The Associated Press’ Twitter account has been hacked. A few moments ago, its official Twitter sent out a scary note that President Obama had been hurt in two explosions at the White House. The tweet:

Obviously it caught plenty of attention, but the AP’s Sam Hanannel quickly posted that the account had been hacked. The AP Twitter account is now listed as “suspended.”

In a New Republic piece titled “Get Rich or Deny Trying,” a former advisor to President Obama is quoted saying “There’s only one paper the president reads, that’s The New York Times.” Now before all you haters (Mitt, you’re turning red man, try breathing) blast Big O, let’s think this through.

Is it possible that the president only reads the Times? In an interview with Rolling Stone last year, Obama said he reads the Times, but also The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. As The Huffington Post notes, this was the second time Obama mentioned perusing those three papers. Obama has also admitted that he enjoyed magazines like The New Yorker and The Atlantic. He even mentioned FishbowlNY as a “Great blog run by ruggedly handsome dudes who can throw fantastic spirals.”* 

It certainly doesn’t seem like Obama limits his paper intake to the Times. He has mentioned WaPo and WSJ and the quote in the New Republic is from an anonymous ex-advisor. However, that probably doesn’t matter. Haters, as they say, are going to hate. The media will cry that the White House has a Times bias and Republicans are going to fire up the rage machine. But give the president some credit: At least we know he can read. That’s more than we could say about George W. 

* - This is not true.
[Image: Business Insider]

Josh DuBois, who left his position as faith advisor for President Barack Obama early last month, is joining The Daily Beast. According to a memo obtained by Politico, Dubois will be the site’s new faith columnist.

Dubois was one of President Obama’s longest tenured assistants, most recently serving as executive director of the White House’s Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

In a memo, Tina Brown said Dubois’ column will focus on “The role of faith in solving pressing social problems.”

President Barack Obama has been named Time’s Person of The Year. Here at FishbowlNY we were hoping that Malala Yousafzai was going to win, not just because she deserves to be honored as much as possible, but because there hasn’t been a woman POY for 26 years. Yousafzai was the runner-up, followed by Tim Cook.

Rick Stengal, Time’s managing editor, writes that Obama was chosen because he is making his mark on history:

Obama is the first Democratic President since FDR to win more than 50 percent of the vote in consecutive elections and the first President since 1940 to win re-election with an unemployment rate north of 7.5 percent. He has stitched together a winning coalition and perhaps a governing one as well. His presidency spells the end of the Reagan realignment that had defined American politics for 30 years. We are in the midst of historic cultural and demographic changes, and Obama is both the symbol and in some ways the architect of this new America.

Feel free to be upset about Obama winning or to not care at all.

From L to R: TIME Managing Editor Rick Stengel (moderator); Speaker Newt Gingrich, Bryan Cranston, Padma Lakshmi, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, Matt Lauer 
Photo credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images 

TIME hosted its annual Person of the Year panel today, where a seemingly random assortment of notable people give their opinions on who should get the honor. Moderated by managing editor Rick Stengel, panelists included:

Bryan Cranston – best known for his chemical concoctions on Breaking Bad, star of Argo.

Newt Gingrich – The only panelist who actually held the honor of “Person of the Year,” as speaker of the house back in 1995. Dubious about climate change.

Matt Lauer – host of the Today show, not dubious about climate change.

Padma Lakshmi – Host of Top Chef, woman.

Michael Nutter – Mayor of Philadelphia.

Here’s a roundup of the contenders, and what the panelists thought. Read more

Michael Bloomberg has been avoiding offering support for Mitt Romney or President Barack Obama, but Hurricane Sandy changed that. Bloomberg has officially endorsed Obama, citing the President’s work to tackle climate change.

“Our climate is changing. And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it might be — given this week’s devastation — should compel all elected leaders to take immediate action,” wrote Bloomberg, in an op-ed for Bloomberg View.

“We need leadership from the White House — and over the past four years, President Barack Obama has taken major steps to reduce our carbon consumption, including setting higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks.”

Bloomberg even took some time to jab Romney, for that pesky habit of flip-flopping:

Read more

A newspaper endorsing a presidential candidate doesn’t carry as much weight as it used to, but still, it’s fun to keep track of them. Because we like fun (it’s fun!), here is a list of which paper has endorsed which candidate. So far, Barack Obama is in the lead. What does that mean? Probably nothing!

You can use this list as a way to figure out who is going to win — Obama or Mitt Romney — in November, or simply as a reminder that newspapers still do this kind of thing. We’ll keep updating this list as more papers publicize their choice. Please let us know if we miss any.

UPDATE:
Obama maintains lead, 31 to 27.

Newspaper Endorsements for Obama:

Read more

Michael Lewis, the man who was given “unprecedented access” to President Barack Obama for a Vanity Fair piece, has admitted that the White House approved each quote that was eventually included in the article. To this we say, of course Lewis needed quote approval. It’s an article about the president!

The New York Times reports that Lewis said very little of what he presented to the White House was dismissed, and what was didn’t matter much to his story. Lewis reported that a conversation on Obama’s Florida electoral strategy and one “moving exchange” were nixed by the powers that be.

If the latter was an impassioned defense by Obama of Animal Planet’s Call of The Wildman, we’re a little annoyed that it was excluded. However, we do understand.

[Image - Pete Souza/Official White House Photograph]

Everyone has been worked up about Michael Lewis’ profile of President Barack Obama in Vanity Fair, so we were excited to see that a preview is now up on the magazine’s website. The October issue hits newsstands this week (nationally September 11). Below are a few highlights from the piece.

Obama on what he lost when he became President:

You can’t wander around. It’s much harder to be surprised. You don’t have those moments of serendipity. You don’t bump into a friend in a restaurant you haven’t seen in years. The loss of anonymity and the loss of surprise is an unnatural state. You adapt to it, but you don’t get used to it — at least I don’t.

Read more

FishbowlNY has known for awhile now that Rupert Murdoch is no Mitt Romney fan. But perhaps we’ve underestimated just how much Murdoch dislikes the guy. According to The New York Times, Murdoch’s News Corporation has so far donated $58,825 to President Barack Obama’s campaign, but only $2,750 to Romney’s.

However, seeing as Murdoch tweeted that Paul Ryan was an “almost a perfect choice,” the money flow might shift in the few remaining days before the election.

If it does, we bet Romney gets jealous. “Oh sure, now that Perfect Paul is on board he wants to donate. What-ever. My hair is better.”