Brag Book

Bad form? CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux got called to the carpet Monday and not the red carpet, mind you, but rather conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh tore into her for her gushing tweets during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Malveaux’s Twitter feed looked like it was taken over by a star-crazed teen, the me-walls to end all me-walls. Isn’t this great? There she was with Woody Harrelson, and Valerie Jarrett, and Dave Chappelle. Mediaite has the recap.

Was Tina holding a gun to Howie’s head? You’d have thought The Daily Beast/CNN host Howard Kurtz wasn’t enjoying himself Saturday night from the story he published Monday slamming “Nutty Nerdprom.” Sure he slammed what appeared to be creamed corn on his ballroom dinner plate. But Kurtz is about as nerdy as it gets for Washington. He’s also as enmeshed in the culture as many other members of the media. So how two-faced it is for him to slam what the White House Correspondents’ Dinner has become — which, in his view, is apparently a celebrity invasion of Washington gone wild — and tweeting about his own celeb encounters all the way  through it. Did his boss, Tina Brown, have a gun to his head? If Kurtz really wanted to show strength, instead of knocking the prom with a story, maybe he could show he means business with a boycott as opposed to say, going and fawning, and then writing about how ridiculous all that fawning is.

Hollywood and Congress collide, again — This morning Roll Call has a report on Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) using Hot in Cleveland actresses Betty White and Wendie Mallick in a campaign spot in which they gush about his love of animals and support for community safety. Of course, then he has to release a statement, saying how much of an honor it was to work with Betty and Wendie. Really, congressman, a statement for that? Berman is battling Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif. ) post redistricting. Read the piece here.

NYT media writer David Carr comes to Washington for the weekend and what does he get? Child abuse in the Hotel Rouge elevator. (Pictured at left: Back of Carr’s scarved head, Stelter, etc…)

Ah yes, charming to ride elevator this AM w/family heading out to tour Washington. ‘Cept part abt mom slapping 8yrold boy in face. Witch

— david carr (@carr2n) April 29, 2012

@mdomb told mom hitting kid in public strange way to teach manners. She said nothing but looked like she wanted to slap me too.

— david carr (@carr2n) April 29, 2012

The hotel was nice enough, though Carr had at least one snide remark. He wrote on Twitter, “Love DC’s Hotel Rouge, but @kimpton taking eco-friendly to max. No one made up room yesterday.”

The child abuse incident wasn’t necessarily a fair representation of Washington, but it is what it is. Carr was spotted at the Haddad/Rosen garden brunch yesterday afternoon in Georgetown in a huddle of NYT reporters like Brian Stelter. Many a guest was buzzing about his appearance at the infamous soiree.

BREAKING NEWS: I am escorting the magnificent @goldiehawn to the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday. And yes, I’m very excited.

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) April 25, 2012

Politico was sure to remain cagey about it in their morning release about Robert Allbritton‘s Sunday brunch, keeping their names separated, but CNN’s Piers Morgan just confirmed on Twitter that he’s taking Goldie to the weekend dinner.

“Had a great time helping paint this at Burrville Elementary as part of Hands On Greater DC Cares Servathon today!” — MSNBC.com’s Mike O’Brien showing off his exemplary do-gooder weekend activity. Congratulations Mike!

Sunday’s are tough for The Daily Beast‘s Washington Bureau Chief and CNN “Reliable Sources” host Howard Kurtz. With his one-hour program on the media inevitably comes an unstoppable succession of self-pimps his show — this week he kept it down to seven tweets, which is actually low for him. Another inevitable outcome: compliments. He felt compelled to share with the world how great the polka dot bikini-clad @jennymps thinks he is.

Aw, thanks @jennymps Awesome show, you are only person in journalism who can weed out the junk and focus on the truth. Thanks.

— HowardKurtz (@HowardKurtz) April 22, 2012

Keep up the pimpin’ Howie! For this, we give him these men’s zebra print chunky platform lace-ups. They’re a big fashion hit with dark suits. Price tag: $42.07.

