While many journalists rallied around FNC’s Washington Correspondent James Rosen after news broke that his emails and phone records had been subpoenaed by the Department of Justice, Reuters‘ media columnist Jack Shafer went a different route. He wrote a column criticizing Rosen’s newsgathering style.

In a blog post headlined “What was James Rosen Thinking?” Shafer asserts that Rosen could have kept his sources in the federal government secret had he been more… secretive.

Shafer writes:

Rosen’s journalistic technique, if the Post story is accurate, leaves much to be desired. He would have been less conspicuous had he walked into the State Department wearing a sandwich board lettered with his intentions to obtain classified information and then blasted an air horn to further alert authorities to his business. For example, one data point investigators used to connect Rosen with his alleged source, Kim, was the visitor’s badge the reporter wore when calling on the State Department offices. According to security records, Rosen and his source left the building within one minute of each other and then returned only several minutes apart inside the half-hour. A few hours later that day (June 11, 2009), Rosen’s secret-busting story was published.

Even teenagers practice better tradecraft than this when deceiving parents.

Shafer goes on to offer tips on what “a smart reporter” would do. Read more

When the clock struck 6:39 p.m. last night, RedState Editor and Fox News Contributor Erick Erickson released a tweet that would draw mountains of hate from lefties his way. Before he did it, he released Bible verses. Some 171 retweets and 87 favorites later, was it worth it?

The tweet that blew a gasket:

I wonder when President Obama will find out about Oklahoma.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 20, 2013

Asked whether he regrets his remark, Erickson told FishbowlDC: “I think the blowback certainly has to make me reconsider whether it was wise to do at that time. And I probably should have waited, though I think the senator who raced to the floor to make it about global warming set a very high bar for politicization that I did not reach. The reality though is had I tweeted that today, tomorrow, or next week the accusations would be the same though not as intense.”

Do the obscenely negative responses affect him? “I’m used to it,” he wrote by email. “It also highlights just how angry some people are — to an irrational level of anger. You can disagree with and be offended by that tweet, but I’m not sure how it makes me evil, racist, or not a Christian.”

Erickson pointed to another tweet that also sparked hatred. It came from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palinand involved prayer. “Honestly, what stuck out more to me was Sarah Palin’s tweet praying for the people of Oklahoma,” he wrote. “I pulled it up to retweet it and on my Twitter app, right after she’d done it , the app showed the first response to her from someone was ‘shut up you bitch.’ Amazing.”

Also amazing to Erickson was this: “The people fixated on that tweet ignored the many dozen others I tweeted or retweeted encouraging people to pray and donate to relief efforts.” In conclusion, he said, “Odd for me to say given my job, but I’m more and more convinced that the 24 hour news cycle focused on tragedy outside anyone’s control is just not helpful for people’s well being.”

And the 8 best in worst reactions to Erickson’s remark… 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

Oh what a little time outside the Beltway will do for a person. On Tuesday afternoon, Adam Weinstein, a former engagement editor and national security reporter for Mother Jones and a former contestant on Survivor Baghdad, exposed his real feelings about the AP-DOJ scandal, including a sarcastic crack at National Journal national reporter Ron Fournier.

Weinstein, who did a stint for Mother Jones in Washington last year, is always a bit of firecracker. In October of 2012, he called FNC and Daily Caller‘s Tucker Carlson a “dickbag” after lashing out at him on Twitter for once wearing bow-ties. Now Weinstein’s based in Miami and working as an editor, writer and media consultant.

Fournier, who tweets at least once an hour, didn’t lob any comment back at him.

RealClearPolitics Washington Editor Carl Cannon is not just a history buff. He’s a history buff on the warpath, especially when it comes to misquoting Mark Twain.

The usually mild-mannered Cannon doesn’t fight on Twitter. He holds back on just about all fronts. But this week he went after do-gooder New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker in a way that has us thinking journalists and politicians better leave the country if they screw up their history.

America Rising, a conservative opposition research group founded by Mitt Romney‘s campaign manager Matt Rhoades, detailed the exchange here.

What Booker wrote: “‘Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people do that but the really great make u feel that u 2 can become great’ Twain”

Cannon snapped, “I wish @CoryBooker would quit tweeting these fake Mark Twain quotes. It’s not Watergate (or Benghazi), but it is annoying.”

We reached out to Cannon to see if he’s forgiven Booker or if he plans to send him a book of Twain quotes. So far, no response.

UPDATE: Cannon told FishbowlDC that any ill will with the mayor has been patched up. “Well, you know I get along with everybody, and if you saw the last couple of tweets between me and the mayor, you’ll see that we’re all good,” he wrote by email. “I certainly didn’t mean to single him out: Trying to keep quotes accurate has become a hobby of mine. It was always hard to do—harder now in the days of social media—and I’ve written about it a fair amount. This might be the first a piece I wrote on the topic…back in the Pleistocene Age.” Read here.

Everywhere you look these days, someone is offended about something. So let’s begin with the offending tweet.

Who’s tweeting about Benghazi? Rich, middle-aged men and Chick-fil-A lovers wapo.st/18YFgKP

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 8, 2013

Washington Examiner‘s conservative columnist Byron York retweeted the offensive nugget and remarked, “Actual WaPo tweet.” A Capitol Hill aide who would only speak on condition of anonymity said, “Hey, let’s dismiss and marginalize those who are concerned about the lives lost at Benghazi!”

They weren’t alone in their outrage. Many others followed suit:

Instapundit: “@washingtonpost Thanks for your constructive response to a national tragedy. Also, filmmaker Nakoula is still in jail.”

