MAKING AN ENTRANCE AND AN EXIT: Host of “CBS This Morning” Gayle King walked into the Washington Hilton on Saturday night in an eye-popping kelly green gown by Vicky Tiel. On Friday night, she was spotted leaving the Turkish Embassy residence where The Hill was hosting its pre-WHCD party.

“Don’t hurt yourself.” — A St. Regis employee to guests of Friday night’s TIME-People party at which partygoers, many of whom were White House correspondents, received gift bags so heavy they could give you a hernia. More on the contents later…

Humility is…

“I have been told many times I look like @MatthewPerry. I just saw him at #nerdprom. He is far better looking.” — The Hill’s Managing Editor Bob Cusack.

Editor wants WHCD weekend to be more substantive

“It kind of sickens me when you’re here for the White House Correspondents’ Weekend that there are not more substantive discussions.” — Steve Clemons, Editor-at-Large for The Atlantic, who hosted a discussion over the weekend with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Sen. Joe Manchin (R-WVa.) at the Ritz. The banquet room was packed. Breakfast disappeared too fast. The discussion centered on American military power today. Attendees included BuzzFeed Washington Bureau Chief John Stanton, NJ‘s Brian Fung, Yahoo! News‘ Chris Moody, Newsweek-Daily Beast‘s Eli Lake and The Atlantic‘s Jay Lauf.

A plea for help

“Someone catch me up on the last 9 days of news.” — Politico White House Correspondent Byron Tau.

Important Q to Ponder: “In a cab going to the airport but our driver is sleepy so he has the window down – to freeze or get into an accident?” — Oversharing Sherri Shepherd, co-host of ABC’s “The View.”

HuffPost‘s Sam Stein “impressed” with Politico

ThinkProgress‘ Judd Legum: “Politico currently has 54 separate links to stories abt WHCA Dinner on its front page.”

Huffpost‘s Sam Stein: “I’m kind of impressed.”

And in Bob Schieffer, Claire Danes father-daughter news… 

“Someone asked Bob Schieffer if he was Claire Danes’ daddy.” — former White House reporter Myles Miller.

Some buzz on BuzzFeed Party

“CSPAN showing super long line for @BuzzFeed party. A lot of sad faces who can’t get in #buzzfeedbbq” — Washington Examiner‘s Charlie Spiering. And this from Roll Call HOH’s Warren Rojas: “Crowd in #BuzzFeedbbq just let out very self-satisfied collective whoop after @cspan live shot of line @JackRoseinDC #counterwhcd”

Psy or is it more like Sigh?

“Psy just walked by me. I feel somehow cooler. Or at least more relevant.” — WaPo‘s Chris Cillizza. Good thing Cillizza didn’t actually try to communicate with Psy.

Starting new pub is stressful

“Rare has oped from Jeb Bush today so big relief we can get the big names when so new. I’m on pins and needles every day.” — Rare Editor-in-Chief Brett Decker. See here. Will Jeb run or won’t he? Who knows, but his last graph sounds rather presidential. He writes, “American greatness comes from the power of individuals – not the government – to create wealth and opportunity through competition, innovation and empowerment. Not only must we pursue reform, we must do a much better job communicating how these reforms protect and promote the genius of America.”

More WHCD fallout…

continued…

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“You really shouldn’t sleep this week. Professionally, it’s unadvisable.” — Matt Spence of The Times of London.

Kudos to Boston Globe

“Great work all night by #bostonglobe team covering Watertown/MIT mayhem.” — WaPo Executive Editor Marty Baron, who has to be kicking himself right now for leaving the Boston Globe late last year to come to Washington.

A Social Media editor learns lessons

“I think I learned my lesson to wait for confirmation about what network/cable reporters say their ‘sources’ tell them.” — Reuters Social Media Editor Anthony De Rosa.

Huh?

“‘I don’t know if that’s a fashion statement or what.’–guy on CNN, inspecting sunglasses on face of Boston suspect.#seriously” — HuffPost‘s Jennifer Bendery.

Up all night with Jake Tapper

“When Jake Tapper is at the helm at CNN, CNN is what it’s supposed to be.” — Former White House Speechwriter Jon Lovett.

“God love @jaketapper: Almost everything he says begins with ‘Here’s what we don’t know…’ #JohnKingLesson” — Don Van Natta Jr., Senior Writer for ESPN.

“Hmm. @Jaketapper is really good in this sort of situation. Calm solid presence.” — Daily Caller columnist Mickey Kaus.

Network redemption plan

“CNN took ton of heat earlier, but props tonite-only news net going live w nu photo+MIT shooting. Isn’t that what news net is supposed to do?“– NYT TV Industry reporter Bill Carter.

