For its White House Correspondents’ Dinner party, BuzzFeed brought its entire politics team to D.C., but one of its members was noticeably absent from the party.

Andrew Kaczynski, the prolific tweeter and Internet video resurfacer, skipped out. He was at the actual Dinner, the one BuzzFeed had failed to secure a table at. CSPAN brought him as a guest.

“It must be nice, right,” BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith told FishbowlDC that night. “He’s like our celebrity.”

Even without their own version of a celebrity in attendance, the party was packed with hundreds of people, causing long waits at the bar, but even worse: Long lines outside to even get in. Senior Press Director Ashley McCollum manned the mess outside. At one point the general guest line stretched almost 100 people-deep.

For Dorsey Shaw, BuzzFeed‘s resident TV news watcher, it was his first time down from New York since the publication celebrated the launch of it’s Washington bureau in early August last year. He told us he was disappointed that he wouldn’t have time to see the monuments and other sights but that he’d make sure to schedule them in next time he’s in town. (He ended up being able to schedule in some time to see them Sunday, we hear.)

What and who else did we see? Read more

By Eddie Scarry and Betsy Rothstein

National Journal‘s pre-White House Correspondents’ Dinner “Making News” party Friday could easily go down as one of this year’s nicest, most well-planned parties in the coolest warehouse space we’ve seen in awhile. And maybe it will if attendees forget that for a large portion of it, the restroom for hundreds of guests was out of order.

That’s right. There was one toilet available for the entire warehouse full of partygoers, and the top floor, which contained the toilet, was for V.I.P.’s only.

“That’s hood,” one attendee waiting outside the restroom remarked about the potty problem. “Poopgate, drink slowly,” said another, explaining that one employee advised him to pace himself. When Fox News’ Peter Doocy approached the first-floor restroom area, he was told he could not enter. “How long do you think?” he asked the woman standing guard. “Alright, I’ll let it go.” (We sincerely hope he held it in, not let it go.) Another partygoer cracked, “All these people are going to have to piss on themselves. This might be the shortest party ever.”

The attendant said she had people requesting buckets and cups.

The party took place at the two-story bar in Georgetown called The Powerhouse. It was on the bottom floor where they stationed event workers in front of the hall leading to the restroom, alerting guests from about 10 p.m., when the party started, to about 11:30, that the toilets weren’t working. Only that one VIP restroom upstairs was available. But without one of the exclusive red wristbands, how were most of the guests going to relieve themselves?

“If it gets too bad we’ll have to open up the VIP area,” said NJ Communications Director Ben Fishel at the time.

At one point a team of men carrying what looked like… Read more

BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith is a thief, a “jerk” and a “shill for right-wing smear merchants.” That’s according to the photographer whose picture Smith has used as his Twitter avatar for more than a year.

Yesterday Daniel Sieradski, a self-employed photographer in New York, went after Smith on Twitter. “I would really like Smith to clarify his relationship to the Washington Free Beacon, Emergency Committee for Israel and Josh Block,” Sieradski said. “He obviously works for them.” The common link is a pro-Israel cause. The Emergency Committee for Israel is a pro-Israel political group, led by The Weekly Standard‘s William Kristol. Block is president of The Israel Project, also a pro-Israel political group. And The Free Beacon was founded in part by Michael Goldfarb, a well-known pro-Israel political activist.

Smith has reported on or published reports on these groups in the past and has paid loose compliment to Goldbarb in the NYT. For those six-degrees-of-separation connections, Sieradski believes Smith is “a shill for right-wing smear merchants.”

And for that, Sieradski, a self-described “left-wing supporter of a progressive Israel,” wants Smith to stop using the photograph he took. He tweeted at Smith: “I would still also really like [him] to cease and desist from using my copyrighted photograph as his avatar without my consent.” Sieradski also linked to his personal Flickr account that contained the original photo, taken at the American Jewish Press Association 2008 Annual Conference.

“About time to change the avatar anyway,” Smith replied. Read more

“Who’s Pareene?” asked Michael Goldfarb of The Free Beacon. He tweeted the question yesterday linking to a Salon column that named The Drudge Report‘s Matt Drudge as 2012′s No. 5 biggest media “hack.”

Assuming it was a serious question from Goldfarb, Alex Pareene, whose mustache sometimes makes him look like a porn star, is a writer at Salon and the news world’s favorite ginger. Each year he names his personal 10 “hacks” in news media that are “hurting America.” While the not-that-much-anticipated list is harmless, it causes a buzz for directly and brazenly (or, as brazenly as can be done sitting at a keyboard) calling out big names in news.