What’s good for Politico‘s Mike Allen is good for everyone, right?

In a recent internal memo, Foreign Policy Editor-in-Chief Susan Glasser announces their new eBook. Written by Anna Badkhen, the book recounts her year-long voyage to northern Afghanistan. Glasser calls it “haunting” and “beautifully written.” Price tag: $4.99.

Badkhen decided not to embed with the troops but with the Afghan people. More description from a release…”Throughout the year, she returns again and again to the country, traveling by foot, by taxi — and even by donkey — to the remote villages and hamlets of the Afghan North, reporting as the Taliban take over large swaths of territory and also on the unimaginable daily hardships of life in a place where even such basics as water, electricity, a doctor, and a working school are impossible luxuries.”

Noteworthy: The preface is by bestselling author Peter Bergen. The book also includes two photo portfolios.

See the memo…

Read more

It’s time to peek in on what Dana Perino of Fox News is tweeting these days. So far, she seems to be very comfortable with over-sharing her thoughts on random topics as they pop into her head. Today, we are focusing on the must-have accessory of the season: The Perino Pack! Over the weekend, Dana tweeted that fellow Fox News friend and colleague, Greg Gutfeld, made a crack about her backpack.

Today that mean old @greggutfeld made fun of my shiny new backpack. It’s covered in sequins. Maybe he was jealous. Either way #unfollowhim

— Dana Perino (@DanaPerino) April 16, 2012

A backpack covered in sequins for Princess Perino? If only we could get a look at such a monstrosity. Oh, wait. Perino tweeted out a pic of the pack for us to ridicule enjoy. We’re no fashion critic, but it’s pretty bad. It’s like a backpack screwed a rainbow and gave birth to this monstrosity. While she thinks Greg was being mean, we think he might have been trying to stage an intervention. Perino is unfazed by his taunts and later tweeted, “I felt humiliated at first when @greggutfeld ridiculed my backpack in front of everyone but now I wear it with pride (and good posture).”

Whatever you say, Dana. Wear it with pride if you wish, but we’re with Gutfeld on this one. That’s a fugly bag.

Today The Daily Caller issued a release that asserted the following:

• Over the past three months, the publication has increased its readership by two million unique users.

• The site has more than six million unique readers each month.

• Quantcast ranks the site in the top 350 in the U.S.

• In the coming weeks the publication will unveil a new website look.

Then they compare themselves to others…such as Politico and a popular shoe site followed by a dig at National Review: “With this 50% increase in site traffic since January, The Daily Caller has grown faster than other successful online start-ups such as The Huffington Post and Politico.  The site is currently ranked ahead of numerous long-established news organizations, like The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Times and The Boston Globe, as well as many successful retail sites, such as Zappos.com.  The Daily Caller also attracts triple the traffic of more niche publications like National Review.”

Federal News Radio today has won a 2012 National Headliner Award. The National Headliners Awards are honoring Federal News Radio with a second place win in the category of Radio-Affiliated Website.

The National Headliner Awards were founded in 1934 by the Press Club of Atlantic City.

“FederalNewsRadio.com is a very cool website,” said Lisa Wolfe, Program Director at Federal News Radio. “We offer a lot of interactivity with our surveys, multimedia features, radio interviews on-demand, photo slide-shows and videos.  We have improved the graphic experience with some excellent data visualization.  The goal is to push our capabilities to be in the vanguard of digital journalism.”

Late Sunday night the American Mustache Institute released the “news” that Jimmy McMillan of the Rent is Too Damn High Party is supporting their Stache Act.

If they didn’t alter the recording (and we can’t say for sure that they’re not once again lying their hairy asses off), then the mustachioed McMillan is supporting their act, which gives stache wearing Americans a $250 tax break. We reported last week that AMI claimed the support of both Mitt Romney and Ron Paul despite that being a big fat lie. They’ve called criticisms such as ours concerning their pathological lying “tepid” — so we want to make sure this time around that our critique of them is nice and fiery.

Read and watch their latest bullshit here.