A memo to WaPo: Next time you want to give credit to a paper for breaking a story, how about doing it in the first couple of graphs? How about doing it at all?

On Friday morning at 9:58 a.m., Paul Farhi wrote about the flap over Politico yanking a video on its “about” page because Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) office got its knickers in a twist about the potential lack of ethics involving a video of his staffer on a page where they’re selling Politico.

The story is well-written and cites Politico Chief Operating Officer Kim Kingsley. But why does it take Farhi eight flippin’ graphs to mention the story and publication that broke it in the first place, which was Roll Call on Thursday at 4:58 p.m.? He writes,

“Roll Call, a Politico competitor, reported Thursday that senate ethics rules prohibit senators and their staff from making endorsements. The publication reports Holmes said he didn’t realize that the video would be used as an ad. He received a written request for a video interview from Politico’s director of marketing, who said the video would be ‘a profile of you first — and how you use Politico second.’”

Farhi told FishbowlDC by email: “I was not aware that Roll Call had broken the story until I got your email (I’m assuming you’re correct, btw). I was first alerted to the story yesterday by a colleague, who didn’t mention where he’d seen or heard about it. I reported it out and filed something short about it late last night. I DID notice that Roll Call had done some fine reporting on this and credited them accordingly.”

Psst…Farhi! Google is your friend.

We also reached out to Roll Call‘s Meredith Shiner, who broke the story, for comment.

UPDATE: WaPo‘s Erik Wemple also writes about the Politico-McConnell debacle — because why shouldn’t two media reporters from the same publication delve into the same story? He cites Shiner by name five graphs into a pretty lengthy post.

Quotes of the Day

Journo feels guilty about potty time: #1 or #2?

“Just used the bathroom and felt guilty about it. #filiblizzard #RandPaul.” — The Hill‘s Feature Editor Emily Goodin.

Senator’s filibuster alters reporter’s TV watching habits

“I don’t usually turn on C-SPAN for evening entertainment when I get home, but curiosity has gotten the best of me tonight.” — FNC’s Shannon Bream.

Speaking of the filibustering senator…

“Louie Gohmert brings Halls cough drops and a giant ass Kit Kat bar to Rand Paul on the floor.” — BuzzFeed Washington Bureau Chief John Stanton.

Uh oh.

“Could you dorks please stop telling what Rand Paul is eating? Mkay? Thanks.” — Politico‘s Ben White. (We’re not trying to start anything, but did White just call Stanton a dork?)

Incest Desk: “Congrats to my talented wife @BetsyMTP on becoming senior ep at MTP!” — Politico‘s Jonathan Martin pointing to — what a shocker — a story on Politico‘s media blog. Wonder how they got the news!

The Stakeout

“What have I been doing the last two and half hours? Standing outside across the street from Obama’s meeting with some Senate Republicans.” — Politico‘s Ginger Gibson.

Advice…“Most bosses have their ugly sides, and it’s the staffers’ role to hide that from the world.” — Roll Call’s new advice columnist Rebecca Gale tells Capitol Hill aide who works for a “yeller” that he or she should stay quiet about the boss’s temper. Read the whole saga here.

Politico Playbook Publish Time: 9 a.m.

Tucker Carlson mocks “losers” on Twitter

“‘I’m not seeking their approval,’ he says of detractors. ‘Why should I care if a bunch of losers on Twitter don’t like it?” — The Daily Caller‘s Tucker Carlson in a story this week by WaPo‘s new faux ombudsman Paul Farhi, who prefaced the above, writing, “In the face of withering criticism of his site’s reporting, Carlson is unbowed.” Farhi focused his largely easygoing story on Carlson and The Daily Caller and did not interview WaPo reporters on their reporting regarding the Sen. Bob Menendez hooker debacle that went down between The Daily Caller and WaPo this week. Read the full story here.

National Review‘s Jonah Goldberg on fatherhood… Read more

1. Daily Caller attacks ABC flack – In a story today by The Daily Caller brass, Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel, they go after ABC for the choice of Martha Raddatz moderating tonight’s VP debate. After all, President Obama attended her wedding and her then-husband, his. In the piece, they pointedly go after ABC flack David Ford. “ABC flacks refused to answer his questions. They hid the information from public view,” they write, adding, “A network flack named David Ford sent a statement to sympathetic liberal news outlets attacking [DC reporter Josh] Peterson for daring to question Raddatz’s impartiality.” Read the story here. We reached out to Ford for comment on the story and accusations. His email this morning says he’s traveling for the VP debate and will only be checking his email periodically.

