According to Politico White House press pooler Carrie Budoff Brown, the 6.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Virgina minutes ago was felt on the Martha’s Vineyard golf course where President Obama was playing when it hit. Meanwhile, Media Matters‘ Oliver Willis observes that the conservative media are already pointlessly pointing out that the President was on vacation when the quake hit, tweeting “Conservatives Can’t Decide If Obama Was Too Busy Golfing Or Biking To Stop The #Earthquake.”

A diverse gaggle of online media outlets (from Drudge and Hot Air to Wonkette and HuffPo) are enamored with the idea that a series of 2007 speeches that Joe Biden gave regarding the possible impeachment of George W. Bush are now applicable to President Obama‘s Libya policy.With varying degrees of shrillness, they’re playing “Gotcha!” with Biden’s promise that a unilateral move to war with Iran would be met with impeachment, and applying that promise to Obama’s Libya policy.

According to Drudge’s crystal early returns ball, Kentucky and Illinois are leaning Republican. Meanwhile, with three hours left to vote, Drudge is reporting that results are tied in Nevada.

On his show yesterday Rush Limbaugh devoted a some time to criticizing the media for their schizophrenic coverage of the Midterms.
Whether or not this has anything to do with a recent slate of pictures on Drudge that make Obama appear to look possessed is really anyone’s guess. Limbaugh is not saying anything here.

The Drudge Report is running the headline “MADAM: Spitzer as boring on TV as he was in bed…,” which links to a Radar post that has Kristin Davis (no, not that Kristin Davis) comparing Eliot Spitzer‘s new show to his alleged prowess with Davis’ stable of prostitutes (no, not that stable of prostitutes). Davis is [...]

Or maybe he thinks she’s a witch? Really, who knows. The point is Reuters made available some random photos of the Secretary of State at a news conference in Amman from 12 days ago and Drudge plucked it from obscurity and blared it across the top of his website in the hopes that…we will all flashback to the Hillary nutcracker on a broomstick days? Regardless, the underlying message here appears to be Hillary Clinton is an evil force.

Over the weekend, former Governor Sarah Palin and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs engaged in some TV news back-and-forth over the BP Oil Spill, with Palin “wondering,” on Fox News, whether campaign contributions played a part in “President Obama taking so doggone long to get in there.”

As Palin is at least the third Fox News personality to theorize that the administration was nefariously slow to act, I asked Gibbs if a lack of information is really the problem here.

A number of people have emailed today about the photo of Michelle Obama Drudge has been running on his site all morning. As you can see above it’s a picture (certainly not the best one taken last night, but let’s leave that aside) of the First Lady dressed up for last night’s state dinner with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, accompanied by the caption ‘Sex in the City.’ What conclusions are we supposed to draw from this? We put it to a poll.

The story of John Edwards‘ affair with Rielle Hunter seems to have raised a media meta-quandary about how to treat stories reported by The National Enquirer. Should we report on them? Should we report that they’re being reported? Throw in a Drudge link to an already explosive rumor like, say, the President covering up an affair with a former campaign staffer, and it’s damn near irresistible. There is a responsible way to cover something like this

Hmm. Notice something missing? A close look reveals most major media outlets have neglected to mention that today is the 7th anniversary of the Iraq War. Not a single major op-ed to be found. Nor a trending Twitter hashtag. It’s almost as though where the media is concerned the Iraq War didn’t happen.

One of the reasons I started the “Inside the White House Press Corps” series was so that people could see a different side of the people who play a large part in guiding the American political narrative. In this preview of my interview with NBC Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd, we see a more animated figure than we’re used to, discussing the “Drudge Effect” (my phrase) in journalism.

CNN, MSNBC and Fox News have all gone wall-to-wall in unraveling the story of the small plane crash into an Austin, Texas government building. The pilot has been identified as Joseph Andrew Stack, and reportedly set his own house on fire prior to crashing the plane into the building. There is an online screed/suicide note published at a website called “Embedded Art” a URL which is registered to a Texas man named Joe Stack.

