Good morning Washington. On this day in 1519, the world said goodbye to Leonardo da Vinci. And it's the birthday of Donatella Versace and her best client: David Beckham.
Today's "Angry Journalist" rant of the day: "I hate the fact that the people who actually make all of the major decisions for the newsroom have never written a single headline, edited or written a single story, or worked past 7 p.m., much less on a weekend. All of the choices they make are for a business that literally does not exist. It's not the business that *I* am working for, anyway. It's the one in their heads that they think exists because they literally are not in the building when the actual business is running. How can you run a newspaper when you have never even been in the newsroom during the real work hours? DUH."
The Washington Examiner announced that Jacque Bland, currently the managing editor of The State Journal in Charleston, W. Va., will be joining the paper as Features Editor on May 26. "She takes over for Scott Fuller, who has been wearing two hats since his promotion to Senior AME for Production in Versar."
Pew Weekly News Interest Index shows, "Over the past six weeks the intense, and often negative, contest between Obama and Clinton has dominated media coverage of the campaign as well as public attention. And over this period, more Americans have consistently said their views of Obama and Clinton have become less favorable, rather than more favorable, in recent days."
LifeHacker.com reports, "The 37 signals weblog highlights an Automator workflow that downloads the front pages of popular newspapers from previously mentioned web site Newseum and combines them into one consolidated PDF you can print off and read on your daily commute. The script downloads each front page from Newseum, then combines them into one master PDF. As TUAW suggests, you could automate this one step further by setting the workflow to run daily with iCal."
Washington Business Journal reports, "Craig Dubow, Donna Shalala and Neal Shapiro will serve on Gannett Co. Inc.'s board of directors for another year. McLean-based Gannett said all three received more than 95 percent of the shareholder votes cast at the company's annual shareholder meeting Wednesday."
Arianna Huffingtonwrites, "The last ten days have been among the most shameful in the history of American journalism. On April 20th, the New York Times published its expose of the Bush administration's use of Pentagon-approved, prepped, and financially-enriched 'military analysts' to appear on TV to help sell the invasion of Iraq, and then put a positive spin on the occupation -- even as conditions on the ground deteriorated. It was a powerful illustration of the Bush administration's commitment to propaganda and disinformation. But it was also a damning indictment of the mainstream media's complicity in the wholesale deception of the American public on the single most important decision a country can make -- the decision to go to war."
Radar reports, "Network anchors are usually careful not to advertise their personal convictions, to avoid damaging their Q ratings or their carefully nurtured images of objectivity. But Brian Williams punched a couple of large holes in his own credibility with two vacuous blog postings this week. Last Monday, the NBC anchor began by making fun of all the soft stories in Sunday's New York Times. Then he contrasted those stories (young gay couples who love to barbecue!) with a "sparkling piece of journalism" by the magnificent Peggy Noonan, which Brian thought should put her in the running for a Pulitzer."
Variety reports, "Media titans used to obsess about piracy. Nowadays, they are more likely to fixate on ubiquity. News Corp. prexy-chief operating officer Peter Chernin repeatedly invoked the need to distribute content as widely as possible during Wednesday afternoon's Milken Institute panel on the consequences of the digital revolution. Fellow panelists Terry Semel, studio chief-turned-digital convert, and BBC director general Mark Thompson picked up the theme during the sesh."
The New York Post reports, "While Time Warner is unloading its cable business, its troubled AOL division continues to weigh down the media giant. The company reported first-quarter results yesterday that were largely in line with estimates and announced plans to spin off its majority-owned cable unit, Time Warner Cable."
Bloomberg reports, "Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable- television company, reported a 13 percent drop in profit from a year earlier, when results were bolstered by a one-time gain. Sales surpassed estimates on new Internet-access subscribers."
The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberggives "An Introduction to Blogging"
USA Today reports, "The Pentagon is setting up a global network of foreign-language news websites, including an Arabic site for Iraqis, and hiring local journalists to write current events stories and other content that promote U.S. interests and counter insurgent messages."
Washington Post's DC Scout celebrated its first birthday last night at Barneys in Georgetown.
