Stinky Fish

Last week, we brought you a very important news story that Howiella (a.k.a. The Hill’s ITK Columnist Judy Kurtz) broke via Twitter. She attended a book party for MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan where she was tipped off by The Examiner’s Yeas and Nays lead writer Nikki Schwab that Ratigan was – GASP – not wearing socks. The fashion faux-pas occurred at a party celebrating “Greedy Bastards“, the new book from Ratigan. While this story was already a stretch to put on Twitter, Schwab decided that it needed “legs” and wrote a full piece on it. THANK GOD. After seeing the picture on Twitter, I thrust my head forward into my hands in a moment of panic and despair wondering why no one had written a lengthy examination of why Ratigan wasn’t wearing socks! Schwab informs us that Ratigan’s sockless look was “unintentional.” He explains that he simply lost them “in a hotel room somewhere.” Stay tuned for Nikki’s next big scoop, “The secret to Dylan Ratigan’s Cuticle Conditioning.”

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Last night Howiella (a.k.a. The Hill‘s ITK Columnist Judy Kurtz) attended a book party for MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan and discovered that some men there have feet. And blessedly we get to kill a few birds with one stone — this was actually an observation by The Examiner‘s Yeas & Nays lead writer Nikki Schwab. Howiella knows something this stellar deserves a citation. Yes, dear readers, this is what passes for gossip in Washington. Horrifying.

As @NikkiSchwab noticed, Dylan Ratigan is sockless at his book party. Sen Sanders in loafers, Rep Schweikert in boots. twitter.com/JudyKurtz/stat…

— Judy Kurtz (@JudyKurtz) February 3, 2012

Actress Drew Barrymore came through Washington this week to promote her movie, “Big Miracle” where she plays a devout environmentalist, as she supposedly is in real life.  The big problem? She flew into Washington Dulles’ private airfield, Signature, from New York on a not so environmentally friendly private jet with three friends and her fiancé, Will Kopelman.

“I thought as an environmentalist your not suppose to be polluting the world with unnecessary bad fuel,” said Q & A Celebrity’s Colin Drummond on the scene when her plane landed. “That’s why Leo DiCaprio, Warren Buffett and Sean Penn all fly commercial.”

While in Washington Barrymore stayed at the Four Seasons Hotel, which offers extensive greening programs that “make planning a green meeting or event easier than ever.” They include reusing guest room linens, on-site recycling and composting, and oxygenating meeting spaces with green plants.

On Wednesday Senate flacks — both Democrats and Republicans — will host a party for NYT‘s newest Washington reporter Jonathan Weisman. Weisman recently made the move to The Grey Lady from WSJ.

While a party of this nature is definitely uncommon, one of our sources put it like this: “Well, he’s been around awhile. It is the Times.” Another reacted this way to the idea of flacks throwing a welcome party for a reporter: “Yuck.”

The “informal/formal” party, as it was described, will be held at Johnny’s Halfshell at 6 p.m.

Like most people, Weisman’s reputation is muddled. From those we spoke with, this is what we heard: He’s smart. He’s sweet. He’s can be a know-it-all. Rubs some the wrong way. But…not a bad guy after awhile.

 

We’ve gotten a few nameless readers riled by our “picking on” Politico‘s Playbook Rambo Mike Allen. Here’s what they have to say about our coverage.

1. “Why do you keep picking on Mike Allen, a real journalist, while you think Emily Miller and Britebarf [sic] and Jim O’Keefe are nothing more than unpricipled [sic] right wing hacks?”

2. “You people are dicks. While Mike Allen is doing real journalism and bringing in more than $1 million/year you assholes are trashing people on your blog which used to host valuable information. It’s sad that you trash a man who’s busy covering the Iowa caucus for not responding to your petty email. Get a real job…like the one Mike has.”

Memo to AnonymASSES: Our deepest apologies. It won’t will happen again.

Like some reporters, WaPo‘s Elizabeth Flock was off last week — conceivably for the holidays.