The mainstream media struggles to get a handle on the unfolding story of a plane crashing into a Government office building in Austin, Texas. Reports that the pilot has set his own house on fire, combined with eye witness reports that claimed that the airplane appeared to target the building has raised suspicions. But one individual has summed up this story in his characteristically pithy manner: AUSTIN FIREBALL: MAN TARGETS IRS WITH PLANE is the current headline on Drudge

As we reported earlier, Politico has published part 2 of their yearlong expose´ of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs‘ comedic chops. Using state-of-the-art word count technology, they have determined that Gibbs is about half as funny as he used to be.

I asked Gibbs for his reaction to Politico’s report, and to criticisms of Tuesday’s Sarah Palin “handgate” gag. Here’s what he had to say

Happy Anniversary Mr. President. Oy. In the words of Jake Tapper, “one of the bluest states in the nation just gave President Obama the WORST anniversary gift he could think of.” Or at least one of them. The day after recriminations and analysis has already started as everyone from the White House on down tries to figure out how this happened and what to do next. And not surprisingly, plenty of people are weighing in.

It appears that the relentless coverage of the Climategate scandal may have had some effect. Despite the record low temperatures — and regardless of what they may actually signify — fewer people believe that extreme weather conditions are the result of global warming than did just two years ago.

During a segment on Hardball yesterday Chris Matthews suddenly took what was a routine conversation with Politico’s Jonathan Martin about Dick Cheney’s recent criticisms of President Obama and turned it into a rather pointed criticism of Politico’s seemingly cozy relationship with Cheney.

Newspapers are dying, magazines are dying: this is the story of 2009 where the media is concerned. However, the future of media, such as it is, does not look quite so dim. Or dim at all, really. Obviously, the brave new media world that we are slowly moving into (some at a quicker pace than others!) will look entirely different in twelve months’ time, likely in large part due to the efforts of the folks we listed on our online editors of the year poll. So who gets the final nod? Our picks below: feel free to add yours in the comments section.

It’s not entirely clear from the image running on Drudge right now whether suggested new airport security measures that would involve installing full body scanners in airports (something that has been suggested by security experts and which O’Hare has on order) are a scary proposition for the people being scanned or the scanners. Behold.

If 2009 was a tough year for magazines and newspapers — and boy, was it ever — it was a bang-up year for the editors of the blogs listed here. Now we are asking you, our loyal, smart, and attractive readers to share your thoughts on who had the biggest year in the Online Editor category:

Yesterday afternoon the New York Times announced it would be cutting 100 newsroom jobs, about 8% total, by the end of the year. The layoff announcement reportedly took the newsroom by surprise it also apparently put the scare into NYT.com readers, who quickly turned the comments section into an online petition of sorts.

Was anyone not surprised to wake up this morning to news that President Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize? Or wonder why exactly nine months into his presidency he’d been awarded it? The view from Twitter reveals a similar sense of amazement from media folk across the board. Also the growing sense that maybe Obama should consider turning the prize down. Take a look.

ABCNews.com has a question: “Is the U.S. Preparing to bomb Iran?”

Oh what, you’re not going to read that story? It’s a great Glenn Beck-like question, and a Drudge Report-esque headline. Now let’s see what the answer is.

The Drudge Report is currently running a red headline that says “See U.S. Military Snatch Protester…” that links to a YouTube video of what appears to bethe most absurd bit of street theater I’ve seen in awhile. Hot Air has already posted some extensive debunkage, but just watch the video, particularly the driver, who appears to be wearing Skechers:

How do you know when it’s August? When Matt Drudge finds it necessary to send out a link to a Boston.com article about a “mysterious fog” that envelops the city of Boston. Oh sure there is intrigue the evokes memories of the New York City’s mysterious maple syrup smell of 2008. So…what was the deal with that mysterious fog? The answer will surprise you…