Maybe we see conspiracy a little too easily after months of talking Benghazi, the IRS and Weiner’s mayoral race. Maybe FamousDC’s recent Ten DC Reporters You Should Know list is just an honest, fun-loving story that has nothing to do with the fact that FamousDC is the brainchild of Story Partner’s Amos Snead. Story Partners is a PR firm “with a history of influencing outcomes” and, as we understand these things, PR firms sometimes use flattery when dealing with reporters they need to… influence. We’re sure that the promised follow-up 10 Hill Staffers You Should Know is just a straight-forward list as well.

And we were ready to move on.

But then our questions to FamousDC about selection criteria and how the list was put together—or narrowed down from suggestions made by FamousDC’s contacts, as the story says—have been so far met by silence.

One thing we expected to find, and really didn’t, though, were self-congratulatory tweets from the journos who made FamousDC’s list. More often, it was journalists who knew someone on the list retweeting, because the association means that they are also awesome. Bloomberg‘s Claire Compton wins best response:

Ten reporters you should know: bit.ly/10K7cyh @famousdc . Better list: Ten reporters you should drink with.

— Claire Compton (@KClaireCompton) May 30, 2013

Agreed. So here it is, FishbowlDC’s 10 Reporters You Should Drink With.

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At the start of the month FamousDC, the popular social scene blog, relaunched with an all new website and its first full-time editor Morgan Gress. Co-founders Josh Shultz and Amos Snead said in a release they redesigned the site because it “looked dated” and that they’re “damn proud” of the changes.

Snead told FishbowlDC that when they launched the site on Thursday, they were slightly nervous something might go wrong. He said, however, feedback has been positive. “It looks like our readers like the refresh,” he said.

Let’s take a look.

The site still functions like a vertical blog but the “Hot Topic”-esque black theme is gone, replaced with more whites, greys and light shades of red. Fonts are larger.

Popular features on the site, such as the “weekend picks” and infographics have been tweaked for the better and the site was redesigned with the intent of making them easier to find, Snead said. The Weekend Picks, formerly just an updated list of bars and events readers might check out, now comes with a Google map that pinpoints where each is located.

There is a downside to the site’s redesign… Read more

Something old:  Peter Cherukuri

Huffington Post’s Peter Cherukuri will celebrate his birthday tonight at Hudson Restaurant.  The aging VP and General Manager of HuffPo’s DC bureau will wave goodbye to his youth while taking in the tunes of the resto-lounges “Sinatra Night.”  The music begins at 7pm and ends at midnight.  But we wouldn’t recommend showing up late – given the birthday boy’s age, we anticipate an early end time.

Something new:  Story Partners’ New Hire Happy Hour

Tomorrow evening Amos Snead and the crew from Story Partners will toast to the new members of their team: Anne Brady, Mary Elizabeth Margolis, Mollie O’Dell and Steven Place.  The happy hour will be held from 6:00-8:00 PM at Bobby Vans Grill on New York Avenue.

Guests at last night’s National Press Foundation (NPF) Dinner were able to enjoy their table companions AND join the Twitter conversation via their iPhones & blackberries.  Why? Because this year’s dinner included a Twitter dashboard that live streamed Tweets from journalists in attendance.  The Twitter dashboard was the brainchild of Story Partners’ Amos Snead & NJI Media’s Josh Shultz (Yes, the same two gents behind FamousDC).  The dashboard & Twitter hashtag were a hit as #JournalismMatters became a Trending Topic in DC yesterday evening.

Some choice tweets from last night’s festivities after the jump…

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QUOTES of the DAY

The above photograph is dedicated to my FBDC co-editor Matt Dornic for inexplicable reasons. And no, he doesn’t use hairspray.

Hopefully you like the windblown look

“D.C. weather Tuesday: No amount of hairspray will be enough.” — @washdcnews in a Monday morning tweet.

“No amount of hairspray will be enough to save hairdos around DC today. Expect some high winds.” — The illustrious TBD in a Monday morning tweet.

“Forget that little flirt with spring. Temperatures plummeting and gusty winds.” — Eun Yang, an NBC Washington morning anchor in a Tuesday morning tweet.

Reporter distracted by gurgling

“OK, whoever is making these bizarre gurgling noises really needs to stop. Oops. End of Gibbs quote may have been “foreign,” not “other.” The gurgling is going to my head.” — TWT‘s Kara Rowland in Monday tweets from a White House briefing.

Scribe offers ‘sweet ass’ compliment

“I wish more Press Sec’s tweeted like this RT @moirabagley Check out this sweet-ass op-ed we had in the WSJ today.” — The Daily Caller‘s Chris Moody in a Monday tweet regarding Moira Bagley, a former DC colleague and now spokeswoman to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). Read the release.

Weather and sex

“This frightens me.” — Former TBD GM and now consultant Jim Brady in a reactionary Monday tweet to a poll that claims that 4 percent of Americans have fantasized about a weather reporter. Read the WaPo story about sex and weather here. The poll asks you to compare your sex life to weather — ie. dark and stormy, hot and steamy, etc…The story is based on an AP and Weather Underground poll. In the AP story, winter gets an awfully bad rap: “Two-thirds of people find shorts and bathing suits are easier on the eyes than sweaters, scarves and boots.”

