Capitol Hill

If you’re a reporter covering the media you may have noticed new pitches flowing in for The Hill from Elizabeth Luke at High10 Media, a New York-based communications agency that also reps The Hollywood Reporter, Norman Lear‘s People for the American Way, NatGeo Network, Time Inc., Adweek, A&E Networks and Simon Cowell. The Hill has notoriously not had a publicist in a good while ever since Tricia Barba left the role in 2011 after about a year. Before Barba, they went years without a publicist. In January 2012 they brought on Megan McCourt as an editorial assistant to handle social media.

Now they’re giving High10 Media a try.

It’s hardly surprising that the publication would secure a New York-based firm considering The Hill‘s hands-on owner, Jimmy Finkelstein, resides in Manhattan. But what is a little confusing is that they’re not actually letting Luke autonomously speak to the media. When I asked her questions about whether she will serve in an actual role of spokeswoman, ironically she never replied, despite saying repeatedly in her emails, “Feel free to contact me with questions.” Editor Hugo Gurdon also did not reply to simple, basic questions we sent yesterday.

So who is actually speaking for The Hill? That would be High10 Media CEO Lisa Dallos, who said Tuesday morning that she would be handling my questions, but had to talk later because she was on an airplane. She explained quickly by email, “We were retained by The Hill to help promote its editorial and business interests — stories, events, special reports, and so forth. We work very closely with the client, in terms of what gets promoted. Elizabeth is part of the HIGH10 team working on the account.” On the subject of Luke, she said, “Elizabeth works with me, I run High10 Media, I oversee all the work with The Hill. I am the one to speak to.”

I told Dallos that Luke not being able to talk seems fishy. She replied, “Funny u think this is fishy. This would be a lot better if I could talk with you when I land.” She added, “It is very straightforward and not complicated. I am the CEO of company and lead work on all our clients Elizabeth as well as other members of the high 10 team work collaboratively to fulfill our clients needs.”

Luke seems qualified to answer questions and Dallos said I could call her or Luke anytime. Before joining High10 Media, Luke spent three years at Nielsen, most recently as a corporate communications analyst. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in Communications. While it appears that Luke will not serve as an actual spokeswoman for the publication, Barba’s role also did not involve commenting on the record to reporters.

In a morning phone interview with Dallos, she said she’d be handling all questions related to the editorial and business sides of the publication. “Any of those questions feel free to call me,” she said. “I think the hope to have a coordinated communication effort under the guidance of Hugo and that we would be able to properly disseminate information to media on multiple subjects, whether it’s breaking news, evergreen and on announcements of whatever kind, both on the business side and the editorial side.”

So far, Luke typically sends out one email a day featuring a story they mark as “Breaking News.” Luke’s email intro on most pitches is as follows:

Good morning, I represent The Hill at High10 Media and am sharing this breaking story with you (link and text below) because it aligns with your beat and I thought you and your readers might be interested.  If you decide to cover this story, please link to the article and credit to “The Hill.”  Feel free to contact me with questions.  Thank you!

But maybe don’t take that second to last line too seriously. That’s not exactly true.

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

C-SPAN’s Communications Director Howard Mortman remarks on Google’s self-driving car making an appearance on Capitol Hill this morning: “The Google-self driving car gets a taste of life in the red-hot DC media fishbowl on Cap Hill.”

The Google self-driving car is parked right outside 400 N. Cap. St., which houses C-SPAN and Fox News. The picture below is from a half hour ago.

 

If you’re a Capitol Hill press secretary you may want to think long and hard before calling up The Daily Caller and giving them headline advice.

The headline in question: “McCain fingers Schumer as media whore for ‘grandstanding’ on Ariz. immigration law.”

Brian Fallon, spokesman to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a well-known press whore who practically invented the phrase press whore, called up and asked, “Is whore really a word that The Daily Caller uses in a headline on its website?” Fallon had zero problem with their use of “fingers” as a verb.

