Media Magic

WaPo recently launched a new blog called “She The People” headed up by Melinda Henneberger with the tagline “The world as women see it.” God, I hope not.

I realize men have no idea how women think, but vaginas can’t make this much of a difference between what happens in the mind of the opposite sex. If they do, women don’t think about the economy or jobs, but about the questions no one else does, like “Would we love Tim Tebow if he were Muslim?” and almost obsessively about Republican Presidential candidates…and not much else.

Do women care that deeply about candidate’s spouses and ex-spouses? “She The People” bloggers do since they write about them more than the National Enquirer.

They do take a slight break from time to time to kiss up to first lady Michelle Obama almost as much as The Hill‘s Amie Parnes, so there’s that.

Aside from staying lock-step with the Post’s predominately liberal blog bias (sure, there’s exceptions), this is a painful blog to read. I hope women think about things beyond this. To steal a catch phrase, you’ve come a long way, baby, but this blog ain’t helping the cause.

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.

Emoticons are annoying little characters people usually insert into text messages and emails, like the smiley face , the winking smiley face , the winking smiley face with its tongue sticking out ;-p and so on. What it is not is anything having to do with privacy. But don’t tell that to MSBNC’s newest contributor Meghan McCain.

On “Now with Alex Wagner” today, the daughter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said she thought President Obama and his family deserved “an emoticon of privacy” in regards to revelations in NYT’s Jodi Kantor‘s new book The Obamas.

McCain, known for her, shall we say, “creative” use of language more than her ability to, you know, like, think, immediately took to Twitter to explain herself: “Thanks everyone, was talking quickly and said ModiCOM instead of ModiCUM this morning – thanks for obsessing over my every waking word. ”

Nice try, Megs, but you said it twice and you said it clearly. While trying to cover it up shows at least some cognitive awareness that she’s building a reputation as a clown, she seems to forget that this is the Internet Age. Where people used to forget, the Internet doesn’t. The video of her latest fumble (at least as of this writing, who knows what she’ll do between now and when this is published) went viral faster that Gwyneth Paltrow in “Contagion.”

Twitter lit up with ridicule. Here are the highlights:

Slate’s Dave Weigel added, “Meghan McCain reporting that Jack Lew will take over as White House chef.”

Mike Flynn, Editor-In-Chief of BigGovernment, harkened back to another MSNBCer’s greatest his with, “Resist We Much the ‘Emoticon of Privacy’ #MeghanMcCainFail”

Townhall,com columnist Derek Hunter gave props to McCain’s ability to continually top herself by tweeting, “Every time I think @McCainBlogette has found her floor of stupid, she opens her mouth and out comes a shovel.”

Pajamas Media’s Stephen Green (VodkaPundit), added, “I have now watched @McCainBlogette‘s ‘emoticon’ video more times than I’ve watched Godfather I & II combined.”

 

The Daily Caller‘s Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson is often magnetically pulled to the oddest people in a crowd. Manchester is no exception.

Late last week, Infowars.com interviewed him about Libertarianism, Ron Paul and 9-11 being an inside job. Carlson, who thinks 9-11 conspiracy theories are ludicrous, engaged with male blogger types who looked like they could stand a few sprays of deodorant. They baited him by claiming the government caused 9-11. “I hate that 9-11 crap,” Carlson says, at one point giving his interviewer and his camera the hand. When the interviewer suggested that Tucker believes family members of the victims are “less than adults” for wanting information being withheld by the government, Tucker lashed out, saying, “I would say parasites like you make it much worse for them. …It’s filthy to say things like that with no evidence.” He then calls his interviewer a “moron” for continuing to bring up the topic. Somehow they ended on a friendly note. (Meanwhile, Daily Caller reporter Alex Pappas can be seen in the foreground, watching on and laughing.) View here.