Happy Birthday Amos!

“I turned 31 years old today … and forgot to wear a belt to work.” — FamousDC’s Amos Snead in a Tuesday morning Facebook update. Yes, it’s his birthday.

Okay, the jig is up…kind of.

FamousDC showed a little leg this morning and exposed the identities of its famously-awesome founders.  FishbowlDC has long known that Story Partners’ Amos Snead and NJI Media’s Josh Shultz are the masterminds behind the smart and snarky Beltway blog but the revelation in January’s Washingtonian is a little bittersweet for us.  We’re  thrilled that our famously-anonymous friends are finally getting their due recognition…but wasn’t anonymity half of the fun?

Luckily, the dynamic duo didn’t give up the names of the dozen or so contributors to FamousDC.  “The rest of the folks are solid and won’t have their covers blown,” Snead told us on the eve of Washingtonian‘s publish date.

FishbowlDC applauds our pals Snead and Shultz for coming out of the closet years of thankless hard work and hilarity.  We’re pouring one out for you tonight, homies!

P.S. Oh and FamousDC, next time you decide to do a big reveal, consider us.  Remember how we kept your secret for the last few years?  Sure, Washingtonian looks all glossy and sexy when you’re standing in line at Safeway but Garrett Graff is our sloppy seconds and we write about Norah O’Donnell all the time.

Be careful what you tweet tomorrow night because roughly 200 of your friends and colleagues will read every word of it from the home of Gloria Dittus.  The serial entrepreneur and longtime PR maven is hosting a “Wired Election Party” for her latest public affairs venture, Story Partners.  

Guests at the ”Story Partners’ Wired Election Party” will be able to watch election returns on all the major cable networks (with different channels on each floor of Gloria’s Kalorama manse) while screens of a new microsite, created by Story Partners and NJI Media, will stream Twitter feeds from campaign reporters, pundits and even the candidates themselves. 

“I’m a nerd and a political science major so election night is my Super Bowl,” said Story Partners Principal Amos Snead while explaining his excitement over tomorrow night’s fete. 

Participants at the event will be able to join the conversation by tagging their Twitter posts with #WEP2010 and folks from home can get in the mix by checking out the microsite that is already live at www.WiredElection.com.

L: CNN’s Jill Chappell chats up Chase Crawford. R: Politico of past, Yahoo writer Michael Calderone with girlfriend.

NBC Washington bureau chief Mark Whitaker and Alexis Gelber.

Everyone from the Jonas Brothers, Gayle King and Chase Crawford to FNC White House correspondent Major Garrett, Roll Call’s Jackie Kucinich and Politico’s former Michaels – Yahoo’s Michael Calderone and HuffPo’s Michael Falcone came out for Tammy Haddad’s annual White House Correspondents brunch on Saturday.

The event and the day couldn’t have been a lovelier way to celebrate causes CURE – Epilepsy and Mother’s Day Every Day. Co-hosted by Ted Greenberg, Hilary Rosen, David Adler, Jim Courtovich, Alex Castellanos, Debra Lee, Steve McMahon and Franco Nuschese, the fete was called the “best yet” by many brunch-goers.

L: Tammy Haddad and Susan Axelrod take the stage. R: Story Partners’ Amos Snead and wife, Whitney Drew.

Public affairs maven Gloria Dittus is back for another round of entrepreneurial ventures. Dittus, a founder of both Direct Impact and Dittus Communications will soon find out if the third time really is a charm, announcing today that she has launched Story Partners.

“We strive not to be the biggest public affairs firm, but simply the best,” said Dittus.

Billed as a “game changing public affairs firm,” Story Partners has set up headquarters in Washington D.C. with offices in New Orleans and Birmingham. The firm’s founding team consists of several former Dittus (now FD) folks like FishbowlDC fave Amos Snead, Shelton Jones, Deborah Sauri, and Collier Craft.

SP’s roster also includes Rick Heartsill, Norma Jane Sabiston, CNN alum Jill Neff Watson, Stephanie Fontenot and Kate Cazayoux.

For more info, check out Story Partners’ website here.

Last night, Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute and Fiscal Times Founder Peter G. Peterson feted the launch of The Fiscal Times with a cocktail soiree at the Newseum.

Joining Fiscal Times EIC Jackie Leo and DC editor Eric Pianin were media power players like NBC News Washington Bureau Chief Mark Whitaker, Examiner’s J.P. Freire, HuffPo’s Peter Cherukuri, ABC’s Emily Lenzner and Rick Klein, The Hill’s Christina Wilkie, Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson and Al Hunt, Politics Daily & Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet and Norah McAlvanah.

Also spotted mingling and partaking in the open bar were Dan and Meg Reilly, Amos Snead, Ron Bonjean, Michael Steel and media party circuit fixtures Politico’s Kiki Ryan, Tim Burger and CBS News’ Christine Delargy.

Check out the Fiscal Times here.

Fiscal Times’ Eric Pianin.