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Former Ms. Magazine Editor Mary Thom Dead at 68 (AP / Huffington Post)
Prominent feminist Mary Thom, a writer and former editor of Ms. magazine who also was an avid motorcyclist, crashed while riding on a highway and was killed, her nephew said Saturday. She was 68. NYT Thom joined Ms. magazine in 1972 as an editor, rising to become executive editor in 1990. She was known as a journalistic virtuoso who shaped the writing of many of the feminist movement’s luminaries, including Gloria Steinem.  Ms. “We who are Mary’s friends and family haven’t absorbed her loss yet; it’s too sudden,” said Women’s Media Center co-founders Robin Morgan, Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda in a statement over the weekend. “Ms. magazine, the Women’s Media Center, the women’s movement and American journalism have suffered an enormous blow. Mary was and will always be our moral compass and steady heart.” FishbowlNY Thom lived for decades in New York City and served as an editor for Ms. for nearly 20 years before leaving the feminist magazine in 1992. The glossy, which began as an insert in New York magazine, became a feminist powerhouse read in the 1970s but struggled to leverage commercial success with its ideological voice. Read more

TVNewser: Wolf Blitzer has a part in the latest James Bond film, Skyfall. Blitzer plays himself, which is probably his favorite thing to do.

FishbowlDC: Because we’re sure Lamestream Media won’t cover it, here is a picture of Dana Perino’s dog wearing a tie.

SocialTimes: PBS says YouTube is making us all smarter; thus proving that it isn’t.

TVNewser: The only thing Wolf Blitzer doesn’t like about CNN’s new DC studio is that it isn’t named Wolf Blitzer Studio.

PRNewser: Jay-Z never could figure out that whole “Occupy Wall Street” thing.

MediaJobsDaily: Roll Call and CQ Today — two sort of interesting political newspapers — are merging into one super-powered, sort of interesting newspaper.

The death of Osama bin Laden is major news — and media outlets won’t let you forget it. “What were you doing when Bin Laden was killed?” is now replacing “What were you doing when Kennedy was assasinated?” in the media.

At National Journal, Gwen Ifill writes that:

My flight from Seattle had just touched down at Reagan Washington National Airport late on Sunday night when I turned on my BlackBerry. It immediately began buzzing with an alarming stream of e-mails and tweets.

She also puts together what other major journalists were doing when the news broke. Here are a few of the stories:

Washington Week regular Jeff Zeleny was watching The King’s Speech on pay per view at home. Helene Cooper was watching a DVR of the royal wedding. (Lots of anglophiles in the media!)

Another Times reporter David Sanger was in Brussels for a NATO story. NPR’s Tom Gjelten was on a late-night run to the drug store. Our favorite: James Kitfield of National Journal was in a Houston hotel room sipping from a glass of brandy. Coincidentally, so was FishbowlNY.

Just kidding. We were watching the Royal Wedding on DVR, too. We’re not that cool.

Update: Dylan Byers reports on what the top CNN journalists were doing when the news broke for Adweek: it turns out that they are some serious hockey fans. Wolf Blitzer was watching the Washington Capitals playoffs on TV when the story broke, and John King and Ed Henry were at the game. Apparently “Ed Henry went to the White House and had to borrow a jacket from someone.”

Last night we told you about Fox reporting that journalists in Libya were being used as “human shields,” which lead to an airstrike being called off at the last minute. Later in the evening, on CNN’s The Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer asked CNN correspondent Nic Robertson- who was one of the journalists Fox was referencing – about Fox’s claim. He unequivocally denied it, and even added that Fox News chose not to send anyone from their editorial team to the bombing site.

This has now devolved into a “he said” “she said” moment, because no one knows exactly what happened there aside from those present, but there doesn’t seem to be much motivation for Robertson to lie.

You’d think that maybe, in times of war – with human lives at stake – Fox News would tone down the rhetoric. But hey, the article that first started the rumor is probably getting a lot of page views, so to quote George Bush – a Fox News favorite – “Mission accomplished.”

Check out Robertson’s full statement after the jump.

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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.
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— DIANE CLEHANE

We missed Blythe Danner by a day. Too bad, I would have loved to have asked her what she thinks of her daughter’s goofy — but strangely compelling — Web site, GOOP. It’s the gospel according to Gwyneth, where she holds forth on all things great and small — from how to wear a little black dress to how she got rid of her ‘Shar-Pei-like stomach’ after her pregnancies (I’m not kidding). No matter. The dining room was jam-packed, as it’s been for weeks on Wednesdays now. Even the bar was standing room only. I was happy to catch up with my pals ‘The Bar-ettes’ Kira Semler and Vi Huse (They had to cancel a few weeks back because of that dreadful storm). But today spring was in the air, and from the looks of things, everyone was feeling upbeat.