A release announced, "USATODAY.com announces the launch of an expansive new online flight community called Today in the Sky, piloted by veteran USA TODAY aviation blogger Ben Mutzabaugh. The site can be found at flights.usatoday.com"
The Washington Post reports, "A House committee passed an anti-piracy bill yesterday that would stiffen penalties for illegally copying and distributing music and movies and would create an 'intellectual property czar' at the White House level -- a job that the Justice Department warned would 'undermine' its independence."
TVNewser's Steve Krakauerreports, "Time Magazine has compiled their list of the 100 Most Influential People, appearing in this week's issue. NBC's Washington bureau chief Tim Russert made the list, as did 'Magic Wall' creator, Jeff Han (who TVNewser has met on several occasions)."
WWD.com reports, "No wonder Time Inc. doesn't plan to postpone any of its digital initiatives for the balance of the year, which will include a redesign of Real Simple's Web site in the fall. John Squires, executive vice president, Time Inc., said Wednesday that in the next few years, the company wants digital to represent 20 to 30 percent of each title's bottom line."
From a Time essay, "Numbering a list is a journalistic rule so obvious even E! understands it. But TIME's editors won't stoop to rank the TIME 100. No, they're afraid of hurting people's feelings or making a mistake. So, much like changing the watercooler bottle in the hall, it's up to me."
Folio reports, "For print magazine editors, having the added duty of editing a Web site was once the equivalent of 'being sent down to Pawtucket,' David Willey, editorial director of Runner's World, said at the American Society of Magazine Editors luncheon Tuesday at the Hearst Tower in New York. Not anymore. Willey, who was named ASME president Wednesday replacing Glamour editor Cindi Leive, ASME's outgoing president, delivered a rousing speech echoing the power of print while noting how drastically the job of an editor has changed."
Journalism.co.uk reports, "Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail and editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, told an industry forum yesterday that journalism jobs will be lost and that news media could be smaller overall as its roles change in the digital future."
The Huffington Post reported yesterday, "Tonight the American Society of Magazine Editors will present its annual awards that recognize excellence in the various talents and skills that go into making magazines. Those who have been nominated, and those who will win -- many among them my friends and former colleagues -- well deserve this acknowledgment of their achievement. If past is prologue, much of the work that is celebrated will have appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and a few of our other eminent publications."
The Weekly Standard calls the Newseum, "The Media Builds a Monument to Itself"
The Washington Post reports, "Word to the wise, all you politicos: Beware of the bus. This humble mode of transportation has become an unstoppable serial killer this presidential season, metaphorically speaking. Hardly a week goes by without someone reviving the cliche of the 2008 campaign -- that a former ally of a candidate has been thrown under a bus."
Jossip reports, "When Time.com contributor-of-something Ana Marie Cox told her husband, Congressional Quarterly editor Chris Lehmann, that she'd be reviewing the new book, Right Is Wrong, from Arianna Huffington -- a regular on the same party circuit as Cox and with whom Cox had discussed potential contributing to the Huffington Post -- 'he asked if I thought that might have an impact on our friendship.' And not whether it might impact Cox's ability to write write an objective review of Arianna's book for The Observer."
The Washington City Paper reports, These are good times for D.C. writer Matt Klam! Besides writing the cover story on Robert Downey Jr. in the most recent GQ, and being featured in the Washington City Paper (BIG DEAL!) for his involvement in a local writing center, Matt has just won a good chunk of change. In early April, the Guggenheim Foundation awarded him a grant for his work as a fiction writer. The website does not specify the amount of his grant, but it does say that the average grant is $43,200. Besides Klam, six other fiction writers are claiming a prize: Dean Bakopoulos, Lan Samantha Chang, Tony D'Souza, Sam Lipsyte, Vyvyane Loh, Thad Ziolkowski."
Media Matters Eric Boehlertwrites, "History continues to unfold on many levels as the protracted Democratic Party primary race marches on, featuring the first woman and the first African-American with a real shot at winning the White House. Here's another first: the press's unique push to get a competitive White House hopeful to drop out of the race. It's unprecedented.
