Please forgive the victory lap, but since this will be my last post as Managing Editor, our rather astounding traffic success bears repeating: in just two and a half years, Mediaite.com welcomes nearly three million monthly unique visitors to the site. Including syndicated content like embedded video, that number more than doubles: six million unique users who are taking a monthly gander at content curated and packaged by Mediaite editors and writers. Given that we have literally spent less than $100 on a marketing or promotional budget (we tried an $80 Facebook campaign once), this is nothing short of a miraculous outcome. Nearly all of our traffic came from hard work, hustle, and being just a little bit smarter than we needed to be.

As is the case with any media entity that aims to adjudge others, Mediate’s existence has also sometimes drawn mixed emotions amongst its peers and critics. When Mediaite launched in July of 2009, nearly the entire navel-gazing set of NY-based media critics openly mocked the idea of another website entering an already too-crowded field, and not unreasonably, I might add. But the dramatically shifting media landscape of the past few years presented opportunities in which I knew could set ourselves apart.

So what were the reasons behind our success? They seem fairly self-evident to me in hindsight, but it always surprises me when fellow editors have scratched their head at our success. First, we do really smart analysis, but let me put that aside for a moment.

We knew early that a key opportunity for differentiation was “owning the buzz” one gets from learning something new in the world of digital news. In fact, we have sometimes eschewed long-form analysis in order to get our story up fast, in large part because the world of media criticism in the last few years is often banal or masturbatory. We targeted readers who, when we posted quickly, were smart enough to figure out their own analysis if we packaged and promoted stories in a way that revealed a deeper understanding of the conflict at nearly every story’s core.

We also saw an opening to focus on the burgeoning world of opinion journalism, or the intersection of media, politics and opinion. The world of “opiniotainment” is a Balkanized one in which news consumers seem to more often seek information and commentary that reinforces their pre-existing opinions. Surely neither one party nor ideology is the sole province of absurd hyperbole, or lacking in journalistic integrity. It seems like common sense but covering news, analysis and commentary from a politically agnostic perspective — without sacrificing an entertaining point of view –- was oddly a significant differentiation for us in a crowded marketplace.

The final reason behind our success, in my view, was our aggressive position on curating and embedding video and audio clips. While other sites are looking for great moments from campaign stops, press conferences and the like, we mined the constant stream of commentary and analysis from the networks themselves. You don’t have to be a “media strategist” to recognize we live in a clip culture, and Mediaite’s partnership with video platform Magnify was truly an important partnership for us. Bringing on the tireless video editor Jon Nicosia really helped set us off into a new stratosphere of relevance and influence.

The last three years have been a complete whirlwind, and it has been particularly satisfying to see the fruits of our very intense labor in a myriad of ways. In less than three years as Managing Editor, I went from being just a busy television writer/producer competing for quality work in New York City, to someone who was sought out for face-to-face meetings with Roger Ailes, Ken Jautz and Phil Griffin (the holy trinity of cable news executives), as well as many of the biggest personalities in the business. I’ve been on satellite phone calls with war correspondents in the Middle East, and interviewed some of television’s most respected on-air hosts and reporters in their midtown offices. I’ve also witnessed first-hand the more unseemly side of the promotional party circuit which fuels the sometimes too-cozy relationship between media beat writers and their subjects. As the parent of two small boys and husband to working wife, the party scene was first on my list of many sacrifices.

The list of both public and off-the-record stories to which I have become privy is a lengthy and entertaining one (hello book deal?), of which there are many anecdotes worth sharing. But in the interest of time, I will choose one that might illustrate this bizarre and, at times, hilarious world in which I have worked as Managing Editor of Mediaite.

Last year saw a number of both strange and compelling stories, many of which you may have first learned about on this very site. But who could have predicted that, as an overall news story, the sad saga of Anthony Weiner’s tweeted image (and brazen and misbegotten cover-up effort) would have been a more significant traffic driver than even the killing of Osama bin Laden.

You will recall that our old friend (and foe) Andrew Breitbart and his team of editors were first to break that story. And given how he was still somewhat smarting over the Shirley Sherrod affair, his reporting was taken with a perhaps huge dose of skepticism from the mainstream media. In fact, when we first wrote of their initial report, we added our own level of cynical plausibility as well, which resulted in a massive Twitter battle I found myself engaged in while watching Pirates of the Carribean with my kids on Memorial Day weekend evening. Such is the life of the Mediaite Managing Editor.

So how was your Memorial Day weekend of last year? Mine was spent mostly on the telephone with Andrew Breitbart trying to unpack perhaps the most confusing and bizarre of stories that was truly at the intersection of politics and social media. During a Sunday evening picnic in which other dads were busy playing Whiffle Ball™ with their sons, I was enjoying a rather spirited discussion with my editors (and at times Breitbart) trying to figure out how best to handle the potentially explosive story.