2. Women and R-E-S-P-E-C-T — Speaking of Raddatz, this morning WaPo‘s Paul Farhi wonders whether a woman will get more respect than PBS’s Chief Boring Correspondent Jim Lehrer did. Tonight it’s Raddatz, next week we’ll see CNN’s extremely well-liked Candy Crowley take the hot moderator’s seat. Farhi quotes sources who say men will go after a female moderator as easily as they have their male counterparts. He also quotes linguistics prof Deborah Tannen, who says a woman cutting men off may be viewed as “aggressive.” Farhi asks, “Isn’t equality grand?” Read the story here.

3. Love him or hate him, Joe Biden doesn’t change — Craig Crawford, a pundit and blogger, rehashes a story he wrote for the Orlando Sentinel in 1987. It wouldn’t be timely, except the material is more than timely, as are his experiences and observations about VP Biden. “Talking to Joe Biden is a physical contest. First, he stands practically on your toes, stares right between your eyeballs and says loudly, ‘So what’s up?’” The story includes an interesting detail on the warning Jill Biden received from Joe’s brothers before marrying him. Read the story here.

NBC’s Luke Russert emceed “Grammys on the Hill” Wednesday night. The annual event is co-sponsored by the Recording Academy and the Recording Industry Association of America to honor lawmakers who have pushed for legislation benefiting the music industry.

Was Russert’s involvement a breech of journalism ethics? WaPo‘s Paul Farhi said yes in a column Thursday.

“Russert, the son of the late ‘Meet the Press’ host Tim Russert and magazine journalist Maureen Orth, covers Capitol Hill for NBC and MSNBC, meaning he was involved in celebrating some of the people he’s supposed to cover impartially.”

While it does raise questions, as did PBS’s Gwen Ifill‘s recent mishmash in which she ultimately dropped out of hosting an event that would award a lawmaker, we’re not convinced it rises to the level of a journalistic federal offense. What do you think? Select your answer in our Fish Poll. We’ll run the results in tomorrow’s Morning Chatter.

WaPo had an interesting take on WTOP  in Paul Farhi‘s Jan. 10 obituary on longtime radio personality Bill Trumbull. The obit said Chris Core, Trumbull’s former on-air partner on WMAL for 20 years, is now on WTOP…1050AM. Which would be fine if that were true.

The station, 1050 AM, is La Mera Mera, a regional Mexican music station. WTOP is on 103.5 FM, 103.9 FM and 107.7 FM.  WTOP hasn’t been on the AM dial IN YEARS.

Congrats WaPo, or something like that.

WaPo‘s Erik Wemple appropriately points out in a Monday post that the NYT failed to give Politico proper credit for its Herman Cain sexual harassment story. We just think that if WaPo‘s media opinion writer is going to criticize the NYT for attribution problems, that he point out that this critique first began in early November.

As readers may recall, this was when NYT‘s Jim Rutenberg squabbled about the finer points of “newspapering” and how it’s perfectly acceptable for one version of a story to cite Politico and another to leave it out. The gist was, don’t we know anything about smoothing information into a story with each passing edition and shouldn’t we correct our “glaring error?” That was three days after the Politico story first broke. And Rutenberg was explaining to us that at some point a story evolves and “takes on a life of its own” and no longer necessarily requires attribution.

Here we are a month later and Wemple is right that the comprehensive NYT Cain story ought to have cited Politico. But then again, Wemple, too, is guilty of taking a story and not giving the outlet that broke it proper credit. Try this relatively recent story on Politico‘s firing/resignation of Kendra Marr, who was caught lifting passages from other publications such as the NYT. Wemple got around to analyzing the situation some 24 hours after the fact. No doubt someone aside from himself deserved credit for that one.

When we wrote about NYT nixing credit to Politico on the Cain story, we got mail about what a great guy Rutenberg is — one said pointedly, “Leave Rutenberg alone” — which is hardly the point when covering the media, as most people are not monsters.

