(A Sprinkling of Very Gross Things we Think you Ought to Know…)

Today’s Edition of Fish Food takes a look at some of the grosser parts of the news. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Bloody Mitt Romney – Yahoo‘s Dylan Stableford reports on what might have been if Bloomberg Business Week had gone through with their original idea for the Jan. 13 issue. The magazine actually went through the process of creating the cover on the right, featuring a bloody Mitt Romney, but decided to run a cover with Microsoft’s Steve Balmer instead. Bloomberg Editor Josh Tyrangiel says the decision was based on their perception that “the Romney story seemed to have already hit its peak.”

Barbara Bathroom Habits – Bravo TV’s “Watch What Happens” welcomed on Sherri Shepherd, co-host of the view this past weekend. Host Andy Cohen puts Shepherd through her paces and asks her a series of uncomfortable questions. When asked to say something embarrassing about ABC’s Barbara Walters, we braced ourselves. Considering Walters’ past, this could have gotten ugly. Walters has already admitted that she had an affair with Sen. Edward Brooke back in the 70′s. Fortunately, we were spared from any mental images of Walters doing the nasty, but what we did hear wasn’t much better. Shepherd says that Walters “never goes to the bathroom.” Here’s the video if you want to watch it, weirdo.

Shep Smith Just Ruined Lunch - POTUS welcomed various TV anchors to dine with him before his State of the Union Address on Tuesday. It’s a long-observed tradition in which the sitting President invites the pretty faces to join him for lunch. This year, the invite list included CBS’s Scott Pelley, ABC’s Diane Sawyer, NBC’s Brian Williams, and several others. HuffPost reports that one member of the media who was present was FNC’s Shep Smith. Smith confirmed this to his audience on Tuesday afternoon by bringing us the menu and how great it was. We honestly couldn’t tell you what was served, though. We were too busy trying not to get sick watching Shep’s sickly hacking cough and gaunt cheekbones as he described the menu. If you think you can stomach it, check out the video of a skeleton wearing a poorly made Shep Smith mask Shep describing the cuisine.

At last week’s CNN Debate in South Carolina, when John King asked Newt Gingrich about recent allegations from his first wife saying that he wanted an “open marriage”, Gingrich gave a legendary answer blistering the newsman.

The crowd roared for Gingrich.

It wasn’t the first time. Newt has made a habit out of squeezing in a pointed jab at the “mainstream” and “elite” media in each debate, and each time, his applause gets louder. So imagine Gingrich’s frustration when NBC’s Brian Williams requested that the audience refrain from any cheering and clapping. The result? It was one of Newt’s weaker debates.

But today, Gingrich is fighting back. He told Fox and Friends this morning that he wishes he had protested NBC’s rules about applause and that the reason the audience was told to stay quiet is that the “media is terrified that the audience is going to side with the candidates against the media.” Gingrich says putting debate organizers on notice that he won’t participate in any future debates unless the audience is welcomed back into the mix, saying, “Media doesn’t control free speech. View the video below.

There’s another CNN Debate Thursday night, so we will see if anyone tries to muzzle the audience and how Newt reacts if it happens.

In other Newt News… the visual comparisons of Newt to Schrute (Dwight, from NBC’s “The Office”) have been making the viral rounds. Rainn Wilson, who plays Schrute, acknowledged the similarities via Twitter, according to Chris Moody of Yahoo. Wilson has changed his Twitter avatar to the picture on the right.

NBC anchor Brian Williams has gained a reputation for being a smart, hip, funny kind of broadcaster. His frequent appearances on Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show and other comedy shows have raised his visibility as a different brand of newsman. So, when Gawker recently published a personal email between him and website founder Nick Denton criticizing both Gawker as a website AND a recent performer on NBC’s own SNL, we took notice.

From: “Williams, BD (NBCUniversal)”
Date: January 15, 2012 15:56:25 EST
To:

ND:

I hope you’re well. Happy New Year. A big congratulations to the new freelance weekend guy, Taylor Bernam. He’s done some good posts right out of the box. I do wish the main page featured more TV coverage (Brooklyn hippster [sic] Lana Del Rey had one of the worst outings in SNL history last night — booked on the strength of her TWO SONG web EP, the least-experienced musical guest in the show’s history, for starters). In my humble opinion as a loyal customer (you know I love you but the Blog View button will be the eventual cause of my death) and while I know you’re in the midst of an editor change, weekends have been allowed to go awfully fallow — and it was a fallow holiday period for those of us who check your shit 10 times a day by iphone. I know you’ve been watching NBC Nightly News religiously each evening and I’ll no doubt be getting a withering, detailed critique from you straight away.

BW

As you can imagine, NBC had a hissy fit and emailed Gawker asking that they take the post down. Naturally, Gawker published that email, too.

