Writing a story about someone else’s booger feature is no easy task. On some email requests I put a simple, bland, “request for comment.” On others, I went for shock value: “BuzzFeed’s booger post.” It wasn’t plotted. I imagined some might find it funnier than others.

On Tuesday night, BuzzFeed‘s Benny Johnson took Washington’s political and media worlds by surprise by creating a GIF feature about House Speaker John Boehner allegedly checking out his boogers. BuzzFeed Political Editor McKay Coppins promoted the story, even guided readers to it on Twitter.

The headline reads: “John Boehner Looks at His Boogers During the State of the Union.”

Who among us would have the mental fortitude to look away from a Boehner booger post? “It looks like a first-step by BuzzFeed into honest coverage,” said former TWT Editor and Public Affairs exec Sam Dealey. “After all, everyone — the Speaker, the public and evidently BuzzFeed’s reporter too, was bored by the speech and looking for anything even remotely more interesting.”

Boogers are interesting. But by and large, the editors and journalists around town that we interviewed opposed the booger post. “Dumb and dumber; political coverage as booger op? What next: beaver shot?” asked Washingtonian‘s media writer Harry Jaffe. WTOP’s Jim Farley also expressed journalistic outrage. “I believe it is over the top,” he said. “It would have been like showing video of George H.W. Bush throwing up on the Japanese Prime Minister at a State Dinner. A private moment.  Would we show video of Michelle Obama’s skirt blowing up on a windy day?”

Um, there’s actual video showing Bush throwing up? As it turns out, there is.

And by the way, there’s no judgment here. We’ve written about everything from Larry King passing gas on air and a journo popping a zit at a party to females showing ample amounts of cleavage and breasts on TV. Suffice it say, BuzzFeed can write about the Speaker’s alleged boogers if they want to and there won’t be any ethical bitching from us.

And yet we couldn’t help but wonder, is this, in part, the psychological result of our miniscule attention spans and around-the-clock reporting? That we now require boogers to grab our collective attention?

“Poking fun at people in power has always been been part of political journalism,” Coppins told FishbowlDC when asked to comment on the matter. “Dead-tree newspapers used to do it with political cartoons; now the internet does it with GIFs and memes. What actually struck me most about this State of the Union was how many other news sites were competing with us on that front. A year ago, we would have been the only ones GIFing Marco Rubio’s reach for the water bottle; this year we were racing with The Atlantic‘s Twitter feed.”

But some journalists thought BuzzFeed had slipped beneath themselves. “That’s certainly a headline you don’t see every day,” said a longtime Washington editor who preferred to remain anonymous. “But regardless, this is over the line. A classic example of something that gets hits, but is in poor taste. The post appeals to the 10-year-old in all of us, and that’s not a good thing. BuzzFeed is better than this.”

A cable news insider agreed, saying, Read more

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for 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, funny and insightful.

1. With the avalanche of DUMB stories surrounding the Presidential race, should we force future campaigns to take the summer off?

People who run for, or are, President already think the world of themselves and project to the world an image that the bathroom smells like a wildflower meadow when they’re done dropping a deuce, so the stupid season is a good thing. It serves as a reminder that these people are just human beings who do and say stupid things and are just as capable of wallpaper-peeling stink as any one of your drunken uncles at a family reunion. Humanity imposed on them, even if they never acknowledge it, is important, lest people buy too much into the presented image of perfection.  In 2008 we had an image of perfection presented to us in the form of President Obama and that can be dangerous. After three and a half years of gaffes and stupid statements, we now know he has to light a match when he’s done too. And Romney, while he probably has a better diet, isn’t a perfectly programmed robot on the matter.

And if you don’t think that’s enough of a reason to support a long campaign, just imagine all of the money they raise concentrated into a smaller window of time in the form of speeches and ads. It would be like eating a big hunk of peanut butter at once rather than having it spread over a piece of bread – it’s much harder to chew and there’s less of a chance of choking on it.

2. It’s hot as hell these days. I’m curious to know your take on seersucker.

Seersucker is a great concept – a suit that lets air flow through it to cool you down in the hot summer months. But why can’t they make them less ugly? No one should want to look like the sweaty fat guy fanning himself with his hat while sitting on a big porch drinking a glass of lemonade in every movie set in the south. Has technology really not progressed to the point that we can’t make a blue, brown or black suit that breathes? Now that we’ve pretty much ended most of NASA’s work of launching people into space, can’t we reassign some rocket scientists to this important project?

