Howe admits he first got hooked on Twitter after attending CPAC. He made new virtual friends. He acquired a nasty habit of trolling for fights. “An easily achievable goal,” he says.

Like a yo-yo dieter, he has had his ups and downs. In 2010, he produced a video that went viral and as he says, his email blew up. But then, eventually, he went on a downward spiral. He couldn’t keep up. Worse, he didn’t want to keep up. Oh the horror.

Soon he implemented rules for himself. An excerpt:

“It was then that I made the decision to have 3 requirements for following someone: 1) I know them in real life, 2) they were interactive on twitter (as in, actually speaking to me rather than just expecting me to follow them because they followed me), or 3) they are someone who interests me regardless of interaction.“

Miraculously, Twitter began to become meaningful for him again. “17,000 followers later, I can’t imagine my business or my networking without twitter,” he writes. Countering Lewis, who believes Twitter has become a “dark place” and a “prison”, Howe argues that the petty sh-t that happens on Twitter is just life and “simply how social interaction works.” Really? Do people in real life rattle each others cages by joking that they have sex with animals when they disagree with their political beliefs?

Brandus, meanwhile, has his own views on the matter. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Atlantic

The purpose: To announce three hires and two internal moves.

The gist: The new editor of the Global Channel is WaPo‘s Olga Khazan. Elisa Glass joins as Art Director from Northern Virginia magazine. Now don’t f–k this up. Her name is EE-Lisa, pronounced like eBook. The third new hire is Esther Yi as associate editor. She was managing editor of Harvard’s The Crimson.

See the internal memo…

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This Friday USA Today‘s Jackie Kucinich will appear on HBO Bill Maher‘s Real Time for the first time. The other guests will be Alex Gibney, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker, actress Eva Longoria and Sam Harris.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Last night at the The New Republic bash at Bibiana, this puff of white hair jumped out at us like a big giant marshmallow.

So who is it?

Send your best guesses to fishbowldc@mediabistro.com or to Betsy@mediabistro.com.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The New Republic celebrated its relaunch last night at Bibiana Restaurant where politicos and journalists from print and TV mingled with bigwigs like Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.J.) and Americans for Tax Reform Prez Grover Norquist over hors d’oeuvres and an open bar. The highlight of the evening: Answering the question, “Who is Franklin Foer?”

Meanwhile, we spoke to Publisher and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, who was all smiles and relaxed. “I’m feeling super exited, energized,” he said, as we cornered him at the bar. “It’s a big moment for us.” Asked if he’s been sleeping, he replied, “I will sleep tonight.”

At around 7:30 p.m. FishbowlDC approached a man with glasses who we mistook for NYT‘s Nate Silver. We were all ready to ask if he was excited to be in the same room as Politico‘s Dylan Byers, who during the presidential election questioned whether Silver was a “one-term celebrity.”

The mystery man in question had a laugh with two other male attendees before denying that he was Silver. Except then he said he was Silver. Then said he wasn’t. Then someone else said he was. Finally, he identified himself as Franklin Foer, editor of TNR (pictured above). But by that point, we didn’t believe that either.

After consulting Google images, it was revealed that he was indeed Foer. It was our mistake, though Foer did acknowledge that he shares “some Semitic features” with Silver.

In a party speech, Hughes said the challenge ahead is to “produce a magazine 20 times a year that is as good” as the relaunch issue, which features an interview with President Obama. He called the TNR team “the best in the business” and said he wants the magazine to “become financially sustainable in the coming years.” In a moment that drew audible awes from the crowd, he admitted, “The day that Frank Foer agreed to come back to TNR was one of the best days of my life.”

Who showed up? See more pictures. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Politico Pro Technology Editor Elizabeth Wasserman, that’s who. Politico‘s Keith Perine also left Politico this month for Bloomberg. The upshot for Bloomberg? Wasserman knows the industry inside and out and has the sources to show for it. “All I know is they threw a lot of money at her,” a media source tells us.

Before Politico, she worked for The Post Standard, the Orlando Sentinel, Long Island’s Newsday, and the San Jose Mercury News during the dot-com boom.

Regards to her dog, Snoopy. Sorry, Snoopy, her hours won’t be any better at Bloomberg.

