We’re bigger fans of some of the judges… they include the GEICO Gecko (seriously?!), Time‘s Karen Tumulty, Politico‘s Patrick Gavin, Chicago Trib‘s Clarence Page, NJ‘s Nora McAlvanah and the Examiner‘s Julie Mason and Gina Sacrapanti, among others.

But it hasn’t been all fun and games for this event… Check out WaPo‘s Amy Argetsinger‘s reporting yesterday. Funniest Celebrity Charitable Fund CEO Richard Siegel responded here.

Follow us on Twitter for updates (of jokes, and more likely, crashes-and-burns).

• ABC’s Terry Moran, Emmy-nominated actress Cheryl Hines, Office of Disability Employment Policy Assistant Secretary Kathy Martinez will celebrate United Cerebral Palsy’s “60 Years and Onward” at the Four Seasons. Moran will serve as the master of ceremonies to UCP’s event.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

• Last time we checked, “Yeas & Nays” had yet to update its Twitter page photo, but now the Examiner makes it official. Introducing Nikki Schwab and Tara Palmeri.

• In this month’s Washingtonian… NJ‘s Suzanne Clark, NYT‘s Maureen Dowd, MTP’s Betsy Fischer, PBS’ Gwen Ifill, BET’s Debra Lee, NPR’s Diane Rehm, NPR’s Vivian Schiller, NPR’s Nina Totenberg and WaPo‘s Katharine Weymouth represent the media on the mag’s 100 Most Powerful Women.

• CNN’s “State of the Union” executive producer Michelle Jaconi and journo band Suspicious Package’s Christina Sevilla are among Washingtonian‘s Most Stylish People. The 18 fashionistas will be toasted at a party thrown by the mag this evening, and you can check out the complete list on newsstands.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Washington Post: Republican Amendments to Health-Care Bill Voted Down

Washington Times: Cantor: Afghan review jeopardizing U.S. troops

Washington Examiner: Senators reject anti-abortion provision for health care bill

N.Y. Times: G.M. to Close Saturn After Penske Pulls Out of Deal

L.A. Times: Polanski’s defenders lose sight of the true victim

USA Today: At least 119 dead in South Pacific tsunami

CQ Politics: Christie’s Edge in New Jersey Narrows

The Hill: Reid cancels October recess to focus lawmakers on healthcare

Politico: Sex, scorn and videotape

ABC News: Roman Polanski: What Did He Do?

CBS News: Al Qaeda Bombers Learn from Drug Smugglers

Fox News: FBI: Bloody Silhouette of Child Found in Casey Anthony’s Car

MSNBC News: Indonesia quake kills 75, thousands trapped

CNN: Spencer Pratt ‘barely having sex’ with Heidi Montag

Wall Street Journal: Saturn to Close After Sale Falls Through

NPR: Supreme Court To Debate Local, State Handgun Laws

Roll Call: Obama Drafts Health Care Fallback Plan

National Journal: Senate Climate Bill Sets Higher Reduction Targets Than House

Bloomberg News: Bank of America’s Chief Executive Ken Lewis to Retire Dec. 31

Gallup.Com: Many in U.S. See Health Insurance as Personal Responsibility

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

What staple outfit should every reporter own? I once got great advice while interviewing an energy expert at Jim Baker‘s think tank in Houston. Her parents had founded the famed department store Louis Boston and she had been a journalist prior to becoming a wonk. She told me to always dress for the individual you are interviewing. Match their level of formality no matter how high or low to gain confidence and trust. I’ve covered fashion, alongside every other aspect of lifestyle reporting, for a decade this January. It is amazing the pschyographics you can learn by looking at how a source presents him or herself and you can be sure that source is trying to size you up in the same way. Though I would beg news anchors to begin dressing for this millennium. I don’t know that making the mainstream audience identify with you is as important as making them believe you are sophisticated and smart. We found that with our President. People decided they actually did want someone smarter than them making the decisions and explaining them. Although, I guess that doesn’t explain Glenn Beck.

What one product could you not live without? Not to get mawkish, but my husband Scott and I lost our house and everything in it during Hurricane Katrina. I was covering New Orleans for the Times-Picayune. It is a really trippy place to be – reporting on stuff and losing all of yours, and then covering an entire population who lost theirs, too. I learned immediately that other than my family, there is nothing I can’t live without. Now, what would I prefer to have not lost? Oh, those Chanel cap-toed heels with the Mylar silver ribbons laced up the legs. It’s been four years and clearly I still pine for them.