Jenna Brockman of Austin, Texas: “@washingtonpost i’m a broke white girl and i’m following every MINUTE of #Benghazi b/c i CARE about THIS COUNTRY. UNFOLLOWING U IMMEDIATELY.”

Marie from Texas: “Hi @washingtonpost I’m in my twenties and I’m a female who is tweeting about #BenghaziHearing. Looks like you’re wrong & also an asshole.”

Jon Gabriel: “Not dead service foreign service personnel.”

LK: “What in the real life fuck?!”

Trish: “@washingtonpost You people are disgusting. No wonder Reagan called you the Washington COMPOST!”

Comfy Paws: “I’m a middle class white woman @washingtonpost. <– hacks.”

Don Surber, editorial writer for the Charleston Daily Mail: “I remember when the Washington Post was a newspaper. Now it it’s a Twitter Trolling Attention Whore.”

Mr. Georgia Pines: “The Washington Post can blow me.”

Townhall‘s Katie Pavlich: “Hi @washingtonpost not only am I tweeting about Benghazi, I’m at the hearing wearing a red dress & heels. Not exactly a rich-middle aged man.”

It’s a story that you almost have to read in a pitch-black room, huddled under a blanket with a flashlight.

On Sunday night Breitbart News published a massive hit piece on New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman, who is presently working on a book about FNC and its CEO Roger Ailes. The story appears under the byline “Capitol Confidential” and is mostly a chronicle of the seemingly contentious relationship between Sherman and FNC. But sprinkled throughout are several unsubstantiated “holy shit!”-level digs at Sherman.

One assertion is that Sherman’s book, previously scheduled to publish this past May, has had its release date pushed to next January because the publishing house found the copy inadequate. “In the book world, that’s not a good sign,” the story says. “Typically, it means the publisher deems the manuscript to be unacceptable.” The story makes the additional leap that “desperation is taking its toll on young Sherman’s mind,” as he searches for “new and juicier material.”

Aside from a separate, anonymously-sourced piece in Breitbart that alleges Sherman’s publisher “must be freaking out,” the claim is baseless. One person who works at the top levels of a national book publisher in D.C. told FishbowlDC that any number of reasons can lead to delaying a book’s release. “Most likely, the author missed the deadline,” he said. “That could mean a number of things but a writer needing more time is not uncommon (happens all the time). It could also mean that retailers have asked the publisher for a different date because of potential promotions that can help move the book.”

Asked about the claim and to explain the “Capitol Confidential” byline, Breitbart News provided a statement to FishbowlDC… Read more

It’s not easy being on TV, on Twitter and in the newspaper. At least in the sense of the weird stuff that happens by way of fans and critics. WaPo opinion columnist and MSNBC Contirbutor Jonathan Capehart speaks freely of a “phone stalker” who calls him and other reporters such as WaPo‘s Karen Tumulty and eats up countless space in their mail boxes.

On Twitter Wednesday Capehart wrote, “Great, the (212) 988-……phone stalker has rediscovered my number.” Some Capehart followers encouraged him to release the number so his fan club can retaliate. “I say u tweet the whole phone number and let us at him/her!! #fightfirewithfire,” wrote Tiffany, clearly on Team Capehart.

When asked about it, he explained to FishbowlDC, “Oh it’s some dame with a delightfully thick New Yawk accent who has been calling me (and others, including Karen Tumulty) for years. She runs out the voicemail with either Rush Limbaugh’s radio show or her ranting about how I’m finished, how I’m a black bigot who hates white people, or, how I hate women but sleep with my mother. Yeah, she’s all charm. “

The news that BuzzFeed will be hosting a party at the same time as the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner is no sweat off Ed Henry‘s sack.

“I haven’t heard anything about it to be honest with you,” the WHCA president and Fox News Chief White House correspondent told FishbowlDC. “We’ve got 2,700 people, I think, already confirmed for our dinner and we have people beating down our door still trying to get in. So good luck to anybody else who wants to do another event. But people are dying to get into our event and we’re thrilled because it’s going to raise a lot of money for scholarships.”

BuzzFeed applied for a table at the event but was denied.

Henry’s comment came Thursday at the Newseum where the WHCA and Discovery were hosting a screening of “All the Presidents Men: Revisited,” a documentary about the Watergate affair and the movie it inspired.

A BuzzFeed spokesperson did not have anything to add on the matter.

Partisan passions were predictably on high Wednesday after a gun control bill was shot down in the Senate by a majority of Republicans and a few Democrats. The right, gleeful. The left, indignant.

“Thank you NRA,” tweeted Town Hall Editor Katie Pavlich. Mediaite‘s liberal columnist Tommy Christopher inserted himself into the debate, saying, “Yeah, thanks for the next dead children. And the previous.” What followed was a back and forth that rivals one of the famous Piers Morgan-Dana Loesch shootouts.

“Really Christopher? You’re still pulling the ‘you want dead children’ card?” replied Pavlich. “Grow up.”

Christopher argued that background checks on gun buyers and limits on gun magazines are reasonable forms of regulation on firearms. He continued to say that Second Amendment enthusiasts were insensitive to children killed by guns.

“Nice, keep playing that card,” Pavlich said again. “And just for your information, my ‘high capacity’ magazine is standard protection against bad guys, like [Jared] Loughner.” Loughner was sentenced to life in prison after shooting up a political rally in Arizona in 2011.

“I’d respect you more if you just admitted that your reloading convenience is more valuable than saving one kid,” Christopher replied.

It was a downward spiral from there. Read more