“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough has an obsession with Kate Upton, and he’s not shy about it.

Scarborough mentioned the name of the model (and niece of Rep. Fred Upton (R-Fla.), with whom Scarborough served in Congress) multiple times throughout this morning’s show on MSNBC. As the guests were being introduced, which included GQ’s Michael Hainey, Scarborough excitedly hoped for photos of Upton.

“I bet he has pictures of Kate Upton in there,” Scarborough said, referencing Hainey.

Shortly after, he added “I’m actually searching for those photos as we speak.”

It didn’t end there.

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Throughout ABC’s political drama “Scandal,” the second season of which ended Thursday, it’s been apparent that the writers often have little to no idea how the news media based in D.C. actually works.

In one episode you have a high-profile news anchor sitting on a story that involves a president refusing to be seen until all of his hair grows back on his newly-bald head. That would never happen. Bald or not, the story would fly.

In another episode, the news media is seen waiting for Olivia Pope, the show’s main character, outside her client’s home. Pope waits until the top of the hour when all the TV reporters need to go live. She breezily slips past them. Where were the print reporters and bloggers who would also have been waiting? Apparently forgotten about by the “Scandal” writers. Even the TV reporters would have people who would approach Pope even if they couldn’t during their live shots.

But in the finale, the show finally gets it right.

Pope, who has been able to keep her affair with the married President FitzGerald Grant a secret this whole time, is shown in the final scene walking through her apartment building lobby with a satisfied smile on her face before setting out on a run outdoors. She had just quashed the biggest scandal of the season, one that would have likely ended in the impeachment of the president.

As Pope throws open the doors she’s greeted by… Read more

A story on the battle to liberalize Ireland’s abortion laws published in USA Today Thursday contained edits that grossly altered the original story, according to freelance journalist Caelainn Hogan, who wrote the piece.

Or rather, that was according to Hogan before she changed her mind about complaining about those edits.

Hogan, 24, told FishbowlDC that USA Today‘s version of her story, which was purchased through the freelance writer service Associated Reporters Abroad, added “material I had never seen before” and included “paraphrasing of my own words and manipulation of quotes which I feel distort the original.” Hogan is an Ireland native but is currently in Turkey.

The original version of Hogan’s story, which she forwarded to FBDC, is different from the USA Today version, but mostly by way of inconsequential edits. For example, the original story contained the following quote:

“The issue of abortion in Ireland s [sic] so contentious many are reluctant to discuss it,” said Clare Quigley, 23, a medical student in Dublin.

It was amended to read:

“The issue of abortion in Ireland is so contentious,” said Clare Quigley, 23, a medical student in Dublin.

Not exactly a nefarious edit.

Edits to the story include added quotes… Read more

A memo to WaPo: Next time you want to give credit to a paper for breaking a story, how about doing it in the first couple of graphs? How about doing it at all?

On Friday morning at 9:58 a.m., Paul Farhi wrote about the flap over Politico yanking a video on its “about” page because Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) office got its knickers in a twist about the potential lack of ethics involving a video of his staffer on a page where they’re selling Politico.

The story is well-written and cites Politico Chief Operating Officer Kim Kingsley. But why does it take Farhi eight flippin’ graphs to mention the story and publication that broke it in the first place, which was Roll Call on Thursday at 4:58 p.m.? He writes,

“Roll Call, a Politico competitor, reported Thursday that senate ethics rules prohibit senators and their staff from making endorsements. The publication reports Holmes said he didn’t realize that the video would be used as an ad. He received a written request for a video interview from Politico’s director of marketing, who said the video would be ‘a profile of you first — and how you use Politico second.’”

Farhi told FishbowlDC by email: “I was not aware that Roll Call had broken the story until I got your email (I’m assuming you’re correct, btw). I was first alerted to the story yesterday by a colleague, who didn’t mention where he’d seen or heard about it. I reported it out and filed something short about it late last night. I DID notice that Roll Call had done some fine reporting on this and credited them accordingly.”

Psst…Farhi! Google is your friend.

We also reached out to Roll Call‘s Meredith Shiner, who broke the story, for comment.

UPDATE: WaPo‘s Erik Wemple also writes about the Politico-McConnell debacle — because why shouldn’t two media reporters from the same publication delve into the same story? He cites Shiner by name five graphs into a pretty lengthy post.

The House voted on a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, yesterday, and the Twittersphere noticed, with uncommonly long hashtag #ObamaCareInThreeWords trending through last night.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) kicked off the avalanche of left and right-wing-aimed Tweets with this:

Hey folks, #ObamaCareInThreeWords — go!

— Darrell Issa (@DarrellIssa) May 16, 2013

Well, “folks” from all over took to Twitter to describe Obamacare in (mostly) three words. Here are some of the top Tweets from inside the Beltway.

Vince Coglianese of The Daily Caller opted to make an observation about the hashtag itself instead commenting on the healthcare bill.

A Long-ass Hashtag #ObamacareInThreeWords

— Vince Coglianese (@TheDCVince) May 16, 2013

Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) decided the hashtag wasn’t long enough, so he made up a new one while dutifully informing Twitter users of the proper terminology.

