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"I do think that the quality which makes a man want to write and be read is essentially a desire for self-exposure and is masochistic. Like one of those guys who has a compulsion to take his thing out and show it on the street." - James Jones
An NBC release announced that "Meet the Press with Tim Russert" was "the No. 1 Sunday morning public affairs program. On Sunday, for the week ending May 27, the Russert-moderated program attracted 2.898 million total viewers. CBS 'Face the Nation' had 2.866 million viewers, ABC 'This Week' posted 2.315 million viewers, and FOX 'News Sunday' attracted 1.110 million viewers. The 'Meet the Press' rebroadcasts on MSNBC delivered an additional 514,000 viewers."
From a reader, discussing Sunday's debate: "could CNN have had more audio problems tonight?"
An ABC release announced that "Nightline" "posted its best May sweep among Total Viewers since 2004. The program was also the only one to display May sweep-to-sweep growth among Total Viewers while both CBS' 'Letterman' and NBC's 'Tonight Show' declined."
Check out page 49 of the June Washingtonian to see George Clooney and the Politico's Josephine Hearn (even though the Washingtonian calls her a "Capitol Hill intern."
That was Honky Tonk Confidential (with Bob Schieffer) on this weekend's Metro Connection.
Slate's Jack Shaferasks, "So, why is the press so revved up about Thompson's committee-forming? For one thing, Thompson is fun to write about. (See? I'm doing it.)"
Wonkette takes a look at the "lighter side of Washington."
The DC Improv and local legend Arch Campbell are hosting a special night of comedy to celebrate the late Gilda Radner at "Gilda's Annual Birthday Comedy Bash," Wednesday, June 13 at 8 p.m.
From a reader:
has anyone else noticed the general sloppiness of the wapo and web site recently? misspelled words, graphics placed with the wrong story, wrong facts. this is a good example: a story about yemen contains a map of china and graf three misspells "gauntlet" as "gantlet." this follows a story yesterday which says the BRAC deadline is new year's day, 2011, when in fact it's Sept. 15, 2011, and there's no correction. everybody gets it wrong sometimes, but i keep catching errors this week with them. someone's asleep at the wheel
The New Editor criticizes the AP's move to print the pictures of the US embassy being constructed in Baghdad.
"Joe Biden on Friday questioned how his Democratic presidential rivals could skip a debate involving the Congressional Black Caucus."
"One of the things that the talk show culture seems to appreciate is a good fight -- particularly one with ideological implications. Last week, two of the top-10 stories on the cable and radio talk shows involved high-profile dustups, according to PEJ's Talk Show Index for May 20-25."
"The rising price of gasoline replaced the Iraq war last week as the public's most closely followed news story" according to the weekly News Interest Index.
Wall Street Journal reports the Bancroft Family, which controls 64% of Dow Jones’s Co. voting power, "said in a statement late yesterday that it would meet with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to discuss its $5 billion bid for Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal. The family also said it would consider other bidders and options for the company."
According to the Hollywood Reporter, "Time Warner Inc. likely would only spin off 'a slice of AOL' if it decided to create a stock currency for acquisitions down the line, TW president and COO Jeffrey Bewkes emphasized Thursday amid continuing Wall Street talk about a potential sale or spinoff of the online unit."
The Wall Street Journal reports, "A Web search start-up is relying on humans -- instead of computers -- to generate search results in a strategy harkening back to the early days of Yahoo and Ask Jeeves. The Wall Street Journal's Kevin J. Delaney reports that the strategy, from closely held Mahalo.com Inc., Santa Monica, Calif., is meant to highlight some limits of the big search engines. The company, announcing its launch at the D: conference, hopes to address the issue of 'search spam.'"
The AP reports, "The Internet is bringing numerous changes to the media industry, but the fundamentals of newsgathering remain the same, Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley said Thursday."
MediaWeek reports, "CNN.com is planning to implement a bold redesign this summer that will see the site utilize Web 2.0 technologies like Ajax while also opening the site up to links from competing news sites."
The AP reports, "The Associated Press will intensify its efforts to protect its copyrights on the Web and possibly uncover new sources of revenue by working with a Silicon Valley startup that's trying to help the media gain more control over digital content."
"Ann Moore heads one of the most traditional, sprawling, old-school magazine publishing companies -- and says she's not at all worried about scrappy upstart gossip Web sites," reports the Wall Street Journal.
In Saturday's Washington Post we find a bylined alleged news article on the front page of the Real Estate section reporting about "Local Explorer," a new mapping and home sales feature on washingtonpost.com. Don't be fooled. Mary Ellen Slayter's piece is purely a promotional vehicle for an ad-sponsored offering on the newspaper's website. The write-up just glows about the service's many handy features. Just another way to "whore" the Post's "journalists" into hyping the company they work for. Pretty much the same kind of thing Tony Kornheiser does on his Washington Post Radio show. And as long as the fat paychecks keep coming, why not! What do they say? Don't bite the hand that feeds you.....
Broadcast journalist Willow Bayis joining The Huffington Post as an editor-at-large. Bay will oversee the site's new Living Now section.
A reader writes, "Regarding the poster who noted the pole-vaulter story ran on the day after a holiday. First, the story itself was not an A-1 story--on any day of the year. Second, the point is not when the story ran, but the story's bizarre subject matter itself: a family complaining about not wanting attention--when they're talking to, and giving pictures to, one of the most visible newspapers in the world. That's just ridiculous, on any level. Third, the reality is that, worldwide, there is always news worthy of running on A-1, whether it's Jan. 2, Dec. 26, the day after Memorial Day, or a Wednesday in the middle of August. There is literally always real, actual news that is far more important and far more newsworthy than the pole-vaulter story--every single day of the year. The only surprise here now is that someone in journalism would not know that. The bottom line remains that the story was ridiculous, and it should not have run on A-1--no matter the day of the year."
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