Quotes of the Day

Adios WaPo! PBS’s New Prez and CEO Bo Jones mingles with Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer on the set of his new employer. He joins the network in early January after decades at the Post.

Reporter looks at glass half full

“OK, so, I’m definitely sick. But, I’m headed to the urgent care to get something to heal me. … At least the snow is pretty!” — Metro Weekly‘s White House Correspondent Chris Geidner. Geidner told FishbowlDC that he has Strep throat but is on the mend. We’re happy to hear it.

The pudding metaphor that wouldn’t die

“What’s the proof in your pudding? There seems to be no proof or pudding here. James O’Keefe needs an editor. He needs someone to say, ya know, you just don’t have it here.” — WaPo media writer Paul Farhi on CNN’s Sunday program “Reliable Sources” reacting to James O’Keefe‘s charge that HuffPost‘s Sam Stein boozes up his sources for information. Farhi wouldn’t stop talking about the pudding, which then bled into another guest, Business Insider‘s Glynnis MacNicol also discussing the “pudding.”

Number of days Politico gave GOP presidential contender Herman Cain to answer whether he’d ever been accused of sexual harassment: 10.

A TV reporter’s take on Madoff interview

“So Ruth Madoff is a lot more believable than I expected.” — NBC’s Chuck Todd on the CBS “60 Minutes” interview last night of Bernie Madoff‘s wife, Ruth, and their son, Andrew.

Journo detests rude riders

“People who ride the metro are infinitely more rude than people who ride the bus. Particularly on the westside red line.” — Roll Call‘s Amanda Becker.

Fournier snakes his drains

“Just finished snaking our drains. Got me thinking of the presidential campaign.” — NJ Editor-in-Chief Ron Fournier.

Pet peeves…

“Ever notice when people have had too much caffeine & one leg is jumping up & down? Very distracting if they’re next to you while you read.” — Fox News Contributor and former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino.

A new pet peeve: Anyone who calls themselves an “Upper” in daylight. “Good morning #Uppers.” — invented by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes for those who watch his program, “Up With Hayes.”

Fun in the Sun

“Well that was a long week. Yawn. Now off to see @axlrose and @gunsnroses in the Sunshine State…. If this plane ever gets off the ground.” — House Maj. Leader Eric Cantor‘s (R-Va.) spokesman Brad Dayspring.

Always innovative.

“For Halloween I’m gonna dress up as National Journal and charge a fee to show up at your party a few hours after Politico‘s already there.” — Fake Jim VandeHei.

Unnecessary Tweet of the Day

“Suggestions for a new TV? Nothing too big.” — Mother Jones Washington Bureau Chief David Corn. Seems absurd that Corn needs help purchasing a new TV? We’re sure the salesman at Best Buy can assist.

Cultural norms don’t change easily.

Last week WaPo published two analysis stories on the forced resignation of Politico‘s Kendra Marr due to plagiarism. Neither credited the outlet that broke the story.

Wasn’t it Paul Farhi who roughly one year ago said citing the original news source didn’t matter? Here’s what he told us at the time: “Personally, I believe it’s a courtesy to credit the original news source of a story, but I don’t think it’s a requirement or even important. All news originates from somewhere (a neighbor, a whistleblower, a government official, a press release, a wire service, whatever) and it’s a reporter’s obligation to check and verify the original information (which in this case it certainly was). Unless one is taking someone else’s work without attribution (that is, plagiarizing it) any news story should stand on its own and speaks for itself as an original piece of work.”

Clearly that view still holds. His newish colleague Erik Wemple has followed his lead despite openly disagreeing with Farhi’s remarks at the time. Wemple was heading up TBD when he wrote this under the post: “When a news organization writes a news story that is already ‘out there’ without giving proper credit to the origin, then it’s creating the impression that it is breaking the news. If indeed another outlet already reported that news, that is a false impression. Or a lie, if you will. So if you’re a news organization that doesn’t credit outlets that break something and act as though you are writing the exclusive, you’re committing an offense that’s tantamount to misleading your readers. And that’s not something that news organizations should be doing. If you care about honesty and transparency, you over-credit.”

