CNN’s John King, long thought to be on the outs with the network after “John King USA” went belly up and personal issues marred internal relations, has had his contract renewed. In the game of CNN Survivor, under the new regime of President Jeff Zucker, King is safe.

Others  may not be as fortunate. Read more

Say hello to Benjy Sarlin, who covers politics for Talking Points Memo, where he is readjusting to life after the 2012 election.

His colleague, Evan McMorris-Santoro, says this about Benjy: “Benjy is a Twitter virtuoso. He needs to stop making me look bad by being so good at hashtagery.” But another colleague, Igor Bobic, jokes on Twitter that he’s a “total dick.” (At least we think he’s kidding.)

Previously Benjy reported on national politics for The Daily Beast, where he was Washington correspondent. Born and raised in New York City, he covered city politics for the New York Sun until its untimely death (though, it’s still in shambles with the occasional zombie editorial). To be truthful, we’re still don’t think we’ve gotten to the core of Benjy Sarlin. But we do know a lot of seemingly useless details.  He has an unhealthy attachment to barbecue and Twitter. “Twitter is like my Kryptonite, both the source of my reporting strength and its biggest weakness,” he tells me in an email exchange. “I get annoyed when I see stupid stuff floating around and if you’ve seen something silly pop up in one person’s feed, you’re about to see it everywhere, only worse. It’s fun engaging with people over these little dust ups, but I think I’m irrationally invested.” On the subject of astrology: “I don’t believe in astrology, but I’m willing to be convinced if Nate Silver posts some kind of chart.” Strange hobbies: He insists he is an accomplished juggler. Fine dining: He wants to dine with George Washington (if he could, that is).

Perhaps one of those most interesting things about Benjy is his name and its weird spelling. “My name is almost uniformly misspelled thanks mostly to those dog movies in the 1980s, even by friends and family,” he explains. “‘Benjy’ was the name of my dad’s closest childhood friend, so that’s how I ended up with the particular spelling. My folks are Jewish and you’re not supposed to name someone after a living person, but at the time I was born the original Benjy was in the Hare Krishne and had changed his name to — I believe — Paramananda Das. Since then, he’s left the Hare Krishne and gone back to his old name, so I’m actually not sure if it’s kosher for me to stick with Benjy. Maybe I’ll change my byline to Paramananda Sarlin?”

If you were a carbonated beverage, which would you be? 

I’d like to think of myself as pre-Schumer Four Loko, but I’m really not hardcore enough to justify it. Let’s go with root beer.

How often do you Google yourself? 

Phsaw, I got alerts for that.

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever said to an editor/boss (or vice versa)?

My first day as an intern out of college, my only task was to set up a device to record a phone interview between an editor and Joe Wilson. I blew it and the whole thing was lost. To the editor it was probably the most minor daily annoyance, but to me I had just screwed up the only real world task I’d ever been assigned about as badly as possible. I was all nerves for a week after that.

Who is your favorite working journalist and why? 

Present TPM company excluded (and really, they are the best), I’m a big fan of Molly Ball at The Atlantic. It’s hard to find good campaign reporting that has a broad national scope but also involves talking to actual voters and she’s amazing at tying the two together. Voters have interesting things to say, really!

Do you have a favorite word? 

“Gluttony” is an incredible feat of English language. Say it out loud — gluttony. It sounds exactly like what it means. Aliens could land tomorrow and understand “gluttony” the first time they heard it.

Who would you rather have dinner with – CNN’s Candy Crowley, ABC’s Martha Raddatz or Fox News’ Megyn Kelly? Tell us why.

Funny enough, I was on the same plane as Candy Crowley on the way back from the final presidential debate last month. We had a coffee while we waited to board and she could not be nicer. I’d just spent the last week talking to Republicans in Florida who were incensed over her mid-debate Benghazi fact check and passed on a couple of choice quotes. I was extremely impressed with the way she handled both the debate itself and the backlash afterwards. She took the complaints against her seriously enough to defend her performance but she had enough perspective to not make herself the story and enough wisdom to know everyone would just move on to the next outrage in a few days time. Which is a long way of saying that I’d be glad to get dinner.