“CNN should replay the interview with Dr. David Schoenfeld for laughs. Every A: “I can’t tell you that.” WHY ARE YOU ON THE PHONE W/CNN?” — Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, who also wrote this morning: “It’s too bad Suspect #1 won’t be able to be legalized by Marco Rubio, now.”

A word of advice: “I don’t actually recommend going back to sleep, just did it, had bad nightmares.” — Dave Stroup, digital director for Aneesh Chopra for Va. Lt. Gov. 

The Observers

“One thing I learned serving in Lebanon is that young men & boys  with guns/bombs can be deadliest as they’ve yet to appreciate value of life.” — Peter Daou, political blogger and advisor.

“If these two are actually foreign trained terrorists, then this is the event we’ve been fearing; small-scale attacks on the softest targets.” — The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg.

In awe of NBC’s Pete Williams (who broke the names of the Boston Bombing suspects)

“Pete Williams is a machine.” — BuzzFeed‘s Rosie Gray.

“Journalism professors take note: @PeteWilliamsNBC has put on a free journalism clinic all week.” — Chris Donovan, producer, NBC News/”MTP.”

“Pete Williams is dominating all the “social media experts” on Twitter by… reporting.” — Andrew Golis, Boston-based director of digital and senior editor at PBS’s “Frontline.”

“Yay Pete.” — PBS’ Gwen Ifill. She later added, “FYI for all new @PeteWilliamsNBC fans, he’s been on this beat for bout 20 years #ExperienceMatters”

“How does @PeteWilliamsNC not have 100K Twitter followers? (Hint, Peter, start tweeting).” — Justin Green, contributor to The Daily Beast.

“Among the many excellent things about @PeteWilliamsNBC this week: Very clear about what he doesn’t know, or is unsure of.”– The Hill‘s Niall Stanage.

“NBC’s Pete Williams proving that reporters don’t always have to be on the ground to get all the scoops and get them right.” — ThinkProgress‘ Igor Volsky.

Meanwhile, Oversharing Sherri goes to Boot Camp

“Going 2 my 2nd #bootcamp session-anything called “bootcamp” scares me to death, but I must put fear of going over the fear of dying #health” — ABC “The View’s” Sherri Shepherd at 7:30 a.m. this morning as news of the bombers dominated the news cycle.

And NBC Matt Lauer’s bad luck streak continues…

“Meanwhile Matt Lauer is shown live in West, Texas – doesn’t look very happy.” – Washington Examiner‘s Charlie Spiering.

Howard Kurtz’s brilliant morning sentiment

“Wish I hadn’t gone to sleep and missed all the action in Boston. Hope that manhunt ends soon.” — CNN, The Daily Beast-Newsweek‘s Howard Kurtz. (Photo credit: Politico)

At least Weingarten was joking: “You people really should have woken me up last night.” — WaPo’s Gene Weingarten. continued…

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Stanton is the Washington Bureau Chief for BuzzFeed and last night was the launch of the website’s new series wherein newsmakers are invited to sit before an audience and answer questions. And there’s free beer.

It’s essentially the same thing as Politico‘s Playbook Breakfast, “minus the stale bagels, plus the beer,” cracked BuzzFeed‘s Politics Editor McKay Coppins to FishbowlDC. (The site’s publicist Ashley McCollum boasts that she came up with that description.)

The first guest: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). For roughly 45 minutes Rubio answered questions from BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith about immigration, gay marriage and the future of the Republican Party. Of course, lengthy segments here and there were spent on why Rubio prefers Tupac over Biggie Smalls (“His lyrics are more insightful in my opinion.”) and whether he had to “think long and hard” before letting his son play recreational football. Stanton said that’s another thing distinguishing the Brews series from Playbook Breakfast, whose audience may not be interested in those things. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

MRC, a conservative media watchdog org, celebrated its 25th anniversary and presented its tongue-in-cheek Dishonors awards at the National Building Museum.

Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham presented the first two awards, one of which was the “Obamagasm” award. The nominees were MSNBC’s Chris Matthews (“Isn’t it a surprise when you see him talking about Obama and he still has his clothes on?” Ingraham said.), ABC’s Diane Sawyer (“of the perpetually heavy breathing voice”) and CNN’s Piers Morgan (“Britain’s own alien life form”). Matthews won for declaring in July that President Obama is “the perfect father, the perfect husband, the perfect American.”

The second award — the “Vast Right-Wing Knuckle-Draggers” award went to MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts, for saying in September 2011 that the GOP wants to build “a time machine, to go back in time…” Ingraham described Roberts as “Thomas no-one’s-ever-heard-of-me Roberts.”