But as has been the case in many stories, what starts out as seemingly controversial often turns out to be sublimely entertaining. Breitbart and I were in fairly consistent communication during that episode and developed a level of mutual respect, especially after I found myself in the cross-hairs of both the left and the right. Mr. Breitbart returned a phone call to me after a cross-country flight that brought him to NY, just minutes before Anthony Weiner was scheduled to own up to his online behavior. I suggested to Breitbart that he attend the press conference himself, which of course he did, and became the warm-up act in what was one of the strangest and most entertaining media moments of the last year.

I have learned a lot about media and politics while in this role, but no greater lesson than the stubbornness of ignorance. Put another way, all too often in political media, the stronger the argument, the weaker is the case. The more positive side to that equation, however, is that news consumers are actually much smarter than the content created by most editors, writers and producers. Treating a potential audience with respect and expected intelligence (while not being boring) is almost always a recipe for success. It’s a shame that it’s not always followed.

First and foremost, I need to thank founder Dan Abrams for giving me the opportunity to lead a small but incredibly talented and hard working team of writers and editors who worked very hard to create something so influential out of nothing. Secondly, I have to thank Rachel Sklar, who appeared on a cable news program I was writing and producing, for making the initial introduction. And I would be remiss not to mention the original team, many of whom were assembled and joined by Skalr, including Steve Krakauer, Glynnis MacNicol, Robert Quigley and Tommy Christopher, as well as only slightly later additions such as the aforementioned Nicosia, Frances Martel and Jon Bershad. There are many other talented staff members who have come through, nearly all of whom I have enjoyed working with immensely, as well as the current all-star staff of Alex Alvarez, Jamie Crugnale and Nando DiFino, who I am sure will ably drive the site’s continued success. I am quite confident that the site will continue to flourish and grow, whoever is in charge.

I intend to continue contributing to Mediaite as a columnist, but only occasionally and in my free time. Until then, I encourage you to follow me on Twitter, and hey, keep reaching for the stars!

Zurawik also dinged Olbermann over his “rancor” and use of insults, but I think he missed the mark a little bit. Olbermann’s ability to go at his opponents has long been a key to his appeal. The problem is that the rancor and the insults have become increasingly artless and petty, in stark contrast to the sharp, florid wit present in much of his commentary. Zurawik says Al Gore should “rein him in,” but Gore would be better off sharpening him up.

The best observation, though, came from Glynnis MacNicol (now with Business Insider), who noted that “(Olbeermann)’s been trying to demonize MSNBC, and sort of make them the enemy he’s playing off of, and it clearly, in the first week, didn’t work, and he pulled back and said ‘Rachel Maddow’s my friend now.’”

Here’s the clip, from CNN’s Reliable Sources:

In the run-up to the Countdown re-launch, host Keith Olbermann launched increasingly sharp barbs at his former colleagues, and condescension at his former friends. Rather than positioning himself as an alternative to Fox News, or neutral CNN, Olbermann set himself up as the “us” in an “us vs. them” battle with the only other prime time liberal cable news bloc, MSNBC. As Glynnis observed, this strategy doesn’t seem to have worked.

Despite relatively strong ratings for his debut show, Countdown didn’t make a dent in MSNBC’s ratings, and his decision to overlap with Rachel Maddow’s show caused a swift backlash from fans who didn’t feel like choosing.

Olbermann cast his decision as a desire not to hurt Maddow’s ratings, the equivalent of a mosquito generously offering not to exsanguinate a crocodile. The truth is, by targeting his old friend’s show, he was making himself look like a jerk, and costing Maddow very little. That same dynamic likely applies to viewers of other liberal MSNBC shows, as well. Even those who might like Countdown better are bound to wonder why Olbermann can’t let his show stand on the merits, rather than trash the efforts of others on the same “team.” No one likes to see Mom and Dad fight.

The good news is that the cable news town appears to be big enough for two liberal sheriffs. With an impressive (especially for a small net like Current) debut of 179,000 demo viewers, and little (if any) effect on MSNBC’s numbers, it appears more likely that the cable news landscape can support two liberal-leaning networks, rather than settling on an eventual last network standing. The next step is for Current to fill in the rest of its prime-time lineup with the right kind of talent to build on Countdown’s success.

From Media Matters:

“According to industry data obtained by Media Matters, Glenn Beck’s radio program is now short of its heralded ‘over 400′ affiliate status. Asked to comment, Radio Business Reporter’s Carl Marucci echoed this finding, stating, ‘our best gauge right now is also shy of 400.’ Premiere Radio Networks did not respond to requests for comment.

This should come as no surprise. Since the beginning of 2011, seven radio stations have dropped Glenn Beck’s show.”

However, while they are right about Beck losing stations this year, Business Insider got in touch with Premiere Networks, the company that syndicates the show. Premiere says that Beck has actually gained an additional 88 stations this year in addition to the seven he lost.

While the original post may seem petty, if Media Matters had proven that Beck’s claim was inaccurate, forcing him to update his website (quietly though it certainly would have been), would have been a huge symbolic victory for the site (now I’m OD’ing on smugness imagining that). It looks like they won’t get this win though and Beck, who’s been on a roll of anti-Media Matters segments recently, will have a new wealth of material.

Glynnis MacNicol points out that there’s more to this image than meets the eye: (Anyone familiar with Glynnis’ work, by the way, knows that her Glenn Beck sources are golden.)

