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

Kevin Williamson, roving correspondent for National Review, is a theater thug.

But who can blame him for tossing a woman’s phone across the room while he’s trying to watch a show at a theater in New York? After all, as he explained on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Thursday, he was working. He’s a theater critic and wasn’t watching the show just for his personal enjoyment.

Alyssa Rosenberg. That’s who.

“[M]aking grand statements like Williamson’s is almost certainly more disruptive both to fellow patrons and to the actors on stage than the use of a cell phone in the audience,” Rosenberg wrote in a post for Think Progress. She added that “sending someone else’s phone across the theater at great speed is a much more efficient way to make a martyr of said terribly rude person than to strike a blow for civility.”

Really?

On National Review’s “The Corner” blog Wednesday night, Williamson wrote up a post in which he broke the news, detailing how he just went to a theater in New York for a show only to find his experience repeatedly interrupted by phone users. He complained to the manager who said the problem would be amended, only to return to his seat and find the woman next to him on her phone.

Williamson wrote, Read more

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

The Brzezinskis are a remarkable crew. Mika Brzezinski is the co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Her father, Zbigniew, was a national security adviser in the Carter administration. And now we know that her mother, Emilie, is a tree sculptor.

On “Morning Joe” Thursday, Mika put in a plug for her mother who joined Twitter at the start of the year, telling viewers to check out the tree sculptures. “I am a sculptor -- Mikasaid I must tweet,” Emilie said in her inaugural tweet back in January.

Since then, Emilie has been tweeting photos of elaborate sculptures made out of tree trunks she says that she has carved herself.

Some examples of the art, accompanied by the names Emilie has given them:

“Cores” Read more

A hush fell over the crowd at Politico‘s Sunday brunch at Robert and Elena Allbritton‘s home as a display of food came crashing to the ground outside under a tent. No one was standing near enough to be responsible, so it doesn’t look like they’ll be adding any guidelines about idiot party tricks at the boss’s house to the next iteration of their office handbook.

Party sources tell us the fallen food was a display of various Asian cuisine — dumplings, etc, that crashed to the floor. “Nobody laughed, it was more like a collective gasp because it was so loud and shattery-sounding in such genteel surroundings,” a party witness told us.

After the display fell, a small phalanx of capable young women with earpieces swarmed and had it taken care of immediately.

Brunch was saved!

Speaking of which, the food is always a highlight: sliders, different kinds of eggs benedict made to order, cones of tuna tartare, an assortment dumplings, lobster tails, crab legs — all kinds of seafood, and an open bar.

Guests spilled out onto the lawn.

According to our party sources, brunch at the Allbrittons was definitely more crowded this year.

All the big Politicos were there… Read more

While most people opt to get dressed up for the White House Correspondents Dinner, we spotted a few folks who went “dressy-casual” for the event. There were lots of tuxes with no cummerbund or vest. There were a few bros sporting suits without ties. But, no one got more comfortable than actress Kathleen Turner.

Once inside the dinner… Read more

Once the actual White House Correspondents Dinner was over, a swarm of people descended upon the Jack Rose Dining Saloon for the Buzzfeed BBQ after-party. No crowd drew more attention than the cast of Netflix’s House of Cards, who made their way down Florida Ave. (Kevin Spacey was noticeably absent.)

As they arrived at the front door, Robin Wright-Penn decided to take her high heels off. After slipping one off, she struggled with the other undone, so rolled into the party with only one shoe on. A brave choice considering the raucous atmosphere inside the soirée.

As soon as they entered, the House of Cards crew was offered a spot in the VIP area and they all said, “No, we want to dance!”

More from the party…

Read more

Animal X-ing? Duck that.

National Journal‘s Communications Director Ben Fishel tweeted a photo Friday afternoon of his colleague Jonathan Miller, deputy daily briefing editor, lending a helpful hand to a group of ducks.