Over the last two days, the list trickled out full of the kind of angst generally reserved for misunderstood teenagers in high school courtyards. In the end, we couldn’t help but think that in a few places, Pareene colored outside the lines.

No. 1 on the list is Politico, which Pareene said is founded on “a myth” that its reporting is “exclusive” when in fact it’s the same old Beltway journalism.

He specifically named Executive Editor Jim VandeHei and White House Correspondent Mike Allen as the driving forces behind Politico‘s hackery. Of Allen, who writes the widely-read Playbook tip sheet, Pareene said he is “paid a fortune” for emailing out “a bunch of links to day-old news stories.” It’s a business model Pareene has apparently mastered so well, it’s a wonder he’s not making his own fortune copying it. Or, maybe he’s pissed he didn’t think of it first?

Pareene dismissed all of Politico‘s election coverage. “No one reading any of these pieces … gained any genuine insight into the state of the presidential race,” he said. And yet, even after the election, Politico maintains high web traffic (though on election night, traffic climbed to 2.2 million page views an hour) which brings in money and allows the publication to expand.

In case Pareene wasn’t aware, it turns out there’s an audience for people who want to read about politics– in fact, every teeny tiny detail on the subject. Pareene doesn’t understand it. He’s kind of like a gorilla frustrated that he can’t make the star-shaped block go through the square-shaped hole.

It’s the audience he should hate. They’re reading Politico. Even if he doesn’t see why they should.

Moving on to No. 2 on the list… Read more

Quotes of the Day

BIRTHDAY GIRL: “Bom dia Rio. Thanks sun for coming out today on my birthday eve.” — USA Today travel writer Nancy Trejos.

Ouch!

“Maybe if Holly Petraeus spent a little less time at the CPFB…….” — Free Beacon‘s Michael Goldfarb.

Right-wing writer concedes one nice thing about Obama

“The one — ONE — thing I agree with Barack Obama on is that Homeland is the best show on TV.” — TWT senior ppinion writer Emily Miller.

From a very nerdy Dept. of Bragiculture…

“Cool moment. Ran into Sen. Leahy just now at DCA. We talked about Phish. He said his son knows Trey. He’s a Dead guy but loves Phish, too.” — National Review Online‘s Robert Costa.

Reporter makes desperate plea for coffee

“One million preteen kids just boarded my metro car. Save me. #havenothadenufcoffeeforthis” — WSJ bank reg reporter Victoria McGrane.

The Ass Kisser

“Very interesting piece here by @DylanBiers.” — Commentary‘s John Podhoretz. (Last week the pair was bickering until PodWhore realized Byers wasn’t actually insulting him. Now they’re in love. )

Scribe says other woman’s hubby is alleged douchebag

“You’re a pretentious douchebag if Dear Abby isn’t good enough for your problems and you have to seek out the NY Times ‘Ethicist’ columnist.” — The Daily Caller TV writer Jeff Poor. (The Ethicist received a letter frighteningly similar to the situation swirling around Paula Broadwell, alleged mistress to General David Petraeus.)

And this from a facetious Politico reporter… “Dear Ethicist: I work in an information security-related field but am considering writing explicit and career-destroying emails. Help me?” — Politico‘s Alexander Burns.

The Complimenter

“The 2013 Calendar sent out to all its print subscribers reminds me of what an amazing photographer team @washingtonpost has on its rolls.” — WSJ‘s Raju Narisetti, formerly of WaPo.

NPR’s Andy Carvin works on final edit of his book in Istanbul, a publicist weighs in on latest sex scandal to rock D.C., a CNN Contributor has a problem with his hip flexor and two straight journos have a gay convo… Read more

Good morning Washington.

Got a blind item, interesting link, funny note, comment, birthday, anniversary or anything of the sort for Morning Reading List? Drop us a line or let us know in the tips box below.

We’ve got your morning mix of media Muesli after the jump…

Read more

Good morning, Washington.

Did you survive the GMail outage last night? Thank God we use Yahoo! Moving on: What journo is the father of the adorable baby shown above? Let us know.

Got a blind item, interesting link, funny note, comment, birthday, anniversary or anything of the sort for Morning Reading List? Drop us a line or let us know in the tips box below.

We’ve got your morning mix of media Muesli after the jump…

Read more