I was thrilled when my friend Andre Leon Talley asked me to join him and Linda Wachner for coffee. Looking dapper as can be, Vogue‘s main man was fresh off his appearance on Today this morning, where he chatted with Meredith Vieira (“She was so easy to talk to”) about his much-anticipated March cover story on Michelle Obama. “I’m really proud of it,” says Andre of his exclusive up close and personal profile of the First Lady. There had been plenty of speculation on whether Mrs. Obama would be gracing the cover of the fashion bible after her hairdresser (who is getting his own reality show) semi-spilled the beans, but Andre says everyone at Vogue was sworn to secrecy. Now that it’s official, he’s making the rounds to talk about what it was like to spend time with the First Lady for the piece. He taped a segment for NBC Nightly News this morning, and he was off to do a sit-down after lunch with Wolf Blitzer (and he’s going back to CNN for a second appearance tomorrow). With so much interest surrounding the story and accompanying images, I’m predicting the issue will be one of the magazine’s strongest sellers ever. “I think it’s going to be huge,” says Andre. It’s a pretty safe bet, I’d say …

Andre told me he was struck by the First Lady’s “focus and clarity” about her new life and, of course, was duly impressed by her fierce determination and commitment to give her girls as normal a life as possible. “She doesn’t want them to grow up in a bubble,” he reports. Andre saw the bond between mother and daughters firsthand as he made the seven-hour train ride with the Obamas as they journeyed from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. to the inauguration. It was something to see, he said, when the girls threw their mom a surprise birthday party on the train, having spent two hours decorating the car in secret. Michelle was understandably thrilled, says Andre. “Her genuine warmth is amazing.” We both agree it’s high time interesting people who are actually doing something push the 11-pound, 11 year-old celebutantes who are famous for being famous from the spotlight. Could it be that ‘smart’ is the new cool? Here’s hoping…

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. Kevin Huvane (who got hugs from the staff upon his arrival) and a mystery gent…

2. The Early shift: Dennis Basso and Marjorie Gubelman; Second seating: Bruce Wasserstein and his lovely daughter Pamela.

3. CNBC’s Jonathan Wald and Dan Abrams. When I stopped by to say hello, they told me the two “old friends” were having a “catch up” lunch. The Late Show: Lanky Luke Janklow and a distinguished gray-haired gal.

4. Jack Kliger

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It’s hard to put a finger on which party is the bigger “publicity whore” here: Michael Moore or CNN.

From Moore’s site:

I have to admit, though, I do feel kinda bad taking it all out on Wolf Blitzer. It’s not like he’s the official representative of the mainstream media. I mean, he’s from Buffalo, for crying out loud! He said to me at the end of the show last week to please come back on “anytime you want.” I will take him up on that offer and appear again with him tomorrow (Wednesday). I’m not expecting a dozen roses or make-up sex — I only want a promise that there will be no more distorted distractions so we can have a decent discussion about the REAL issues like why 18,000 Americans die every year because they don’t have a health insurance card. More than 300 of them died this week.

If he, in fact, appears, Moore will have been a guest on CNN three times in nine days, for those of you scoring at home.

EARLIER:

King and his wife flank the Trumps

The short hallway between the “Pool Room” and bar acted as a sort of cosmic, generational media portal last night at the Four Seasons, where a pair of cocktail parties — one celebrating Larry King‘s 50 years in broadcasting (a.k.a the “old people room”), the other celebrating the New York Observer‘s redesigned paper and Web site (a.k.a the “kids room”) — were in full, boozy, media-centric swing.

In the “Old People Room”: King and his television and famous New York pals, like Joan Rivers, Donald and Melania Trump, the View‘s Barbara Walters (at one point Trump and Walters were just feet from each other, but didn’t appear to acknowledge each other) and Joy Behar, Campbell Brown, Mario Cuomo, Lou Dobbs, Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas, Tina Brown, Jeff Greenfield, Ron Howard, Time Inc. managing editor Jim Kelly, Keith Kelly, Ray Kelly, Oprah B.F.F. Gayle King, Calvin Klein, Time Warner chief Dick Parsons, Sandra Bernhard, Jerry Stiller, Arliss actor Robert Wuhl, Mort Zuckerman, American Morning‘s newly-installed Kiran Chetry, Glenn Beck, Montel Williams, James Carville, Tom Wolfe, Andy Rooney and artist Peter Max, whose colorful rendering of King served as the room’s centerpiece.

In the “Kids Room”: 23-year-old Observer owner Jared Kushner held court with twentysomething bloggers and their youthful bosses, like Gawker’s Choire Sicha, Radar‘s Jeff Bercovici and Maer Roshan, Page Six‘s Corynne Steindler, Slate‘s Jacob Weisberg, Domino‘s Deborah Needleman, WWD‘s Irin Carmon, and HuffPo’s Julia Allison, Katharine Thomson and Rachel Sklar. Fittingly, Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, chose the Observer party over King’s.

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One of the more intriguing questions about tonight’s Larry King 50th anniversary party in New York has already been answered. Beleaguered radio host Don Imus, a longtime friend of King’s, was on the invitee list for tonight’s bash, but don’t expect to see him.

“He’s not coming,” our inside source says.

Here’s who is: Fox News chief Roger Ailes, Tom Brokaw, Donald Trump, Tina Brown and Ron Howard.

Planned co-hosting duties were to be done by King’s fellow CNNers Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, Soledad O’Brien and Paula Zahn, but they are all in Blacksburg covering the Virginia Tech shooting.

EARLIER: