(A sprinkling of things we think you ought to know…)

Byers’ NYT story faces Twitter backlash– Politico media reporter Dylan Byers‘ piece on NYT Executive Editor Jill Abramson sparked a debate Wednesday on whether the story was sexist in nature. HuffPost‘s Jack Mirkinson wrote a story rounding up some of the negative reaction to it headlined, “Jill Abramson: ‘Very Unpopular’ Or Just Doing Her Job?” Byers’ story includes an insider account wherein Abramson snapped at an editor to leave in the middle of a meeting and change a photo that was on NYT‘s website. Editor-in-Chief of Guardian U.S. Janine Gibson mocked it. “Spent the first hour of the day apologising to [staff writer] Maraithe Thomas for that time I asked her to change the front page pic a bit brusquely,” she tweeted. “This is the most non-story, story I’ve read in a while,” tweeted CQ Roll Call‘s Emily Cahn, linking to Byers’ story. “People at any major, large company will complain about leader. If it affected quality, it’s a story. NYT won 4 Pulitzers…”

A Koch’d Los Angeles Times, isn’t necessarily a conservative Los Angeles Times– There’s buzz circulating that the conservative Koch brothers are considering purchasing several newspapers around the country, including the Los Angeles Times. Naturally, it has some journalists suspicious, including WaPo‘s Harold Meyerson, that the Times and the others will become out of control right-wing publications. Not so fast, says The Atlantic‘s Garance Franke-Ruta. “There are several reasons regional newspapers are an awkward fit for anyone looking to counter-program what they see as liberal bias in the news media,” she writes. “The main reason is that all major U.S. newspapers are based in cities.” Franke-Ruta argues that big newspapers are subject to the culture of the cities they’re based in. People who live in cities tend to be progressive, or at least comfortable with with the concept, and the papers, by geographical necessity, have to hire those people. The readers who buy the papers in those cities are no different. If the Times is suddenly an overtly conservative paper, will Los Angeles residents continue to buy it?

Does Fox News have a “new” anchor you’ve never heard of?– WaPo‘s Aaron Blake wrote an item Wednesday about an interview on Fox Business featuring Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). The anchor of the segment was identified as “New Cavuto.” Who? Must be a new host. But a review of the clip shows it was actually longtime anchor Neil Cavuto. That’s unfortunate. A new, and perhaps improved, Cavuto may be just the thing the fledgling Fox Business channel needs. Maybe a “Neat Cavuto.” Or a “Notable Cavuto.” A “Noble Cavuto”? Just Neil for now.

(A sprinkling of what we think you ought to know…)

New conservative publication brands itself with Bush slogan– Rare, an online news site for “today’s conservatives,” makes its official debut April 15. The publication, headed by former TWT Editor Brett Decker, is hosting two events at the Newseum to mark the occasion, one an interview by Decker of a to-be-named “high-profile” guest, the other a video showing “a modern, fresh, technologically savvy approach to conservative media.” Noteworthy: The video calls for “a new way forward” in branding conservative ideas, according to a press release from Rare. “New way forward” was the slogan adopted by the Bush (43) administration in the Iraq War troop surge of 2007.

Glenn Greenwald on Margaret Thatcher and “death etiquette”– Unless the person was truly vile, it’s customary to withhold any strong dumping on someone immediately after his or her death. Writing in The Guardian, Glenn Greenwald says it’s time for that to stop when it comes to political figures like former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. “When a political leader dies, it is irresponsible in the extreme to demand that only praise be permitted but not criticisms,” Greenwald writes. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with loathing Margaret Thatcher or any other person with political influence and power based upon perceived bad acts, and that doesn’t change simply because they die.”

In any case, Thatcher helped invent soft-serve ice cream… Read more

Quotes of the Day

Convo Between Two Journos

This morning’s conversation is between Salon’s Glenn Greenwald and The Guardian’s Jim Newell.

Greenwald: “As this CNN panel discusses ethical issues of Hillary’s huge speech fees, anchor changes topic to… Michelle’s bangs.”

Newell:  “I will dress up like Hillary Clinton and give speeches for a ramen cup, if anyone’s interested.”

Greenwald: “There may be a market for that.”

Judgmental Journo

“The Gawker is an amusing little gossip smut site. But I can’t say I’ve ever read a single item with any real social value on The Gawker.” — Politico‘s Ben White.

Happy Belated Birthday Stanton! 

“It’s @dcbigjohn‘s birthday. Be afraid, whiskey.” — NPR freelancer Lizzie O’Leary on BuzzFeed Washington Bureau Chief John Stanton, who, as it so happens, was dabbling in whiskey last night: “Back in the old District of Chaos. To the whiskey cave!” And this: “Thanks for all the birthday wishes folks. If you’re a bottle of Jameson in the DMV urrea, get your affairs in order cause I’m comin’ for ya.”

Life at HuffPost gets barfy

“Ten wings, 1 minute 43 seconds. New personal record!!!” — HuffPost‘s Amanda Terkel. Followed by this: “Ew. Sam Stein just barfed.” And then this: “For the record, I love wings. But I did not eat that many. That tweet was not from me.”

Unnecessary Tweet of the Day

“The cat is unusually happy that I am home, even for a cat who is always happy when I come home.” — Erik Loomis, a blogger at Lawyers, Guns and Money.

Anonymous Tipster to FishbowlDC: “Mike Allen mentioned Judy Kurtz twice in Playbook today for her birthday. Once as The Hill’s Judy Altscher (??) and once as Judy Kurtz.” Read here.

Politico Playbook Publish Time: 4:32 a.m.

Anonymous Tipster to FishbowlDC: “Honestly, FUCK MIKE ALLEN! What an asshole! Politico is regarded by EVERYONE in D.C.’s media as the most obnoxious, self-promoting, shameless outlet there is — BY FAR. For Mike Allen to go to such extended lengths to hit the NYT with a supposed ethics lesson in Playbook is just ENRAGING!” (To put in proper context, on Saturday, Allen called the NYT and specifically Jonathan Weisman on the carpet for printing a “carbon copy” of a story on its front page after Politico ran theirs on Thursday. For this, Allen gave NYT the “No Shame Award.” But he didn’t stop there. He went on to give the NYT the “Playbook Facts of Life” in which he said, “You can’t try to pass something off as new, when the people who care the most about the topic have read the same thing 24 hours earlier. You’re The New York Times: Be confident! Acknowledge the conversation around a topic you’re imbuing with your unique authority. A clever way to needle Cruz, and give readers a priceless insight into the Washington ecosystem, would have been to say ‘emailed in a statement that was identical to one he provided to Politico.”" Weisman didn’t take Allen’s lecture lightly. He wrote on Twitter, “Utterly absurd. Story was in the works for weeks. You pull the trigger when you think it’s ripe. Public story.”)

Eddie Scarry contributed to this report.

Quotes of the Day

“I gotta say, between Mitt Romney’s gaffes and Kate Middleton’s tits, I’m afraid to leave the house!” — Bill Maher, host of HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher.”

Congratulations. (A little…)

“Happy anniversary to my 2nd favorite morning show.” — Chris Licht, former executive producer for MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Licht now produces CBS This Morning.

Speaking of “Morning Joe” shout-outs…

“So people watch Morning Joe just so they don’t miss it when Mika finally snaps and stabs him, right?” — host of NPR’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell me…” Peter Sagal.

Twitter growing pains

“I’d like to go back to school and do my PhD thesis on how bad Twitter sucks.” — Politico‘s Ben White, who has been getting some push back on Twitter this week from the likes of Guardian‘s super serious Glenn Greenwald among other “whores.”

Convo Between Two Journos

This morning’s conversation is between WaPo national political reporter Philip Rucker and Monocle and Slate’s Sasha Issenberg. Sasha is referring to WaPo’s Jennifer Rubin, who has been accused of being in the tank for Mitt Romney.