The screengrab was taken from GlennBeck.com and is one of a rotating series of images you get when you refresh the homepage of the site.  Others include Glenn Beck the scientist, Glenn Beck the overdressed patriot, and Glenn Beck wrapped up in yellow tape.

…We are told by someone who has seen the full picture that it’s actually of Beck shooting himself in the foot…something most people can probably agree is an fitting image for Beck’s site.  That said, we’re also told the image has since been removed out of respect for events in AZ.

Beck deserves credit for taking the image down, despite the fact that there’s some risk his critics will pounce on it. The aforementioned Angelo Carusone, for example, has already cast this act in a negative light:

Oy. @glennbeck is in a bad mood this AM. Promises to go on offense…you know, like scrubbing images from his website.

The thing is, there will always be people who will not be satisfied, but that shouldn’t stop anyone from doing the right thing. Like him or not, Beck did the right thing in this case, and should be held out as an example to others.

While visiting Beck’s website to cycle through the sidebar images, I noticed something intriguing. One of the images features Beck wearing a tie with the frames of a motion picture countdown, much like the ones featured in the opening of…Countdown. Is this some kind of homage to Keith Olbermann? Only Beck knows for sure.

Update: Well, so much for Kum ba yah. Keith Olbermann is also not inclined to give Beck any credit for taking the photo down, as he just tweeted:

@Wary12 No, they yanked that after the gun photo was made known to them. They just didn’t acknowledge how pathetic it was

Former Mediaite Senior Editor Glynnis MacNicol continues to show her bill payable skillz in her new role as Editor of Business Insider’s media blog “The Wire,” and the following post is a shining example. Glynnis suggests that perhaps “someone has hacked their Twitter feed” (H/T The Wire)

But it was sweet because Glenn Beck stopped by to say goodbye. Really!

Since we launched Mediaite, the person we’ve arguably written about the most is Glenn Beck. Sometimes it’s positive, sometimes it’s negative… we even started BeckCrunch.com!

As Glynnis makes her way to her next job, we asked Glenn to tape a goodbye message to her. “Because she’s written some halfway decent or accurate stories about me, I would assume she’s either going to prison or she’s finally getting that medical treatment she’s needed for oh so very long,” said Beck. “Glynnis – we’ll miss you.”

We all will.

Oh, and Glenn has a new book out. Like you didn’t already know…

Here’s the message from Glenn:

—–
» Follow Steve Krakauer on Twitter

Ratigan is MSNBC’s 4pmET host, and also has started a podcast on his website, DylanRatigan.com. We’ll talk midterms and a lot more – expect some NSFW content. Speaking of, Ashley Madison president and CEO Biderman is a regular on Howard Stern and has been compared to Hitler by Joy Behar on The View. If you’re not familiar with the site…check it out. And Fost is the author of the very timely book Giants Past & Present (follow him on Twitter here).

Also, it’s Glynnis’ last show, and we’ve got a special surprise…

Glynnis MacNicol, Steve Krakauer and Rachel Sklar host the live-streamed call-in show.

Watch us live here on this page at 3:15pmET, or check it out at www.livestream.com/mediaite.

See you at 2:30pmET!

With Crowley, we’ll talk about the various midterm races that are winding down, as well as CNN’s coverage (and “Matrix”) on Election Night. Rovell will talk about the new LeBron ad, World Series and more. Follow Crowley on Twitter here, and Rovell here.

Glynnis MacNicol, Steve Krakauer and Rachel Sklar host the live-streamed call-in show.

Watch us live here on this page at 3:15pmET, or check it out at www.livestream.com/mediaite.

See you at 3:15pmET!

Kotb has a new book out, How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee, so get ready for a discussion of all of that. Also, for those who are fans of a certain late night cable news show, there’s a surprise coming. Pope is the author of The Deeds Of My Fathers – his father started the National Enquirer. Simian is a reporter/producer at NY1 Noticias, and we’ll talk to him about the Chilean miners and more.

Glynnis MacNicol, Steve Krakauer and Rachel Sklar host the live-streamed call-in show.

Watch us live here on this page at 3pmET, or check it out at www.livestream.com/mediaite.

See you at 3pmET – the order will be Pope, Kotb then Simian

Van Susteren will be Skype’ing in from D.C., where we’ll talk to her about her showdowns with Gloria Allred, the midterm elections and more. Geist has a new book out next week, American Freak Show, which includes a lot of media what-ifs to talk about. And Poniewozik, who writes the Tuned In blog on Time.com, will talk Mad Men, Parker Spitzer and more. Also, we’ve got a new game to debut!

Glynnis MacNicol, Steve Krakauer and Rachel Sklar host the live-streamed call-in show.

Watch us live here on this page at 3pmET, or check it out at www.livestream.com/mediaite.

See you at 3pmET – the order will be Van Susteren, Geist and Poniewozik.

For the purpose of this discussion, however, let’s accept the premise that there were more people at Beck’s rally, even that there were twice as many. When making this comparison, however, it is important to remember that Beck benefited from relentless promotion, not only from the #1 cable news network, but also from MSNBC and CNN. A TV Eyes search for each rally shows that, up until the day before each event, “Restoring Honor” was mentioned 2,877 times, versus 520 mentions of “One Nation Rally.”

