“You can take the sexual piece out. That is a funny story for a child.” — BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” discussing his interview with New York mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner and the reaction of his kids to the story. Specifically, he was referring to taking a picture of your penis and putting it on the Internet.

EGG ON HIS FACE: “Really, because all this time I thought you were paid to spit on a camera lens.” — Daily Show’s John Oliver on MSNBC “Hardball” Host Chris Matthews claim that “this is what I do” in terms of predicting presidential candidates that he has consistently gotten wrong. Matthews predicted former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) would be nominated in 2012. This time his money’s on Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

Journo avoids barfing in cab

“Had to get out of a taxi and take the subway home for the first time because I was going to vomit from car sickness. 1st time for everything.” — BuzzFeed‘s Andrew Kaczynski.

In awe of Rob Lowe

“Amazing @RollCallAbby: Rob Lowe just retweeted me. If the 14-year-old in me had any clue what Twitter was, she would faint.” — CNN’s Laura Bernadini, supervising producer for CNN’s White House unit.

In anticipation of Sydney Leathers

“I am interviewing Sydney Leathers when I sit in for Geraldo tomorrow morning. What would you ask her if you were me?” — WMAL and Breitbart‘s Larry O’Connnor last night.

Just a little light abortion tweeting

“Human life does not magically become life whenever a pro-choice woman conveniently thinks it becomes life. #ScienceSaysSo” — Breitbart Editor-at-Large Ben Shapiro.

TWT

WaPo

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Today, the NYT’s Nick Wingfield and Brian Stelter  are the latest to attempt to read the mind of Jeff Bezos, bringing us the latest in a string of technology and innovation will save us type stories. Ironically, they are the two things some newspapers, WaPo among them, have spent much of the last two decades avoiding.

This one is notable because it attempts to paint Silicon Valley as not just a savior, but an altruistic one at that.

“Call it a sense of obligation. Or responsibility. Or maybe there is even a twinge of guilt. Helping print journalism adapt to a changed era is becoming a cause de jour among the technology elite.”

I’m not and editor, but I think can tighten that up: “Rich tech guy bought a newspaper. Hooray!”

Who else has been riding this bandwagon?

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Something’s fishy — Normally we love fish-related stories, for obvious reasons, but this one scares us a little. If you’re a male who’s thinking of skinny-dipping in Scandinavia, you may want to think again. As CNN’s Leslie Holland reports, an exotic species of fish that has a habit of chomping on testicles has infiltrated the Danish/Swedish strait of Oresund. A “friendly cousin” of the piranha, the Pacu is actually a vegetarian and uses its large teeth to crush nuts, but sometimes bites the wrong type of nuts after mistaking testicles for their favorite snack. The fish is native to South America and could have been brought to Scandinavia by “amateur aquarium owners and fish farmers.” Don’t worry though, the Fishbowl is still Pacu-free.

The real Weiner film — We recently laid out some damn good ideas for an Anthony Weiner movie, but as TWT’s Cheryl K. Chumley reports, a real documentary may be in the works. In what could be only speculation, Chumley writes that Weiner has been close to MTV filmmaker Josh Kreigman, who has been recording nonstop for the past few months. The NYC mayoral candidate has also been carrying a black microphone box in his back pocket. According to the New York Post, and Weiner campaign officials, Weiner’s filming is only for a television ad. Kreigman, who used to be Weiner’s congressional district director, wouldn’t comment. We’re hoping to see a documentary soon on MTV, because we, at least, can’t get enough Weiner and please don’t take that the wrong way!

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Revolutions, a blog about numbers and analytics, was on hand to hear ESPN’s Nate Silver at the recent Joint Statistical Meeting in Montreal. He’s got some 11 tips and principles for journalists when it comes to dealing with numbers, specifically statistics.

Here’s a few.

• Our favorite, correlation is not causation. You can’t always connect the dots, as much as you might want to. For example, just because incidences of violence go up when it’s hot, doesn’t mean climate change causes violence, CBS News.
• The average is still the most useful of all stats. “Because they are looking for interesting stories, journalists often focus on the outliers.” While interesting, outliers don’t illuminate much that you can apply to the world.
• Make predictions. “If journalists would put their money and their reputations where their mouths are they might get closer to achieving scientific objectivity.”