See Wasserman’s goodbye note in which she notes Bloomberg made her an offer she couldn’t refuse…

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Beet TV

The live webcast is on February 1 from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Interviews will take place at the W Hotel in Vieques.  The event focuses on “developments and trends in the fast-emerging medium of digital video.” Hosting the live show are Rob Norman of GroupM, Jason Pontin of MIT,  strategist Ashley Swartz and Beet.TV’s Andy Plesser.

See the full list of panelists… continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“You can suck my ass.” — E!’s Chelsea Handler to CNN’s Piers Morgan last night after he suggested she wasn’t a very good interviewer and saying, “I can help you.”

Uh oh.

“Unusually high number of critical replies to my column today from folks who haven’t read/understood it. Maybe my fault.” — NationalReviewOnline‘s Jonah Goldberg.

Reporter encounters stinky train

“A @wmata train filled w/ wet sheep would smell less like wet sheep than one filled with drenched people in suits.” — Dave Levinthal, senior political reporter for Center for Public Integrity.

Columnist gives props to Stewart for interviewing skills

“Points to Jon Stewart for being tenacious in his questioning of Al Gore about Al Jazeera.” — Politico‘s Roger Simon.

Editor blames mullet hairdo

“It’s always the people with mullets who break out the checkbook at the grocery store.” — Fox News Contributor and RedState‘s Erick Erickson.

Journo mixes up days of week

“Informed sources tell me that today is in fact Wednesday. Everything else about the last tweet was right though.” — National Journal‘s Scott Bland, who had written, “On Tues, Patrick Murphy appeared in a House Maj PAC video. On Thurs, he sent a fundraising email deploring the Citizens United ruling #FL18.”

Unimportant Q to Ponder: “There’s your friend. You guys speaking these days?” Anonymous journalist to FBDC last night at The New Republic launch party glancing toward Slate‘s Dave Weigel at the other end of the frigid room. More on the party coming up…

Politico Playbook publish time: 6:51 a.m. Morning Oopsy: While Playbook’s author screams loudly in his first item that he was “exclusively” reporting the upcoming Gridiron dinner speakers, the news of Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar being among the speakers was reported three weeks ago. Gov. Bobby Jindal as the GOP speaker was new. A special Happy Birthday to Politico‘s media writer Dylan Byers, whose birthday was exclusively reported in Playbook this morning. We’re even giving him these special chocolates.

 Senator brushes off reporter

“Tried to speak to Sen. John Kerry after his farewell speech but he wouldn’t let me finish the question.” — The Daily Caller‘s ambush video reporter Nicholas Ballasy.

Freelancer regrets uncontrollable tweeting… continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Matt Lewis

Naturally detractors chimed in. “Guys, the economy may be tanking but we need to focus on the important matters,” wrote conservative blogger Ben Howe on Twitter. “Like how people on Twitter are super duper mean.”

Party lines aside, Lewis says he’s received more positive private feedback from prominent opinion leaders on this piece than nearly any other he has written. “I can’t tell you how many smart and successful people have reached out to me today to tell me they feel the same way,” he told FishbowlDC in an extensive email exchange. “As I have learned from all the emails I received today, a lot of other folks who once embraced the Twitter community have already begin distancing themselves from it.”

Twitter as a Dark Place

In recent weeks, Lewis’ feed has been a virtual cage fight with some conservative bloggers, such as Howe, joking about him having sex with animals. Which part tipped Lewis over the edge of thinking Twitter was still a sane and reasonable place? In his column, he writes, “It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment it happened — but at some point, Twitter became a dark place. It’s a lot like the transformation of the 1960s. It started out being about free love, sharing ideas, and changing the world, but somehow we ended up being more about Altamont and Charles Manson… What was once an inspiring place that gave you a competitive advantage became a prison.”

While the precise moment or insult is unclear, likely all of it over the past year contributed to his declaration that his relationship with Twitter is on the outs.

No, he won’t be leaving. But he will be preserving his “inner artist” by 1) Utilize Twitter lists, following only those he finds “interesting or inspiring”  2) blocking those who want to mock or otherwise engage him in verbal warfare. “I’ll try to use whatever tools available that can empower me to discover new ideas, while also avoiding the negativity and bitterness and noise,” he told FBDC. “Blocking is what you do when you try to weed out the bad seeds, but remain yoked to Twitter. I’m advocating that people should step back a bit from Twitter, take breaks from it, etc.” 3) Generally refrain from conversation or debates.