Given that disparity, there’s little wonder Beck outdrew “One Nation,” despite Ed Schultz’s Joe Namath-esque guarantee. Regardless of other events, 175,000 people is an objectively impressive number, and even more so in light of the promotion gap. And what do these crowd figures say about the makeup of these rallies’ attendees? While both have been portrayed as the salt-of-the-Earth, everyday America, it stands to reason that the folks who have been hardest hit by tough times, the ones with the most skin in the game, would be least able to afford to jet off to Washington, DC for a rally.

On that score, much has been made of the fact that labor unions chartered buses for thousands of their members, versus “Restoring Honor” attendees who “paid their own way.” This seeming contrast ignores the fact that unions are funded by their members, so by definition, the union members on those chartered buses did pay their own way. You couldn’t really ask for a more textbook example of grassroots action.

Still, it is a monumental mistake to rest even a small portion of your own merit on relative popularity. We live in a country where Firefly gets canceled, while CSI: Miami flourishes. Having a bunch of people agree with you doesn’t make you right. Instead of bragging that he could easily draw a bigger crowd than Glenn Beck, Ed Schultz would have been much better served explaining why the simplistic Beck/Tea Party message is such an easy sell. (In fairness to Schultz, he did note the gap in promotion when qualifying his boast.)

There have also been some critics of “One Nation” who have tried to raise the issue of protest signs, as an answer to offensive, much-publicized Tea Party placards. Newsbusters gives this its best shot, but there’s really no comparison. The Daily Beast’s Jon Avlon, though, unintentionally makes a great point about the wingnuts at these rallies:

The signs started off badly as I approached the Washington Mall. “Yes We Can… Bomb Civilians!” read the first sign I saw, held aloft by a 2008 Ralph Nader supporter from Providence, Rhode Island, named Adrian. Behind him, representatives from “The World Can’t Wait” positioned a black-hooded orange-jumpsuited effigy to protest Guantanamo next to signs that read “Stop Occupation and Torture for Empire!”

A pregame rally south of the Washington Monument featured drum circles and papier maché puppets. President Obama was called an “imperialist president” who was insensitive to the “African community” and “the 2.5 million people in concentration camps called prisons.”

The big difference here is that the fringe kooks at the “One Nation” rally don’t have any influence on the Democratic Party. The Democratic candidates who oppose Barack Obama, by and large, do so from the right. The Republican Party is a different story, where wingnuttery is mainstream.

If the point of the “One Nation” rally was to show that progressives, too, are prepared to rally to their causes, then it is hard to argue this wasn’t a success. It’s easy to play points-scoring, but the truth is, as many as 200 thousand progressives stood in Washington and told all of America that they count, too.

For the rest of us, these last two years have been anything but. It’s not any one photo that gets me — journos still have to go places and cover things — it’s more the sense that all the people in these photos were living the last days of the old media world. The free-flowing food at the CNN Grill, the big budgets to bring networks and correspondents and support staff and everyone you could get a lanyard on out on location. This was barely 2 weeks before the economy bottomed out in mid-September 2008 — and everything changed from there on in, economically and for the media world, as well as in the world being covered with the election of Barack Obama as the 44th president and the smooth, seamless presidency he’s had since then. Oh wait, I mean the opposite. Anyhow, that time was really exciting and fun and it was a nice little trip down memory lane to look through these photos, even though I can’t imagine how different it will be in 2012. Which seemed so far away back then, and now, well, doesn’t. So, go crazy! Here is the link. I recommend clicking the “slideshow” function and putting on trippy music in the background, wooo!

Google alert bait: These photos include any and all of the following— in no particular order:  Joe Scarborough, Joe Klein, Mika Brzezinski, Arianna Huffington, Jake Weisberg, Dana Milbank, Luke Russert, Kevin Madden, Mark Salter, Ana Marie Cox, Jon Klein, Anderson Cooper, Rick Stengel, Mary Katherine Ham, Chuck Todd, Betsy Fischer, Trent Lott, John Roberts, Laura Ingraham, Jonah Goldberg, Patrick Gavin, Rick Klein, Tucker Carlson, Amy Argetsinger, Norah O’Donnell, Pat Buchanan, Ryan Lizza, Joel Stein, Walter Isaacson, Courtney Hazlett, Keli Goff, Chris Cillizza, Mike Isikoff, Alan Cumming, Jason Jones, Samantha Power, Cass Sunstein, Carly Fiorina, Larry Page, Henry Kissinger, Dan Abrams, Jane Hamsher, Chad Hurley, Jon Hamm, John Dickerson, Obama Girl, Chris Licht, Ray Roker, Ari Melber, Josh Green, Joan Walsh, Ron Brownstein, Matt Cooper, Fred Armisen, will.i.am, Markos Moulitsas, Chevy Chase, Tammy Haddad, Lynn Sweet, Karen Tumulty, Ben Smith, John Oliver, Karl Rove, David Carr, Kathleen Sebelius, Eugene Mirman, Sammy Hagar, Rahm Emanuel, John Koblin, Danny Shea, Michael Calderone, Ana Marie Cox, Carly Fiorina, Katie Couric, Peggy Noonan and various people eating free food at the CNN Grill. Oh, CNN Grill. I think I’ll miss you the most of all.