What has been your biggest career challenge? We moved back to my hometown DC after Katrina. I was pregnant and we already had a two year old. I landed at the Washington Post as a shopping columnist. DC magazine quickly called and scooped me up, five months pregnant. That was the second time in my career that I had been hired full-time while pregnant – which to me, says a lot about our industry. However, as I was giving birth (I mean literally, as I was pushing), my features editor quit and I wound up bringing my newborn to the desk with me 10 days after he was born. In truth, I restructured the magazine after that and I think we are who we are today because of the staff that was hired in the aftermath. However, it was only after the baby was nearly two that I felt our family had truly moved beyond the trauma of the Hurricane, the move and the changes in career.

What working journalist do you most admire? Robin Givhan. I mean, she won the Pulitzer for explaining why I left politics to cover fashion, design and culture. Of all the journalists covering the way we live, Robin brings a sharp-shooting target to every issue and hits it dead on each time. When I was living in Houston and attending Fashion Week, my mom (who lives in Silver Spring) would call me and read aloud what Robin wrote in the Post every day of the shows. I was geek enough to tell Robin about it. She was lovely enough not to call me a stalker.

Find out what store Karen would choose if she could only shop at one for the rest of her life, the proudest moment in her career and what’s happening at DC magazine and more after the jump.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Michael Moore‘s been on quite the media blitz this week, so while we were on the red carpet last night, we caught up with the “Capitalism” filmmaker on his most and least favorite interviews so far (Martha Stewart gets a shout-out, guess for which) and where he’s getting his news these days (NPR and The Guardian).

He also had a lot to say about his guest anchoring experience on CNBC…

And after the jump, FBDC catches up with ABC’s Terry Moran, who was at last night’s premiere and interviewed Moore for “Nightline” last week.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This was the scene on last night’s red carpet for the premiere of Michael Moore‘s “Capitalism: A Love Story.” The sometimes controversial filmmaker made quite the entrance at the Uptown Theater, arriving with an entourage of bankers in shackles and citizen protestors.

After some intrepid investigative reporting by FBDC (and of course by intrepid investigative reporting we mean chatting over a few beers at the after-party), we were surprised to learn that the “actors” playing the bankers actually made twice as much as those playing the citizen protestors in the footage above. The bankers made $200 and the protestors made $100.

Seemed quite ironic to us considering the premise of this film, so we decided to get to the bottom of this with Moore himself… and we think you’ll get quite a kick out of his comments…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

2, 4, 6, 8, Who Do We Appreciate?: Despite an extraordinarily feisty briefing that included an array of reporters’ follow-ups and several giggles (Gibbles?) from the podium, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs maintained that this week was not unusually loaded with news and that instead, “It’s been an extraordinary eight months.” CBS Radio’s Mark Knoller, asking whether RG was actually waiting for a “boring day” as Gibbs said he told POTUS recently, advised that “there’s always something.” There were a lot of somethings today, and WSJ‘s Jonathan Weisman asked whether the foreign policy issues were a distraction for the domestic ones. Reciting a common refrain, Gibbs chastised the press for pushing alternate sides and advised, “Maybe you guys should huddle and come up with one premise.” Later, when reporters pushed on a remark about the House’s climate change bill alone was proof that the “U.S. is on record” on the issue, RG said: “Again, you guys get together–” No such team huddles were scheduled.

Sweet 2016 Update: With FLOTUS already landed in Copenhagen, RG reports that POTUS will continue to make phone calls and have meetings to back “an extremely strong bid” for his hometown before and during Friday’s presidential visit to the IOC meeting. (In more troubling news out of Chicago, RG commented on the beating of teen honor student Derrion Albert by calling the “chilling” video “among the most shocking that you could ever see.” He noted that POTUS discussed youth violence and this incident as recently as this morning in the Oval.)

Quotable: RG, on Roll Call‘s report that the WH is secretly drafting health care legislation: “…neither was it, in my opinion, a very good story.” He said the WH has worked on “legislative language” for some time in conjunction with Capitol Hill. When asked the difference, he didn’t skip a beat: “Probably about 1200 pages.”

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Good morning FishbowlDC! Got a blind item, interesting link, funny note, comment, birthday, anniversary or anything of the sort for Morning Reading List? Drop us a line.

A White House reporter used the made-for-SNL-word “strategery” in a question posed to press secretary Robert Gibbs at yesterday’s briefing. Funny man Gibbs, referring to the SNL newbie who dropped the F bomb this weekend, joked, “I’m going to curse in a minute.” (h/t HuffPost)

Where did the month of September go? What we know and what we’re reading this Wednesday morning…

TV | RADIO | ONLINE | BOOKS | NEWS NOTES

TV

Missing the Joe of “Morning Joe?” Joe Scarborough has apparently been recovering from sinus surgery this week.