Much more on Benjy after the jump…

Read more

For the last several months The Daily Caller‘s Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson has gone around town referring to his White House Correspondent Neil Munro as a “folk hero” for infamously interrupting President Obama in the Rose Garden. Today Carlson and Publisher Neil Patel, take the matter a full frog jump further by declaring that the “legacy media” that has obviously been playing footsy with the Obama Administration, is soon on its way out.

They cast all “political reporters” as disgraceful, move on to calling them “legacy media” and never call them “mainstream media” as they are typically dubbed by conservative media. Carlson and Patel describe this media as “lazy” and “tapped out.” They write, “The good news is, it’s almost over. The broadcast networks, the big daily newspapers, the newsweeklies — they’re done.”

Quick question: Did they land an off-the-record interview with Nostradamus?

“Through their dishonesty the legacy media hastened their own end,” they write ominously in the last graph. “Their moral authority has evaporated. So has their business model. Wave them goodbye on the way out.”

CNN’s Candy Crowley takes a hit in the piece. They say she “broke character” to defend the President. And poor Jonathan Alter… Read more

Quotes of the Day

WHAT THE HELL? “Why Nikki, is that a debate moderator on your shoulder?” — The Washington Examiner‘s gossip scribe Nikki Schwab talking to herself with a miniature CNN’s Candy Crowley on her shoulder. So much weirdness here we don’t know where to begin.

Reporter gets “super insidery”

“In super insidery stuff, Steve Scalise brushing back against RSC founders, taking his chairmanship bid to full body.” — Politico‘s super insidery Jake Sherman, linking to this super insidery story.

In other “disgusting” news…

“The disgusting Romney burger (lobster, hollandaise) has SURGED to a lead over the disgusting Obama burger (hot dog, relish) in BGR’s sweeps.” — The Atlantic‘s Molly Ball.

Priorities.

“I was going to watch the third party debate, but then I realize that I’ll be dead one day and don’t want to waste my life.” — Slate‘s Dave Weigel.

Lucky dog!

“Literally only one other dude on my flight from LGA to Columbus tonight. Closest I get to flying private.” — Politico‘s Ben White.

Journo finds power of love

“Definitely rocking out to Huey Lewis & the News’ ‘Power of Love’ at my desk.” — National Journal “The Hotline’s” Chris Peleo-Lazar.

Peter Ogburn contributed to this report.

Of the four debate moderators this election year, CBS News’s Bob Schieffer by far has been the least criticized.

PBS’s Jim Lehrer was thrown to the dogs by Democrats and their supporters for coming off as a pushover and seeming to let GOP Candidate Mitt Romney call the shots in the first debate. ABC News’ Martha Raddatz was hit by the right for not putting a muzzle on Veep Joe Biden‘s toothy grin. And for several days CNN’s Candy Crowley was blasted by Team Romney for her real-time fact checking in the second presidential debate.

With Schieffer, Romney didn’t do the tit-for-tat rule rattling he gained a reputation for in previous debates. (Though he tried once and backed down immediately when Schieffer told him he’d already had his turn.) President Obama wasn’t heard repeating, “Bob. Bob. Bob” as he did with Crowley’s name while trying to interrupt her.

So what gives? Is Schieffer just that awesome of a moderator? Did he outclass the others in pedigree?

Take our Fish Poll below. We’ll post the results tomorrow.

Today we have another installment of: “Ask Piranhamous Anything.” And we do mean anything. Send your queries to FishbowlDC@mediabistro.com. This isn’t an advice column — Piranhamous doesn’t know what the hell you should do with your life any more than you do — and worse, he doesn’t care. Try to keep your questions short — we want to keep this fun, simple and insightful.

1. What did you think of CNN’s Candy Crowley in this week’s debate…and, should her weight be a topic of discussion online or anywhere?

It was about what I expected, and what she projected. She wanted to be a part of the show and she was. The most telling moment I found was when she said if she let Romney keep talking at one point she’d be “run out of town.” Romney was about to smack down Obama, and she saved him. And should her weight be an issue anywhere? No more than her opinions should’ve been. As it stands, the scales, so to speak, are about even.

2. Do you think David Corn‘s career will be furthered by him getting the scoop on that 47 percent video?

The guy is writing for Mother Jones after working for legitimate outlets in the past, so in one respect, there’s nowhere to go but up. On the other hand, there’s a reason he’s now reduced to writing for Mother Jones and pushing a video that was more hype than substance, so I don’t expect a return to mattering for Mr. Corn. But, like his namesake you eat, he has a weird way of popping back up when you least expect it after going through a bunch of shit, so you never know.