But FishbowlDC sources are insisting that Flock was suspended last week for writing that post on GOP Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney‘s using a KKK slogan in his speeches. Editors who oversaw the post insisted that she call Romney’s campaign for comment. She did so via email and the comment went to her spam folder, as reported by WaPo Ombudsman Patrick Pexton on Dec. 16. In his piece, Pexton gave Flock a public flocking on many levels — her journalism, her ethics and her common sense. He suggests that she pick up the phone once in a blue moon and use it. He also suggests she think before associating someone who has never been accused of racism with the KKK. Then this morning, weirdly, she writes about an 8-year-old American girl being targeted by Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel. Coincidence perhaps?

Sources in WaPo‘s newsroom say word spread last week that WaPo had suspended Flock. She didn’t post anything last week, nor tweeted about anything work-related. But today she’s back on BlogPost. Was she on a regularly scheduled holiday or what some are calling a “forced vacation”? At WaPo Managing Editor Raju Narisetti‘s newsroom Q&A last week, he said experienced editors read the post before it went up and didn’t flag it.

Flock did not deny the news. But she responded to FBDC, saying, “Thanks for your email. I can’t comment on the matter. You will have to go through Marcus Brauchli.” Narisetti, who oversees the entire website operation,  also wouldn’t comment. “Happy holidays,” he said in response. “As you might imagine, I can’t comment on personnel issues.” To that end, we sought comment from WaPo Director of Communications Kris Coratti. We also threw in an email to Executive Editor Steamed Marcus Brauchli for kicks and will check our spam filters pronto. We’re hoping four’s a charm.

UPDATE: Coratti wrote, “We don’t comment on personnel issues. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.”

From JournoList to activist, it appears that WaPo‘s liberal blogger Ezra Klein is once again blurring the lines between being a journalist and trying to sway politics. In what appears to be at a minimum a breach of journalism ethics, Klein spoke to a group of Senate Democratic Chiefs of Staff last Friday about the Supercommittee, just days before the Committee announced its failing. “It was kind of weird,” said a longtime Senate Democratic aide, explaining that while people “enjoyed it” and gave it “positive reviews” this sort of thing is far from typical.

A longtime Washington editor who deals with Capitol Hill regularly also said this is not the norm: “”I have never heard of a reporter briefing staffers. It’s supposed to be the other way around. This arrangement seems highly unusual.”

Klein’s speech to high-level Democratic aides was in the Capitol, closed door and off the record. It lasted 30 minutes. “I think they thought it was very helpful,” said the aide. “I think it’s unusual. What’s more common is to get someone like Paul Begala or a White House staffer. To get a journalist to talk is a little unusual.”

But then again, Klein is unusual. In the summer of 2010, his exclusive partisan JournoList, a secretive listserv of some 400 members, collapsed as contents of the exchanges began leaking out. Journalists took hits for their participation, such as then WaPo‘s Dave Weigel, who quickly apologized on the newspaper’s blog for some of what he wrote. He was fired over the matter and is now at Slate. The Daily Caller reported extensively on the offending material. The end result: Klein shut the list down.

Briefings for journalists covering Capitol Hill are usually the reverse of what transpired here. Lawmakers brief reporters. Aides brief reporters. Think tanks brief reporters. Think tanks brief aides. But reporters briefing aides? This is unheard of.

Important questions to have answered: Was Klein strategizing with Democrats on messaging of the Supercommittee’s failure? What exactly was the purpose of the reporter’s speech?

We wrote Klein for comment. While he may refuse to read FishbowlDC, preferring instead to stick to the confines of CJR, his readers need to demand answers from him if they are going to trust the integrity and validity of his journalism. We also wrote WaPo Publicist Kris Coratti to find out what the rules are on these sort of talks and if WaPo was even aware that Klein was giving the speech. She said she’d look into it. That was three hours ago. If we get a statement we’ll bring it to you.