Fortune‘s profile of Charlie Rose.

CNN’s John Roberts has an awkward moment with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

In “Hollywood” news… HBO’s “Big Love” has been filming in DC– Bill Paxton and Chloe Sevigny have been spotted shooting at Union Station, outside the White House and in Dupont Circle. Jon got the boot from TLC’s “Jon and Kate Plus Eight.” And the “Real Housewives” have no idea who Nancy Pelosi is.

RADIO

NPR’s Vivian Schiller profiled by More.

Barbara Walters interviewed Arianna Huffington on her SIRIUS XM radio show. An excerpt from Arianna: “I’m fine to be called a liberal. My problem is that with the analysis that sees everything is divided as right versus left. When you have major alliances among people who are liberals, people are who are conservatives agreeing on things like reforming Wall Street, on things like not escalating in Afghanistan, on things like providing healthcare for the uninsured. Because many people in business know that they have to carry the cost, and it’s weighing down their businesses.”

ONLINE

TWT‘s Christina Bellantoni: A Facebook poll asking whether President Obama should be assassinated has sparked an Internet uproar – with new polls calling for the offending poll creator’s arrest and other social-networking sites questioning their policies amid an unprecedented level of online vitriol.

Daily Candy (which we LOVE) has unveiled a new look.

BOOKS

The e-book of Sarah Palin’s “Going Rogue” has been delayed by the publisher to apparently stress hardcover sales.

John Dickerson: Sarah Palin took the name of her memoir from this (unflattering) Slate article.

And apparently, David Letterman has an advance copy of Palin’s memoir. (h/t Wake Up Call)

NEWS NOTES

NYT‘s executive editor Bill Keller on pay model in NYO: “In the end, I think it will come down to a gut call about what we think the audience will accept and how we think the market will evolve…Everybody wants it to be a well-informed, well-considered gut call, but it’s a gut call.”

Dan Rather‘s case against CBS has been dismissed.

HAT TIPS: mediabistro, TVNewser, Politico, NJ‘s Wake-Up Call and Last Call!

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Tips, endorsements and notes of raw emotion and respect for the beloved editor poured into FishbowlDC and made their way around the Washington media circuit throughout the day. One thing is for sure – employed or not, Nutting knows how to make a headline:

Nutting told Politico’s Michael Calderone, “I didn’t feel like I could turn my back on the people I worked with.”

When WaPo‘s Paul Farhi caught up with Nutting, he said that Mike Mills claimed the email [posted by FishbowlDC] had “embarrassed the company” and that “he was insubordinate.”

In addition, The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg posted “A Journalist with Guts” and DCRTV posted “CQ Cans Hero-Editor.”

Nutting’s name also hit Twitter and tweets about his firing exploded into a #cqfail “protwest” of sorts, suggesting that everyone unfollow @cqpolitics. The protwest even took on catchy slogans like “Every time CQ is unfollowed Brian Nutting gets his wings.”

While participating in #CQfail protwest@anamariecox said:

ALL HAIL BRIAN NUTTING, hero of #CQfail! “We now know the real reason was money.”

Not a good day for Economist PR at all…

I can’t help wondering what Mike Mills and Laurie Battaglia thought they were accomplishing by dismissing the one guy that seemed to be “out for” the already-shaken CQ staff. Are their executive egos that easily bruised? Were they making an example? A point? If so, what was it? That the Economist rule is dictatorial?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Washington Post: Time to Act Like a President

Washington Times: Terrorism suspect Zazi pleads not guilty in court

Washington Examiner: Without Bush, media lose interest in war caskets

N.Y. Times: Study Indicates Higher Rate of Dementia in Former N.F.L. Players

L.A. Times: Toyota to recall 3.8 million vehicles

USA Today: Four teens charged in fatal beating of Chicago student

CQ Politics: Virginia’s Deeds Touts Support from Ex-Governors

The Hill: Rockefeller’s public option defeated 8-15 in Senate Finance Committee

Politico: The left aims for critics’ jugular

ABC News: Roman Polanski Rep Says Justice Has Already Been Served

CBS News: Boy: Mom Kept Me in Closet for 4 1/2 Years

Fox News: Teen Chops Off Father’s Hands for Alleged Abuse

MSNBC News: 8.0 magnitude quake hits off American Samoa

CNN: TLC drops Jon and keeps Kate

Wall Street Journal: Why Medical Malpractice Is Off Limits

NPR: Madeleine Albright’s Jewelry-Box Diplomacy

Roll Call: Rich Senator, ‘Poor’ Senator

National Journal: Rape Victim’s Father Seeks Justice

Bloomberg News: FDIC Proposes Banks Prepay Deposit Fees Through 2012

Gallup.Com: Gallup Economic Weekly: Spending Trails Confidence, Jobs

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

What working journalist do you most admire and why? David Carr of The New York Times, Hendrik Hertzberg of the New Yorker, Jack Shafer at Slate, and Andrew O’Hehir and Heather Havrilesky at Salon.com to name a few. They never disappoint. I always look forward to reading their stories and walk away having learned something.

