Bitch magazine, which has been following the recent controversy surrounding a Marie Claire post by sex and relationship blogger Maura Kelly, linked to an article on Fashionista.com featuring a response from the magazine’s editor in chief, Joanna Coles.

A little background: Kelly wrote a post titled “Should ‘Fatties’ Get a Room? (Even on TV?)” about “Mike & Molly,” a new CBS sitcom revolving around an overweight couple. Kelly recounts how her editor asked her to weigh in [Ed. note: Do I even need to add that no pun is intended here?] on backlash to the show — apparently, people are having issues with watching an overweight couple be affectionate and intimate on their TV screens. Kelly put in her own two cents thusly:

My initial response was: Hmm, being overweight is one thing — those people are downright obese! And while I think our country’s obsession with physical perfection is unhealthy, I also think it’s at least equally crazy, albeit in the other direction, to be implicitly promoting obesity! Yes, anorexia is sick, but at least some slim models are simply naturally skinny. No one who is as fat as Mike and Molly can be healthy. And obesity is costing our country far more in terms of all the related health problems we are paying for, by way of our insurance, than any other health problem, even cancer.

So anyway, yes, I think I’d be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other … because I’d be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything. To be brutally honest, even in real life, I find it aesthetically displeasing to watch a very, very fat person simply walk across a room — just like I’d find it distressing if I saw a very drunk person stumbling across a bar or a heroine addict slumping in a chair.

The post inspired hundreds of comments, most of them not exactly agreeing with Kelly’s excuse that she isn’t fatphobic because she has “a few friends who could be called plump.” Coles was asked her thoughts on the issue at a fashion event, and she seemed supportive of Kelly’s decision to post such controversy-stirring thoughts: “Maura Kelly is a very provocative blogger, she said. “She was an anorexic herself and this is a subject she feels very strongly about.” Furthermore, added Coles, “I’m concerned about a show that makes fun of large people.”

Kelly, for her part, has since added an update to her article, posted after the jump.

Read more

As we reported on Friday, CNN abruptly fired afternoon anchor Rick Sanchez.

During a 20-minute satellite radio interview on Thursday, Sanchez made derogatory comments about Jews, his former employers and The Daily Show host Jon Stewart.

One CNN insider tells FishbowlNY, “I don’t think anybody who heard that audio clip could have a positive reaction to it.” 

The insider believes anyone who listened to the interview knew that Sanchez was going to have to deal with the consequences.

Long before Friday, though, there was a report on politico.com that indicated many staffers were apparently not Sanchez supporters.

Prior to the start of John King’s new evening show in January 2010, the report states that 200 employees at the Washington bureau were asked if they respect Sanchez or Wolf Blitzer, host of The Situation Room, as a journalist. 

Nearly all in attendance raised their hands for Blitzer, while politico.com reported at the time that only a select few gave similar support for the Rick’s List host.

Stewart has his first comment to the Sanchez firing after the jump.
Read more

Anchor Rick Sanchez was fired by CNN Friday evening, a day after making inflammatory comments about Jews and The Daily Show host Jon Stewart. Sanchez spoke with Sirius XM satellite radio host Pete Dominick (a former warm-up comic for Stewart’s show).

The terse statement from the cable network where Sanchez worked since 2004 read:

“Rick Sanchez is no longer with the company. We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well.”

At one point in the interview, Sanchez told Dominick that Stewart is a “bigot” and added that he [Stewart] was bigoted against “everybody else who’s not like him. Look at his show, I mean, what does he surround himself with?”

Dominick, who works for CNN on John King U.S.A, pointed out that Stewart is Jewish and is therefore a minority.

“I’m telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they, the people in this country who are Jewish, are an oppressed minority? Yeah,” Sanchez responded.

Sanchez’s 3-5 p.m. weekday show is being replaced by CNN Newsroom for the “foreseeable future,”  CNN said.

TVNewser has more on the story, including audio from the controversial interview.

