Online Media

Here’s a new one. Use your birthday to get new readers.

“Thanks for the nice birthday messages! You can get me a present – please subscribe to the Morning Line,” wrote PBS NewsHour Political Director Christina Bellantoni over the weekend. She linked here.

Translation: F%$k the B-Day Messages, Read me!

Sunday afternoon, news began spreading of the death of Robin Gibb, one of the founding members of the Bee-Gees. MSNBC’s Breaking News Twitter feed screwed the pooch by rushing out the following tweet:

Bee Gees co-founder Robin Gobb dies at 62, family statement says on.msnbc.com/4dpW6f

— msnbc Breaking News (@msnbc_breaking) May 20, 2012

Yes, that’s right. The family statement says that Robin GOBB died. You know? From the legendary band, The Boo-Goos? Thanks, MSNBC! Next thing you know, they’ll be tweeting out that he died from a terminal case of Night Fever.

While that’s a pretty embarrassing typo, they have yet to delete the incorrect tweet or issue a follow-up clarifying their mistake.

Funny. When Politico goes outside the confines of its home, the Playbookers are called “guests.” But when they go inside? He’s a celebrity.

Politico‘s Mike Allen has taken a whopping (at least for him) three days of vacation this week from the Playbook prison.  We remind you that he hasn’t taken a day off since August 2009. On day 1 their “guest” was ABC’s Jonathan Karl. On day 2 their “guest” was TIME‘s Michael Crowley. By today, day 3, they brought in the big gun “CELEBRITY PLAYBOOKER” Editor-in-Chief John Harris to tackle the job.

Mike, we hope you’re enjoying your time off and not doing any Playbook consulting, although we think you’re doing a little. We’re glad your bosses finally mustered the confidence to let someone within your workplace sub for you.

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 Instagram smartphone application has become an indispensable tool for journalists who want to share high-quality photos on the go. Gone are the days of blurry pictures with bad lighting.

But not everyone is up to speed on the app.

Exhibit A: FNC’s Ed Henry snapped this grainy, kind of blasé photo on May 11 while in Reno, Nev. “President’s limo — The Beast — parked in driveway,” reads the caption.

There’s not much to be said about this, but an Instagram filter makes a nice difference.

Exhibit B: The Washington Examiner‘s David Freddoso tweeted this not even remotely artful sideways photo on Monday.

We took the liberty of spinning it right side up and ran it through an Instagram filter to give it purpose.

But not every photo works with Instagram… Read more

While we have recently focused on Dana Perino and Roland Martin in our “What’s ______ Tweeting?” feature, we are branching out to take a look a look at the tweets of Politico’s Jake Sherman. The Shermanator, as we like to refer to him, is best buds with NBC’s Luke Russert, which often makes for interesting copy. He’s also well-known for mixing analysis of Congress with tasty nugs of bootleg videos of noodly jam band video clips. And today is no exception.

deadheads: listen to this very fun Phil and Friends show from NYC 11/27/01, including some acoustic guitar going on. archive.org/details/2001-1…

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) May 14, 2012

Sherman, aside from flirting with the Huntsman daughters, also gives us little sneak peaks into the lives of Politico reporters. Just look at this tweet with the accompanying photo above right. “This is me trying to show my editor @mkady that there is a camera built into a Mac laptop. #politicounfiltered” Sherman is bringing Politico’s Marty Kady into the 21st century by introducing him to the strange, new technology known simply as “The Web-Cam.”

We have a feeling that covering Sherman’s tweets will be a long, strange trip.

Stuart Rothenberg, of the Rothenberg Report, is swinging back against accusations that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Last week, Politico’s Dylan Byers reported on DNC spokesperson Brad Woodhouse taking on Rothenberg over his comments regarding the relationship with Democrats and the state of North Carolina, the site of the Democratic National Convention. Woodhouse reacted to Rothenberg by saying, “With all due respect, I don’t think Stu Rothenberg has any idea what he’s talking about.” At the time Politico wrote the story, Rothenberg declined to comment.

Then, later in the week, Rothenberg angrily fired back. His biggest issue seems to be in an “Update” to the original Politico piece that says,

UPDATE: A colleague, siding with Woodhouse, forwards the following Rothenberg prediction for the 2010 elections:

“But there are no signs of a dramatic rebound for the party, and the chance of Republicans winning control of either chamber in the 2010 midterm elections is zero. Not ‘close to zero.’ Not ‘slight’ or ‘small.’ Zero.”

