1. Punctuation and the modern writer: In honor of National Punctuation Day,  The Atlantic Wire‘s Jen Doll has a delightful story out on writers’ favorite punctuation marks. She, for example, prefers the semi-colon. Or the ellipses or the em-dash. A Boston Globe columnist, a New Yorker writer, a horror novel author and others weigh in. Deadspin, Gawker and GQ writer Drew Magary isn’t so kind about the comma, saying, “Commas are the worst because eight billion people have eight billion different ideas about where they’re supposed to go.” And film critic and author Kurt Loder (formerly of MTV) can’t say enough about the ellipses. Read here.

2. Facials gone awry: There are facials and then there are BuzzFeed‘s idea of facials. You have to love that they have this right on their front page. Read here.

3. Koppel not thoughtful? Fox News Contributor Bernard Goldberg calls newsman Ted Koppel “not thoughtful” in reaction to Koppel’s take down of cable news last week on NBC’s Rock Center. WaPo‘s Erik Wemple seems truly perplexed by this assessment. Read here.

Have a story you’d like to submit for Morning Reading List? Let us know about it, even the night before. In this instance, we promise we won’t accuse you of bragging. Send to fishbowldc@mediabistro.com or to Betsy@mediabistro.com.

On NBC’s “Rock Center” with Brian Williams last night, newsman Ted Koppel ripped into what he sees are the cheap and trashy ways of Cable News.

“What works about cable TV is it’s cheap and it makes a ton of money,” he said, in a segment in which he interviewed conservative author and commentator Ann Coulter, comedian and HBO host Bill Maher and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). “It’s about the money. It’s about the fact that our bosses have had to shut down most of the foreign bureaus you and I knew when we were young correspondents. There’s nothing cheaper than a pack of talking heads.”

Hoyer had a pretty pointed comment about journalists: “Today’s journalists see their jobs as not to inform but to incite.”

Before becoming a producer for the Intelligence Squared debate series, Dana Wolfe spent 12 years at Nightline working under Ted Koppel. And she says that, whether booking experts to discuss the RNC and DNC or just the news of the day, the cable news shows have a lot to learn about creating a truly intelligent discourse.

“Today’s media are full of one-sided debates and partisan rants and name calling and punditry. We try to avoid all of that, both with our format and by bringing intelligence to both sides of these issues so the audience can make up their own minds,” said Wolfe. “We have a vote at the top of our evening asking, for example, ‘How do you feel about this proposition?’ Then the audience sits for a live, hour-and-45-minute debate and they hear both sides of the discussion. They hear one side pick apart the other’s side, but in a very thoughtful way that isn’t sound bites.”

Read the full interview in Hey, How’d You Go from Nightline to Intelligence Squared Debates, Dana Wolfe? [sub req'd]

Quotes of the Day

Irritated journo

“I’m getting sick of the media question why do they luv Marion Barry? Still don’t know? Ask somebody.” — WUSA9 anchor Bruce Johnson.

One scribe’s definition of insanity

“Twenty mins and counting while the TSA examines a glittery blue backpack belonging to my 6 yr old. #insanity.” — The Weekly Standard‘s Stephen Hayes.

Writer follows who?

“Wait when did Lauren Conrad get added to my top secret ‘people I actually follow’ list.” — Washington freelancer Moe Tkacik.

DePauw U. milks FNC anchor Bret Baier‘s alumni status…Read here as they basically reprint Politico‘s recent effervescent press release profile on him in its entirety. So much for aggregating.

Congratulations to…Thomas Burr, senior Washington correspondent for the Salt Lake Tribune, for getting elected to the National Press Club’s Board of Governors.

But more importantly…

A reader following TWT‘s Emily Miller writes in, “I’ve loved following your gun pilgrimage. More importantly…what lip gloss are you wearing?” Her reply: “Wearing @smashbox O-gloss.”

Sniffy Jay Rosen has a thought

“In his restless search for new voices and fresh perspectives, @davidgregory has Ted Koppel on his Meet the Press roundtable today.” — NYU Prof Jay Rosen.

Live-blogging Rudolph?

“My editor tells me Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is on. I’m gonna live-blog that instead of the debate. Cool with you guys?” — Yahoo! News’s Chris Moody.

Kurtz gets crabs at White House

“Nice press party at White House, scribes mainly talked about Newt & Iowa. Arianna drew a crowd. Excellent crab claws.” — Newsweek/The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz.

