Journos

NFL Network anchor Rich Eisen and radio host Dan Patrick were recently runners-up at the Sports Emmys to perennial winner Bob Costas. But that still leaves the business of ceremonial first-pitch bragging rights.

On Sunday, before the Dodgers game against the Cardinals, Eisen threw out a wide-right ceremonial first ball. But it’s what PA announcer Erick Smith said that is garnering attention this morning: “A better pitch than Dan Patrick… Let’s hear it for Rich Eisen.”

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Christy Lemire isn’t alone as a top critic defending The Hangover Part III. She has the company of John Anderson (Wall Street Journal), Joe Neumaier (New York Daily News) and a few others.

But given that Lemire felt The Hangover Part II was the worst film of 2011, her cheering of the third installment in her final AP film review and on TYT Network show What the Flick?! is almost as surprising as her exit from the wire service right after colleague David Germain. (Lemire’s last day was Friday; Germain clocked out May 17.)

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Nine paragraphs in, AP TV writer Lynn Elber shares a rather explosive accusation made by Tavis Smiley,  who celebrates his 2,000th Tavis Smiley episode on PBS tonight.

The logical assumption is that a prominent black media figure like Smiley would be welcomed with open arms by the White House. But according to Smiley, who has also previously talked a lot about his lack of Barack Obama interview access, it’s not just Conservatives, Liberals and some African-Americans who are upset with his pointed views:

Smiley contends that members of the Obama administration, whom he didn’t identify, have pressured sponsors to drop their support of his projects, including his anti-poverty initiatives. The White House had no comment, said a spokesman, Kevin Lewis…

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Had the earliest version of Nickelodeon’s green slime actually been dumped on a human being, the results would have probably been similar to what happened in the late 1990s to comic book artist and San Diego Reader contributor Jay Allen Sanford.

As Sanford recalls today, his unauthorized Contemporary Bio-Graphics treatment of Paul Reubens‘ alter ego Pee Wee Herman eventually led to a one-on-one interview at the actor’s LA home. In character, Reubens playfully at one point dumped on Sanford’s head some old and, it turns out, rancid green slime, resulting in a very strong reaction:

Reubens was still apologizing the next day when he phoned to make sure I’d lived to tell. He kindly picked up the tab for $975, which covered the cost of my hospital visit and of the hair stylist later called upon to “fix” those spots where slime-encrusted hair had been excised from my shaggy ‘do.

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The 4 Queens Hotel and Casino in downtown Las Vegas has been in operation since 1966. The queen of AP courtroom reporting, Linda Deutsch, has been with the wire service since 1967. This week, the twain of these two institutions delightfully met.

Per Norm Clarke’s latest column in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the LA-based Deutsch was having dinner Wednesday night at hotel restaurant Hugo’s Cellar, forgetting that she was due at that time for a BBC Radio phone interview about O.J. Simpson‘s latest courtroom theatrics. The restaurant was too noisy and there was no time to get back to her own hotel room. So instead, Deutsch gamely did the following:

Hugo’s manager Richard Assalone, who has worked at some of the best restaurants in town, came up with a corker of a solution: He borrowed a chair from a dinner table and gave Deutsch the coolest seat in town — inside Hugo’s 55-degree wine cellar.

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Way down the list of Tiger Woods’ concerns this weekend in Las Vegas, right next to say waiting a little too long for the valet to bring around his shiny new car, is the idea that a local celebrity journalist is grousing about the lack of interview access. Nevertheless, ahead of the golfer’s series of big weekend charity events in Sin City, that is Robin Leach’s beef:

No questions, thus no answers to any subject. Nothing about his current game. Nothing about old loves and new ones. Nothing about anything. A tough assignment for us who are used to big stars sitting down for one-on-one conversations.

Photographers will get the slightly better run of things during this weekend’s 15th annual Tiger Jam, allowed access at the Mandalay Bay Events Center and later Saturday night for the Kid Rock-Uncle Kracker concert. Tonight, as part of a whole series of poker tournaments culminating May 24, Woods has a $10,000 buy-in event.

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The title of the article is “Dan McSwain’s Disclosure Page.” And that, it certainly is.

Earlier this month, McSwain (pictured) moved from the paper’s editorial pages to the position of business columnist. Across two compelling and candid Web pages, he details the events that have led him to this latest journalism assignment and the ways in which he intends to honorably comport himself moving forward.

It’s anything but your typical journalist bio. There’s the recent short sale of a home that McSwain completed as well as recollections of a long-ago personal tailspin, something he has previously written about in the pages of U-T San Diego. From this week’s item:

In 1988, my dad sold his company, and I left to start a competing firm with my brother. It was successful. Five years later, I sold my half to focus on consuming bourbon and other drugs. Soon becoming a full-blown alcoholic, I moved quickly from wealthy to broke and homeless. It took me about four years to get sober; it’s been nearly 16 years since my last drink, drug, car wreck or jail term.

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Brian Stelter, who launched TVNewser almost 10 years ago, is now a published author. “Top of the Morning,” out today, lays bare a tumultuous year for network morning news shows which saw one anchor pack her bags, another face a serious health issue, a ratings leader fall — and lose a quarter of its audience — and an entirely new show launch.

In his first interview for the book, Stelter tells us about the secrecy behind “Top of the Morning,” the access he got, and what he thinks about being called Matt Lauer‘s nemesis.

• Part II, tomorrow: What happens when Brian Stelter Tweets something he shouldn’t?

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For elite runner and SoCal freelance journalist Josh Cox, the destination that immediately followed his frightening presence at the Boston Marathon finish line Monday is of a kind that few other people can point to. He is currently in Olathe, Kansas, preparing to cover Saturday’s Garman Marathon for NBC specialty channel Universal Sports.

Speaking with San Diego ABC-TV weeknight anchor Kimberly Hunt via Skype, Cox explained that he had arrived at the finish line at 2:45 p.m. to set up for more live-remote coverage that day. Or less than a half-hour before the two bombs were detonated.

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For Josh Dickey, Day One as managing editor of TMZ.com involved among other things the business of another Jenna Jameson arrest. In the case of his recent Variety charge Jeff Sneider, who officially returns next Monday to former employer TheWrap, the purview is much closer to the one he used to patrol at 5900 Wilshire Blvd.

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