From NASA-fan Howard Mortman:

WashingtonPost.com Executive Editor Jim Brady sent out the following memo yesterday, which was obtained by FishbowlDC:

Subject: Live Discussion Update All, Just wanted to give you a heads up on some impending changes with live discussions. As you all know, live discussions are one of washingtonpost.com's franchises. We do more live discussions, with a wider variety of guests, than any other web site l know of, and our live discussion fans are among the most loyal readers of our site. It's something that's extremely important to us, and something we have to keep working to make better. To do that, we need to free up the time of its staff. So, to that end, we're going to soon trim back our schedule of weekly live discussions. There are a host of new things we need to work on, such as video live discussions, better web distribution of our discussions content and a more modern tool to handle the discussions. I've asked for and reviewed a list of traffic to each of our discussions for the past year, and after meeting with the Live Online staff, have made some preliminary decisions on cuts. I need to do a little more due diligence, but expect to let everyone know in the next two weeks what we've decided to cut. In some cases, we may offer alternative ways for hosts to reach their readers, such as discussion groups (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/community/groups/front.html?nid=ro ll_messboards). Or we may suggest a more ad-hoc approach in subject areas that tend to see spikes based on news. And nothing prevents us from doing one-offs when news warrants it. Anyway, just wanted to send this out so no one was caught by total surprise if they're contacted in the coming weeks about the status of their discussion. Thanks, Jim

Our thoughts are with Media Consortium's Brian Beutler this morning:

Brian Beutler, a well-known progressive blogger, was shot and seriously injured during a mugging last night in Washington, D.C. One bullet damaged Beutler's spleen, and he had it removed during surgery this morning at the Washington Hospital Center. He's expected to make a "pre-trauma" recovery, which is to say, a completely full recovery.

Say hello to Daily Candy D.C.'s Erin Hartigan.

What word do you routinely misspell? Virtue got me kicked out of the spelling bee way back when.

What's the name of your cell phone ring? Default

What time did you get up this morning? 6:09

When did you last cry and why? I was quite overwhelmed by the tribute episode of "Meet the Press."

How many emails do you receive a day, roughly? Probably 95-100

What's your favorite letter? R

What single person played the biggest role / had the biggest influence on your journalism career? Santa. I got a lot of start-your-own-newspaper kits growing up, so December 26th was always a day of going door-to-door, digging for the real stories on my block.

Read the rest when you click below...(and see previous FishbowlDC interviews: Julie Mason, David Shuster, Joe Curl, Alex Pareene, Peter Beinart, Jonah Goldberg, Megyn Kendall, Ana Marie Cox, Jim Brady, Howard Mortman, Amy Argetsinger, Jose Antonio Vargas, Chuck Todd, Tom Gottlieb, Kelly Ann Collins, David von Drehle, David Lat, Mark Leibovich, Zain Verjee, David Plotz, Paul Kane, Karen Travers, Mark Halperin, Hugo Gurdon, Greg Kelly,Ken Rudin, John Dickerson, Anne Schroeder, Spencer Ackerman, Bret Baier, Bob Sellers, Greta van Susteren, Danielle Jones, Jonathan Salant, John McCalla, Pam Hess, Ryan Grim, Marc Ambinder, Marty Kady, Jack Shafer, Annie Lou Bayly, Jerry Zremski, Charlie Cook, Dave Hughes, Howard Fineman, Katie Tarbox, Mark Segraves, Chris Cillizza, Tom Sietsema, Bill Triplett, Robin Givhan, David Brody, Norah O'Donnell, Carl Cannon, Jordan Lieberman, David Folkenflik, Molly Henneberg, Ernesto Londono, Brody Mullins, Aaron Blake, Martha Raddatz, Andrew Sullivan, Christina Bellantoni, Shane Harris, Nora McAlvanah, Adam Nagourney, Erin McPike, Mike Memoli, Ju-Don Marshall Roberts, Arthur Delaney, Chris Mincher, Rachel Sklar, Laura Sullivan, Jeff Kosseff, Matthew Cooper, Scott McCrary, Dan Reilly, Jennifer Griffin, Ari Shapiro, Jonathan Kaplan, Rick Klein, Mike Allen, Olivier Knox, Erik Wemple, Nathan Burchfiel, Andrea Mitchell, Mike DeBonis, Anne Kornblut, April Ryan, Amy Morris, Keith Koffler, Mark Silva, Ann Compton, Mark Knoller, Betsy Fischer, Katherine O'Hearn, Pamela Brown, Beverly Kirk, Wendell Goler, Glenn Kessler, Susan Page, Michael Crowley, Claudia Milne, Kelly Dinardo, Bruce Becker, Michael Rogers, Paul Schur, Diana West, Eric Nuzum, Bill Adair, Jonathan Ward, Jennifer Sergent, Jeffrey Goldberg, Ken Silverstein, Dana Milbank, Mark Murray, Katherine Lewis, Joe Mathieu, Chrystia Freeland, Sam Youngman, Christopher Dorobek, Greg Mitchell, Candy Crowley, Steve Chaggaris, James Pindell, Linda Kramer, Reid Wilson, Jay Newton-Small, Dan Steinberg Susan Ferrechio, Matt Labash, Gene Weingarten, Ron Allen, Kimberly Dozier, Perry Bacon, Jim Mills)