From: M., Erika (NBCUniversal)
To: Gawker
Sent: Mon Jan 16 12:26:59 2012
Subject: Brian Williams

Can you please have the post of Brian Williams’ email to Nick Denton taken down immediately? That was sent in confidence as friends and absolutely never intended to be public. A speedy removal would go a long way in maintaining the trust and respect we have for your site.

My guess is that having your respected newsman use potty language and badmouth his own network didn’t go over very well. NBC confirms that Williams never intended the email to be public, he was just emailing his buddy,  Denton. Which, by the way, Gawker doesn’t deny. They freely admit they published the personal email from Williams and that he and Denton email “like a couple of gossiping secretaries.” Did Gawker betray the trust of Williams? Bottom line: Williams should know better. There is no eight-second delay in the world of email. If you screw up and get in trouble, you can’t fix it in post. And does he really think that a publisher with the rep of Denton would ACTUALLY have his back?

We have reached out to NBC for a comment on the situation.

(A Sprinkling of Things we Think you Ought to Know…)

Ben Smith Goes Viral – We are still scratching our heads trying to figure out the Ben Smith move from Politico to BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed, best known for it’s collection of viral content recently named Smith as Editor-in-Chief. The readers of Buzzfeed are known for launching internet memes and immediately latched onto the possibility that someone as straight-laced as Smith would be joining their world of corgis on surfboards and planking. Thus, Buzzfeed Ben was born. View more of their creations here

We’re All for Good Causes And All – But, this seems a little crazy. This Thursday is “Free to Tweet” Day across the twitterverse. It’s a celebration of the Bill of Rights Day where you can express your appreciation for the First Amendment. Students between the ages of 14 and 22 can use the hashtag #freetotweet to be entered into a contest to receive one of 22 $5,000 dollar scholarships. The contest goes on for 24 hours, and students are encouraged to participate as often as they can in that time frame to share their love of Freedom of Expression. That sounds like a worthwhile venture. Don’t study. Just tweet for 24 hours. I am almost positive the Founding Fathers had something else in mind for the First Amendment.

Chelsea Clinton Makes Her NBC Debut – On last night’s “Rock Center” on NBC, Chelsea Clinton made her debut as part of the network series called “Making a Difference.” Her first report was filed from her home state of Arkansas and profiled a woman trying to help children living in poverty. After the report, she joined Brian Williams in studio. When asked why she decided to shed her private lifestyle to enter the world of TV reporting, she said her recently deceased Grandmother, Dorothy Rodham, told her that “being Chelsea Clinton had happened to me and that I had a responsibility to do something with that asset and opportunity.” Didn’t Uncle Ben tell that to Spider-Man? “With great power comes great responsibility?” View her debut in the video below.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Jimmy Fallon-Brian Williams bromance continued on NBC’s Rock Center last night as Fallon sat down with the newsman for a primetime interview.  The conversation almost immediately turned to the recent controversy surrounding the Roots, Late Night’s house band, playing an offensive song when GOP Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann appeared on the show last month.  The song,  “Lyin’ Ass Bitch” by Fishbone, prompted  an outcry from the Bachmann campaign and an apology from Fallon, NBC, and band leader ?uestlove.  (Not a typo, it’s pronounced Questlove).  Fallon was uncharacteristically somber about the issue and admitted that he was “embarrassed by that.  I wanted it to go away.”  He also tweeted that he hopes Bachmann will come back to the show soon.  So, IF she ever comes back, what song should they play?  Perhaps “Lyin’ Ass Bitch is too much.  What about a nod to the infamous Newsweek cover and play “Hungry Eyes?”  Or “Stupid Girl” by Garbage? Or maybe a reference to her creationist beliefs by playing something by “Dinosaur Jr?  Maybe something by The Queers?  The video of Fallon’s appearance is below.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

U.S. News & Word Report‘s Washington Whispers columnist Paul Bedard just can’t help himself when it comes to Fox News. He must have them. In a recent post he showered 1000 kisses on Bill O’Reilly as he weighed his program against Brian Williams‘s brand new “Rock Center.” Gee what a surprise that Bedard ridicules Williams after a week and a half of the program’s debut and uses that as a chance to inflate O’Reilly and Fox News. And who cares that they aren’t even competing in the same time slot?

An excerpt: “It’s bad enough that Brian Williams’ new NBC show Rock Center didn’t do better in it’s second airing Monday than the dismal show it replaced—Playboy Club—but now a potential killer Nielsen stat has emerged: Fox’s prime time hit The O’Reilly Factor had virtually the same number of viewers. Granted, the shows were not head to head, but the fact that O’Reilly’s numbers virtually equalled Williams may be proof that cable has finally reached viewer parity with network TV.”

It’s an obvious network pitch. Per usual, Bedard took the bait.

See the smoochfest here.

The Cold War between Politico and The Daily Caller is over. Now it’s just war.

