NBC'S decision on Monday to actively label the violence in Iraq a "civil war" triggered a rush by other media outlets to weigh in on the term and the relative merits of its use and non-use. Matt Lauer said that "armed militarized factions fighting for their own political agendas" fit the bill; White House spokesperson Tony Snow said that, no, it didn't, because this was "sectarian violence that seems to be less aimed at gaining full control over an area than expressing differences," which certainly helped clear things up. Since then, media organizations have rushed into the breach to furiously debate which label to use, creating the biggest story this week with the smallest amount of something actually happening. Congratulations! Below, we look at who's using which label in this ongoing, um, "continuation of politics by other means":
— Nick Douglas
from NewsBusters.com
Newsbusters points out that Brian Williams closed out his broadcast from Jordan last night with a mea culpa of sorts, noting with relief that the hufficane season had passed without any actual hurricanes despite dark predictions from his and other networks. Said Williams: "Finally tonight, we have a confession. We got something wrong," admitting that the stream of "dire predictions" reported earlier in the season "wasn't even close" to the relatively mild season that just passed. But what did Williams get wrong? Here's how he opened his May 31, 2006 broadcast:
Good evening, and we are indeed back in New Orleans tonight because this is the eve of the start of the 2006 hurricane season. Along the way, we hope to answer the question: Are they ready for another one?
Pretty fair question at the time, considering that the word on the street was that actually, no, they weren't ready for another one.
Update on yesterday's story on "The Daily Show" shakeup, now confirmed: Yesterday, news broke Ben Karlin, co-executive producer of both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report along with Jon Stewart , had resigned his position, and would be replaced by current head writer David Javerbaum. Today we bring word of Javerbaum's replacement at the head of The Daily Show's crack writing team: writer Steve Bodow (below right), who has been part of the show's Emmy-winning team since early 2002 as working as a journalist (New York, Salon) and theater director in Manhattan before joining the show. As well, The Daily Show is also bringing on former Simpsons and News Radio writer/producer Josh Lieb as a co-executive producer, joining Dan Sterling and Kahane Corn, as we reported yesterday.
Meanwhile, Javerbaum will continue to attend to his musical theater career as Cry-Baby 
(scored with composer Adam Schlesinger of the Fountains of Wayne and with book by Tony-winning Hairspray duo Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan) prepares for a spring workshop and a subsequent run on Broadway (once a theater can be secured). Those unwilling to wait until spring to enjoy the Javerbaum's musical stylings need look only as far as Stephen Colbert's "The Adventures of Tek Jansen," for which he wrote the theme song ("Neutral to the Slimth!"). Sing along here.
Columbia
Bad: Radar yesterday broke an embarrassing story about Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism students cheating on an exam in an ethics course.
Worse: The New York Times today prints a follow-up story, writing in the lede, "Cheating on an open-book, take-home exam in a pass-fail course seems odd."
So horribly wrong: The dean of the journalism school (pictured) tells the Times, "It is not like law school, where fine differences in points make all the difference in the world."
— Nick Douglas
It is with delight and excitement that we proudly announce two new talents joining "Eat The Press": Melissa Lafsky and Nick Douglas. Both will be ETP's brand-new Contributing Editors, filling out the site and providing more up-to-the-minute news, chatter, and the other two things it says up on the top there. Melissa, the eponymous proprietor of Opinionistas and a clutch contributor to ETP and HuffPo so far, will continue to offer scoopy , original reporting and smart , newsy commentary. Nick, a recent and welcome gift from Gawker media, will continue to be on top of the 24-hour news cycle in matters media/new media/technology and the convergence thereof. Nick, who is indeed of more, er, tender years than some of us who shall remain nameless, cut his teeth at Blogebrity and moved on to be the founding editor of Valleywag where he archly covered the Silicon Valley scene, news- breaking and beat-covering with insight and wit. Also, he said he would introduce me to the Google boys.
In addition to Nick and Melissa, ETP will continue to benefit from the insights of semi-regular contributors Ankush Khardori and Sven Hodges, which, come to think of it, makes Nick the only non-lawyer on the ETP roster. Consider that a ringing endorsement for the practice of law. (We will also happily continue to welcome submissions from other crack contributors Alex Koppelman, Maureen Miller, Jamie Frevele, Patrick Waldo, Dan Shanoff and Danny Shea whenever their busy schedules allow).
A note: This beef-up of ETP resources has been in the works for a while, based on my inability to cover the Media Loves Showtunes beat on my own (that Jim Romensko is always nipping at my heels, dammit!).The fact that we're announcing just as HuffPo makes waves as the newest force in cutting-edge political reporting is actually a coincidence, though obviously one with the same root causes.
So that's it! Watch for new and exciting features on ETP going forward, plus our trademark non-stop Shamu coverage, as weirdly relevant today as it ever was. The ETP team is grateful for your readership, and looks forward to serving you going forward, because you are weird and relevant, too.
— Rachel Sklar
from creators.com
Surprise news at the News: Longtime and award-winning columnist Lenore Skenazy, has been axed. The paper has declined to comment on the reason, but the NY Post's Keith Kelly reports that newsroom insiders say it's a case of budget cuts over loyalty. Skenazy, who has been with the news for over 13 years (over 17if you count freelancing, notes Kelly) is syndicated in about two dozen papers, has won numerous awards, and was featured prominently in this summer's short-lived but much-hyped newsroom reality show "Tabloid Wars."
Kelly points out that this move means that the Daily News, which bills itself as New York's "Hometown Paper" is "without a woman columnist other than gossiper Joanna Molloy, who co-writes the column 'Rush & Molloy.'"
This is the second surprise ax this week after Life & Style editor in chief Debra Birnbaum was unceremoniously dropped by Bauer publishing.
from WSJ.com
From the WSJ: The December issue of Russian Forbes was pulled this week after its cover subject, the billionaire wife of Mosco'ws mayor, obtained a leaked copy of the story and threatened to sue and demanded that the publisher yank it, causing the editor to resign in protest. The U.S. version, which cedes editorial control to Axel Springer under the license but provides 40% of each issue, demanded that publisher Axel Springer AG reinstate the magazine, and late yesterday, they agreed.
Billionaire Yelena Baturina, owner of sprawling conglomerate Inteko and wife of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, is worth $2.4 billion. A quote on the cover was initially at issue, which said "I am protected"; the actual quote was "Like any investor, I am guaranteed protection of my rights." The cover quote was corrected but otherwise the story is to be published unchanged.
Baturina and Luzhkov have successfully sued newspapers previously over allegations that her success is due to her husband's influence and position. Press freedom in Russia has been under attack of late, particularly at Forbes after editor in chief Paul Klebnikov was gunned down downtown in July 2004. Earlier this fall, trusted and critically-acclaimed journalist Anna Politkovskaya was similarly gunned down; both were apparent contract killings.