Does anyone else see the irony of Washington media falling all over themselves to cover a story on a woman being forced to resign for not properly citing other publications and then not attributing to the outlet that broke the news?

Tale of the Tape…Last Thursday night FBDC broke the story of Marr’s resignation. Some might argue that Politico themselves broke the news on the website but newsflash: a publication cannot formally break its own news. What they did was the equivalent of sending out a mass press release. At 8:34 p.m. editors posted an editorial note but not the internal memo. They offered no public accounts of the aftermath. Associated Press rolled in later. No time stamp. No attribution. HuffPost? Basic recap. Nothing new. No attribution. The following day WaPo turned around their typical half a day later analysis stories by Farhi and Wemple. Reuters ran a story by Lucas Shaw of The Wrap: Nothing new. No attribution. Poynter: No attribution, but at least they offered new news. NYT‘s Media decoder blog came in with an embarrassingly late story sans attribution Friday afternoon by Tanzina Vega. Pretty odd considering that a NYT scribe first discovered Marr’s plagiarism and brought it to the attention of Politico brass. Finally, Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan offered a ray of hope akin to kicking a horse when it’s down. “You messed up bad, Kendra. But it only takes five years to be forgiven for anything. Good luck in your next career.” Again, no attribution.

Those who offered citations on how the story first broke: Mediaite, Yahoo! News‘ Cutline Blog, The Weekly Standard. A note to The Weekly Standard’s “Scrapbook” from the latest issue: Why not hold the editors responsible for Marr accountable? I stand by what I wrote: Marr was a solid reporter who didn’t intend anything malicious. This was most prevalent in conversations with newsroom sources at varying levels of power within the publication. Marr’s plagiarism wasn’t an “aberration” as you said I intended with my post. She bears enormous responsibility here. But to say this began with Marr in a vacuum is shortsighted. It was a culture that prompted it, pushed it, even willed it to happen. You make a valuable point on her future and the 25-year-old landing on her feet sometime soon — many hope you’re right.

But all of this begs the question of whether you, Scrapbook, spoke to anyone within Politico’s ranks before writing “Plagiarism Watch.” My money’s on no.

(See what The Weekly Standard had to say after the jump…)

Read more

This is so disappointing. We wanted to think a reporter was dedicated (and crazy) enough to stand head deep in sewage for his job. But no. Sometimes sea foam is just sea foam.

So goes the lede to WaPo Paul Farhi‘s enlightening piece on the now infamous Fox 5 weather reporter Tucker Barnes (not Carlson and we’re pointing our finger at you GaySocialites.com which foolishly confused the two) who stood in a green gunk live shot in Ocean City, Md. during Hurricane Irene.

Farhi unfortunately dispels the widespread rumor and assumption that Barnes was standing in sewage.

Read here.

After seven years as the station’s Sports Director and primary sports anchor, Brett Haber is leaving WUSA-TV to “pursue other opportunities in television.” He also cites family reasons — he has 5-year-old and a 9-year-old. He says he hopes to “affect a long-desired change in his schedule which is more conducive to raising his young children,” a release states.

Haber explained, “The nature of anchoring the news is that I work each day from 3:00pm to 11:30pm. That means I’m not home for the arrival of the school bus or after-school time or homework-time or dinner time or bedtime – that’s a lot of time. That’s not the father I want to be.”

The search is underway for a new anchor.

The announcement was made earlier this week by Haber and Allan Horlick, WUSA’s President and GM. The statement bends over backwards to make it abundantly clear that there are no hard feelings. But a story by WaPo‘s Paul Farhi explains the changing nature of local sports news and reports that Horlick did not try to convince Haber to stay.

WUSA notes Haber’s five additional Emmys during his tenure at WUSA (three for writing) and 18 total during his broadcasting career.  Horlick also majorly sings his praises: “Brett is one of the most talented broadcasters I’ve had the privilege to work with. His contributions to WUSA’s growth these past seven years have been numerous. We are sorry to see him leave, but we part as friends and I’m sure success will follow him to his next endeavor.”

No date has been set for Haber’s final broadcast. “I realize my decision comes at a busy time for sports in Washington,” he said in the statement. “I want to be as helpful as I can while the station seeks my replacement. We’ll figure out the right time for me to sign off in the coming days and weeks.”