Media bashing was given a rest for the William F. Buckley award for Media Excellence. It was presented by conservative columnist Cal Thomas as a tribute to Andrew Breitbart. The audience gave a standing ovation at the conclusion of Thomas’ remarks.

Two more anti-media awards were given out: The “Damn Those Conservatives to Hell” award (to NBC’s Ann Curry, for her interview with Republican V.P. candidate Paul Ryan in April) and the “Barbara Streisand Political I.Q. Award for Celebrity Vapidity” (to actor Sean Penn, for saying on CNN in October 2011 that the tea party wants to “lynch” Obama).

Finally, MRC President Brent Bozell handed out one last award: “The Worst Reporter in the History of Man” award. This one was chosen by cheers from the audience. It was initially a tie between former CBS anchorman Dan Rather and ABC’s Katie Couric. After a second round of cheers, Couric was named the “winner.” An embarrassing photo of Couric dancing at a private party in 2006 was projected on banners hanging from the ceiling.

The banners were a fixture for awkward photos throughout the evening. To the right was the spaced-out image of RNC Committee Chairman Reince Priebus that displayed when he spoke on stage.

Notables: The Daily Caller‘s Neil Munro, The Heritage Foundation’s Lachlan Markay, Fox News contributor Steven Crowder, The Washington Examiner‘s Philip Klein and Charlie Spiering, Slates David Weigel, The National Review‘s Jonah Goldberg, The Weekly Standard‘s Stephen Hayes, GOP mega donor Foster Friess, WMAL’s Chris Plante and CRC publicists Ashley Morris and Kelley Hudak.

Quotable: “I better put this down.”– An MRC goer who was spotted drinking directly from a champagne bottle. She put the bottle down when she saw us attempting to snap a photo.

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“Chris I’ve never seen your sailor shirt before, it’s adorable. …It’s fetching.” — MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow to colleague Chris Hayes on her program last night. Hayes’ ensemble was a black blazer over a black and white striped T-shirt. Soon they will be swapping outfits.

Journo spots a star

“Just saw John Lithgow outside of Union Station. Told him I loved his read of Gingrich letter on Colbert. Very nice approachable guy.” — NBC Congressional Correspondent Luke Russert.

Reporter in hot seat over EPA story

“If I WERE wrong, I would’ve corrected story on EPA’s GhG stuff. But, I’m not. — The Daily Caller‘s Matthew Boyle. With that, he links to Executive Editor David Martosko‘s second official defense of Boyle. Mother Jones, Salon, WaPo and Politico all reported that Boyle got it wrong. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said he got it right.

Drudge Whores: Washington Examiner‘s Charlie Spiering promotes a Drudge hit for colleague and Online Editor Mark Hemingway. He writes, “Drudge banner for @Heminator.”

Among Vs. Amongst: The Audacity

This week an AnonymASS tipster raised hell about our using “amongst” as opposed to “among.” Another anonymous reader writes in to unload: “Just amongst us, why attack the messenger? Instead of taking the first hit that comes up on Google, wordy asses such as myself use Grammar Girl, a good source for real world usage. She says: Finally, people sometimes ask the difference between ‘among’ and ‘amongst.’ Both words mean the same thing, but amongst is the older form and is more commonly used in Britain than in the United States. It’s considered archaic and overly formal or even pretentious in American English.” Well said, Anonymous. I’m going to go discuss it amongst my friends.

Michelle Obama hits Target

“First Ladies, they are just like us – they shop at Target! Photo of Michelle Obama at Target today.” — CNBC’s Ryan Ruggiero. The AP photograph appeared in the Chicago Tribune, among other publications. It also caught FNC’s Greta Van Susteren‘s eye. She tweeted the picture and informed, “Michelle Obama showed up at a Target store in Alexandria, Va. Thursday. Her office said an Associated Press photographer happened to chance upon the first lady doing some impromptu shopping.” But most commenters on Greta’s blog weren’t so kind. One remarked, “Sympathy backtrack for all the luxuries they lavish in – a case of see I’m just like you bullchit [sic].” Another: “How much did this little photo opt trip cost the tax payers for security and transportation?” And another: “Next there will be a photo op of her and the kids parachuting from it with their lunch bags.” The favorite: “Wait, I think you guys have it wrong. I just took a closer look at the photo and I think it is Barack Obama in the dress, so he can buy a carton of cigarettes anonymously.” Read more hatred here.