PHOTOGALLERY: 2008 CONVENTIONS

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

UPDATE: Now that the event has concluded, check out the two major speeches of the day– Beck’s and Sarah Palin’s– here and here, respectively.

The first thing that came to mind, of course, was the multi-layered irony lasagna of Palin as arbiter of sac. Glynnis MacNicol correctly judges her a media genius, but resigning a governorship and being scared away from non-Fox News media by Katie Couric do not exactly bespeak fortitude (although she deserves credit for defending her family, an area in which she can be forgiven the occasional overreach). Additionally, I find it odd that someone who so closely identifies with “family values” would resort to such sexualized imagery.

The use of male sex organs to describe courage, foolish or otherwise, is so thoroughly woven into our popular vocabulary that I doubt it will ever change, but it promotes the sexist idea that this is an inherently male trait. There is no strictly feminine corollary. In fact, the closest colloquial cousins to be used to describe a strong woman with gumption are things like “ballbreaker” and “bitch.”

But do men really deserve credit for all of this bravery? True courage is an exceptional trait, on that should not be considered the default setting for peno-Americans. Thus, when Ed Schultz calls Harry Reid “ball-less,” he’s making the presumption that every man possesses this exceptional trait, and by extension, that women do not. Unless Sarah Palin pins some balls on them.

Ironically, the increased use of this decidedly regressive term is due largely to our progressively more permissive popular culture. There are other, non-sexual metaphors like “guts,” but these lack the attention-getting “Oomph!” of a reference to, or a kick in, the balls. Sexual imagery is integral to our culture, and I wouldn’t want to f**k with that, but isn’t there a way to be a little more evenhanded about it?

As for Jan Brewer and Arizona’s immigration law, it seems I am in the minority in thinking that its enactment didn’t take balls, but rather, a whole bunch of a**holes.

The previous Journolist posts have all featured varying degrees of the hard sell, with headlines that didn’t quite deliver on their promise. The most “incriminating” emails have been from avowed partisans, yet are all lumped together as a mainstream media conspiracy.

Why, then, would you bury truly outrageous emails that, in some cases, made veiled incest references, in a dump of raw emails? Certainly, this could be explained as a way to highlight the sheer volume of them, but it would also have been impossible to cherry-pick the bad ones, without also including the many Journolisters who gave no quarter to the Trig conspiracy. Chief among these was Journolist founder Ezra Klein:

Aug 30, 2008, 10:15am

Seriously, folks? Best case scenario, what’s your outcome here: Her daughter, hounded by the tabloids, breaks down that it was her child, and her mother heroically took on the burden and welcomed the disabled boy as one of her own? Palin’s relationship with her children — however they may have come to her — strikes me as pretty far out of bounds. By all accounts she’s a wonderful mother, and devoted to her fifth son. Leave this be.

Credit Daily Caller for not just cherry-picking the worst, of which there are plenty, but I think it’s a shame they didn’t offer a fuller analysis of this batch. They could have certainly had their fun with the many J-listers who either bought into the story, or even when pooh-poohing it, couldn’t resist speculating on what would happen if it was true, while also pointing out that there are decent people on both ends of the political spectrum.

There are also assholes on both sides, and this email dump has plenty of them to go around. Aside from completely spoiling the ending to Chinatown (you are warned), I felt especially queasy at this:

Brad DeLong
Aug 30, 2008, 8:12pm

Which is why I think the balance of probabilities is that it is her kid–unless Trig has not Down but fetal alcohol syndrome, in which the balance shifts back the other way.

No human being could fault Sarah Palin for being revolted by that kind of talk, but I hope someone takes the time to point out to her (I wouldn’t expect her to wade through them herself) that there were many on the list who clearly defended her. You can add me to the list of people who think that no parent should ever have to read such cold, cruel things about their own child.

Update: Since I wrote this, Daily Caller has published a “Heroes of Journolist” entry, which makes no mention of the Trig emails, but does dole out some praise to a few select J-listers.

As Glynnis MacNicol notes, Thernstrom made a disturbing revelation in an interview with Politico: (emphasis mine)

“This doesn’t have to do with the Black Panthers; this has to do with their fantasies about how they could use this issue to topple the [Obama] administration,” said Thernstrom, who said members of the commission voiced their political aims “in the initial discussions” of the Panther case last year.

“My fellow conservatives on the commission had this wild notion they could bring Eric Holder down and really damage the president,” Thernstrom said in an interview with POLITICO.

At the very least, this is a severe dereliction of the Commission’s mission, which says nothing about manufacturing political attacks on sitting presidents. If true, the President should immediately identify the commissioners involved, and dismiss them (the President has the power to dismiss commissioners “for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.”)