Philip Rucker: Romney aides Rhoades, Gitcho, Beeson & Chen got Aug bonuses from $25,000-$37,500

Sasha Issenberg: How much did @JRubinBlogger get?

Question to Ponder: “Do political reporters do serious journalism in election season or just report gaffes?” — InTheseTimes.com labor journo Mike Elk.

Did someone say serious journalism?

“Happy Daze: Remember when Paris Hilton and Charlie Sheen dominated the news cycle? Sigh.” — Baron’s D.C. Editor James McTague.

Muckraking at its finest. Aren’t smartphones great?

“Reception for Paul Ryan on House floor a lot more tempered down since last week’s visit. Mob to talk to him not as large.” — NBC’s Luke Russert.

“Hoyer crosses House floor to shake hands with #Paulryan. Nice moment.” — Politico’s Jonathan Allen.

“Steny Hoyer just crossed house floor to shake Paul Ryan’s hand.” — Politico‘s Shermanator Jake Sherman.

Skirmish.

“What will I ever do now? Dave Weigel blocked me so I’ll never see him crying about people being mean to Obama again!! OH NOES!!” — RBPundit. To which Slate‘s Dave Weigel replied, “You’re not entitled to waste my time and Twitter feed. That’s all.”

Journo gets hives

“Ew I just got hives for the first time. And on my arm. What in the world, this is so not cool.” — Elizabeth Lauten, a.k.a. “DCGOPGirl,” who video blogged for  CNN during the summer conventions.

FishbowlDC Fan Club

1. President: WaPo‘s Gene Weingarten

2. VP of internal shady clubhouse activities: The Daily Caller‘s Executive Director David Martosko

3. Head cheerleader: WaPo‘s Ezra Klein

4. Treasure and national fundraiser: The Daily Caller‘s Matthew Boyle

5. Enthusiastic new member: HuffPost‘s Andrea Stone

The most innocuous tweet can bring out the crazy if the circumstances and barometric pressure are just right. Politico‘s Ben White is well aware.

On Wednesday White tweeted to his 8,500 followers, “Yesterday the right screamed at me. Today it’s the left. Must be doing it right.”

White tells FishbowlDC that he was referring to criticism he received after pointing out flaws in both President Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. “The ‘doing something right’ comment was just a throw-away joke,” he said, “like if everyone is mad I must be performing the unbiased media role of pointing out the flaws and shortcomings inherent in all politicians.”

Many people would read White’s message and carry on. Not the Guardian‘s perpetually self-serious Glenn Greenwald. “Here’s the motto for journalistic vapidity,” he wrote, linking to White’s tweet for his near 100K followers to have a look at. The floodgates opened.

“Or maybe you are a useless ‘centrist’ both-sides-are-equally-at-fault DC pundit, of which we have plenty,” user meemeemoomoo told White. “I could see both sides of that,” White reasoned, retweeting the comment.

“Or you’re just really bad at your job,” said joshumar. White retweeted it.

One user called White a “dipshit.” he responded, “thanks whore!” (the user’s name is “The Whore of Mensa.”) On and on it went.

“Thinking about quitting Twitter till Nov 7. Who is down?” a seemingly exasperated White tweeted.

In a sassy email, Greenwald told FBDC we didn’t understand the point he was trying to make. “There is nothing wrong with criticizing both left and right. I do that all the time.” He continued, “The problem is journalists who believe that receiving criticisms from both sides is proof that they are doing something right- as though centrism is the inherently superior position. It isn’t. Sometimes one is criticized by both sides because the centrist view is wrong, or becaude [sic] both sides recognize your error.”

Asked if he thinks the journalists at Politico are all “vapid,” Greenwald said, “I have no idea if everyone at politico thinks this way. I know Ben does because he said it, and it is a common journalistic conceit often seen.”

White said he doesn’t believe he’s guilty of perpetuating “false equivalency,” as Greenwald and his followers suggested. “But I do take pride in being unbiased and non-partisan and interested in facts and sharp analysis,” he said.

Ric Grenell, the short-lived foreign policy adviser to the Mitt Romney campaign, spends a lot of time tweeting, especially to send out sassy quips to journalists and news outlets. Last month he went on the attack against BuzzFeed‘s Michael Hastings for his coverage of the President Obama campaign, calling Hastings an “Obama sympathizer.”

Grenell’s angst is far-reaching in the world of news media. Just look at all the trash-talking he did in less than 24 hours.

This morning Grenell took a shot at Politico‘s media reporter Dylan Byers for a post Byers did on political columnist Glenn Greenwald‘s move from Salon to The Guardian. “Not a single critique of the left, Greenwald or Salon in that piece,” Grenell wrote of the post, which was straightforward in its reporting by any measure (mine).

In response to a tweet from Mediaite that simply linked to a clip of Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, Grenell said, “You tweeted a ‘Stewart Rips Romney’ link recently. Is this a new series for Mediaite?” The clip was more Stewart mocking conservatives in media rather than Romney himself. Further, Mediaite, along with countless other blogs that cover media, regularly pulls bits from The Daily Show. Shockingly, almost on a daily basis.

Grenell’s tweets aren’t all fiery, though. Again this morning he tweeted a compliment to CNN’s Candy Crowley. “We need more reporters like Candy Crowley covering the presidential race. Smart, tough and always fair,” he said.

Back to the spicy. Over a two-hour span of time last night, Grenell went after Reuters‘ Sam Youngman for a story he did that didn’t acknowledge a new national NYT/CBS News poll that showed Romney with a slight lead in the election. Or rather, Youngman didn’t acknowledge the poll until the third paragraph.

More of Grenell’s Youngman aggression from last night:

• “Washington media types love to quote the NewYorkTimes until the NYT has a poll showing Romney up. Then silence. Que more Romney tax stories.”
• “You want evidence of Washington’s media bias? new poll shows Romney up and Reuters leads with 3 paragraphs on Mitt’s taxes!”
• “Shhh don’t tell Reuters’ Sam Youngman.” (here Grenell retweeted a link to the NYT/CBS News poll)

Youngman responded, “I wouldn’t have led with someone else’s poll. Sorry we didn’t get to work together. Good luck to you, sir.”

Quotes of the Day

Homoerotic or cute? You decide.

“Bret Baier, Hope Chunky Monkey feels better soon — and doesn’t get everyone else in your house sick in the process!” — FNC’s James Rosen. We can only hope that Rosen is referring to one of Baier’s children and not some other er, chunky monkey, in the house.

Speaking of erotic…

“It’s normal to find the words ‘woman,’ ‘her’ and ‘she’ to be erotic, right? Ok, good.” — WaPo‘s Gene Weingarten, a huge FBDC fan.

Perino reaches out to Price is Right contestant

“Will the gentleman who was on Price is Right this morning tweet me again? Loved the shout out. Need to know if you won. And watch The Five!” — FNC’s Dana Perino.

When New York Yankees center fielder Curtis Granderson throws out a question, WaPo’s ever hip Weingarten steps up to the plate and introduces himself.

Curtis Granderson: “Headed to DC for the off day, besides White House, Memorials, and Gov’t Buildings, what are some good suggestions to eat and check out?” Gene Weingarten: “Hey, Curtis. I’m a columnist for the Wa Post. Eat in Adams Morgan, a hip, funky walk-around neighborhood.”

Touching.

A fan writes to The New Yorker writer and CNN Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin: “I fucking love your writing and analysis.” He replied: “Big fucking thanks!”

Sam Stein accuses TPM of being copycat

“TPM electoral scoreboard bit.ly/OBXRUp mighty similar to what we have at Huffpost huff.to/INFOLi” – HuffPost‘s Sam Stein.