So The Daily Caller did what many modern news organizations would do and turned Fallon into a puppet. The story’s byline is “Scoops Delacroix” a fake reporter’s name that has been passed around the office. At the moment it floats between Will Rahn and Jamie Weinstein but there may be others who have used it.

This is a must-watch.

The stars just won’t stop coming to Washington. Can we block them at the airport?

Next week Cyndi Lauper will pop into D.C. for a couple of days to accept an award on May 9th from Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius for her work to end homelessness and visit lawmakers on Capitol Hill. We hear she’s going to meet up with the Sanchez sisters (California Dems Loretta and Linda) for a “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” singalong.

In all seriousness, Lauper will join True Colors Fund for a lobby day to educate legislators and the public on the underfunded minimally addressed national epidemic of LGBT homelessness. A whopping 40 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBT. In incredibly disproportionate numbers gay kids are pushed out, neglected, ostracized, abused and left to fend for themselves in the most traumatic of circumstances.

We hope lawmakers will focus on that right after the gawking and photo opps that will inevitably occur.

Who are the funniest Members of Congress? All of them, if you think about it long enough and don’t mind the fact that the joke is on us. The real answer is most of them if you just focus on looks. But if you think of it in terms of comedy you come up with a different answer.

In a group that contains the notoriously unfunny Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (D-Ky.), damn near anything you say can be considered funny. But Businessweek decided to actually look and see if any of the 535 people voting on a regular basis to spend more money than exists in cash form are funny.

They came up with 8.

So who are these 8 special people who can crack a joke on our dime?

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), who made his fortune writing comedy on shows like Saturday Night Live, and has become known on the Hill as…a guy who just isn’t funny at all. He’s trying to be taken seriously, so he acts serious. Someone should tell him it’s much more effective if it’s not an act. But they won’t, because he’s smart enough…you know the rest.

Reps. Linda and Loretta Sanchez (Dems from Calif.). Not sure why they were picked, the article talks about Christmas cards, for which they are known. Funny, not so much. Off the wall? Dead on.

Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX). He’s 88 and he’s funny, or so the article says. I don’t know if he is or not, but anyone who lives to 88 can say whatever the hell they want to about themselves.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). OK, he can be funny. And not just when he wears a T-shirt showing off his man-boobs on the House floor. But mostly he can be whiny and annoying. Considering the competition, that qualifies him to host open mic night a the Improv.

Congressman Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). Sure, Flake can be funny, but anything funny he says is offset by the fact that you’re blinded by the whiteness of his teeth when he opens his mouth. Like an eclipse, you shouldn’t stare.

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas). The evidence of his humor? Washingtonian said so and they can help you find your favorite Botox doctor. That’s pretty weak, but the guy is from Kansas so I’ll cut him some slack.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO). She can actually be funny, so this one’s good.

But 1 of 8 after only finding 8 of 535 is a sad commentary on the state of humor in our humorous state.

Bloomberg Businessweek’s Tim Murphy spent two days in late March observing the behavior of elected officials on the floors of the House and Senate. In a graphic piece — a portion of which we show you below — he describes, with insight from Daily Kos, Wonkette and the Hoover Institution, that a member of Congress’s off-camera activities say as much about their character as their policy positions. The stats: 24 % are “Power Blackberryers,” 20% are “Schmoozers,” 15% are “Sustained Touchers,” 5% are “Eaters.”

We chatted more extensively with Murphy about his story yesterday afternoon via email as he is now living in France. “I am either lucky or too much of an easily-bored dilettante to have one beat,” he explained when asked what he covers. “I write everything from serious stories about gay issues and HIV/AIDS to celeb profiles to travel pieces for the New York Times, New York Magazine, Details, OUT Magazine, Poz Magazine, etc.

1. Where are you in France and what are you doing there? I’m a longtime New Yorker but I am living and working from Paris for the next few months with my boyfriend, the illustrator Damien Cuypers, who is French. But at this very moment I’m in Lyon, which I highly recommend to anyone who’s already been to Paris. It’s beautiful and charming and Frencher-than-French but it’s cheaper and more manageable than Paris–and it’s warmer, literally and figuratively. If Paris is New York, Lyon is San Francisco.

