYT has plenty of resources on its own; it can afford to give a shout-out to the finder.
Now, it's entirely possible that the NYT came to this story on its own, but far less possible considering that Radar's re-emergence was well-marked in media circles and the James Frey story was namechecked in Radar-rebirth items in Gawker, and us here at ETP . So, scoop awareness was very likely high.
And, as it happens, it was clearly high indeed: According to a source at Radar, a correction is forthcoming (though has not yet appeared online). Considering that the item has been picked up by the AP, however, it would have been nice had Radar actually gotten the credit for the story they broke. Well, we know. And, the Times knows, and maybe they'll think twice next time.
Finally, one more bump in the road this week: It turns out that Mary Mapes will not be working with Dan Rather at HDNEt after all; following a rather embarrassing gotcha by the NYO's Media Mob, Radar has since clarified the item. Though Mapes initially denied speaking with a Radar representative, she subsequently remembered that, oh yeah, she did talk to someone, off the record. There is a National Guard story joke in here somewhere, and I know you've already found it.
So! Big week for Radar. Wonder what they've got going on for tomorrow?
Toby Barlow
Look! There in the back! At the bottom! On page A-22 in the lower right hand corner of the New York Times! It's hard to find, but check it out.
'Cause it's the scariest freakin' thing you're going to see anywhere this month!
More unnerving than "Snakes on A Plane" and deadlier than Paris Hilton behind the wheel, it's an itsy-bitsy teensy article entitled "Discouraging Study on Global Warming." If you can, just...
Rachel Sklar
Today, the Washington Post's David Broder joins the crowing media types claiming that the revelation that Richard Armitage was Robert Novak's Plamegate source exculpates everyone else involved.
IT DOESN'T. In fact, it barely has anything to do with it!
Fact: Karl Rove leaked Joe Wilson's wife's identity to Matt Cooper BEFORE Novak published his column.
Fact: Scooter Libby leaked Joe Wilson's wife's identity to Judith Miller BEFORE Novak published his column.
...
from gogomag.com
Yesterday, FishbowlDC noticed something odd about the schedule for MSNBC's Midterm-Election-A-Thon: In a star-studded lineup featuring network stalwarts Brian Williams, David Gregory, Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough, Campbell Brown, Lester Holt, and Tucker Carlson, MSNBC's chief Washington correspondent Norah O'Donnell was conspicuously absent. FishbowlDC cocked an eyebrow and wondered, "What's up with that?" We wondered, too, so we asked MSNBC representative Leslie Schwartz to explain. Said Leslie: "Norah was in the mix several times throughout the day yesterday, both with reports and interviews" (We, er, missed her, but good job, Norah!).
We also wondered why network firebrand Keith Olbermann wasn't bringing his left-leaning political perspective to the events. Leslie explained that Keith was otherwise occupied: "He hosts an ESPN radio show every day with Dan Patrick and writes his own 8 pm show so he was unable to do an additional hour the way Joe did." We admit, we forgot to ask about Rita Cosby; her up-against-the-glass brand of journalism would no doubt have provided yet another perspective on events.
from videofinds.com
It's in writing, almost: Reuters reports that David Letterman is close to signing a contract with CBS that would keep him on the late shift for four more years. This would take him through the 2009-10 season — which would keep him firmly in place to take on challenger Conan O'Brien when he takes over from Jay Leno in 2009. Negotiations are reported to be smooth with CBS and Les Moonves, a name which ETP first heard through Letterman's mockery and which we can all agree is fun to say. Presently Letterman's annual salary is $31.5 million — perspective: more than double that of Katie Couric — and Reuters reports that the renegotiated version will be similar under the new deal.
Related: ETP is not ashamed to admit that we found the whole "Uma/Oprah" thing funny.
Page Six reports today that billionaire Warren Buffett has excommunicated his granddaughter Nicole Buffett for participating in Jamie Johnson and Nick Kurzon's documentary, "The One Percent" about the richest sliver of America and the widening gap between them and those at the bottom. Buffett apparently dismissed her as no longer having any relation to him "legally or emotionally" (Nicole was adopted by Buffett's son when he married her mother, from whom he is now divorced). A rep for Buffett coldly dismissed Nicole, saying she was "not Mr. Buffett's granddaughter" and dismissing the relationship as "the daughter of a former daughter-in-law of his who was married to his son for only about 10 years." Harsh, and according to Nicole in the documentary and Page Six's sources, entirely inconsistent with family history.