Next Up: Capital, a New York-based website that writes about how things work in NYC except when they’re in New Hampshire, also trailed Carlson over the weekend for a block or two down Main Street and came up with a story that moved through a goofy assortment of topics: 1. Carlson hanging out with Hasidic men who were there to rally against anti-Zionism and Israel. 2. Carlson refusing to let the reporters tape him while interviewing him about Attorney Gen. Eric Holder. “Are you kidding?” he says initially in response to him declining to be taped. 3. They ask how The Daily Caller is doing and bring up Politico Keach Hagey‘s recent story that mentioned “growing pains.” He replied, “It’s really good. I mean, if you can’t make a site work in the age of Obama, you should probably go do something else.”

Photo credit: Capital New York

A new radio show is launching in Washington this weekend and David Shuster is host.

Whoa! That D. Shuster?

The show debuts this weekend from Noon to 3 p.m. on 1480 AM otherwise known as We Act Radio DC. Among D.’s guests will be Roll Call‘s Paul Singer. D. says he will continue his duties as a fill-in for Keith Olbermann on Current TV.

In other D. Shuster news that he won’t SHUT UP about (we’re totally kidding, D.), he’s launching a new website that he claims will be “amazing” and “shake things up.” Watch out Politico CLICK. “I’ve been working with a few friends on a new journalism venture that we are beginning to roll out on FB, twitter, and via a radio show I’m hosting each Saturday in DC starting this weekend,” he told FishbowlDC. “We aren’t doing a full pr blitz just yet… that will come later in the spring. The website we launch in a few months will be pretty amazing and should shake things up.”

We cannot wait.

UPDATE: Why is Shuster jumping into this new radio show? Find out…

Read more

Meghan McCain, daughter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Cindy McCain, beer distributor heiress, whose only accomplishment of note is being born to rich and famous parents and finding a way to parlay a poorly written blog into a book deal, doesn’t like Newt Gingrich. Why does anyone care what this spoiled woman-child thinks? Because she’s on TV, naturally.

In what can only be explained as a prank that has gotten out of control, Meghan is also an MSNBC contributor who was brought on to represent the Republican Party. Well, it was either a prank or just how far down the food chain MSNBC had to go in order to find anyone willing to call themselves a Republican and regularly appear on their network. Either way, it ain’t right.

Meghan was on “Now with Alex Wagner” earlier in the week to discuss the Republican primary and used the opportunity to unleash fresh hypocrisy on the world.

In addition to claiming that a Gingrich nomination would be “the end of the Republican Party,” McCain decided to attack Newt’s wife Callista, who, in her eyes is a hussy.

Of Callista, Meghan says, “[S]he was a third wife and a mistress and is coming off somewhat icy and [her] reputation of being somewhat controversial within their campaign is doing damage. Maybe just to politicos, but I think it’s something that people, and especially values voters, will bring into the race.”

GUESS WHAT MEGHAN: YOUR MOM IS ALSO A HUSSY.

McCain, herself not a “values voter,” calls Mrs. Gingrich “a mistress.” It’s true, Newt was married to his second wife when they met. But what Meghan neglects to point out is her own mother Cindy, wife of the last Republican nominee, was a mistress herself. Yes, John McCain was married when he met and became involved with Cindy. That this doesn’t occur to Meghan isn’t surprising, since she’s so oblivious to the world around her that she actually thinks people take her seriously.

But that slight to mistresses might make for an awkward Christmas dinner at the McCain house…whichever of the 8 homes in which they’re “Christmasing” this year.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) made his name in comedy, not Congress and Howard Stern is revisiting some of Franken’s time as a Saturday Night Live cast member on the Tuesday broadcast of his SiriusXM program The Howard Stern Show.

On Monday, Stern’s show kicked off “SNL on Stern,”a week-long series that takes a look at past highlights from SNL as well as old interviews Stern had with the cast. Franken was one of the original writers and performers of the show and Stern is re-airing a 1987 clip of Franken and his SNL co-writer Tom Davis talking about Chevy Chase, also of SNL fame, and the late actor Milton Berle.

