Andersen, Auletta, Kurtz also shut out

The first annual Mirror Awards were presented at a Meredith Vieira-hosted luncheon today at the W hotel in Midtown, and our mediabistro.com mothership — a finalist in the media information services category — lost to HealthNewsReview.org. In other words, we were robbed.

Still, we weren't the only overwhelming favorite among the 23 finalists to go home empty-handed. New York Times media man David Carr won for best column, upsetting his former boss Kurt Andersen ("Kurt plucked me off a turnip truck when I got to New York") and Washington Post media guy Howard Kurtz, who was 0-for-2. Kurtz's CNN show, Reliable Sources, lost to the American Journalism Review for overall excellence.

The New Yorker's Ken Auletta, praised for his profile of CNN's Lou Dobbs, watched the best article award go to New York magazine's Phillip Weiss for his profile of Craig Newmark, craigslist's lovable nerd.

Editor & Publisher's Joe Strupp, seated at our luncheon table, lost to the Economist's Andreas Kluth in the subject-related series category.

Clive Thompson — nominated twice in the same category for articles in the New York Times Magazine and New York magazine, respectively — won for his semi-infamous New York cover story "From Blogs To Riches." Said Thompson: "I'm not really a media reporter."

Variety editor and Godfather producer/legend Peter Bart, who was given the first lifetime achievement award, was honored with a video tribute and requisite gushing by New York Post gossip columnist Liz Smith, who fought through a sinus infection to introduce Bart and praise his career instincts.

"He ducked the guillotiné before the axe fell," said Smith.

Bart, who called the video "the Dr. Strangelove of tributes," returned the favor: "Liz is the connective tissue between New York and L.A."