“National Journal employee and crossing guard stop all traffic on Virginia Ave. for duck family #DuckDynasty,” Fishel’s tweet said. The “Duck Dynasty” hashtag is a reference to an A&E reality TV show about a family that got rich selling duck hunting gear.

“Of course when I tweet about ducks its my most successful tweet ever,” Fishel told FishbowlDC when asked about the tweet. The news has so far received two retweets.

In Fishel’s photo, Miller can be seen walking behind what appears to be a mother duck ushering her eight-ish ducklings across a road. In the background is a crossing guard with her hands out to her side as if to say, “What the flock?!”

Update: Fishel writes in: “We’re up to like eight retweets, but whatever.”

Emily Goodstein is turning 30 and she wants to celebrate with YOU. Who the hell is Emily Goodstein?  She describes herself as a “local blogger, photographer, and reproductive justice advocate.” If you look at her website, she also “a sweatpants enthusiast.” Sweatpants are for two people. Pregnant women and fat men. They get a free pass. Anyone else who wears them should consider just wearing a burlap sack out in public to avoid the shame of sweatpants.

Getting to the point of all this, Emily is putting on a bash to ring in her big 3-0 with something called a “birthday conference.” In other words, she’s charging YOU to come to a boring series of panels with people talking about subjects that Emily finds interesting. The BEST two examples she gives are “email organization and cookie decorating.” The invitation has this inspirational gem from Emily: “My 30th birthday is an opportunity to create a convergence of all my favorite things and people,” said Goodstein, “The result is a day that is not only about creativity and celebration, but also elevating serious issues and bringing together some great minds. I can’t think of a better way to kick off my 30s.”

I’ve been to some awful birthday parties. Most notably the one earlier this year where I had to take a 5-year-old to Chuck E. Cheese. But, I would spend a lifetime trapped in a Chuck E. Cheese ball pit before I sit down for a panel on email organization disguised as someone’s birthday party.

Want more details? Read more

As former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) attempts to res-erect his political career by maybe running for Mayor of New York, this week he took the next step by bringing back his infamous Twitter account. As has been reported, he has changed the name. Instead of @repweiner he’s now @anthonyweiner. A clean slate, perhaps?

News of his new account is on the rise.

How did everyone handle it?

Weiner Gets Trumped

Always a class act, Donald Trump welcomed Weiner back with all the warmth of a frozen hotdog. “Pervert alert. @RepWeiner is back on twitter. All girls under the age of 18, block him immediately,” he wrote on Twitter.

AP Formalities

Even the AP couldn’t contain themselves and included the words “disgrace” and “lewd.” “Ex-NY Rep. Anthony Weiner back on Twitter 2 years after he was disgraced upon tweeting lewd photo of self.”

WaPo Flacidly Whacks Weiner

WaPo holds back in their tweet, writing only, “Weiner returns to Twitter.” But in their story they go into slight attack mode, writing, “Well, look who returned to the scene of the crime!” wrote The Reliable Source gossip column. And then they return to coy and lame, writing, “Weiner, now publicly mulling a political comeback with a possible bid for New York mayor, resigned from Congress two years ago after he — well, you remember.”

 Weiner As One-Man Chippendales Show?

Unlike Washington, New York mags aren’t afraid to get in your face. Such as Gothamist, who writes, “Ladies, Anthony Weiner is Back on Twitter With A New Handle.” New York Magazine’s Intelligencer blog, meanwhile, writes, “Anthony Weiner Rejoins Twitter in Second-Worst Way Possible.” The story begins, “Yes, a crotch shot would be worse.” And PBS and NBC’s Jeff Greenfield goes all The Onion on us by writing, “NY Post Headline Writers Walk-Out After Editor Imposes Limit of 12 Genitalia-References Per Day on Anthony Weiner Stories.”

And the Strait-laced…

ABC World News: “@AnthonyWeiner Returns To Twitter Amid Mayoral Speculation”

Drudge: “Anthony Weiner Creates New TWITTER Account”