Taking Out The Trash

What we almost missed today...

• Sunday Show Ratings: NBC's "Meet the Press" was again the #1 show in all categories. CBS's "Face the Nation" came in second place. Year-to-date, the Bob Schieffer broadcast is up 14% in Total Viewers and up 13% in A25-54 viewers compared to the same period last year. TVNewser has the numbers here.

• An announcement today from NBC- Mark Lukasiewicz adds Vice President for NBC News Specials to his Vice President of Digital Media title.

What we almost missed today...

• Check out President Obama's fly-swatting skills in an interview above with CNBC's John Harwood.

• Gawker takes a look at the Twitter habits of the White House press corps here.

• WebNewser points out the Secret Service has denied msnbc.com's request for the names of all White House visitors from Jan. 20 to now. It also denied a narrower request by the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sought logs of visits by executives of coal companies.

• Julius Genachowski, President Obama's nominee for chairman of the FCC, said today he does not support reinstating the fairness doctrine, as reported by Broadcasting and Cable.

What we almost missed today...

• Helene Cooper taught us a new word on NBC's "Chris Matthews Show" Sunday. "There is a group of women who cover the State Department and foreign policy in Washington right now and they meet secretly and call themselves the 'diplo-babes.'" Way to tell us something we don't know, Helene.

• Christopher Beam and Chris Wilson continue to spoof President Obama's Facebook page on Slate.

• Also from Howard Kurtz's Media Notes today: Progressive radio returns to Washington this month as Air America takes over 1050 AM, which had been Federal News Radio, under a deal with Bonneville International. The station, which plans to add local programming, launches months after Redskins owner Dan Snyder pulled the plug on ratings-challenged OBAMA 1260.

What we almost missed today...

• The Fresno Bee caught up with Fox's Bret Baier. On taking over from Brit Hume, Baier says, "I am proud of what we have been able to do and I think our numbers and the network numbers show that we are striking a chord."

• HLN anchor Robin Meade and former President George Bush are going to jump out of a plane together this Friday in Kennebunkport, Maine. The U.S. Army Parachute Team, the "Golden Knights," will conduct the tandem parachute jump and CNN, HLN and CNN.com will all cover it.

• Do President Obama and the "fawning" press need to get a room? Check out Phil Bronstein's take here.

What we almost missed today...

• Stephen Colbert is in Iraq, taping and performing shows for troops. "Operation Iraqi Stephen: Going Commando" airs on Comedy Central next week.

• Margaret Carlson hosted a party for Joe Scarborough last night for his new book "The Last Best Hope." NBC and MSNBC colleagues came out in droves, including Andrea Mitchell, Betsy Fischer, Chris Matthews, Luke Russert and Mark Whitaker, as well as Tammy Haddad, Ana Marie Cox, Rick Klein, Sally Quinn and Dana Milbank.

• In an radio interview today, CNN's John King said he would not have used interview time with the President for a late night comedy bit, as NBC did this week. TVNewser has the exchange.

What we almost missed today...

• Richard Wolffe celebrated his new book "Renegade: The Making of a President" last night at Cafe Atlantico with friends and colleagues, including Valerie Jarrett, Gwen Ifill, Michele Norris, Emily Heil, Ezra Klein, David Axelrod, Jon Favreau and even Rashida Jones.

• The AP introduced a new column "Capital Culture" today, a joint venture between the WH team in DC and the Lifestyles team in NY. From the release: "This new column will include profiles of key administration players as well as the lesser known people who make the White House and Congress work. It also will provide insider glimpses of Washington power brokers and explore how the Obamas are impacting American culture, from fashion to gardening to pickup basketball."

What we almost missed today...

Poor Wayne Allard :( The Washington Times forgets Colorado recently had a Republican senator.

Don't...er, do quit your day job? Robert Gibbs is a regular laugh riot.

LAST CALL swizzles Larry King: Not to be outdone by the admin's release of "100 Days, 100 Projects," Larry King reminded everyone about the release of his memoirs, alternatively titled "Married Eight Times to Seven Women."

Coug-o-rama. Move over Sonia Sotomayor...'cause we hear that Cap Hill Cougs are ferocious. FamousDC compiles "Real Housewives" coverage.

*WARNING TO HOUSEWIVES: Don't pull this in DC unless you're pursuing a career as my hood ornament. Trust.

What we almost missed today...

• Former NBC producer Aram Roston has a piece in GQ this month on Texas billionair Allen Stanford, "Did This Man Pull Off The Most Brazen Swindle Of All?"

• So as FishbowlNY put it, Twitter can be very helpful to journalists, whether they're promoting their own work, seeking sources or just looking for what everyone is talking about. In light of Twitter's popularity, WSJ editor Alix Freedman sent an email yesterday to staffers outlining new conduct guidelines that specifically instruct reporters how to handle themselves on Twitter.

• WebNewser has obtained a memo sent from NPR SVP of News Ellen Weiss about some leadership changes as public radio continues to change with the times including an audience that continues to fractionalize. NPR went through a re-org after about 18 months ago and, writes Weiss, "Since that time it has become even clearer to me that we must deepen the integration of our newsroom, establish better and faster communication between units in News and others in the organization, and foster even more ambitious, distinctive storytelling and enterprise reporting every day on our shows and online." Dick Meyer, Editorial Director of NPR Digital, will now oversee newsgathering across all platforms. Read on here.

• Want an internship at HuffPost? Be prepared to shell out $13,000.

What we almost missed today...

• ABC's George Will will be the master of ceremonies at the 2009 Bradley Prizes, which will be held June 3rd at the Kennedy Center. The four Bradley Prize recipients include Bill Kristol.

• We told you earlier today about the White House press briefing in which Press Secretary Robert Gibbs took questions on President Obama's University of Notre Dame commencement address. ABC's Jake Tapper does a fact-check of Gibbs' answers here.

• Did you make it to mediabistro's happy hour last week at Skye Lounge? Well, Kate Michael did and won the raffle to attend the mediabistro Circus next month in New York.

What we almost missed today...

• CNN reports Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) will not actually be attending the WHCD tomorrow as a guest of Fox News.

• C-SPAN isn't the only place you can catch the WHCD dinner. CNN and MSNBC will both be airing it. And according to a release, CNN's Kate Bolduan will be live from the red carpet "to capture the arrivals of the Washington and Hollywood elite."

• Sam Haskell celebrated "Promises I Made My Mother" with a book party last night (to kick off WHCD weekend?). We hear those in attendance included Miss DC Kate Marie Grinold, Tammy Haddad (complete with TamCam), NBC's Betsy Fischer, Bloomberg's Margaret Carlson and Kate Michael.