Stinky Fish

“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.

The Washington Examiner‘s Yeas & Nays is following in Politico CLICK’s footsteps in at least one sense this week by committing the same offense CLICK did just days before.

Today the Examiner writes up an item as if it is their own. They provide a one-word link without ever uttering the publication’s name. Ironically, that would be Politico. That one-word: “headlining.”

See the Examiner item here. See the original source — Politico (See? Not that hard to write) — here.

Joe Allbritton, father to Politico owner Robert Allbritton, reportedly planned to invest millions in his buddy Prince Charles‘s new cookie company. But Allbritton was royally rebuffed the other day, according to the Daily Mail. The brush-off came after Allbritton had already invested nearly $1 million into Prince Charles‘s new business, Duchy Originals cookies. Allbritton was prepared to invest $3.25 million in the cookies. Instead of Allbritton, Charles chose a company called Waitrose to distribute the “biscuits,” as they’re known across the pond.

Allbritton and his wife, Barbara (a.k.a. “Barbie”), are bosom buddies with the royals and attended Will and Kate’s wedding. The Daily Mail says Allbritton should expect a “charm offensive” from royal aides to smooth over the crummy incident.

Some cookies perhaps?

Read the story here.

Politico‘s Jonathan Martin is appearing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Many know he’s the longtime beau of MTP Executive Producer Betsy Fischer.

Is this a little too cozy for comfort? We give it a 6 on the 1-10 scale of Washington sketchiness (1 being not so bad and 10 being off the charts incestuous). Martin is a legitimate news reporter. Should he appear on the program that his girlfriend produces? Probably not. Likely the program could find another out of the hundreds of reporters who live and work here, but it’s Washington — a place where professional and personal often intertwine.

The Daily Beast‘s Washington Bureau Chief Howard Kurtz has been holding steady at an average of four to six weekend tweets promoting his Sunday CNN “Reliable Sources” program. But this weekend he went a little self-pimp crazy and tweeted the show eight times. Maybe it was the LA time difference?

I think we got it on the sixth.

(This dog would look great with your pimp attire…and hell, maybe he’ll let you borrow the hat.)

Looks like a certain Washingtonian Editor (cough cough Garrett Graff) is using the mag’s Twitter account for his own personal gain again. Or else someone is majorly sucking up. Somehow we suspect it’s the former.

@washingtonian MT @vermontgmg: I’ll be speaking Monday night about @thethreatmatrix at the Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta. [Read here]

Twitter has had an unmistakable impact on the English language.  Since its launch, words such as ‘tweeps,’ ‘twitosphere,’ and ‘twitterati’ have become part of everyday diction.  But today we learned a new phrase: twunemployment line.  And that’s exactly where CQ Roll Call’s Subi Issa landed after twiticizing the newsgroup’s smelly kitchen floor.  According to sources familiar with the situation, Issa, a three-year vet of the organization’s Ad Operations team, was canned on Tuesday when HR caught wind (pun intended) of this tweet:

“Asked HR how long the stench of flooring chemicals would linger + all they did was assure me it’s EcoFriendly. #AnswerTheDamnQuestion.”

Allegedly Issa was fired up about an offensive chemical odor funking up her workspace – the stench of an institutional gray kitchen floor that was recently installed in the office.  When presented with the tweet, CQRC brass decided Issa’s twattitude reeked way more than their funky floor so they showed her the door.

HR declined to comment on the issue, saying only “unfortunately, Roll Call does not discuss personnel matters.”  When reached for his take on the matter, Coolio said “1-2-3-4 better not tweet that stank-ass floor.”

Apparently the neanderthals over at the Washington Examiner Circulation Department don’t comprehend the phrase, “no means no.” They apparently think “no” means yes, please come over and hang out all over my lawn. And have a picnic while you’re at it.

We’ve written about this matter before. In one case, NYT Magazine writer Matt Bai complained about receiving the paper against his will at two different homes in the D.C. area for years. In another, Media Matters communications employee Tyrone Gayle had a exasperating weekend of the Examiner trying to force itself on him by landing daily on his doorstep.”No one likes you,” he said pointedly. A little harsh. But this is what forced entry elicits: unbridled rage.

Now a woman named “Sue” on a Cleveland Park Yahoo! group is complaining that her entire block is being littered with copies of the paper. We’re withholding her surname for safety purposes. “The unwanted Examiner newspaper is back: copies littered my block on Sunday. I recycled mine and the ones delivered to out-of town neighbors, and called the customer service number this morning. (It’s on the bag: 866-733-7323)

“A bit of good news: I got a human right away. A second bit of good news: first, the customer service rep said each neighbor had to call. But I reminded her that these were like signs saying ‘Hi, Burglar, I’m away’ and she agreed to check. Sure enough, each of those neighbors had ‘stopped’ The Examiner in the past. She sighed and said ‘I’ll send out the stop order again.’”