See the email FBDC sent to Ezra after the jump…

Read more

“Your little ‘penis project’ is shockingly stupid, offensive and sexist. Honestly, it’s sort of a joke among the few people in DC who still read your blog. (I only know one or two, I used to know hundreds). Anyway, if I were you, which thank God I’m not, I’d stop posting your sexist, immature rants and start doing some actual reporting. Just a thought. Good luck.”

Note to AnonymASS: Little penis project? First of all, I’d like to point out that not all of the penises are little. They come in varying shapes and sizes. Second, we took the liberty of capitalizing your i’s, the first letters of the first words of your sentences and the “g” in God so your letter wouldn’t look like it was coming from a second grader or a prison escapee. No doubt God, who you’ve angered by lowercasing his name, is grateful we’re not the same person. Genetically not that possible!

An anonymous reader does not care for our feature, “Sunday Morning Panels: Only Males Need Apply,” which watches how many female pundits and journalists are invited onto the weekend political talk shows. So far, the feature reveals that NBC’s “The Chris Matthews Show” most consistently has a panel in which half are women. Nonetheless, speak your mind, dear AnonymASS. And thanks for writing in. It was a good excuse to run a miniature version of the above photograph.

“Here’s the problem with your offensive Sunday Morning panels item: There are women on the Sunday shows. By your count, there are seven. You have no argument, nothing to say. And the photo you’re using is disgusting. What are you, 12 years old? Find something meaningful to write about, or get a new job. We’ll all be much happier, I’m sure. Thanks for reading.”

3-2-1. “RRING! RRING!”

The predictability in the air was palpable on Wednesday afternoon when we published a story on the abrasive comments Current TV’s David Shuster made about Fox News anchors Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace over the weekend.  You may recall how Shuster took his stink with the FNCers to CNN’s airwaves on Sunday, telling Howie Kurtz that the trio had no business moderating a presidential debate due to their lack of campaign trail experience.

Communicating extensively with FBDC, Shuster reaffirmed his remarks and even took things a step further.  He charged that Fox has lost all “credibility/watchability” since Brit Hume‘s semi-retirement. He also explained that conversations with “friends” inside FNC prompted him to criticize the network on CNN.  After finishing with Shuster, FBDC contacted longtime Fox News Communications Director Irena Brigante for a response or comment on the matter. Included in the note was a graph of quotes from our earlier conversation with Shuster.

So we waited. No response. Deafening silence. Still, not surprising.  That is, after all, typical treatment for journalists who’ve been blackballed by Fox News PR.

“That’s how they operate. There’s a black list. So if they’re isolating you it means you pissed them off or were nice to someone at another network.,” said a TV insider who is familiar with Brigante’s operation.

“F–k her,” added another media insider with a key vantage point to know her history. “That’s her stock and trade to alienate people and never talk to certain media outlets. I’ve had this conversation with everyone in the media.”

But wait there’s more to FNC’s blacklist than the silent treatment.  Things generally play out like this: While most of the network’s press shop is busy miming hateful replies to your request, one of the spokeshags hits the phones to sell your scoop or share your inquiry with  one of their pet publications. Which is precisely what happened this week.

Sure enough, just after 2 p.m. on Wednesday the Washington Examiner‘s Nikki Schwab, who has taken the bait before, wrote FBDC explaining that she, too, was working on a Shuster/Fox News piece.  What a coincidence!  In the note, she posed a question about Shuster’s misspelling Baier’s first name. FBDC replied.

Schwab’s story published Wednesday. The piece contained zero new news and cited only Shuster’s comments to FBDC – coincidentally the very same quotes we’d sent to FNC PR when we originally sought comment from them. Schwab advanced the story with nothing more than a remark from an unnamed Fox News spokesperson regarding the quotes we’d emailed Brigante earlier in the day.

Coincidence? Unlikely.

We reached out to both Schwab and Editor Stephen Smith, posing virtually the same question to each of them: Does the Washington Examiner see anything ethically challenging about Fox News using their publication as a mouthpiece? So far, no response.