Also, drop us a line to let us know who else you'd like FishbowlDC to interview. They must work in the Washington area and you must include their email address.

continued...

Sure, Howard Kurtz has 1,885 friends, but I'm closing in on 1,000 and am gonna drop balloons and honk horns on the lucky Facebook friend.

>UPDATE: Meet, my 1,000th friend:

Over at washingtonpost.com, Mary Ann Akers spots an interesting computer glitch that has produced interesting results:

The American Family Association obviously didn't foresee the problems that might arise with its strict policy to always replace the word "gay" with "homosexual" on the Web site of its Christian news outlet, OneNewsNow. The group's automated system for changing the forbidden word wound up publishing a story about a world-class sprinter named "Tyson Homosexual" who qualified this week for the Beijing Olympics. The problem: Tyson's real last name is Gay. Therefore, OneNewsNow's reliable software changed the Associated Press story about Tyson Gay's amazing Olympic qualifying trial to read this way: Tyson Homosexual was a blur in blue, sprinting 100 meters faster than anyone ever has.

What you now see on C-SPAN's site, www.capitalnews.org:

This, of course, is part of C-SPAN's evolution into the digital age, which FishbowlDC recently reported...

Earlier today, Howard Kurtz held his weekly chat that was understandably heavy on Tim Russert tributes and analysis. Some excerpts:

Richmond, Va.: Tim Russert will be missed in so many ways. I went my first Sunday morning without him, and missed him terribly. Will NBC keep "Meet the Press" in its present format? It seems like such a hard decision. If they keep the name, the new person will be, perhaps "unfairily" compared (and who would take that on anyway?). Do you think they will have another politics show but under a different name? Howard Kurtz: There's no question that NBC will keep "Meet the Press" is something resembling its current format. It is, after 60 years, the longest-running news show on television. Russert always described himself as a temporary custodian of the franchise established by Lawrence Spivak. Obviously, whoever inherits the franchise will tweak it in some ways, but it will still be "Meet the Press." ... Philadelphia: Don't you think Tim Russert would be saying "enough is enough" with the coverage of his death? What do you think the parents and spouses of fallen soldiers are thinking? Howard Kurtz: I do think he would be saying enough is enough. Obviously the only nonstop coverage is on MSNBC, but lots of people want a chance to weigh in. Since it happened late Friday, I notice a few columnists and bloggers sharing their thoughts today. ... Rochester, N.Y.: Where would you place Tim Russert in the pantheon of great journalists, present and past? And is it true, as I've heard rumored, that he may be beatified by the Catholic Church? Howard Kurtz: No clue about that, although he did meet the last two Popes, so maybe he has an in. I'd say he was one of the top political analysts of his generation. ... Charlottesville, Va.: While I didn't always agree with his opinions or interview choices, I always admired Russert for his genuine enthusiasm for the topic of politics. A lot of talking heads on TV seem much more interested in themselves than the subject matter at hand. Tim seemed unique in not following that trend. Is he the last of a breed, or are there others still out there with that almost contagious love of their craft Howard Kurtz: I think you've hit on something. I know the endless tributes seem over the top to some people. Journalists tend to get overpraised when they pass, because it's journalists who do the praising. But I do think Russert was different in that lots of ordinary people -- not political junkies or Washington types -- related to him as the working-class kid from Buffalo, the Bills fan, the good-humored guy who took his questions seriously but not himself. All kinds of friends and neighbors who don't care much about politics are telling me how much they loved Russert. I confess that I'm surprised how deep a chord he struck with much of the public.

Jim Johnson resigns:

Supreme Court ruling on foreign terrorism suspects:

What an idea...

Gawker has captured the "O-Faces" of 50 journalists and above are some of the DC-types. And, no, we don't have the courage to actually put in print what an "O-Face" is for those of you who don't know, so instead we'll just link to a definition.