Question #3: See Piranhamous’ radical advice for CNN… Read more

This week we asked readers to choose between different types of candy to describe the performance of debate moderator CNN’s Candy Crowley on Tuesday night. (Why can’t all polls be this brilliant?) We asked readers to choose among the Jolly Rancher (sweet, sour and an all around ass kicker), Milk Duds (a dud, unfair), the Blow Pop (hard on outside, gum on inside, ie. all things to all people) and Snow Caps (black and white and pro-Obama).

And here’s what you told us.

A predominant 42.2 percent of you declared that Snow Caps best reflect Crowley’s debate behavior. In other words, you said, she’s in the tank for President Obama. Second place goes to the Jolly Rancher — 30.37 percent of you think the world of her. The lowest score (11.8 percent) was for the Blow Pop, which indicated she was imminently fair and all things to all people.

Quotes of the Day

“John Feehery, in a strange way you have a point.” — MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Hardball Wednesday in the rare instance when he concedes anything. Feehery works at Quinn Gillespie & Associates and regularly appears on the program.

Goddamn deep thoughts with Byron Tau

“Man, it’s only been 17 days since the last goddamn fundraising deadline. Too. Goddamn. Soon.” — Politico‘s Byron Tau.

Anonymous Tips from the past 48 hours…1. “Mormon men do not think of women as equals, butt [sic] subject to them, so he will never approve equal pay.” 2. “Romney puts women in binders and dogs on the roof of his car.”

The Jokester: “Binder? I hardly know her! ” — Democratic blogger John Aravosis.

From the Dept. of Bragiculture…

“So I am now officially Chief Economic Correspondent for POLITICO. But you can just call me ‘chief’ or ‘dude.’” — Politico‘s Ben White. We’re just relieved he resorted to ALL CAPS for our viewing pleasure. Congratulations Ben!

Commenter to the rescue! A reader calling himself (or herself) “Coconut” under FBDC’s Peter Ogburn‘s story on anti-Candy Crowley stories dominating right wing news sites Wednesday: “Candy you did an excellent job!!! Retards get over yourselves!”

The Observer

“You could say Lance Armstrong is having a pretty bad news CYCLE –> sadtrombone.com” — ABC News reporter Matt Negrin. Get it?

Reporter survives on Guinness

“I’ve been up since since 3a.m. One Guinness, and I feel like I could go another 24.” — The Washington Examiner‘s David Freddoso.

Quote Taken Out of Context

“Ana Marie Cox, let’s put it this way– they are cork-heel orange satin slingback pumps with white polka dots. They are audacious.” — GOProud Advisory Board Member Liz Mair.

Journo hailed as “national treasure”

“‘@BresPolitico is a national treasure,” an influential reader emails.’ That was awesome.” — Politico‘s James Hohmann referring to his colleague, John Bresnahan.

Congrats to Nick Massella who has been hired by BrandLinkDC, a public relations and marketing firm that engages reporters around town. He begins his new job as Public Relations Manager on Oct. 29.

Eddie Scarry contributed to this report.

The winner of Tuesday night’s debate isn’t quite as clear as the last time Barack Obama and Mitt Romney met. Both sides of the political aisle have spent the day debating who won. One thing is clear: Conservatives did not care for Candy Crowley. In MOST cases, the party that blames the moderator is usually the party that lost. Crowley inserted herself into the Libya argument by throwing an assist to Obama and saying that he did call the attack in Libya a “act of terror” the day after it happened when Romney said that he did not. Obama did say those words that day, but it’s the context that has everyone riled up. Crowley didn’t do herself any favors by saying that Romney was “right in the main. I just think he picked the wrong word.”

This opened the floodgates for conservative pundits and pubs to swoop in and come after Crowley in a fast and furious manner. (They talked about that last night, too. That’s a WHOLE different story.) In the aftermath, the Daily Caller ‘s links for Wednesday had a one-track mind. In fact, four out of the top five stories on their website featured damning critiques on Crowley.

They aren’t alone. Breitbart has two stories up today about Crowley showing favoritism to Obama. Leading the pack on anti-Crowley stories, however, is Newsbusters. Since the debate, they have run 11 stories on Candy’s job as moderator. I think I might get diabetes taking in all that Candy.