Cab driver lingo

“‘Which way would you like me to go’ is cab driver for ‘I don’t know of any way to get there.’” — New Media Strategies’ and American Spectator blogger J.P. Freire.

Eddie Scarry contributed to this report.

Applications for the ‘Above the Fray’  fellowship are being accepted from now until July 1st.  A partnership between the John Alexander Project and NPR,  the fellowship will offer one promising journalist the opportunity to cover under-reported stories from a region lacking significant mainstream media attention. The selected individual will spend three months filing on-air and online stories for NPR.

Above the Fray is the keynote program of the John Alexander Project – named in memory of former ABC  News producer, John Alexander, who collapsed and died suddenly in 2007, while on assignment with Ted Koppel in China.

For more information or to apply for the fellowship, click here.

GWU’s Global Media Institute and the National Press Club’s Eric Friedheim National Journalism Library will host a special program honoring journalists Marvin Kalb and Deborah Kalb for the publication of Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama.

Ted Koppel will moderate a conversation with Marvin Kalb and Deborah Kalb.

Date: Friday, June 24, 2011
Time: 6:00 – 7:15 p.m.
Place: The National Press Club, 529 14th Street, NW Washington, D.C.  20045

As was reported by numerous news outlets, Andrew Koppel, 40, the son of Ex-ABC “Nightline” anchor Ted Koppel, was found dead Monday after going on what appears to be a drinking bender.

A look back to this TWT story printed in July of 1994 offers more insight into what he was like at 23, including a fight he had with a Senate aide and subsequent court appearance in D.C. Superior Court. He was a Georgetown law student at the time.

Read the TWT story after the jump…

Read more

WaPo’s TV critic Tom Shales believes the sky will fall for ABC’s pick of Christiane Amanpour for host of “This Week”. And ABC is firing back. Hard.

The more negative Shales is, the more positive ABC says it is about its choice. ABC Senior V.P. Jeffrey Schneider told FishbowlDC: “There have always been all kinds of fretful ink spilled about decisions we’ve made that ultimately turn out quite well for ABC News. If we are being accused of hiring one of the most well respected journalists in the world we proudly plead guilty and are looking forward to having Christiane focus her considerable talents on the Sunday morning landscape.”

ABC sees Shales as a Chicken Little. He doubted that George Stephanopoulos should leave “This Week” for “GMA”. He wrote that “Nightline” would fail after Ted Koppel. And now, in Shales’s column today, he boldly predicts that ABC will reverse its Amanpour pick and “come up with another nominee for the job.”

An excerpt:
Giving Amanpour the “This Week” job seems like one more bitter pill for ABC professionals to swallow, even as they overdose on all the others they’ve been forced to gulp down. After artfully orchestrating a smooth transition from Charlie Gibson to Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “World News,” Westin now seems to have ended his winning streak with a resounding clunk.

Read Shales’s entire column here.

“Politico’s report that Ted Koppel is in negotiations for a $1 million-a-year contract to anchor ‘This Week’ is absolutely false,” an ABC News spokesperson told FishbowlDC. ABC says that the network is talking to several candidates to fill George Stephanopoulos‘ seat on Sunday mornings, no decisions have been made and that any reports of contracts are absolutely inaccurate.

Earlier today, Politico distributed a “breaking news” alert referencing a story written by Mike Allen:

POLITICO Breaking News: ABC News is negotiating with “Nightline” founder Ted Koppel, a 42-year veteran of the network, to return for a potential $1 million-a-year contract to anchor “This Week” three Sundays a month, broadcast industry sources said. The fourth Sunday would rotate among potential future anchors from the network’s Washington bureau

But shortly after, the article was revised – information included in the alert was removed and a quote from ABC News President David Westin was added:

“We are in the middle of the process, and I will not comment on the specifics of whom we are and whom we are not talking to. I’m considering a number of alternatives. I will pull back the veil to the limited degree of telling you – for the benefit of your readers – that just about every specific that you have is false.”

Yesterday, Hotline reported that Ted Koppel appears to be ABC’s front-runner in the race for George Stephanopoulos‘ post at “This Week.”

Politico fueled that speculation today, reporting that Koppel is in negotiations for a $1 million-a-year contract to anchor “This Week” three Sundays a month.

UPDATE: ABC News says that any reports of contract negotiations between Ted Koppel and the network are absolutely inaccurate. See our updated post here for more info