Wendy puts the hump in hump day

“Wendy Wednesday’s really help me bust over the hump.” — FBDC reader Jason Kosakow, a quantitative analyst in Washington, D.C. (And yes, we’re bragging!)

Journo Squabble

“[Andrew Sullivan] today asked if I was living on the same planet as him. No-I’m living on the one with most people from Earth.” –  Salon‘s Glenn Greenwald on The Daily Beast‘s Andrew Sullivan. He links to this.

Eddie Scarry and Peter Ogburn contributed to this report.

By now, you know that Dave Weigel and the WaPo have parted ways. And by now, you may or may not be aware of the heavy criticism (and more privately, praise) that FishbowlDC has received for first publishing e-mails from Weigel to the private email listserv, Journolist.

MSNBC Keith Olbermann has named me among his “Worst Persons in the World.” I was called “Fishbowl F-ck” and a “scumbag” (HuffPost’s Jason Linkins). I was called “sleazy” and “skuzzy” and to DIAF (that would be die in a fire (HuffPost’s Arthur Delaney). I’ve been called a “hack” journalist. I’ve been told I’m the one who should be fired, not Weigel.

The criticisms are missing the mark, but like any journalist, I’m not above rebuke, so allow me here to address the critics:

1.) I have something against Weigel personally.

This is untrue. I had never met Weigel in person until Thursday night at a HuffPost party. We had exchanged a couple of e-mails in the past. He was icy. But I wasn’t surprised, hurt, or offended. A little background: Journalists have always had a love/hate relationship with FishbowlDC: Reporters love its inside-baseball, occasionally catty, sometimes serious look at the reporting world in D.C. But they hate it when they’re the ones getting covered unless it’s glowing. “Fishbowl is not supposed to be writing about [fill in the blank]” is a frequent defense when a reporter is asked for a response to something involving them. But it’s not that they don’t understand — they do — it’s just that they’re uncomfortable that our beat is them. Business reporters cover Wall Street. Military reporters cover Iraq and Afghanistan. FishbowlDC covers journalists.

So, Weigel is a journalist and it’s my job to cover him and hundreds of others in Washington. It’s understandable that Friends of Weigel (FOW’s) are defensive on the topic of his departure from WaPo. While the motives of the Journolist leaker are fair game for critique, my decision to publish them is me doing my beat dutifully. It’s business, not personal. That said…

2.) We shouldn’t have published the emails.

Yes, we should have (see above, it’s my job and my beat). Anyone who
thinks otherwise may not understand this: It’s not a reporter’s job to worry about the outcome of a genuine news story in that it may upset some people.

What’s noteworthy here is that the anger to publishing the e-mails is a selective anger. For instance: We’re not the only ones who have published private emails from Journolist. So, too, have respected journalists such as Salon’s Glenn Greenwald and Yahoo! News’s Michael Calderone, who wrote about Journolist while at Politico. In fact, they did it long before FishbowlDC did. Find out how TIME’s Joe Klein felt about having his listserv emails disclosed by Greenwald in 2009. Read Greenwald’s post. But what’s alarming here is they haven’t come under the same squall of ethical scrutiny as FishbowlDC has because, well, they’re all in the same protective bubble of friends (talk about a real life Fishbowl…). So, when HuffPost’s Linkins — displaying an apparent deep-thinking maturity — says of me and my co-editor Matt Dornic that we’re “Fishbowl F-cks” for our work and that “this is how scumbags launder their karma,” one has to wonder: Did he write about Greenwald and Calderone with a similar scathing bitterness? Of course not – they’re friends. He wrote that those not on #TeamWeigel are “sellouts, scumbags and bitchasses.” With such selective outrage, spare me lectures on journalistic integrity.

3.) I cost Weigel his job.