Former SNL star Darrell Hammond, best known for his impersonation of Bill Clinton, is scheduled to appear on Stern’s show this week to talk about the time he came face to face with the former president.

Catch Stern’s show on SiriusXM 100. The original broadcasts begin at 6 a.m. Monday through Wednesday and encores follow all day.

ABC’s Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper tweeted the following teaser today:”A group of progressive media stars meeting with POTUS at the WH — @AriannaHuff, @WeGotEd, @EzraKlein, @KatrinaNation, @ChrisLHayes et al”

Tapper later answered a tweeter’s question about whether or not MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow was there, too, to which he replied he’d heard she was but hadn’t seen her himself.

One has to wonder who was minding the MSNBC store with so many of network hosts and guests powwowing with POTUS at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. As yet, none have let out what the purpose of the meeting was, but we can imagine. So let’s!

Arianna Huffington – She was just there to tell people she was there. Arianna loves to tell the world about the important or famous people she talks to. She’s the ultimate name-dropper, just too bad no one can understand what names she’s dropping through her thick Hungarian accent.

Ed Schultz – The President has no bigger cheerleader, especially now that Al Sharpton has dropped 100 pounds, than Schultz. There was really no reason to include Ed, it’s not like he’s going to leave the reservation or anything, but including him will stop his on-air whining about Obama refusing to be on his show. Better than having him stand outside, uninvited, yelling about how he’s going to “torch this ****ing place” for not being invited (yes, he also threatened to torch Banana Republic earlier in the day).

Ezra Klein – Oh, Ezzy. The golden boy of people who have low standards. He’s a natural choice for this meeting since anything the President says to him can be brought, carrier pigeon style, from the White House to Ezzy’s next briefing, er, “free-ranging discussion” with Senate Democratic chiefs of staff. Don’t forget, he’s a “JournoList!”

Katrina Vanden Heuvel – It’s easier to invite Katrina than to not invite Katrina. Like David Banner (a.k.a. The Incredible Hulk), you wouldn’t like her when she’s angry. But she does have a value-add beyond simply not getting on her bad side. If spontaneous choir singing breaks out, she’s have the bass parts covered.

Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow – No one on the White House staff was sure which one the President wanted to invite, since the invite list was just a bunch of headshots, so they erred on the side of caution and invited both.

No word yet on how the Oval Office floorboards dealt with the weight of so much ego, but if they held up Taft…

As many of you know by now, if it’s Wednesday, it’s Wendy Wednesday. As in Washington Publicist Extraordinaire Wendy Gordon, who now has an entire day named for her. We’ve had a few angry readers who want us to discuss her accomplishments and the many people she helps. Tell you what, send us the details and we’ll be sure to include them on a future Wednesday sometime soon.

Today we have Wendy on the verge of eating a dog. Noooo, Wendy, stop!

Either this applicant writes in computer code. Or else they have a really interesting past.

“I am a lecturer in theory at [blank] University. I hold a PhD in the fields of politics and philosophy. In addition I have written for political blogs in the UK as well as having started my own political blog entitled '[blank, blank, and blank]'. While currently I live in the UK, I grew up in and around Washington DC while residing and working there permanently for over a year. I believe I have the 'edgy' and original take on politics and the capital that you desire.”

This applicant sounds like a presidential hopeful exuding a George Clooney air of confidence that he somehow already landed the job. Reminds us of Gary Johnson or Herman Cain declaring, “When I’m President of the United States…” Or else he’s the scary intruder who calls from upstairs and tells you he’s in the house.

“My name is BLANK, and I’m very excited about joining the team at FishbowlDC as a Contributing Writer.” Some of the highlights: He’s a “proud DC enthusiast” and a “decorated radio journalist” (kind of like a war hero but not). He goes on to say what has “prepared him to excel at Fishbowl” as well as lessons that “will prove valuable at FishbowlDC.”

We feel like he’s already here.