ETP saw "The One Percent" at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year (it was great, by the way) and recalls the younger Buffett living a bohemian life as an artist, and, of all the ridiculously rich offspring featured, seemed to have been the one whose family came off the best (as Page Six confirms, Nicole says that the Buffett brood is taken care of until they are out of school, and then they are expected to pay their own way). Buffett seems a tad less forgiving than Johnson's parents (of Johnson & Johnson fame, and fortune), who appear throughout the movie and were in attendance at the premiere, along with many of the other subjects. After the movie, they all got into waiting town cars and drove off.
Eric Boehlert
The cat calls surrounding ABC's "The Path to 9/11" continue to grow louder. Not only is the network under fire for legitimate questions about the veracity of the primetime mini-series, which apparently goes to significant lengths to pin the blame of 9/11 on the Clinton administration, but ABC itself has failed to answer questions about the dubious way it has arranged for conservative partisans to view the program prior to...
Ankush Khardori
Last week, I wrote a post on HuffPo's Eat the Press about a column written by Cathy Seipp for National Review, in which she called Al Franken a hypocrite. Here was her critical line: "Al Franken rails against audiences for not employing more minorities, and yet apparently couldn't find any non-white research assistants for his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them... or writers for Saturday Night Live when he...
Day three of Katie, and now we can turn our attention toward what really matters in the world of evening news: Blogging. CBS' new Couric & Co. is already well on its way, with a whack of chatty posts chronicling Katie's trip to D.C. for the Bush interview ("Ms. Couric Goes To Washington"), the blog's "Word of the Day" (first word: gravitas, ha!) and the various recurring features like "Katie's Notebook" (basically a video blog post) and "First Look" (not to be confused with the Early Nightly).
Almost all are written by blog editor Greg Kandra in a style that can only be described as "folksy": He urges Katie to call her parents while she's in D.C. because they'll be "tickled," uses the word "diddly" and in defining the word "panoply," he writes:
Over the summer, I heard Katie use this word a lot in interviews with the media. "We want to cover a whole panoply of things," she'd say. Whatzat mean?
Kandra offers up Couric & Co as a place where readers can "vent, joke, ponder" and even "dream" in a tone that is so relentlessly cheery as to be — dare I say — perky, but therein lies some actual news nuggets, including the following:
The blog has jolly behind-the-scenes pics from D.C., chirpy updates from the producer, and an inspiring quote from one of them Shakespeares. It's a far cry from the analysis and this-is-our-world tone of The Daily Nightly, possibly because pretty much only Kandra is writing it; so far, Katie speaks on vid but has not yet properly blogged. Presumably the news value will increase with more correspondent submissions (The Daily Nightly relies just as much on dispatchs from David Gregory and Campbell Brown, with Richard Engel "Blogging Baghdad." The CBS site, however, is a step above TDN, with links everywhere you'd need them (permalinked title; top segments; links to the broadcast. So really there's no shortage of Katie, except for in the one way in which it matters on a blog: As author.
I will admit that the wide-eyed folksy thing grew on me, though I have no doubt that the blogging intelligentsia and TVNews mavens will surely rip its lack of erudition and sophistication. But really, that's not the audience, anyway. This reminds me of that scene in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (a classic - hear me out) when Frank N. Furter presents the muscular, chiseled Rocky to Janet and asks her what she thinks. Glancing at scrawny Brad beside her, she says "Oh, I don't like men with too many muscles." Frank, offended, looks at her and sniffs, "I didn't make him for you." Such is the case with "Couric & Co." — they're not writing for gravitas-hounding critics, they're writing to the audience that will enjoy the behind-the-scenes pics and chatty quotables, the same audience that probably will write in with suggested sign-offs. Less than winning over those who write about it, CBS needs to win over the people who might actually watch it.