Proudest moment in your career? I have been fortunate enough to interview various authors and celebrities, but I suppose my interviews with fashion designer Liz Claiborne and the comedian Lewis Black were memorable. Claiborne was quite intimidating, and Black (whom I consider one of the best comedians in the biz) was an absolute pleasure to interview.

Another proud moment: When I was at National Geographic, I was freelancing on the side for a wonderful book publisher called Counterpoint in DC, where I had the opportunity to work on Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s book, “Invisible Allies,” which they were publishing. It was a real thrill to be a part of the process of publishing the work of a literary giant like Solzhenitsyn.

What is something that most people don’t know about you? I have lived in seven countries and three continents.

Check out some of Tara’s recent work here and here, her LinkedIn profile here and you can reach her by email here.

Tara’s Q&A is continued after the jump…

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

It’s ABC’s Diane Sawyer who graces the cover of the latest Capitol File, but the mag’s real “it” girl is new Editor-in-Chief Sarah Schaffer. FBDC caught up with Schaffer for the scoop on the fall issue, which should hit newsstands October 1st…

Diane Sawyer’s on the cover- what timing! Was she picked before her big announcement as the new “World News” anchor? And why?

We’re thrilled to have Diane Sawyer on the cover, and at such an important time in her career as she prepares to take over the helm at “World News.” We chose her for our fall issue because we admire her body of work, warm spirit and long career in journalism. We’ve had this cover planned for a long while now, but as it turns out the timing worked perfectly for her- and for us! In our interview she talks about her journo mentors and favorite stories, as well as her early days working in the Nixon White House. It’s a good read.

What new features can we will see in this issue and can we expect to see in future issues?

Where do I begin? We’ve made some design tweaks and pumped up our coverage of the District’s food and fashion scenes. We’re also introducing a new special section called Obsessions. It’s an annual guide to what we’re, as the name suggests, obsessed with right now in Greater Washington. And more than ever before we’re taking a peek inside the lives of the people who define Washington’s culture-politicians, power players, media types, artists, philanthropists and local business leaders- with features like our On the Record piece, a first-person essay (this month’s is by Mark Shriver; he talks about his family’s legacy) and our Life of the Party page, which polls two politicos- one from the left and one from the right- on their hobbies, passions, annoyances and favorite DCisms.

Sawyer has a three-page spread, in which she discusses what has changed in journalism over the course of her career, her favorite and most harrowing interviews and even dabbles into her personal life.

You’ll also recognize a certain contributor’s name this issue of Cap File. Matt catches up with a few DC media types, including Luke Russert, George Stephanopoulos, Ed Henry, Amy Holmes and Dana Priest this fall about their favorite local haunts.

Some dets from Sawyer’s Cap File interview after the jump…

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Duin was the second-place winner in the Religion Reporter of the Year category and took third in the Cornell Award competition.

For more details see TWT here. Congrats to Julia!

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Many outraged sources now tell FishbowlDC that the hero-editor has been let go over his stance and determination to defend his employees’ jobs.

One source tells FishbowlDC:

He is a 27-year veteran of CQ. He fostered many careers at CQ and many are crying this morning in the newsroom. He was fired for “not showing remorse” after sending the email. Before the layoffs he offered to be laidoff himself if it would save his two reporters who were cut. Management said no because they couldn’t afford this severance.

Sounds like management ought to start ordering Prozac in bulk because morale is in the dumpster…

Stay tuned for more details.

***UPDATE*** 11:23 am

A very reliable source sent me this note on Nutting’s firing:

The Gestapo at CQ just fired Brian Nutting…..Because he refused to apologize to Laurie Battaglia. He apparently said “hell no, why would I apologize? I meant it.”

27 years there. And this way, they get out of paying him severance.

***UPDATE*** 11:32 am

Editorial Director Mike Mills sent this memo to staff:

I regret to announce that Brian Nutting is leaving CQ-Roll Call Group, effective today. For 27 years, Brian has been a standard-bearer for editorial quality at CQ, including, in recent years, coaching and mentoring reporters on the techniques of legislative reporting and writing. We thank him for his dedication and his service. Mike

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.