3. What do you think about Larry King interviewing Meghan McCain?

This much dumb in one place is more dangerous than what crossing the streams in Ghostbusters could have caused. Larry could get more intelligent answers from his suspenders than Meghan McCain. So what do I think of it? I try not to.

Larry King‘s Hulu-based series Larry King Now couldn’t sink any lower after his recent girl talk interview with MSNBC’s Meghan McCain — even if he added another 40lbs to his guest. You can only go up from there.

Elizabeth Huntsman, daughter to former Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, posted the above photograph to Facebook yesterday in which she and her sisters, Mary Anne and Abby, pose with the inevitably gropey King. The caption reads “Just had quite an entertaining sit down with Larry King! Will let everyone know when it airs.”

Let’s hope it went better than McCain’s. An excerpt of her interview via Business Insider:

“I’m a single woman. I’m very blonde. I own my sexuality and the kind of life I live which is not a common thing for a woman in America, let alone in Republican politics,” McCain said. “I think I represent something new, which is a reflection of the fact that they represent something dying.”

Quotes of the Day

“The Banana is the perfectly named fruit.” — former CNNer Larry King. Can Piers make him an assistant or something?

Journo comes across dead body

“En route to Louis Armstrong park for treme brass band and we see a dead body on a lot.” — Roll Call‘s John Stanton at Jazz Fest in New Orleans.

Attention grabber

“National Zoo to live-tweet artificial insemination of panda.” — Drudge Report.

“Like dc to want her barefoot and pregnant” — WaPo’s Jennifer Rubin in reaction to WaPo writing a story on the panda possibly being replaced if it doesn’t get pregnant. To the above Drudge tweet, Rubin remarked, “Perfect assignment 4 Anthony Weiner.”

“For 340 new followers I’d have live-tweeted my vasectomy.” — Consultant, NBC Washington Contributor Chuck Thies.

Since when did HuffPost become a cheap knockoff of Maury Povich and Tyra? In a Monday tweet they ask: “Did you reinvent your life after a personal trauma? #breakover Tell us about it.”

Eavesdrop Café

“At cafe eavesdropping on a guy getting performance review. I think his boss should be fired. This is painful.” — NPR’s Sonari Glinton.

Oh, you got Uggie too?!

“Lisa Lerer, you got a picture with the artist dog too!??!?!?! you won the weekend I think.” WSJ‘s Victoria McGrane to Bloomberg’s Lisa Lerer. And this from Barron‘s Washington Editor James McTague: “Cannot believe that my pix with the dog from the film “the Actor” has not become a Twitter sensation. Must be the dog.”

A shoe-in for an invite to next year’s pre-WHCD garden party: “This tweet’s for @haddadmedia #letsfindacure” — CBS’s Christine Delargy.

Blogger recounts therapy appt.

“Best part of therapy today was my therapist stopped to hunt down & kill a fly that was disturbing my peace. #youknowyouhaveproblemswhen” — blogger Pamela Sorensen who writes Pamela’s Punch.

(A Sprinkling of Things We Think You Ought to Know…)

WaPo writer not happy with Romney – I know, right? Who saw that coming? Dana Milbank is not happy that he can’t get up-close and personal with the Republican front-runner and who can blame him? Romney, I mean, not Milbank. Who would want to give access to someone who writes, “And if the campaign is about personality? To paraphrase Yogi Berra, Romney will be an overwhelming underdog.” The “I’m trying to get access, so I’m going to insult you till I do” approach only works when trying to get a kiss on the playground in first grade, not politics.

Careful what you wish for – Larry King, the suspenders-clap curmudgeon himself, took to Twitter to lament the fact that he doesn’t have a brain. Well, not exactly. But sort of. The 348-year-old former CNN host tweeted, “Sometimes I wish I could have brain surgery just so @sanjayguptaCNN could be my doctor.” Aside from the creepiness of an elderly man flipping fate the bird by wishing he had a serious medical issue, who thinks like that? And, of those who do think like that, who decides to tell the world they think like that? After getting less that positive feedback, he soon followed up with “Didn’t mean to offend, I just really like and admire @sanjayguptaCNN he’s the best!” That was something he could have easily said in the first place, rather than ‘Gee, I wish I had a brain tumor so this one particular guy could cut my head open cuz he’s nice.’ Larry, it’s highly unlikely you’re going to need a brain surgeon – ever. To paraphrase Dizzy Dean, they could x-ray your head and not find nuthin’.

