Quote(s) of the Day

Scribe blames Beck for bagel debacle

“Glenn Beck fans have invaded the Watergate area. Line at local coffee place so long I can’t even get a bagel this morning.”
- NJ “The Hotline’s” Editor-in-Chief Reid Wilson in a morning tweet.

Come on, get to the point

“I learned that Jon Meacham is really eloquent but it takes him a long time to get there.” – MSNBC “Morning Joe” Co-host Mika Brzezinski on this morning’s program regarding what she learned about the former Newsweek editor.

And now, for the cheesiest pickup line since Watergate…

“Is this Maxim? Or a place for locals to get political news? Kara being easy on the eyes is the worst kept secret since Watergate.”
- Attorney Donald Edmond in a tweet earlier this week regarding TWT‘s Kara Rowland being on our “Fishbowl’s Finest” beautiful D.C. media list.

Politico‘s Mike Allen is reporting that Jon Meacham, Editor of Newsweek, is on his way out. In the meantime, the magazine is reportedly being sold to 91-year-old Sidney Harman, husband to Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.).

An excerpt:
The sale is a painful concession for Donald E. Graham, chairman of The Washington Post Co., who personally chose the buyer from among several well-heeled bidders. He had stuck with the magazine, part of his company since 1961, through years of heavy losses.

WaPo’s Tom Shales was online earlier today chatting harshly on a range of topics. They included Betty White’s SNL appearance (he loves her), PBS host and Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham (he can’t stand him) and seeing Rue McLanahan naked (we’re not sure where he is on this one, but he thinks she’s the weakest of the Golden Girls).

On Meacham:
Need to Know: Do you think part of the problem with the show (also called “Need to Know”) is that Jon Meacham is kind of a pompous guy?
Shales: Pompous? yes. And dreary.

Shales said Meacham looked like he’d been “left out in the rain” while his co-host and NPR veteran Alison Stewart “looked as though she would have been more comfortable in Clinton’s lap.” (This would be former President Bill Clinton, the show’s debut interview.) More Shales’ thoughts on Meacham’s PBS show here in a May 11 post.

On seeing Rue McLanahan in the nude:
Shales: Ah, great details! I have seen Rue naked. No, not at my house. She posed a la Marilyn Monroe for a nudie pin-up before she decided to work in television. Naughty-naughty! I don’t think the nude photo ever really hurt her career. I thought she was the weakest Golden Girl – I mean, the character was so over-drawn, all that sex talk (why I found it embarrassing!!! – hey, I sound like I’m older than Betty White)…

Read the entire conversation here.

At a party, it’s the makings of a Seinfeld episode to catch someone double dipping his chips and dip. But it is occasionally permissible for CNN and WaPo‘s Howard Kurtz to host “Reliable Sources” on CNN and then use that same material for his WaPo “Media Notes” column. In reverse, Kurtz has used his WaPo column and turned it into material for his show.

Illegal, no. But is it ethical to regurgitate your own reporting for multiple news sources? In an ever changing journalism profession where journos hold down multiple jobs, no doubt this gets confusing.

Kurtz typically quotes from a variety of reporters and publications in his WaPo “Media Notes” column, not just CNN. But check out Kurtz’s column from today’s edition of WaPo and watch what he does with his CNN interview Sunday with Newsweek’s Jon Meacham.

Overstretched editor?

Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham is dismissing criticism that his media moonlighting hurt the magazine that The Washington Post Co. put up for sale last week.

“There seems to be an impression… that I stole Don Graham’s car from his driveway and have been driving it around for a couple of years,” he says, referring to the Post Co. chairman. His bosses felt his visibility — from writing a Pulitzer-winning biography of Andrew Jackson to co-hosting the new PBS program “Need to Know” — “ultimately helps the magazine,” he told me in a CNN interview.
(Read more from the WaPo column after the jump…)

Watch the CNN video here from Kurtz’s TV interview with Meacham on the Washington Post Company sale of Newsweek in which Kurts announces that he works for the Washington Post Company.

Kurtz responded to FishbowlDC’s request for comment:
“I almost never use material from “Reliable Sources” for The Washington Post, but in recent weeks I had two newsworthy interviews, one with Robert Gibbs and the other with Jon Meacham. In both cases I asked my editor if he wanted me to include some highlights as a secondary column item, and in both cases the answer was yes. Lots of other Web sites picked up the Gibbs interview, but we waited eight days before mentioning it in the newspaper.