Over the weekend, tempers flared over CNN‘s coverage — or lack thereof — of the Iranian election and subsequent protests. Frustrated viewers took to Twitter to voice their concern over CNN’s oversight or lack of interest in the foreign controversy, creating the hashtag #cnnfail, which was a trending topic until yesterday. (It’s no longer trending this morning, although #IranElection, Tehran and Mousavi are.)

Yesterday, our colleagues at WebNewser caught up with #cnnfail, noting that NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen had asked Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz, who also hosts CNN show “Reliable Sources,” to include #cnnfail in his column today.

Although Kurtz discussed the legitimacy of Twitter and whether journalists are “going overboard” with it on his show yesterday and in his column today, he completely ignored the protests taking place on the social network against the news network where he works. On Kurtz’s show, CNN’s Rick Sanchez mentioned that Twitter had helped him to more effectively cover happenings in Iran — a perfect opening for them to discuss #cnnfail.

“Last night, when…I started Twittering about what was going on in Iran, I learned as much about the situation in Iran as I would have watching frankly my network, the BBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post combined,” Sanchez said.

Kurtz’s thoughts on the issue would have been much more timely if he had discussed #cnnfail and how Twitter had become a media watchdog in this instance. Instead, in his column he talked about celebrity Twitters, and quoted actress Mariel Hemingway. Did he write his column weeks ago and never look at it again? We think he missed the boat on this one.

What do you think? How do you feel about the coverage of Iran by the news networks? Do you think Kurtz should have discussed #cnnfail?

Watch the Twitter segment from “Reliable Sources” after the jump

Read more

Today on the Menu: We talk with CNN anchor, and Twitterer extraordinaire Rick Sanchez, who says Twitter is revolutionizing the way he approaches the 3pm newscast.

“It’s a whole different game [the old way] was a speech, and this way is a conversation…Twitter has allowed me to engage in a dialogue with viewers which creates a better news cast for me.”

“This is participatory journalism at its best that we’re trying to do,” says Sachez. “52,263 people are following me right now. That means I have 52,263 people who are my assignment editors, who are my sources, who are my general editors, who are my copy editors, who are part of my staff.”

Sanchez, who is hosting the Shorty Awards tomorrow night, also talks about why this is the future of journalism, and what makes a good tweet. You can listen to the podcast live every morning at 9amET on BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321. You can also subscribe to the iTunes feed of the podcast by clicking the “iTunes” button.

Someone is hacking Twitter! We noticed a warning on our Twitter page when we logged in this morning and it turns out other, far more bolder faces, may have been taken for a bit of a twitter ride.

WebNewser has more info, but it looks like Britney Spears (y’all!), CNN’s Rick Sanchez, and Bill O’Reilly have all fallen victim to the 140 character hacker. See here for deets.

We picked up on this via our blogging cousins over at Mobile Content Today. Seems as though CNN’s Rick Sanchez is attempting to launch a dedicated Twitter channel but is running into some sort of “follow limit” problem. According to MCT Sanchez has 8,766 followers, and he follows 4,607 people — we’re not sure what that problem is since Barack Obama has 60,000 followers and follows 60,000 people. Maybe it’s just a glitch.

During the convention FBDC remarked that he thought Twitter was having its coming out, and MCT points out that during Gustav CNN actually put Twitter on the air. Next step video Twitter?

It’s been a bizarre month of coups for Larry King. First, the Beatles interview and now-infamous “George” flub. Then, of course, Paris, replete with a goofy “Countdown” clock. And, this weekend, King was credited with a big scoop in even more bizarre fashion: the death of Tammy Faye Messner, of which King broke the news 24 hours after he knew about it. “They wanted to delay it a full day so that the family could all gather together.” She had already been cremated and buried in a “remote part of Oklahoma.” King told Rick Sanchez he “was proud and blessed” that the family asked him to report the news.

OK, CNN, a couple questions:

• If King knew about it, why did you break into regular programming (on Saturday, just after 8:50PM ET) to report the news of the death?

• O.K., she’s not a politician, and King’s not exactly a journalist, but how can you allow Larry to sit on a story like that?

There you have it. CNN: The Most Trusted Name in News — As Long As It’s 24 Hours Later And Approved By An Evangelist’s Family.

RELATED: