Today is an especially heartening day for ABC7′s Rebecca Cooper, who is emceeing the Childhelp Day of Hope today at the Capitol. The event brings awareness to child abuse in America and dates back to the President Reagan administration. Cooper’s on the Greater Area Washington Advisory Board for Childhelp. We spoke by phone earlier today to inquire more. “Usually we like to embarrass members of Congress and journalists with Capitol Careaoke,” she said of an annual singing event associated with the cause. Cooper quickly turned serious, reeling off a chilling statistic: “It used to be that four children died every day,” she said. “Now it’s five children die everyday as the result of child abuse.” This year the organization is taking a breather from Capitol Careaoke to take VIP’s to The Village in Culpeper, Va., a bucolic setting where the most seriously abused children go to live and heal. “They have horses,” Cooper explained. “Every kid gets a bike when they arrive. There’s a sign that reads ‘All who enter here shall receive love.’”

1. How did you get involved in this?  I was just back from maternity leave with my first child and Kathleen Matthews was going to emcee their annual luncheon. At the last minute she found out she was going to be jumping out of an airplane with the Blue Angels and asked me to fill in. My son was just a few months old. I was hormonal. I cry easily anyway and I came to this lunch and I was blown away by what they do.

2. How do you think the awareness campaign is faring on this issue? This is just a hidden epidemic people don’t see. We need to do a better job teaching teachers how to respond. Everyone was touched that an 8-year-old boy lost his life in the Boston Marathon  incident and we should be. If you see that kind of support, you can only imagine what people could do if they could focus on the fact that that five children die every day. So we try to talk about it.

3. Thoughts on Chris Brown and Rihanna? People shouldn’t be surprised. They should be surprised if he hadn’t broken the cycle [of abuse]. We’ve got to do more. I think these people are hurt people. She sees someone she wants to rescue. God bless her. Don’t let it happen again, but I can see why [she wants to] because there are so many hurt people out there. There’s a better way to do it than dating them.

4. Tell me about the history of this. The founders are Yvonne Fedderson and Sara O’Meara, who will attend today’s event. “She dated Elvis,” Cooper says of Federson. “They were actresses who played the girlfriends of David and Ricky Nelson on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.” They began going on USO tours for the military in Japan. After the tsunami, orphanages were wiped out. No one wanted the Amerasian children. [These women] were the ones who organized the Vietnam boat lift,” Cooper explains. When Nancy Reagan was first lady of California she called these women and asked them to take on child abuse. “That was 50 years ago,” Cooper said. “They gave up acting. They’ve been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Emotions to run high at this year’s event…

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The Washington Examiner recently dropped a bombshell on its newsroom, giving the boot to some 87 journalists to effectively start a new online political publication, including crime reporter Scott McCabe, whose work has actually helped solve crimes, and gossip columnist Nikki Schwab. McCabe and Schwab recently spoke with American University’s clean and professional District Wire News broadcast about losing their jobs and dished about went down during the firings.

In McCabe’s case, his daughter was on Spring Break and at work with him that day… Read more

Until last week, Mary Beth Baker was an associate opinion editor for The Washington Times. But according to TWT‘s temporary Opinion Editor and former Editor Wes Pruden, she was little more than “the stenographer.”

What is this, the 1950s? Is Pruden trying out for AMC’s Mad Men?

A former female TWT employee referred to Pruden as a “sexist fossil” and snapped that of course Pruden thinks she’s insignificant; she’s a woman, he’s a man, and that’s basic TWT policy.

Baker’s duties were hardly those of a stenographer… Read more

Five Roll Call reporters  received word Wednesday that they now have a new boss. Instead of Editor David Rapp, they’ll now report to a different editor. What’s more: Their work will now be behind a paywall as it appears on CQ.com.

The big switch is part of a plan to realign resources and inject them into the overall digital operation. As sources inside the publication explained to FishbowlDC, the move allows the company to lower Roll Call‘s operating costs while they avoid laying off employees. Hypothetically speaking, insiders explain the shift could help if The Economist Group decides to sell or close Roll Call (athough they have not indicated there is no plan to do either).

Despite the fact that the two newsrooms are now fully integrated, confusion among readers still exists as some Roll Call reporters are still resisting the idea of having CQ invade their Roll Call. But they’ll have to adjust. Stories bylined by these reporters will still appear in the Roll Call print edition. If you’re a CQ.com subscriber, all Roll Call stories appear on CQ.com. In turn,  CQ stories pertaining to policy news of the day appear on RollCall.com and the Roll Call print edition.

CQ Roll Call sources tell us tensions are high as some of the affected reporters were less than enthused by the initial news. Some of those called on to make the switch include White House Correspondent Steven Dennis, who is switching bosses but will continue to maintain his regular beat as a CQ Roll Call reporter, House Leadership reporter Daniel Newhauser and Humberto Sanchez, who covers the Senate. Others affected include Adriel Bettelheim, who will write a new CQ Morning Briefing newsletter that starts Monday, Kate Ackley, and Eliza Carney.

CQ Roll Call brass considers the move to be positive. In a memo dispatched to staff Thursday from Susan Benkelman…

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Guess who wants to invite President Obama to dinner?

It’s E!’s Chuy Bravo, the star nugget from “Chelsea Lately” who was tapped by The Creative Coalition’s CEO Robin Bronk for her “My 5 Minutes With the President” feature in The Hill this week.

Chuy has odd advice for Obama that include banning valets and getting a scooter like his to dancing to La Cucaracha. There are veiled hints at serious issues amid the lunacy. Read here.

Turns out the rumors of the past year and a half are true.

Politico‘s Executive Editor Jim VandeHei is getting the hell outta there and heading to MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” He has wanted to make his exit for awhile and TV is where he set his sights. MSNBC took notice after seeing the video that VandeHei narrated about how he breathed the very breath of life into Politico and how it has taken the journalism world — and the world — by storm. Some may have noticed VandeHei’s extensive appearance on “Morning Joe” last Thursday while regularly hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough were on vacation.

VandeHei will slowly phase into Willie Geist‘s third-tier co-host role as Geist concentrates on the “TODAY Show.”

Politico had no comment at this time. Editor-in-Chief John Harris was heard wailing in the Politico newsroom. James Hohmann, a reporter, was spotted handing him tissues. Mike Allen, practically VandeHei’s brother, could not be found. Sources say he has fled to Argentina to drown himself in a thick, juicy steak and red wine.

Politico Publisher Robert Allbritton, when reached at his mansion… Read more

Our hearts and well wishes go out to Al Eisele, a longtime Editor-at-Large at The Hill, who took a spill and is in the ICU with a head injury. He is expected to be released Tuesday, according to his daughter, Kitty Eisele, who writes and edits NPR’s “Morning Edition.”

To the legions of Al Eisele fans out there, if you’re wondering if you can do something, you can. Kitty Eisele writes on Facebook, “Jamie Stiehm Robert Schlesinger @everyone else who knows my dad – send him an email and cheer him along – he’s got a bad head injury from a fall playing tennis and is in ICU till Tues. We’re bringing his computer tomorrow so he’ll check email and we’d like him to have a batch -aleisele@thehill.com. Ok ball’s in your court FB friends! (The tennis court is going have a time-out I’m afraid).”

A good sign: FishbowlDC sources tell us Al is already responding to emails and telling people he’s on the mend and expected to be home tomorrow, so please write and bother him.

On a personal note, as my former editor, Al might shudder to know I’m writing something about him without him being able to line edit me. Get well soon, Al or I will write all the dirt on you I know!

Photo credit: Patrick Ryan of SnarkInfested.com and former photographer at The Hill.

In a Monday story that’ll make you actually want to hit somebody, Yahoo! News‘s Chris Moody recounted an incident at CPAC wherein former child conservative star Jonathan Krohn, now 18, is borderline bullied by a gaggle of right-wing bloggers.

One of the bloggers challenged the report as inaccurate, but Moody, having recorded the whole thing, was able to prove his story is straighter than a game of beer pong in a frat house.

On the second day of CPAC Krohn, who was attending as a freelancer for Salon, was cornered in a hallway after attending a panel discussion on Islam. He was chatting with The Daily Caller‘s Jamie Weinstein when 10 or so other CPAC attendees and bloggers approached. Among them, Townhall‘s Editor Katie Pavlich (Mean Girl 1) and Misfit Politics Editor-In-Chief Leah Sargent (Mean Girl 2).

“It was pretty rude,” Krohn told FishbowlDC. “I don’t want to make all this a point of controversy, but I know all three of us that were surrounded (Weinstein, Moody and myself) felt the set-up was intimidating.”

Moody wouldn’t comment on the record for this post, but his story describes the scene like this… Read more

The Washington Examiner newsroom has been in intense meetings all morning. The long and short of it? They’re largely shutting down their print edition, closing down their local section and moving to a once a week political magazine. They will hold onto their online presence. Noteworthy: The Yeas & Nays gossip column has been nixed.

We’ve reached out to Editor-in-Chief Stephen Smith for comment.

Washington City Paper has the story. In it, they report that an estimated 30 employees have been laid off.

Steven Greenhut, vice president of journalism for the non-profit Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, has quite a beef with a wide variety of media outlets these days. Namely that some reporters assume a lot, publish what they want, be it true or not, and never contact him for comment.

In a piece published in the liberal HuffPost, Greenhut names names and lays out specifics on stories on his organization that have gotten under his skin. He calls out the Guardian, “Democracy Now!” syndicated on NPR, Media Matters, the Center for Public Integrity and Columbia Journalism Review.

An excerpt: Read more