Lewis says he has never enjoyed the fight. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“I don’t know she is,” he said when asked if we could send Miller his regards at the red carpet premier of Netflix’s “House of Cards” last night at the Newseum. FishbowlDC explained that Miller tipped off the FBI about details surrounding the Jack Abramoff scandal, as portrayed in the film “Casino Jack,” starring Spacey himself. “Oh,” Spacey said, sort of recalling who Miller is. “Hi! Sure. I don’t know what you’re asking me,” he said. Then his handlers moved him along.

“House of Cards” tells the story of Francis Underwood, played by Spacey, a congressional Democrat who wheels and deals his way to the top of the political world. Michael Dobbs, the creator, told FishbowlDC that he wrote the story “as a form of therapy” after having worked as the chief of staff to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the late ’80s.

The Washington news corps. plays a heavy, fictional role in the show, which is based on the original 1990s BBC series of the same name. James Foley, one of the show’s directors, said while working on story lines he’d ask himself whether it would be believable if he saw it reported on CNN. If not, he’d ask the lead writer for adjustments to the script. He also said actual on-air talent from CNN make cameos in the show, including… continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Kaczynski tells FishbowlDC it’s a Brooks Brothers vest which he had just received in the mail. He left his sports coat at home but has “no regrets” on the vest.

But more important than Kaczynski’s Prince Ali-inspired garb was the way in which show host Chris Matthews profusely thanked the reporter for appearing on his program.

NYT‘s Jim Rutenberg was also on as a guest. At the end of the segment, Matthews said, “Thank you, Jim Rutenberg, sir, a great reporter for the New York Times.” To Kaczynski… continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Insiders tell us Executive VP Ken Jautz and VP Bart Feder addressed the staff after the show went off the air today. Suffice it to say, the era of Jeff Zucker is underway.

In a nutshell, the execs said they have no answers for the staff and were unable to address most of their questions. Members of the staff were assured their jobs were safe, but one veteran of the changing show carousel at CNN says they would be naive to believe that.

“Every single one of these people should be preparing their resumes and trying to get out of that building as fast as possible,” a network insider told FishbowlDC, explaining that staffers are worried for their jobs. The prevailing feeling is that O’Brien, who previously worked with Zucker at NBC, will end up in another role.

For the month of January, “Starting Point” drew an average of 264,000 viewers. MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” drew 468,000 and FNC’s “Fox & Friends” drew 1.07 million. “Morning Express” on HLN drew 218,000. The broadcast shows (CBS, ABC, NBC) drew millions more than any of the aforementioned programs. In other words, “Starting Point” is behind everyone except its sister network HLN, and HLN is getting close.

Another network insider with a vantage point to this morning’s meeting said it was hilarious to watch Jautz and Feder address the “Starting Point” staff, considering they were two of the main culprits who contributed to the potential demise and dismantling of the show.

From day one, “Starting Point” was in disarray, according to multiple sources aware of the drama going on behind the scenes of the show. It wasn’t supposed to debut in January, 2012, but the decision was made to rush it on the air to coincide with the Iowa caucus. From its launch the show was never fully staffed; all the promises of branding and promotion never materialized; and the constant executive in-fighting over what to do with the show angered its host and staff.

Former CNN Managing Editor Mark Whitaker, who announced his resignation Tuesday, loved the panel format because he desired the show to have the same buzz as MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” But Jautz hated the panel, resulting in it being downsized from 7-9 a.m. to 7:30 to 9 a.m. And when Soledad was off, the panel was only on from 8-9 a.m.

Jautz also detested a single-anchor format. He preferred a two-anchor format, even going as far as focus-group testing Brooke Baldwin and John Berman when O’Brien was away.

So as Whitaker and Jautz waged a constant battle over who would control the destiny of CNN – a scenario set up by then-CNN President Jim Walton when he divided up the duties of Jon Klein when he was canned – “Early Start” and “Starting Point” were ground zero for their battle.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Get the tissues. It’s touching and heartfelt.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The headline says it all, really: “Farewell with standing ovation to Mike Laws, editor par excellence.” Today is Law’s last day as he focuses on a writing program at Johns Hopkins.

An excerpt from the full piece:

As most honest columnists will tell you, we often look upon editors with a wary eye, always worried that our perfect work will be desecrated by forces from above. Having noted this, it a perfect moment to express my respect and admiration for Mike Laws, a talented and extraordinary gentleman and editor I have worked closely with in recent years in my roles as columnist and Pundits Blogger here at The Hill.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.