A conversation I NEVER thought I’d have with FishbowlMatt

“Were your bras too small?” — FishbowlMatt to me during a debriefing phone call after I interviewed the ‘Bra Whisperer,” a woman who has outfitted Oprah and the Kardashians. I think my response, between laughter, was, “This is too weird, I cannot talk to you about this stuff…” Story to come later…

Memo to Capehart: Dude, I love your tie

“Dude, I need that purple tie. Ref?” — a follower to WaPo editorial writer and MSNBC Contributor Jonathan Capehart. Capehart’s response: “It was navy blue. By Borelli of Naples.” A sample tie by Borelli at left.

The Media Critic…NYT and CNBC’s John Harwood: “Among stranger things about TV news: producers say they’re ‘efforting’ to do something — rather than ‘trying,’ like normal English-speakers.”

Commentary: The Onion debacle

“#theonion is this some kind of social experiment? Trenchant, subtle commentary on media and government? If so, not working.” — NBC’s Mike Viqueira after Capitol Police take an Onion story on a hostage situation at the Capitol seriously.

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The digital copy of the paper is available here.

“Extras are in the finest tradition of American newspapering, our newsroom’s outstanding continuing web coverage notwithstanding,” said Michael Phelps, Publisher.  “Steve Smith and his team outdid themselves today on this important and continuing story.”

The Washington area hasn’t had an afternoon newspaper in 30 years.

Read the paper’s continuing coverage from Charlie Spiering here. 

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Since at least 2007, reporters and editors have kept a internal brag sheet of Drudge hits that regularly gets sent to management, FishbowlDC has learned. In the report, it is noted which reporters got Drudge hits and how many. Reporters are asked to contribute to these reports. What’s more, there is a feeling in the newsroom that stories are developed to attract a Drudge link. Reporters who get hits are highly praised, as they are at many publications.

In turn, reporters get excited, as naturally they would, when they hit the Drudge jackpot.  “3 Drudge hits this morning,” tweeted Examiner’s Charlie Spiering last December.

Earlier today we reported that the Washington Examiner has purchased ads on Drudge. In response, Editor Stephen Smith said he does not believe these ads sway Drudge’s editorial choices whatsoever. He also said he believes those who visit Drudge would be the very people who would read the Examiner.

We’ve asked Editor Stephen Smith for further comment on this topic.

UPDATE: Smith wrote to FishbowlDC: “The publisher prepares a weekly report on the activities of all departments. On the editorial side, these might include anything from a big scoop to TV appearances to web and blog pickups, which of course would include Drudge hits. But the Drudge component is a very small part of the editorial round-up, and a tiny portion of the overall newspaper report.”

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Batter up!

Suspended-MSNBCer David Shuster is coming out swinging today as he lashes back against a story written about him in the newspaper’s gossip column “Yeas & Nays” Friday morning. He called the column’s sources “bull sh*t”.

The situation has grown so intense that Charlie Spiering, the Examiner‘s Online Community Editor, about an hour ago posted a counter story to the “Yeas & Nays” item from this morning saying that Shuster was playing for his company’s softball team.

In a letter to the Examiner, Shuster grew angry about being called a “dork” by a blind source and the newspaper’s reporting that he’s the only one on the team who wears an actual uniform. Shuster insists he does not wear a “uniform.” He also demanded to know who called him a “geek.”

Behind the scenes, Shuster first wrote “Yeas & Nays” Columnist Tara Palmeri a direct message on her Twitter account asking for her e-mail, which she gave him. Shuster then wrote her three allegedly “threatening” (not physically so) e-mails and cc’d the paper’s chief political correspondent Byron York on them all. He demanded that the item on him be taken down. Obviously that’s not happening. York said internally today that he does not personally know Shuster.

MSNBC had no comment on the matter.

Read Shuster’s entire letter to the Examiner after the jump. Trust me, you don’t want to miss this one…

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Nerd Attack

“Drinks outside in dupont w @BLANK and @BLANK would be far more enjoyable if this table of nerds next to us would keep it down..”
– CBS’s Christine Delargy in a Tuesday night tweet.

iPad Contemplation

“Maybe when the iPad can cook steaks… that’s when I’ll buy one.”
–Washington Examiner’s Charlie Spiering in a Tuesday tweet.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Novak has hired Charlie Spiering, a staff writer with the Rappahanock News, to help with his column. Novak has also partnered with Tim Carney to help write the newsletter. Carney previously worked with Novak before taking an editing position with Regnery books. Carney will cover all things political for the Evans Novak Political Report and continue to edit Regnery books.

Speaking of Novak, the Prince of Darkness told a Dezenhall Resources crowd yesterday that his favorite young journalists are Stephen F. Hayes, Christopher Caldwell (his son in law) and Susan Schmidt. He also said that Michael Kelly was one of the best journos there ever was. Also: He said that, when CNN launched, at the White House they called it the Chicken Noodle Network.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.