2. How and why did you get the idea to write this piece, by watching C-SPAN by any chance? I have been doing these BusinessWeek pieces for the past year or so where I watch people in very banal, everyday settings, like power lunching or early-morning gym or commuter trains and then I get behavioral experts to analyze what I saw. We’re always trying to think of new ones and someone at BizWeek suggested just sitting in the galleries of the House and Senate for a few afternoons and watching the floor. So I just sat there with the tourists a few weeks ago and watched.

3. Lawmakers are pretty goofy, fun characters, right? What was your impression? No, actually their behavior on the floor–and that of their staffers–is incredibly contained and bland. They are being watched constantly by the galleries and by C-SPAN, they are not going to do anything too wacky. That’s why Barbara Boxer really stood out to me–she was a real fireplug, bustling here and there, getting up in people’s faces, wagging her finger. She was working it!

4. What was left on the cutting room floor? Read more

As if Washington’s political realm needed any more excuses for its public figures and aides to act like idiots?

Well, here’s another one. The Burning Hour. It’s a condensed version of that booze-filled western orgy that happens annually in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada that they describe as, ahem, “creative innovation.” Now they’re bringing that free “spirit” to Washington, specifically to Tortilla Coast on Capitol Hill on April 30 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., to introduce Congressional leaders and their staffs to the Burning Man community. Turn away from the sun staffers! Run for your lives!

Those who decide to attend will hear stories about the decades-old event from Burning Man veterans who are proudly known as “Burners.” We heard from one Burner who described his experience as follows:

“It’s an orgy in the middle of the dessert that is fueled by drugs and broken dreams. The one thing I remember more than anything is the smell. Between all the drugging and fucking, etc, it’s a garbage dump of smells..  Burning weed, hot latex and fuck fumes.”

As you can see above, a lot of ass tattooing goes on, which couldn’t be more perfect for members of Congress in an election year. We can hardly wait to hear more.

In a presser with congressional reporters, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) gave the last question to NBC Congressional Correspondent Luke Russert, whom he referred to as “loud mouth.”

As reporters clamored for his attention he looked Russert’s way and said, “Last question for loud mouth.” Boehner has made fun of the reporter’s so-called volume before.

Russert replied, “Thank you sir,” and proceeded with his question about the budget.

Watch here in the C-SPAN library. Question for Fishbowlers: Is Russert really so loud? We want to know what you think. Write us at FishbowlDC@mediabistro.com or to Betsy@mediabistro.com. Your anonymity will be protected if you want it to be.

Crain’s Chicago Business politics writer Greg Hinz is taking a bold stance on the health of 52-year-old Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) who suffered a severe stroke nearly three months ago. Namely, he wants to know what’s happening. It’s time, he says.

For the kid gloves. Hinz boldly went there, but managed to show some tact. An excerpt:

“I can appreciate the desire for privacy from the senator’s staff and family — and perhaps Mr. Kirk himself. He quite possibly has suffered some left-side motor damage and is entitled to work his way through the painful struggles that recovery likely requires without the indignity of having film on the 6 o’clock news. But Mark Kirk is not just any official. He’s a United States senator, one of just 100 in a body in which one vote often makes a huge difference.  …Can he do that job? Apparently not today. Will he be able to do it in a month, a quarter, or a year? No one is saying.”

Read the full story here.

Reporters listen up! Former RNC Spokesman Doug Heye is going to work for House Maj. Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) starting Friday. Will he cause trouble like that former occasionally hot headed flack Brad Dayspring? Various media outlets are reporting the news this afternoon including MSNBC, Politico, Roll Call and our favorite, saveuschuckwoolery.com.

Friends -

As you may have heard, I will serve as Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications in House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s office beginning Friday. I’m both honored and excited to work again in the House of Representatives and with the Majority Leader’s excellent team.

I will forward more contact information when I have it, but the Majority Leader’s office # is —–. I can always be reached at this email.

Thank you.