Although technically “bipartisan,” the Commission was stacked with conservatives by President George W. Bush by gaming the system. Only 4 of the 8 commissioners are allowed to be from the same political party, but two of the Republicans on the Commission switched to “Independent,” allowing Bush to appoint two more.

Adams, meanwhile, is the product of a famously politicized Bush administration Justice Department that hired only “ideological comrades” to positions as career lawyers. Even Fox News reported that a source close to the case said that Adams was a “conservative who has made willful misstatements” in a Fox News interview. He also volunteered with “the National Republican Lawyers Association, an offshoot of the Republican National Committee that trains lawyers to fight on the front lines of often racially tinged battles over voting rights.”

I asked J. Christian Adams if he had ever discussed the political implications of this case with any of the conservatives on the commission, and whether Thernstrom’s allegation gave him any pause: (via email)

Of course not. I’m a fact witness, not a strategist. Abby is a friend of mine. She shoots from the hip sometimes without thinking. She has that reputation. But it seem outlandish that that sort of thing would have been said back when the Commission opened their inquiry last fall. Its nuts and doesn’t make any sense in the context of fall 2009 and I presume you can see that.

… I’ve not seen anything that would tend to lend credibility to the assertion. In fact, I’ve encountered the opposite in my conversations with staff of the USCCR. All professional, all matter of fact. Abby has a well known reputation of stubbornly not backing off of her original positions no matter how tenuous emerging facts render her position. At times it is endearing to me, but to many others less so. But my knowledge and expertise in this debate is a small insular one that doesn’t extend to the inner tug of war at the Civil Rights Commission. I’ve not detected anything in my dealings with staff at the USCCR that supports her contention. Didn’t she say this allegation was made in the fall of last year? That would seem preposterous at the time given how few people even knew about the matter. But I just am not in a position to render an opinion about what this or that commissioner is up to.

I’m not sure what Adams means when he says it’s “preposterous” that conservative commissioners would have talked about political aims in their “initial discussions” of the case, if that was their whole reason for pursuing it.

Whether you find Adams’ complaint against the Department of Justice credible, or not, the fact that he’s willing to dismiss Thernstrom’s allegation out of hand is strange. She’s not just expressing some stubborn policy position, she is making a specific accusation.

The White House needs to investigate Abigail Thernstrom’s allegations, and nip this whole thing in the bud if they can, before it gets out of control.

This week marks the one year anniversary of the launch of Mediaite, and what a year it has been. As Dan Abrams notes, predictions of Mediaite’s doom were greatly exaggerated, and as Mediaite columnist and White House reporter from Day One, I have viewed the site’s successful first year from a unique perch. When Rachel Sklar pitched the site to me, I have to confess I was a little bit skeptical, but it didn’t take long for me to see that she and Dan were on to something.

Among other early worries about the site, Rachel and I wondered, at the beginning, what a media blog needed with a White House reporter. By the same token, in hiring me, Mediaite found itself with one, so they needed to find a use for me.

My previous work covering the White House tended to be much heavier on policy and politics than on the media, so it was a challenge, at first, to adapt my style to the new site. In fact, my first-ever question as Mediaite’s White House reporter didn’t even make it onto the blog. For posterity’s sake, here it is:

Luckily, I adapted to covering the media, and the media obligingly adapted to me. The Summer of Health Care provided lots of fodder that was in my wheelhouse, and gave way to an ever-shrinking news cycle that thrust the media into the center of almost every story. It also didn’t hurt that Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was rarely shy about pushing back against all manner of media outlets (including Mediaite) and memes. There were also ample opportunities to cover the view from behind the scenes, as with the Inside the White House Press Corps interview series.

When I returned to the White House as a Mediaite scribe, I noticed one difference right away. When I was with AOL, I used to always get this reaction: “AOL does news?”

With Mediaite, though, there was instant recognition, despite people’s trouble with the name (Media-lite? Media-ate?). Early on, this was due mainly to the participation of Dan Abrams and Rachel Sklar, and more importantly, to the ingenious Power Grid.

Pretty quickly, though, I began to hear less about the Grid, and more about our site as a whole. We developed a reputation for fair, even-handed reporting and commentary, and the people I spoke to in Washington took notice. After a few months, it became common for someone to walk up to me at the White House and say, “You’re Tommy Christopher, right? From Mediaite?” This was a pleasant shock to me. When I was with Politics Daily, people would recognize me despite my outlet, not because of it.

While some people still have trouble with our name, the people we cover in politics and the media sure don’t anymore.

It’s a poorly-kept secret that I can be a little bit temperamental, and coupled with gun-shyness at my well publicized firing from my last job (I note, with satisfaction, our decent lead over my old employer on the Technorati 100, with no help from a parent network), it’s not always great fun being my editor. At the beginning, I was very suspicious of even the most mundane editorial note, certain that there were hints of my doom in every one. Mediaite allows me a great deal of freedom, but as a writer, I have a tendency to be protective of my words, as though each Road House reference were a brush stroke on the Sistine Chapel.