About a month ago, Miles Smith, a weekend producer at WJLA, left his job. And Friday was Steve Friess‘s last day with Politico Pro. The couple is relocating to Ann Arbor, where Miles (pictured at far right) will return to school and Friess will resume his freelance writing career.

We’re thinking their respective office meetings in the last year made for interesting pillow talk. As is common knowledge, Robert Allbritton sold WJLA to Sinclair Broadcast Group.

See his heartfelt memo, including the revelation that he and his partner plan on becoming fathers. Read more

How was WaPo “lost” to Jeff Bezos?

The NYT‘s Ross Douthat wrote in his column this weekend that it was because the paper missed its opportunity to seize the internet by the throat. What’s fascinating is Douthat knows exactly when this happened. The moment was “in 2006 when John Harris and Jim VendeHei left … to found Politico.”

He argues that Politico created the political-journalism juggernaut WaPo should’ve and could’ve been, a daily must-read that dominates “the D.C. conversation … that matches the metabolism of the Internet.” There can be only one, and according to Douthat, it’s Politico.

It still gets better. Despite the ass kissing you might think this is at first glance, Douthat doesn’t think so highly of Politico.

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A lot of us have been there.

Respond or don’t respond to a tweet that makes you want to drive your fist through the computer screen. Or maybe just cuss a little too much. Many think ignoring is the way to go, and they’re probably right. But some in the news business can’t always go that route.

CNN’s Piers Morgan appears to enjoy mixing it up with his gun-toting foes. An example: “Hey @piersmorgan , saw my neighbor walk in his front door with an AR-15 yesterday. Glad I have him for a neighbor!” a follower wrote. Piers retweeted by didn’t respond. But on Sunday he replied to a raunchy tweet that involved the t-word. Judging from the reaction, followers were neither surprised nor came down on him for it. His response appeared to only fuel the fire and trash talk.

Some weren’t pleased Piers even responded. But see how the bulk of fans reacted… Read more

Earlier today we published a story highlighting the marked increase of women in leadership roles at Politico. The publication, clearly founded by two males, has been dogged since it began in 2006 over the heavy presence of males in top roles. Insiders have said repeatedly that the reports were overblown. But that didn’t stop WaPo‘s Erik Wemple from highlighting the startling numbers of women who have left over the years. Or TNR from recently questioning VandeHarris over the reputation of “overt sexism” at the news outlet.

As we reported earlier today, as some top male editors are leaving the publication, they’re being replaced by women. Before this, women had already assumed top roles. We asked if this, as well as a number of other females in high-ranking roles, is a concerted effort to beat the bad rap.

Editor-in-Chief John Harris told FishbowlDC, “To be clear, I don’t  believe in our many years as editors and reporters either Jim or I were ever ‘accused of being anti-women.’ It is true that due to the circumstances of our launch we were for a time kind of top-heavy with men in ways that did not reflect our vision for POLITICO. By no means are any recent moves a reflection of some sort of ‘concerted effort’ on gender grounds. Instead, they flow naturally from our determination to get the most talented and ambitious people in jobs where they can have the most impact on our newsroom, on our business, and for our readers.”
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Politico is slowly but surely putting together its magazine team. Run by Susan Glasser and Blake Hounshell, both of whom recently arrived from Foreign Policy magazine, they’ve hired on Jason Zengerle from New York Magazine and GQ. Zengerle previously wrote for The New Republic.

In addition, Glenn Thrush, the White House reporter known for his feisty arguing on Twitter, is moving over to the magazine beat. If Politico Editor-in-Chief John Harris gushed any more about him, his head even in his infamous fedora, might not fit through the door. He calls him “one of our most brilliant reporters and writers” and says the “move is a natural for Glenn, whose greatest strength may be his ability to understand the ways that human character animates Washington and its large political and policy debates. Glenn is as gifted as any writer I have known at bringing this to life in vivid ways, and we are extremely enthusiastic about his new assignment.”

See the memo… Read more