In Rothenberg’s piece, he says Politico has the dates all wrong. He made that assessment in April of 2009. 18 months before the midterm election and he argues that it was “accurate at the time.” He points at that as the midterm approached, his assessment changed to reflect a Republican blowout and his prediction turned out to be “the most accurate of projections.” As for Politico’s update to their piece, Rothenberg says, “Printing that “update” from an unnamed “colleague” — it’s unclear whether it was a colleague of Woodhouse or of the Politico reporter — was atrocious journalism.”

SHOT FIRED! “Atrocious journalism?” Rothenberg may have a point. It’s not clear WHERE this update is coming from? A colleague of Woodhouse? A colleague of Byers?  Neither Byers nor Rothenberg were willing to comment for this story.

It’s time again to check in on Fox News’s Dana Perino to find out what she’s tweeting about. Her Twitter feed can range from insane to more insane, so we like to keep tabs on her to get the latest from Looneyville. When we last left Dana, she was tweeting about her VERY expensive sparkly backpack. Fortunately, she has moved on to much less annoying topics. Just kidding, she’s still tweeting silly shit about her bag.

Maybe the Chicago folks need a sparkly backpack. It is VERY distracting.

— Dana Perino (@DanaPerino) May 11, 2012

You know what’s distracting, Dana? YOUR $425 BACKPACK! Considering it’s the time of year where college grads get words of wisdom thrown at them from all angles when they graduate, Dana offers her own bit of advice.

For advice for grads, had ‘don’t let yourself get saddled with credit card debt, be willing to move, and get fit NOW while there’s time.’

— Dana Perino (@DanaPerino) May 10, 2012

So, there’s some safe, generic advice from a very successful lady who knows how to succeed. Now if only she could get Bob Beckel to heed that advice or snatch that bag off her shoulder. Besides, we think it’d look far better on Beckel.

In the wee hours of Friday morning, we discovered some interesting words of wisdom from Mediaite’s White House Correspondent Tommy Christopher. If you can look at the screengrab to the right and make ANY sense of that, then you’re smarter than us. Immediately, we picked up the phone to call an ambulance. The last time Christopher sent out nonsensical tweets, the man was having a heart attack. Then we thought it was part of a larger art project. I mean, the tweet, “CASH. What. Me” could easily be the name of a rap album. Considering that the tweets came in the blurry time of day where it could be a late night or early morning, we thought that it might be a drunken series of tweets from an inebriated Christopher who may have passed out on his phone. But this appeared to go well beyond the traditional butt dialing.

We frantically reached out to Christopher to make sure that he was okay and that his liver wasn’t going through another bout of Gangrene. He tells FBDC, “My little guy got a hold of my phone. I think this was a meta-critique of my Twitter feed.”

So there you have it. It was just his son taking the phone. That being said, his kid’s tweets still make about as much as much sense as Politico’s Jonathan Martin‘s on a good day.

One of the most entertaining stories we’ve read  lately was published this week by Roll Call’s John Stanton about tattoos in the U.S. Congress. Stanton let us know which members of Congress are sporting ink under their buttoned up suits. Some have small reminders of time in the service or of their heritage. Others, like Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) have half-sleeves that cover their upper arms. Stanton reports:

“So if, as lawmakers are so fond of saying, Congress is indeed a reflection of America, it would follow that some 60 Members of the House and 16 Senators have found themselves at least once under the gun, so to speak.”

Stanton revealed that he has ink of his own. He has a total of eight tattoos and he tells FBDC that his “right sleeve is almost done and my upper left arm is almost done. I have an ink well and quill tattoo, a tattoo of a harp carved from bog wood that my great grandmother brought from Ireland, among others.” Stanton’s stature combined with his well-known tattoos sparked plenty of instant reaction via Twitter on Tuesday.

Christina Bellantoni of PBS’ NewsHour says, “I’ve been waiting for this story for 2 years.” Mike Madden of Washington City Paper says, “File under ‘write what you know.’” USA Today’s Jackie Kucinich tweets, “It is pure poetry that @bigjohnrc wrote this story about lawmakers with ink.”

Yahoo’s Chris Moody wrote his own take on the Stanton’s piece and including that “he’s pretty much the perfect reporter to write the story.”

Say what you will about the competitive nature of journalism, we lost count of how many retweets and kind words were spread around the internet. It reached a feverish breaking point to where NY Mag’s obviously cantankerous Assoc. Editor Dan Amira snapped, “Ok, we get it Roll Call, you have an article on tattoos.”

While Stanton “outed” several members of Congress for having tattoos, it’s interesting to note that none of the lawmakers who admitted to having the ink would pose for a picture showcasing their body art. So, while these politicians will talk freely about their tats, they clearly still feel that there is a stigma attached to coming clean with their body art.