“The key for me with historical characters is they’re interesting because they’re human beings,” he said. “A little bit of Hemingway goes a long way here, but journalists and writers should honestly look at their material and have a real interest, a real passion in what they want to write, and they should also have a lot of knowledge, as well. You don’t write police procedural stuff unless you really know that beat, but it’s ultimately not the procedure that makes the show work — it’s the people. The more real they are, the better.”

Read more in So What Do You Do, Michael Hirst, Creator of The Tudors and Vikings?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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.

Happy Birthday to CNN’s Ed Henry. What we know and what we’re reading this Monday morning…

NEWSPAPERS | TV | RADIO | NEWS NOTES | IN MEMORIAM | JOBS

NEWSPAPERS

Just a few notes on WaPo salons… Politico takes note of Bob Woodward‘s appearance on Charlie Rose- “Sure it was a mistake,” Woodward told Rose. “It’s been acknowledged. The publisher and the editor have kind of — not kind of — it’s a no excuses apology. They’ve tried to explain how it happened and I think they have.”

Ombudsman Andrew Alexander in Sunday’s WaPo- Adapting Ethics Rules to a New World.

TV

How are MSNBC’s newest anchors Dylan Ratigan and Dr. Nancy Snyderman doing so far? Ehh… “To date, both shows have attracted plenty of media attention and generated headlines. But, at the same time, both shows have struggled to attract the young viewers coveted by advertisers.” More from NYO here.

Remember Lindsey Mastis, the local WUSA-9 reporter who was given a hard time by the Real World crews? Well, she got an official apology from an MTV cameraman. Check out the groveling here.

RADIO

SIRIUS XM Radio’s POTUS channel will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing by broadcasting live from the National Air and Space Museum from noon to 3pmET today. POTUS airs on SIRIUS channel 110 and XM channel 130.

NEWS NOTES

A different perspective on the first 100 days of… Bo the dog.

Merriam-Webster has added a definition of the term “earmark” to the latest edition of its dictionary: “A provision in congressional legislation that allocates a specified amount of money for a specific project, program or organization.” (h/t LAT)

Howard Kurtz in today’s WaPo Media Notes: While Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings drew plenty of coverage last week, the level of media excitement hardly matched that surrounding Mark Sanford’s Argentine affair, Sarah Palin’s Alaskan exit or Michael Jackson’s untimely departure.

Pew’s Project for Excellence in Journalism reports that Congressional galleries accredit 19 percent fewer reporters from mainstream newspapers and wire services than in 2008 (h/t Politico).

HAT TIPS: mediabistro, Politico

NEW NOTES and JOBS after the jump…

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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.

Happy Birthday to Lani Hay and Blayne Alexander! What we know and what we’re reading this Thursday morning…

NEWSPAPERS | ONLINE | NEWS NOTES | WEST WING REPORTAGE | JOBS

NEWSPAPERS

More on that salon story… from Slate’s Jack Shafer: “The David Bradley Effect, The corrupting effect of his off-the-record salons” and WSJ: “When Newspapers Peddle Influence, A revealing scandal at the Washington Post.”

TV

NBC’s “Meet the Press” EP Betsy Fischer tweets: If you like to catch the MTP repeat on MSNBC – we’ll be reairing at a NEW time starting this Sunday – 2pmET. This replaces the 5pmET repeat.

President Obama is going to Ghaha- and so are the nets.

NEWS NOTES

MJ numbers via TVNewser: Nearly 31 million U.S. TV viewers watched the Michael Jackson memorial service across 19 networks. 8.9 million watched on the four cable news channels, and another 14.32M watched on the broadcast networks. And the network breakdown: ABC 5.31M, NBC 5.12M and CBS 3.89M.

The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism found Jackson’s death made up 17% of the news coverage, but accounted for 30% of the airtime on network news and 28% on cable news. The second-biggest story last week was the ongoing economic crisis followed by Iraq, as U.S. troops withdrew from key cities. The 6% coverage of the war in Iraq was the highest level of coverage for that story in all of 2009. More details here.

Lisa Ling heard from her sister, one of the two American journalists imprisoned in North Korea. “It was only the first time I had heard her voice in weeks… I was so relieved, but I feel so helpless,” Lisa Ling said in an interview yesterday, via CNN.

Tucker Carlson interviews Jeb Bush for Esquire.

HAT TIPS: mediabistro

JOBS after the jump…

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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.

What we know and what we’re reading this Wednesday morning…

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

NEWSPAPERS

WSJ: Gannett Co., the largest U.S. newspaper publisher by daily circulation, will cut between 1,000 and 2,000 jobs out of its 41,500-person work force in response to continuing revenue declines. The cuts will come from the U.S. Community Publishing division, which consists of more than 80 local dailies.

TV

Check out mediabistro’s Laurel Touby on Carlos Watson‘s 11am hour on MSNBC today.

The Pew Research Center reports TV news devoted 28 hours to Michael Jackson coverage and 93% of cable airtime (h/t TVNewser). Early in the week the media gave ongoing attention to protests over the Iranian election. And by the end of the week Iran filled 19% of the newshole, making it the No. 1 topic of the week. By Wednesday attention shifted to the third biggest story of the week – the affair of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. But the passing of the “King of Pop” on Thursday, the #2 story of the week, dominated late week coverage. The TV nets devoted more than 28 hours to Jackson’s life and death. The cable nets devoted 93% of their airtime to Jackson on Thursday and Friday.