“As for the program, since we cover the week’s hot media issues, sometimes there’s a bit of overlap with what I’ve written, so in consultation with the producers, I sometimes mention information I’ve already reported so as not to artificially withhold it from CNN viewers.”

In August 2009, Media Matters jumped on Kurtz for what it deemed a “conflict of interest” of working for WaPo and CNN and not properly disclosing that he worked for CNN after defending it. See that story here. (On his CNN show Sunday, Kurtz states clearly that he also works for the Washington Post Co. as noted above.)

Read more

“We chose the most interesting image available to us to illustrate the theme of the cover, which is what we always try to do,” Newsweek‘s Jon Meacham told the Huffington Post in response to attacks on the mag’s “sexist” cover featuring Sarah Palin.

See HuffPo for the full story.

Good morning FishbowlDC! Long-time CNN anchor Lou Dobbs has decided to leave the cable network. He made this announcement on last night’s show and this is effective immediately. TVNewser has more details and Hotline has the text of his announcement. Looks like NYT‘s Media Decoder broke the story. And here’s how Media Matters reacted. Could Dobbs be considering a future run for political office?

Happy Birthday to Pamela Dornic! What we know and what we’re reading this Thursday morning…

TV | MAGAZINES | NEWS NOTES | WEST WING REPORTAGE | AWARDS & EVENTS

NEWSPAPERS

TV

CNN’s Dana Bash was the keynote speaker at the 20th Annual Washington PR Woman of the Year ceremony. On changes in journalism, Bash said, “I’m on CNN.com all the time,” she says. “Most of my TV pieces are online – there is almost no difference.” (h/t Local Kicks)

Fox’s Sean Hannity to Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart: you’re right about video.

Cuts at Al Gore’s Current TV.

US TV viewing reached an all time high in 2008-09.

MAGAZINES

Gawker hears about layoffs at Newsweek. Politico has editor Jon Meacham‘s memo to staff.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is on the cover of Latina magazine.

NEWS NOTES

Fort Hood coverage dominated the news week, according to Pew’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

TMP: Are former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley looking to launch a consulting firm?

“A Lesson in Journalism,” from Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

On a lighter note… Pamela’s Punch’s Pamela Sorensen on “The Wide World of Washington Gossip.” FBDC and some of our friends get shout-outs!

WEST WING REPORTAGE

More Helen Thomas today… From Washington Whispers: “I think the press is very confused about who is Obama. What are his convictions? Why doesn’t he fight?” she asks. For her part, Thomas says she has firm convictions and thinks she could even do a better job in the Oval Office. “If elected, I will serve,” she says with a smile.

AWARDS & EVENTS

“Inside Tim Russert‘s Office” opens at the Newseum Friday the 20th, but the press are invited for a sneak peek of the exhibit Wednesday the 18th from 10am to 2pm. Highlights of the exhibit.

HAT TIPS: mediabistro, TVNewser, Politico

If you’re certain White House reporters, the answer could be lunch with President Obama…

Politico reports that CNN’s David Gergen, WaPo‘s Chris Cillizza, Newsweek‘s Jon Meacham and Howard Fineman, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution‘s Cynthia Tucker, Politico‘s Mike Allen, NPR/Fox’s Mara Liasson, TPM‘s Josh Marshall and NYT‘s David Brooks, Andy Rosenthal, and Gail Collins joined the President, David Axelrod, Anita Dunn, Bill Burton and Robert Gibbs for an off-the-record lunch today.

Lunch apparently lasted two hours and green salad, halibut and pear tart were served.

Good morning FishbowlDC! Got a blind item, interesting link, funny note, comment, birthday, anniversary or anything of the sort for Morning Reading List? Drop us a line.

Congratulations to WaPo‘s Ed O’Keefe who married Valerie Hallow this weekend. What know and what we’re reading this Monday morning…

TV | ONLINE | MAGAZINES | NEWS NOTES | WEST WING REPORTAGE | JOBS

TV

Upcoming TV interviews (via Playbook): The President sits down with Bloomberg News and CNBC’s John Harwood. Christina Romer, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, is doing the financial and news cable channels right after the speech from Wall Street. The CEA’s Austan Goolsbee pre-taped a “Morning Joe” interview yesterday. Treasury Secretary Geithner is sitting down with Katie Couric, anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News,” and ABC’s Diane Sawyer, for “Good Morning America,” to air tomorrow.