Not So Affordable & Hurting Small Businesses.#Obamacareinthreewords #butidontcallitobamacarebecausethatispejorative #affordablecareact

— Rep. Scott Rigell (@RepScottRigell) May 16, 2013

Unfortunately for Rigell, the hashtag didn’t catch on.

WaPo blogger Greg Sargent made up a new word as to not go over the three-word limit.

Drove conservatives batsh*tcrazy #ObamacareInThreeWords

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 16, 2013

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The Breitbart Embassy on Capitol Hill will host a memorial gathering for Chip Gerdes, a behind-the-scenes conservative operative, who died last week of a sudden heart attack. He was 42.

If you’re looking for the video on Politico’s website featuring Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) Chief of Staff Josh Holmes, then good luck.

Roll Call’s Meredith Shiner, a former staff writer at Politico, reported that as of Thursday, the video had been removed from the advertising page of the Rosslyn, Va. news outlet’s website at the request of McConnell’s office.

As the piece explains, the video may have violated Senate Ethics Rules, which prohibit senators and the staffs from using their “official congressional capacity” to endorse outside entities. This would not prevent Holmes (pictured at left) from endorsing Politico as an avid reader, but it does apply to the use of his chief of staff title.

From Roll Call:

“The video, posted earlier this week under the ‘audience’ tab of Politico’s advertising page, features Josh Holmes and identifies him with the title: “Chief of Staff, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, KY.” Holmes spends the first half of the video explaining his job, with shots taken inside McConnell’s office, and the second half of the video explaining why he reads the Washington publication. The video ends with the top staffer saying, “I’m Josh Holmes and I’m a Politico.”

A shortened version of the video can be found here on Vimeo.

The full video was removed from the advertising page but can be found on a different Politico page, by itself, which Roll Call found “via a live Politico link.” Politico Editor-in-Chief John Harris was asked by FBDC to comment on the situation, but is on the road and unable to respond so he passed the request along to Sara Olson, Politico‘s VP of Marketing.

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As they showcased the upcoming issue of GQ on this morning’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, Co-host Mika Brzezinski wondered about all the boobage in the magazine. We’re talking full-on breast shots that she flashed for the TV screen.

The story with the naked breasts concerned five-day cruises with Kid Rock.

The hosts were appropriately disgusted and outraged and quickly crumpled the magazine so the boobs were hidden. But not before Brzezinski flashed viewers with this bold shot. Those are Joe Scarborough‘s fingers at the top crease of the magazine.

One question. If nudity isn’t allowed on national cable TV, are pictures of naked breasts acceptable?

See the other shots and chyron that helped hide the picture of the guest holding up the nudy feature. Read more

Back on May 3, the world commemorated “World Press Freedom Day.” Everyone except North Korea, that is. They decide to wait until May 15 to celebrate by running an editorial in the state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun. The piece is called “Mockery of Press” and it takes several shots at American media and the so-called ”Freedom of report.”

WaPo reports on the rambling editorial, which seems to make the argument that American media is both too restricted and too free. While it seems to be a generalization of ALL of American media, two reporters get glowing reviews from The Dear Leader.

Who are Kim Jong-Un’s approved reporters? Read more

Huma under fire: NYT Vs. Politico –  NYT‘s Raymond Hernandez writes that Huma Abedin, wife of the most ambitious weiner in New York, former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Schlongville), did not disclose how much income she earned in her private consultant role while working as a top advisor for Sec. of State Hillary Clinton. The story rolled in last night around 11:31 p.m. (at least according to a @nytimes tweet as there is no time stamp). In graph three, he cites a Thursday afternoon Politico story published at 4:14 p.m. triple bylined by Maggie Haberman, John Bresnahan and Glenn Thrush. Politico reported the special arrangement that Abedin had with the State Department, but did not report that the information was not disclosed on Weiner’s financial disclosure report. They wrote that the information was not publicly available. Abedin declined to speak to the NYC; Politico‘s story never mentions requesting to speak with her. While Hernandez cites longtime Hillary Clinton press aide Philippe Reines and “an associate of Ms. Abedin,” Politico, meanwhile, cited “a source familiar with the arrangement,” “a friend of hers,” “several sources” and “one source.”

White House Scandalpalooza 

Benghazi Timeline—Rowan Scarborough’s piece in TWT this morning gives an in-depth analysis into the Benghazi scandal. Organized in somewhat of a timeline, the story explains step by step what went wrong from before the attack up until recent weeks when the scandal broke. Read here.

IRS questions unanswered—Politico’s Lauren French and Rachel Bade examine holes in the IRS scandal that have yet to emerge. The piece thoroughly outlines questions the case has left unanswered and why they’re important. Read here.

Scandal ADHD—In a piece in WaPo this morning, Aaron Blake puts the week in scandals involving the IRS, Benghazi, and AP phone records into perspective. Though the scandals have dominated news media this week, not many Americans are paying attention. Read here.

FishbowlDC intern Austin Price contributed to this report.