Tom Shales‘ in WaPo on why TV critics are needed more than ever: “Sadly, there are people who maintain that TV critics are anachronisms, unnecessary luxuries in a fidgety digital age. Unfortunately, some of those people happen to be newspaper editors. At more than just a handful of papers around the country, the job has simply been abolished.”

ONLINE

TVNewser profiles Aaron Brown and asks about Twitter. He’s doing a PBS series “Wide Angle.” “My students made me open a Twitter account, but I have never Twittered or read a Tweet,” he says. “It’s self-indulgent nonsense. I don’t get it. I’m 60. I’m not sure I’m supposed to get this stuff.”

MAGAZINES

Vibe Magazine is shutting down.

NEWS NOTES

About that Todd Purdum piece on Sarah Palin in VF… Politico: “A hard-hitting piece on Sarah Palin in the new Vanity Fair has touched off a blistering exchange of insults among high-profile Republicans over last year’s GOP ticket — tearing open fresh wounds about leaks surrounding Palin and the internal wars that paralyzed the campaign in its final days.”

And Craig Crawford in CQ: “Now they tell us. John McCain’s staffers are lining up to anonymously trash Sarah Palin and feed a news media assault against the 2008 GOP running mate. These pathetic wimps offer nothing but unattributed quotes to Vanity Fair saying they felt she wasn’t up to snuff and whining that she refused to properly study up on policy issues.”

WEST WING REPORTAGE

AP’s David Bauder writes about the selective coverage of the Obama girls, Sasha and Malia. “Images are great when they can be controlled. And when it comes to the Obama kids, the White House can be very controlling. Sasha and her 10-year-old sister Malia have been shielded carefully from the public, but they are by no means invisible.”

HAT TIPS: mediabistro

JOBS after the jump…

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Got a blind item, interesting link, funny note, comment, birthday, anniversary or anything of the sort for Morning Reading List? Drop us a line. Here’s what we’re reading this Tuesday morning…

TV | NEWSPAPERS | | MAGAZINES | AWARDS

TV

Greta Van Susteren responds to criticism regarding her husband’s affiliation w/ Gov. Sarah Palin and being portrayed as a spokeswoman for Palin and her husband, Todd.

Twitter has teamed up with Reveille Productions and Brillstein Entertainment Partners to develop an unscripted TV series. The plan is to “harness Twitter to put players on the trail of celebrities in an interactive, competitive format.”

NEWSPAPERS

The Washington Post helped shape the history of the U.S. with its reporting on the Watergate break-in. Now, a memoir says The New York Times had the story earlier but let it slip away.

MAGAZINES

TNR reviews the new Newsweek: blah blah newsmag remake blah blah.

Commentary says almost no hope for Meacham or Newsweek.

AWARDS

The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights is holding their annual journalism and book awards at GW this Thursday, May 28 at 6pm in GW’s Jack Morton Auditorium. The awards honor outstanding reporting on issues including human rights, social justice and the power of individual action in the United States and around the world.

HAT TIP: Daniel Lippman

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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.

It is day 114 covering the Obama administration and week 15 for us. Happy birthday to Jeff Dufour! What we know and what we’re reading this Wednesday morning…

NEWSPAPERS | TV | RADIO | ONLINE | MAGAZINES | NEWS NOTES | JOBS

NEWSPAPERS

A member of NYT Co. Board says they haven’t been in discussions with Google.

TV

Can Ed Schultz improve MSNBC’s 6pm ratings? Politico takes a look here.

What tvnewser donned a skull cummerbund at this weekend’s WHCD? FishbowlLA has the answer here.

RADIO

IndieWire reports that as Kirby Dick‘s new documentary, Outrage, opened, NPR trimmed its review of the film, cutting mentions of the American political figures depicted in the movie. Critic Nathan Lee subsequently removed his byline from the article in protest and lodged a comment on the NPR site.

ONLINE

Mediaweek: Fox News’ online ascent continues, as the network’s formerly lightly-trafficked Web site FoxNews.com has significantly improved its numbers for several key engagement scores over the past year as its audience has steadily climbed, according to newly-released data.

TheStimulist.com, a news site created by MSNBC anchor and Air America radio host Carlos Watson for “the change generation” went live yesterday. WebNewser caught up with him here.

paidContent reveals Twitter.com had more unique visitors last month than WSJ.com and NYTimes.com. Why? Two words: Ashton and Oprah.

MAGAZINES

NYO profiles Jon Meacham- “Jon Meacham, with his recessive posture, his slow gait, his bone-dry jokes, may not strike you immediately as the man who can make your magazine look good. But he has become the embodiment of Sunday-schooled fogeyish integrity in a journalism industry looking for heroes.”

NEWS NOTES

Sarah Palin has landed a book deal- a memoir with HarperCollins to come out spring 2010, the year she’s up for re-election. In an AP piece, she says, “This will be a wonderful, refreshing chance for me to get to tell my story… unfiltered.”

Also Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman on why Sarah Palin still befuddles the media here.

HAT TIPS: Mediabistro

JOBS after the jump…

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continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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…

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.