Joe Biden would not approve – Slate writer Matthew Yglesias isn’t known for being nice (or particularly liked, really. But that’s a different matter). So when he tweeted, “The enormous Japanese tour group taking up a full car on this train is about to be very disappointed by US passenger rail,” the attitude was unsurprising. While it’s true that Amtrak sucks, you’d think a fan of subsidies wouldn’t point it out.

For some, Greta Van Susteren harkens back to vivid images of the mid 1990s when all eyes were peeled to the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Van Susteren, a former criminal defense and civil trial lawyer, appeared regularly on CNN and helped make sense of the complexities of the trial. She spent eight years at CNN. Then in 2002 she moved over to Fox News where she has been ever since hosting “On the Record” in the 10 p.m. time slot. She isn’t afraid of a good tussle – in January 2011, she blasted a launch party thrown by Tina Brown for Piers Morgan. “It is so different over here at Fox than CNN,” she wrote on her Gretawire blog. I can’t imagine Fox News Channel or a friend of Fox News Channel having some fancy “launch party” at a fancy NYC upper east side address with a bunch of celebrities for a new cable news show.  It seems so out of touch with the rest of the country, doesn’t it?” Today Greta celebrates 10 years at the network. We caught up with her this weekend and asked her to reflect on the last decade of her life.

Congratulations to her on this momentous occasion.

1. When you look back at the past decade, do you feel sentimental about it? I don’t feel sentimental, I feel extremely lucky!  I have had a ring side seat to every major news story in the last ten years.  I have had the thrill to travel the world for Fox News Channel – Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea, Haiti, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Kuwait, Jordan, UAE, Egypt, Aruba, Peru, Uruguay, and Honduras.   I have been all over the USA, too, and who can forget sleeping on a bus during Katrina with all my Fox colleagues?  I have had the chance to interview so many fascinating people (Presidents, world leaders, Cabinet members, Senators, Members of the House of Representatives, General Musharraf, Benazir Bhutto) that I can’t help but feel lucky…very lucky.  I have flown with the Thunderbirds, the Blue Angels and even chased the F/A 22 in an F-16.  I have been on a helicopter in Afghanistan and in other parts of the world.  I have also been lucky to interview those in the entertainment world: Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, Ron Howard, William Shatner, Katharine McPhee, the Backstreet Boys, B.B. King, Winona and Naomi Judd, Shakira, Josh Groban, Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton, and Kim Kardashian. I have also interviewed many many athletes: Brett Favre, Joe Theismann, Joe Namath, Cal Ripken, Jr., Bart Starr, Tony Dungy, Michael Vick, Mike Tyson, Bob and Mike Bryan, Joe Montana, and Manny Pacquiao.  Having read the foregoing list, and that is just a sample, can you understand why I feel so lucky?

I am grateful to Fox because Fox has spent a fortune over the past 10 years making sure I can do real reporting.  It is very, very, very expensive to send anchors and correspondents into the field and I know that news organizations have had to cut back. But Fox never has said no to me.  There is a giant difference between getting your news, reading the internet and THEN hosting or anchoring, and actually going into the field and seeing it yourself.

2. Anniversaries are typically times of reflection. What are you thinking about it all? I don’t reflect very much. I really don’t have the time to reflect. I am just excited about the next story whatever that may be.  Each time I do a story I wonder, can there possibly be another as fascinating?  So far, the answer is yes.

3. What are your tried and true interview techniques? First, work at a network that supports you.  That makes a HUGE difference.  Fox has done that for me over and over and over again.  Second, as to specific technique, I learned the trick from Larry King: be curious.  Interviews, as Larry taught me, are not about me — they are about the guests and the topic.  Viewers tune in for the news, not to see the set or the anchor.  It sure worked for Larry and it is working for me. I have been a cable news anchor since Oct. 1995.

4. What was your most memorable work trip of the last decade? I confess, I do find my trips to North Korea fascinating.  It is stepping into a whole different world, different from any other place in the world. I am headed back to North Korea in a few months for my fourth trip. Each time I have gone, I have seen more, and received greater access by the North Koreans. I have met some of the North Korean hierarchy and I have also met workers in the field. (And of course, my trips with Sec. of State Hillary Clinton to Pakistan, India, Afghanistan have been a thrill…as well as the trip all over the Middle East with then-First Lady Laura Bush.)

5. What are you most looking forward to in the years ahead? What do you most want to accomplish? I don’t know….my eyes are wide open!  Each new story is addictive.

