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

While we don’t know the long-term fate of CNN’s Erin Burnett, she was noticeably passed over for the network’s revamped morning show, which leaves her as host of OutFront. That leaves her future a little murky, but if times get really tough, she could always get a side gig as a look-alike for actress Zooey Deschanel.

In this week’s edition of “What’s Weingarten Writing?,” it’s Man vs. Machine. Gene ventured into the wilds of an Apple Store to fix a very serious problem he was having with his word processor. This classic setup sets the stage for a showdown between an Apple store employee and WaPo’s “humorist,” Gene Weingarten. In Gene’s weekly column, Gene lets us know that he is having a problem with his computer. What’s wrong with his device?

He writes, “When my computer finishes each save … it registers this operation by displaying the time of the save in year, date, hours and minutes, like this: ’2013-04-16-09.17. ‘ My problem … is that on the next line it gives me a two-digit number that seems to fluctuate almost at random.” She leaned in, nodded, and I detected a faint smile. This was pleasing her; a good technician must thrill to a good challenge.” Can you imagine fielding THAT customer? Gene probably just calls his computer an “email machine.”

How does the “genius” at the Apple store respond? Read more

With the steady stream of bad news for the Obama administration, Drudge kicks POTUS when he’s down. To begin, the top story is this piece by Politico’s Jake Sherman and Lauren French. The piece highlights the scandalous couple of days that POTUS has been facing. The Drudge headline reads “When It Rains…,” and has a photo of Obama in a downpour.

He then takes it a few steps further and adds three more shots of POTUS getting caught in the rain. Get it? Like a downpour.

After a serious cyber-attack, www.WTOP.com and www.FederalNewsRadio.com are back online. This began last week when they discovered that the websites had been attacked. After authorities were notified, access was blocked on Internet Explorer browsers until they could complete a thorough investigation. They added new security measures and examined the incident to find out how an attack happened.

Service was officially back on the evening of Saturday, May 11.

In a press release, Joel Oxley, Senior VP and GM of WTOP and Federal News Radio, says, ”getting the websites back up and running safely for all users has been our top priority. We take our users’ privacy very seriously, and we have taken steps to prevent similar occurrences. We apologize to our user community for any inconvenience that this incident has caused.”

More from the press release on what users ought to do. Read more

(A Sprinkling of Things we Think you Ought to Know…)

Crawford Commemorates Mother’s Day – To celebrate Mother’s Day, Craig Crawford is giving his readers the chance to vote for “Favorite TV Mom.” Crawford has an extensive list of 15 different TV Moms. Some are timeless, like Edith Bunker from All in the Family and Marion Cunningham from “Happy Days.” Others are a little less conventional, like Marge Simpson and Nancy Botwin from “Weeds.” Vote now at www.craigcrawford.com.

Cicada Nation – Yes, the cicadas are coming. Yes, people will freak out. No, it’s not the end of the world. Just don’t mention that to Mother Jones, which lists their story on the political history of cicadas as the “Top Story” in their Political Mojo newsletter. While everyone seems to be talking cicadas these days, it’s hardly a POLITICAL news item.

Major Garrett Continues to Battle Illness – Earlier this week, CBS’s Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett announced on Twitter that he was feeling a little under the weather. Even Twitchy noticed.

Tweeps, was off the air & off the grid yesterday & will be for a few days. I need to wrestle this case of double pneumonia to the ground.

— Major Garrett(@MajorCBS) May 7, 2013

Double pneumonia sounds pretty hardcore. Since it’s been a few days, we reached out to Garrett, who tells FBDC, “I’m on the mend. I’m taking more drugs than Elvis but doing fewer shows. I also have a sinus infection with the reach and aggression of the 19th century British Navy. Between the twin maladies, I feel older than 50 and slightly younger than Yoda.” Rest up, Major. And if you just read this, you might want to Lysol your computer. Just to be safe.

On Monday night, Buzzfeed’s Bureau Chief John Stanton sat down with Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH). At the event, there were rumors flying that a bigger, more involved event was in the works. More involved? What, no GIFS or listicles? On Thursday, we found out the details.

On May 14 at the Liaison Hotel will be The BuzzFeed Brews Special Edition: Immigration Summit. It’s a more serious panel discussion on immigration that will be moderated by Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith.

Want more details? Read more

(A Sprinkling of Things we Think you Ought to Know…)

Will on the Hill – Monday night was the annual “Will on the Hill” event for the Shakespeare Theatre Company. It’s an annual event that gathers politicians, journalists and other D.C. insiders to put on a performance that pairs elements of Williams Shakespeare with modern-day references.

According to their website, “proceeds from the event support STC’s many education, artistic and community outreach programs including in-school workshops and online learning resources that inspire new and diverse audiences and deepen the connection to classical theatre in learners of all ages.” One of the members of the cast was The Hill’s Managing Editor, Bob Cusack. Cusack tweeted this startling photo of himself moments before taking the stage. Turns out, acting is in Cusack’s blood. He tells FBDC, “It was my first time performing in Will on the Hill and brought back memories of when my parents had an off, off, off Broadway theater company in New York City. Last night I did Shakespeare, but back then it was Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk and Agatha Christie plays.” Aside from Jack, Cusack was an extra “Clear and Present Danger” and “Game Change.”

The Tea Party says farewell to a longtime supporter. Read more

We’ll take a break from examining the weekly ramblings in Gene Weingarten‘s column for WaPo to look at his Twitter feed. When we checked in on him, we were VERY upset to learn that Gene has changed his Twitter pic from a piece of poop to the picture on the right. It’s a cartoon caricature of Gene Shalit Weingarten on the cover of GQ magazine.

After recovering from the trauma of seeing a poopless Weingarten, we found that he’s using Twitter to play grammar police to fellow journalists. On Monday he went after HuffPost’s Elise Foley because of her Twitter bio. It says, “Politics and immigration reporter for HuffPost. Jessica Alba tweeted one of my articles once–it’s all been downhill from there.”

What’s wrong with that? Read more

Jonathan Strong has left Roll Call to join National Review. Strong, who covered House leadership for Roll Call, isn’t taking one of their buyouts, nor was he laid off. Strong previously worked as an investigative journalist for The Daily Caller.

Read the full memo from National Review.

CORRECTION: In the original version of this post, we wrote that Strong was joining National Journal. We apologize for the error.

Read more