My temperament required such special handling that Managing Editor Colby Hall and I even have a running joke that I’m Hannibal Lecter, and he’s Agent Starling, and I should be handed nothing but soft paper. There’s also the knee-slapper “You’re fired,” to which I sometimes reply “Too soon!” Over the course of the past year, Colby and I have traded many an earful, and in the process, he’s earned my trust, and hopefully, I’ve earned his.

Personally, this has been an incredible year. Much of my first 6 months with Mediaite are detailed in my 2009 Year in Review, but here are some highlights that, if you had told me about them last June, I would have thought you were nuts:

Getting Blacklisted by the Senate Finance Committee: This was one of the most frustrating, yet proudest, moments of the year for me. I had become such a pain in the ass to them in trying to get to the bottom of the lousy PHRMA deal, they just dropped all pretense and admitted they were just lying to me. Proud, because it meant I was doing my job well, and frustrating because I would much rather have gotten answers to my questions.

The Public Option: To the extent that a public health insurance option ever had a chance, I did everything I  could to get the White House to clarify its equivocal, and eventually fruitless, support for it.

Shooting the Shit With Dan Rather: For some reason, we held a launch party 5 months after our launch, and while there were lots of luminaries there, I was blown away by the time and attention given to me by broadcasting legend Dan Rather. It was just another surreal experience for a guy not 2 years removed from being a cubicle drone.

CPAC 2010: What an intense couple of days that was. Aside from getting to see my good friend Ed Morrissey, I also met Rachel Maddow for the first time, had an infamous run-in with Andrew Breitbart, a surreal confrontation with James O’Keefe pal Christian Hartsock, and got to do karaoke with about 10 Redstaters.

Briefing in the Rose Garden: Sometimes, it’s the simple pleasures. I sure am glad Gibbs isn’t doing that now, though.

Meeting Alan Colmes: For some reason, my job usually ends up putting me together with conservatives, so it was nice to be able to sit down and talk to a guy I agreed with for a change.

Chuck Todd’s Star Wars Impressions: Of all the interviews I did with White House reporters this year, Chuck’s still makes me laugh out loud.

Nancy Pelosi Protest Video: This might be my favorite piece of video this year. Aside from being funny, infuriating, and poignant all at once, I felt it really captured some essential truths about our politics, and how poorly served we can be by a two party monopoly.

Helen Thomas: I couldn’t call Helen’s sudden retirement a “highlight” of this past year, but working with her certainly was. The lightning speed of that story’s arc was perfectly illustrative of the shrinking of the news cycle this past year.

Hollering at Colby Hall in the White House Rose Garden: As I said before, it’s not always great fun being my editor. Never was this more the case than on a hot day last November when, as I waited with the assembled press for the President to make remarks in the Rose Garden, I got into a heated shouting match with Mediaite’s managing editor, Colby Hall. I walked about a hundred feet away from the media, but apparently, not far enough. You know how everyone suddenly gets quiet while you’re yelling something embarrassing? Yeah, that happened just as I was yelling my loudest, and cursiest. I turned, and every eye was on me.

It wouldn’t be the last time Colby would have to talk me down, but it was the first time I considered that, maybe, he was in my corner after all.

Meeting Hillary Clinton: This is a story that I haven’t told in print before, and I won’t tell the whole story now, either. Let’s just say that a series of events occurred that ended with me unexpectedly passing Hillary Clinton on a staircase that I wasn’t supposed to be on. As I approached her, I ran through several greetings in my head, and though I decided on “Hello, Madam Secretary,” what actually came out of my face (along with my best officious nod) was “Hi, Secretary!”

I don’t mortify easily, but I still bury my face in my hands at the thought of it.

Getting in Tony Hayward’s Grill: While Jake Tapper‘s zinger at the end makes this clip awesome, it was the sight of my camera, inches from Hayward’s face in a wire service photo, that really took this thing to 11 for me. At first, I was just pissed off that Hayward had fled without answering any questions, but later, I realized that his silence spoke volumes, as did our lack thereof.

The Kevin Jennings Story: Of all the stories I wrote this year, this is probably my favorite. Debunking the barrage of smears against Kevin Jennings was such a heavy lift, many in the mainstream media didn’t bother to try.

I don’t know what this next year holds, but it’s off to a bang-up start. Meet you back here next July.

Do you have a question, comment or complaint about anything concerning Mediaite? Well if you do, today is a real chance to make your voice heard. We will be holding our Mediaite Office Hours at 3pmET.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta will be calling in from the Gulf Coast, where he is anchoring this week. Next week he’s returning to Haiti with several other CNN correspondents. Gavin will be talking about the D.C. goings on, and Rovell will discuss the big event of the day (or week) – LeBron and the ESPN special tonight. Twitter follows: Gupta, Gavin, Rovell.

Glynnis MacNicol, Steve Krakauer and Rachel Sklar host the live-streamed call-in show, and others in the Mediaite team, like, Colby Hall and our fantastic interns, will appear periodically, as well as special guests.

Our call-in number is (347) 632-8956. Also, we’re using Skype now, so you can video chat in to our username – Mediaite. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Watch us live here on this page at 3pmET, or check it out at www.livestream.com/mediaite.

See you at 3pm – the order will be Gavin, Gupta, Rovell.