Steve Kroft‘s interview with President Obama aired on last night’s “60 Minutes.”

Tonight’s Jay Leno‘s prime time debut on NBC.

“Even if the Leno show fails, this still points to the way the future of television is changing… Audiences are smaller and smaller in television.” -Time‘s James Poniewozik on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” yesterday.

MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” is on the west coast this week. Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough pretaped today’s show from the Ronald Reagan Library with Nancy Reagan, Pat Buchanan and a live studio audience.

ONLINE

Unauthorized pop-ups on NYTimes.com.

MAGAZINES

With hope to make some money, Newsweek is changing its subscription policy.

NEWS NOTES

WaPo‘s Howard Kurtz and Paul Duggan‘s take on the CNN coast guard debacle on Friday. “The “news,” such as it was, quickly hit the media echo chamber.”

And Dana Milbank‘s take.

Related? AP: Nearly two-thirds of Americans think the news stories they read, hear and watch are frequently inaccurate, according to a poll released Sunday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. That marks the highest level of skepticism recorded since 1985, when this study of public perceptions of the media was first done.

Tom Ricks and the military’s new philosophical embeds in CJR: The doctrine of counterinsurgency has received almost uniformly positive press coverage, at times making it appear to be the only possible avenue for the U.S. military, and in the process that coverage has cast it in the most positive light.

And Newsweek‘s Jon Meacham in NYT: Our Reporter, Ahmadinejad’s Prisoner.

WEST WING REPORTAGE

“I spent all day… working the phones, pestering, cajoling, asking as many questions as possible and they really did not have much detail.” -WaPo‘s Ceci Connolly on difficulties in dealing with administration officials on the health care plan on Sunday’s “Reliable Sources” on CNN. Connolly made the Sunday show rounds- she also appeared on the “Chris Matthews Show.”

HAT TIPS: mediabistro, TVNewser, Politico, Daniel Lippman

Newsweek will produce a Ted Kennedy Commemorative Issue, “The Last Brother – Edward M. Kennedy 1932-2009″ to hit newsstands Friday, August 28 and will remain on sale through November 30.

The 99-page newsstand-only issue will be full of photographs, essays and remembrances, with contributions from Sen. Orrin Hatch, Sen. Birch Bayh, author Burton Hersh and political commentator Neal Gabler, among others.

“Senator Kennedy is a fascinating, transcendent figure, and our special issue is devoted to shedding light on one of the most controversial politicians in our history,” said Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham.

NBC’s Meet the Press: National Security Advisor James Jones, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker and a roundtable with NYT‘s David Brooks, CNBC’s Erin Burnett and Newsweek‘s Jon Meacham

CBS’ Face the Nation: National Security Advisor James Jones, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

ABC’s This Week: Former DNC Chairman Howard Dean, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and a roundtable with ABC’s Sam Donaldson, ABC contributor and former Bush strategist Matthew Dowd, WSJ‘s Peggy Noonan, ABC’s Cokie Roberts and Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haas

Fox News Sunday: National Security Advisor James Jones, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Walter Reed Army Medical Center Commander Maj. Gen. Carla Hawley-Bowland and a panel with Fox News contributors WSJ Paul Gigot, NPR’s Mara Liasson and Weekly Standard‘s Stephen Hayes and WaPo‘s Ceci Connolly

CNN’s State of the Union: Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, Republican pollster Bill McInturff and Democratic pollster Peter Hart, Democratic strategist CNN’s Donna Brazile, former White House counselor and former RNC chairman Ed Gillespie, “The Battle for America 2008″ author Dan Balz and Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA)

CNN’s Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz: Time’s Mark Halperin, “Why You’re Wrong About the Right” author S.E. Cupp, Air America and the Daily Beast’s Ana Marie Cox and White House Office of Health Reform communications director Linda Douglass

CNN’s GPS with Fareed Zakaria: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

NBC’s The Chris Matthews Show: CNBC’s Trish Regan, New York Mag‘s John Heilemann, Time‘s Richard Stengel, WaPo‘s Kathleen Parker

Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and National Journal: CNBC and NYT‘s John Harwood, NYT‘s Peter Baker and ABC’s Martha Raddatz

Bloomberg’s Political Capital with Al Hunt: Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL)

Will update as we learn them.