Suze Orman takes compliments well. For instance, when she showed up to the National Press Club this week for a presser with TV commentator Tavis Smiley and Prof. Cornel West, Tony Gallo, who heads up the newsmaker program, told her she looks much better in person. Her reaction? “Thank God.” Another compliment came during an elevator ride to the first floor where she was doing an interview for CNN. This one was on her hairdo. “We did it ourselves,” Orman boasted. “We’re trying it.” By “we” she means she and her life and business partner, K.T., who was along for the ride. “I can’t tell other people to save money and not do it myself. I saved myself $200.”

As charming in real life as her SNL impersonator, Orman was just what you’d imagine her to be: blonde and chatty with spanking white teeth, and in your face about your finances. Case in point: Suze wasn’t in the building 10 seconds when a woman recognized her in the elevator and began sharing her financial woes. This scenario would repeat itself for hours as complete strangers poured out their pain. The woman said she avoids reading her column in O Magazine because she “can’t face her truth.” Suze started asking her why not, what’s stopping you… and then the woman got off on the 10th floor.

The press conference involved poverty and Orman unveiling her new prepaid card — the Approved Card — which she’s hoping will revolutionize how people experience their money. “We barely have the heart to look in the mirror and tell ourselves how we’re doing,” she told a packed room of media and ordinary people who came to share their hard luck stories. “The one fascinating thing about money is you can’t look at someone and know they’re poor,” she said, instructing an unemployed woman in a black suit to stand and be the poster child for poverty. “There should be no face of poverty in the United States,” Suze stressed, making her point. As for her new card, she said emphatically, “This card is to give people a viable alternative. I have put my name on it. I have put my reputation on it. And no financial institution or blogger is going to stop me.”

At the end of the presser, Gallo concluded: “I judge each event by how many people fall asleep and how many leave early. We had absolutely zero — the highest possible score.”

I trailed Suze and K.T. to her interview with CNN. Not surprisingly, behind the scenes Suze is no-nonsense and doesn’t like annoying surprises — so she’s a tad irked that the CNN spot wasn’t better planned. “She hates lipstick and she hates makeup,” remarked K.T. “So we argue — it’s the only time we do.”

“She’s not a prima donna at all,” said CNN Commentator Hilary Rosen, whose firm, SKDKnickerbocker, is handling Suze’s press for the card.

Finally we gathered in a quiet conference room on the first floor of the building for five questions with Suze and discovered one thing for certain: She knows her way around a Fishbowl metaphor.

The Questions…

Read more

BuzzFeed alerted us this morning to a potentially windy situation that occurred on Anderson Cooper’s CNN show last night involving Republican Strategist Rich Galen. Galen made a bit of a stink while talking about Newt Gingrich. Galen tooted his own horn about his years of experience working with Gingrich and then was asked by Cooper about Newt’s negative campaigning. Galen makes a pained expression while he’s sounding off about Newt, and then something happens. It SOUNDS like Galen lets flatulence escape mid-sentence. Watch for yourself.

In case you missed it, we are providing a transcript of Galen’s comments.

“Let me cut to the cheese, I mean chase. There’s been a lot of hot air blowing around related to Newt. Gingrich has always made a lot of noise with his statements. He’s not the silent, but deadly type. In the end, he will pull away leaving the competition seeing nothing but his skidmarks.”

OK, so that’s not anything CLOSE to what Galen said, but that’s what we heard.

It’s not like this is the first time a TV personality has let one rip. Larry King was NOTORIOUS for breaking wind on the air. Here’s a clip of him with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA).

A few months ago, we reported on when Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) maybe allegedly dropped a bomb on Rachel Maddow a few months ago?

We reached out to Galen to see if he broke wind, or if this was the classic case of “Whoever Smelt It, Dealt It.” He has not responded. In an effort to sniff out the truth on the issue, we have shown the video to dozens of people and everyone agrees…. it’s a fart.

Some of this might seem juvenile. But, farts are funny. The great Louis CK, who is headlining the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Dinner this June, summed it up best when he appeared on The Daily Show last year:  “You don’t have to be smart to laugh at farts, but you have to be stupid not to.” Watch the whole video:

In the past week MSNBC “Hardball” Host Chris Matthews has significantly upped his Twitter following by doing one simple act: Tweeting.

For months now, he had one measly message on his feed. In one night — the evening of the GOP Presidential Debate in Simi Valley, Calif, — he increased his following by approximately five thousand. All because he announced on his “Hardball” program that he was going to be tweeting that evening.