This morning, The Daily Caller leads its site with a potentially explosive story by TV writer Jeff Poor on Politico‘s tight relationship with MSNBC. They’ve long tried to paint the Arlington, Va. giant with a tainted, liberal bias. Back in July, Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson backed down after ordering staff to refer to Politico in their stories as “a liberal publication based in suburban Virginia.” The ill will stemmed from a story by then-DCer Jonathan Strong (now at Roll Call) on GOP Presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann‘s migraine headaches. Politico royally pissed off Carlson by reassigning the story to reporters who described the DC as “conservative” and who “confirmed” the DC’s reporting, as though it needed confirming. At the time, new Managing Editor David Martosko was so eager to please that he vowed to go back into each story mentioning Politico and make the change. But it never happened and Carlson walked back his email decree to use the description.

But now The Daily Caller has a sampling of numbers on Politico reporters who regularly appear on the network. For this story, Poor had his eyes glued to MSNBC. “I watched a lot of MSNBC the past three days,” he told FishbowlDC. “I ought to get a Purple Heart.” His watching also unearthed other news: Politico‘s Mike Allen, who appears regularly on MSNBC for his Playbook segment, switches up his attire. “I can speak on authority that Mike Allen changes clothes on a daily basis,” Poor said, recalling some discrepancy on that.

Fox News pounced on the anti-MSNBC bandwagon. The story reports that no Politico reporter has appeared on the network in 18 months. And no network media story is complete without one of those blind and bitchy Fox News PR quotes — this one declares that Fox News is just not that into Politico reporters appearing on their programs: “We try to book guests that make for compelling TV; Politico reporters tend not to rate well,” a Fox News spokesperson told The Daily Caller.

That’s right. They prefer the company of Daily Caller journos such as Carlson, an FNC commentator, and Jamie Weinstein, who regularly appears on “Red Eye.”  They also frequently invite on reporters and editors from Roll Call and The Hill. But not all Politico foes appear on FNC. NJ and Politico also have an abrasive relationship. Former FNC White House Correspondent Major Garrett, now an NJ congressional correspondent, has returned to his former network minimally. He appears far more often on MSNBC.

Politico did not return requests for comment from Poor. Though the DC does quote Editor-in-Chief John Harris on Hugh Hewitt‘s radio show after the host wondered about the potential harm of Politico co-hosting a debate with NBC. Harris replied, “Well, I just don’t accept the premise and I don’t accept your premise about Chris Matthews, who I admire.” He also said Matthews was not moderating the debate — that would be Brian Williams.

In the meantime, we hear Politico media writer Keach Hagey, recently freed from the constraints of daily short bursts of blog writing and allowed to write long form, has been fishing around for a new bombshell story on Martosko, perhaps involving his former ties with the lobbying and consulting firm, Berman and Company. For today, The Daily Caller newsroom is aglow in anti-Politico sentiment, reflecting a longtime vendetta between the publications.

We reached out to Politico for comment. For now, radio silence.

Read the full story here.

In a spooktacular, ghoulicious episode of “5 Things You Need to Know This Week,” we count down our five favorite Halloween costumes. With special appearances by Beyoncé, Blake Lively, Brian Williams, and Brian Williams.

For more videos, check out Mediabistro.tv, and be sure to follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

Brian? “…Are you going to keep talking or are you going to let me finish what I have to say?”

We can hear it now. In January NBC’s Brian Williams will moderate a GOP presidential debate at the University of South Florida. The debate will be sponsored by NBC News, NJ, the St. Petersburg Times and the Florida Council of 100. Journalists from NJ and the St. Petersburg Times will participate in asking questions.

In the details…The event will stream live on msnbc.com, nationaljournal.com, and tampabay.com. Telemundo will broadcast the debate in its entirety with simultaneous Spanish-language translation.

UPDATE: The Latest…A statement from NBC News: “The NBC News twitter account was hacked late this afternoon and as a result, false reports of a plane attack on ground zero were sent to @NBCNews followers. We are working with Twitter to correct the situation and sincerely apologize for the scare that could have been caused by such a reckless and irresponsible act.”

UPDATE #2: We just got word that the @NBCNews account is “now back up and under our control.”

UPDATE #3: Watch Brian Williams read the statement on NBC Nightly News here.

In what may be the sickest “joke” of the weekend, NBC News’s official Twitter has been hacked. The last two tweets are reporting terrorist attacks and the account is not yet back in the network’s control:

“Breaking News! Ground Zero has just been attacked. Flight 5736 has crashed into the site, suspected hijacking. more as the story develops.”

“Flight 4782 is not responding, suspected hijacking. One plane just hit Ground Zero site at 5:47. #groundzeroattacked”

NBC’s Chuck Todd is confirming the news. “Yes, the NBC Twitter feed has been hacked.”

WaPo‘s Jonathan Capehart: “OUTRAGEOUS”