No, I didn’t. I didn’t write those messages to some 400 people on Journolist. I wasn’t in management meetings at WaPo when what to do with Weigel was discussed. My take on Weigel’s behavior as a journalist covering media: I don’t believe a reporter can hate those he or she covers and do it carefully or fairly. There are some who blame WaPo for Weigel’s behavior, but in the end, it’s Weigel who is responsible. But I’m not in charge of him. I wasn’t in charge of him. The aftermath? Out of my hands.

4.) FishbowlDC focused on this story for the traffic.

The reality is most websites worry about traffic. Like how you worry about earning a paycheck to pay bills. Or how you eat enough to sustain energy. Or that you breath enough so that you might not pass out. These are basics. But Wonkette claimed we are “trying to get some traffic for the long-ignored mediabistro blog by posting some banal crap from that ‘JournoList’ email group.” Salon’s Alex Pareene thinks the aim was to score a Drudge link. Traffic did, in fact, come our way because it was a genuine story. Traffic did, in fact, go Weigel’s way for it, too. Some may not have liked that someone leaked Weigel’s e-mails. Others may not have liked that WaPo parted ways with Weigel. But the notion that a reporter’s biases on his own beat are not grounds for a legitimate discussion here on FishbowlDC or anywhere else is short-sighted at best.

> Update: Apparently I’m not alone in my views. Read WaPo’s Ombudsman report by Andrew Alexander on the Weigel matter here. In addition, read Greenwald’s explanation of why he printed Klein’s e-mails back in 2009 here.

Secondly, a correction: HuffPost‘s Delaney didn’t say I should DIAF (die in a fire). That was another gem from his colleague, Linkins. What Delaney did say was this: “FishbowlDC takes a break from sucking up to DC media types to cost a guy his job.” He also called our posts “jackass sanctimony.” A little over an hour later, he apparently felt badly and said over Twitter, “I should say FishbowldDC didn’t cost @daveweigel his job, since they’re reporting what they’re getting from whoever’s got it in for him.”

As we told you earlier, Salon’s Glenn Greenwald raised some red flags about Public Strategies, Inc.’s Richard Wolffe guest-hosting MSNBC programming, saying: “Having Richard Wolffe host an MSNBC program — or serving as an almost daily “political analyst” — is exactly tantamount to MSNBC’s just turning over an hour every night to a corporate lobbyist.”

Wolffe is an MSNBC contributor who filled in for Keith Olbermann on “Countdown” last Thursday and Friday. Apparently, MSNBC did not disclose Wolff’s connection to Public Strategies.

On the Daily Kos later this evening, Olbermann wrote:

As to Richard Wolffe I can offer far less insight. I honor Mr. Greenwald’s insight into the coverage of GE/NewsCorp talks, and his reporting on Richard’s other jobs. I must confess I was caught flat-footed. I do not know what the truth is; my executive producer and I have spent the last two months dealing with other things (see above) but what appears to be the truth here is certainly not what Richard told us about his non-news job.

I am confident his commentary to this point has not been compromised – he has been an insightful analyst and a great friend to this show – but until we can clarify what else he is doing, he will not be appearing with us. I apologize for not being able to prevent this unhappy set of circumstances from developing.

(h/t Mediaite)

What we almost missed today…

• Welcome back from vacation, David Shuster! Check out some technical difficulties during New York Magazine‘s Jennifer Senior‘s hit on MSNBC earlier today above– but that wasn’t all that Shuster had to deal with. After the jump, another MSNBC clip. (h/t HuffPost)

• Paul Krugman came to the defense of Michelle Malkin today. Surprised? He anticipated that– first words of Krugman’s post are “No, really.”

• Salon’s Glenn Greenwald raises some red flags about Richard Wolffe guest-hosting on MSNBC in a piece about the supposed GE-News Corp. truce. Wolffe left Newsweek earlier this year to join Public Strategies, Inc. Greenwald says, “Having Richard Wolffe host an MSNBC program — or serving as an almost daily “political analyst” — is exactly tantamount to MSNBC’s just turning over an hour every night to a corporate lobbyist. ”

Read more