Though Matthews’ tweets have so far been boring and bland, he caught flack for it, with FNC’s Ed Henry baiting him with ALL CAPS imitations of how he presumed Matthews, a shouting interrupter in real life, would be. And there were others who couldn’t quite imagine an online world infused with Matthews.

At the moment he’s broaching 20,000 followers (to be exact: 19, 957). He follows 65. So which lucky Washington journalists top Matthews’ list? Being at NBC certainly helps, but it’s not the only deciding factor. Politico‘s Mike Allen is on there as is HuffPost‘s Howard Fineman, C-SPAN’s Steve Scully, ABC’s Christiane Amanpour, USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page, NYT’s Jeff Zeleny, WaPo’s Dan Balz and Anne Kornblut, former CNNer Larry King and White House Spokesman Jay Carney. NBC colleagues include everyone from Joe Scarborough, Savannah Guthrie and Andrea Mitchell to Domenico Montanaro and Luke Russert.

Naturally Twitter is an opportunity for Matthews to offer a more controlled version of himself — a man who reveals himself slowly and thinks before he speaks. But here’s to hoping he unleashes his true self and gives fans what they want.

QUOTES of the DAY

From one reporter to another

“@aburnspolitico Sorry, I can’t find the part in that story about his penis.” — Politico‘s Molly Ball to her colleague Alex Burns in a Wednesday tweet.

It’s roasting outside

“People wearing dark suits in the sous vide bath that is DC’s pre-summer swelter. Huh.” — WaPo‘s J. Freedom du Lac in a Wednesday tweet.

A Weiner joke where you least expect it

“It’s easier to get an email from Weiner than to get you on.” — Former CNN host Larry King on “The Daily Show” last night explaining how hard it was to get Jon Stewart on his program.

Weiner Parental Guidelines 101

“Prediction: Weiner child not allowed to use Internet for a lonnnng time.” — National Review Online’s Jonah Goldberg in a Wednesday tweet.

New kid on the block

We came across a brand new reporter on the scene this week. His name is — get this — Michael Mayday. There are too many jokes here to boil it down to just one, but let’s just say screaming “MAYDAY! MAYDAY!” during an interview with him could prove to be amusing. So would directing you to a video like this one. Or this one. But we’re going to cut him some slack. The young Michiganian has been on the job one week. Publication: The Daily Caller. Welcome to the Fishbowl Mayday!

HuffPost Hill has quite an imagination

“Satan prepared his acting reel to audition for the part of ‘Anthony Weiner’ in the inevitable Lifetime original movie about this whole mess.” — Wednesday’s edition of HuffPost Hill Edited by Eliot Nelson. So who would play Weiner and Huma and the cast of characters in a Lifetime movie? If specific actors come to mind, let us know at FishbowlDC@mediabistro.com or FishbowlBetsy@gmail.com.

Ezzy likes salad

“Just found out a Chop’t opened a block away from my office. Life, or at least lunch, will never be the same. #firstworldbenefits.” — WaPo‘s Ezra Klein in a Wednesday tweet. We’re delighted for him and now we know where to find him at lunchtime.

The name of “The Daily Show” segment on Weiner last night: “The Wangover”

Ahh memories…

“One of the bratty boys I babysat when I was 13 is apparently in prison. I remember complaining to his sad mom that he chased me with knives.” — Laura Donovan, an editor at The Daily Caller, in a Wednesday tweet.

Schultz gets emotional about Weiner and wife, Huma

“For me and for many of us behind the scenes producing, the Anthony Weiner story is undoubtedly as sad as it gets.” — MSNBC’s Ed Schultz on his Wednesday night program. Schultz has called for Weiner’s resignation. “Please resign. Please do it. …the fact that your wife is pregnant is awesome.”

Weiner’s ex-girlfriend attacks Maureen Dowd

“For the record, a blackjack dealer and porn star are not lesser people than an aide to Hillary Clinton, as Maureen Dowd disgustingly claims.” — The Daily Beast Columnist, Fox News Democratic Political Analyst and Weiner Ex-Girlfriend Kirsten Powers in a Wednesday tweet. This is what Powers found so offensive in Dowd’s NYT column this week: “The weenie Weiner married up to Hillary Clinton’s aide, the glamorous and classy Huma Abedin, and only 11 months later got caught e-dating down with a Vegas blackjack dealer, a porn star and a couple of college students.”