Alas, it’s hardly surprising that we were met with a tepid reception. We are, at times, reviewing the reviewers and, well, let’s just say that — shockingly! — some in media don’t appreciate being reviewed. Fortunately for us, despite those early pokes, most leaders in media have come to embrace us. We truly appreciate that so many of you have made Mediaite a regular part of your daily web diet.

Mediaite is now welcoming between 1.3 to 1.5 million unique visitors per month to the site. That already puts us ahead of the name-brand media industry websites, significantly ahead of most of the best-known political blogs, and obviously far above what I could have anticipated when we launched. Even more important, the quality of the news we report has quickly made Mediaite a significant player in the national debate. Mediaite is cited regularly in many of the most prestigious traditional publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, Forbes, NPR, USA Today, The Atlantic, The Week, and the National Review, as well as routinely being cited by the outlets leading the digital revolution, including Yahoo! and AOL as well as leading political sites like Huffington Post, Drudge, Hot Air, Raw Story, Salon, and others (“others” includes regularly and proudly getting blasted by media watchdogs Media Matters from the left and Newsbusters from the right).

Our team has also broken many of the major media stories of the past year, ranging from the launch of new websites to the sale of existing ones, from television shows coming and going (including CNN’s Campbell Brown leaving) to mass layoffs at networks. Plus, we have been at the forefront of web video as this medium reaches new levels of popularity. That includes our exclusive series of interviews with members of the White House Press Corps, as well as curating news clips from the most exciting moments on cable news.

Despite our tiny staff, we have more than achieved the goal I set forth in my original note one year ago, when I hoped it would become “a unique property that will quickly become a must-read for anyone interested in media, the business of it and the personalities behind it.”

Mediaite is also now the proud parent of three other thriving sites, Geekosystem.com, Styleite.com (which launched in March) and Sportsgrid.com (launched in May). Geekosystem, which examines the online world through the “geek prism,” is rapidly approaching the one million uniques per month mark after just six months in business. Including sister site Gossipcop.com (which has also vastly exceeded expectations in less than a year) and our syndicated content, our sales team is selling over five million unique visitors per month. After all, what is a content site these days without that ultimate proof of viability: advertisers? Last month alone, Mediaite had, among others, Yahoo, Bing, Mercedes, Vespa, Showtime, Syfy, and Bravo as sponsors. In the months to come we will be announcing a variety of additional revenue generating endeavors, as well as additional sites. Even so, this is is still a work in progress, and we look forward to trying to take it to new heights in year two.

So here is to the Mediaite team. They deserve all the credit for nimbly avoiding “doom,” for somehow making even certain skeptics care about “the business and personalities behind the media,” and for admitting they work for a site that was once compared to a diarrhea remedy — even before it was cool. And of course, a big thank you to all of you who have read us, written for us, and advertised with us.

In the meantime, here is a little video look-back at the year that was. (Special thanks to Kevin Gotkin and Video Jon for their terrific work on the video below!)

Let’s start with State By State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, a terrific anthology edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey. This book is, first of all, a fantastic reference (and as a Canuckian I have found it helpful more than once). It literally goes state by state — from Alabama to Wyoming — with gorgeous, personal and all-around delightful essays by lit luminaries like George Packer, Josh Ferris, Sarah Vowell, John Hodgman, Heidi Julavits, Susan Orlean, Jhumpa Lahiri, Alexander Payne, Jonathan Franzen, and however many others make up 50. There is a great photo gallery, plus per-capita factoid tables at the back (Utah is the youngest; New Hampshire has the most roller coasters; South Carolina has the most violent crime; Wyoming guzzles the most gas; West Virginia is fattest and most toothless; Montana has the highest military recruitment rate). It will make you want to road-trip across the country and spend ten years doing it. — Rachel Sklar

Parting the Waters: Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement 1954-63 by Taylor Branch

I’ve always been a fan of contemporary history and no book makes me feel prouder about the American experience, oddly enough, then to read about the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King. Branch’s book is practically a day-to-day retelling of the move from Jim Crow America into the heart of the Civil Rights Movement. The work of King and other civil rights leaders created the model that all later movements (women’s rights, gay rights) would borrow and create “the language” of social change in the U.S. Living just outside of Washington, D.C., I drive by the Lincoln Memorial probably four times a week and it still takes my breath away to see the Memorial, but also think about King speaking before the assembled crowd in 1963 giving his epic “I Have a Dream” speech. Branch’s book isn’t beach reading, but I still love to pick it up and thumb through the pages reading about people who really did change modern America. — Michael Triplett

*****

Apparently, I own a lot of books that could be considered patriotic – particularly if you’re willing to include titles that push the boundaries of political advocacy. I’ve got The Reader’s Companion to American History and The People’s History of the United States. The Americans and These United States. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, Meacham’s American Lion. I’ve got the Federalist Papers, and Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men.

These last two – a collection of the founding documents of our nation and a fictionalized tale of a corrupt elected official – have corollaries that are also in my collection. These corollaries, with twists on those two themes, are my recommendations. — Philip Bump

A Cartoon Guide to the Constitution of the United States by Eric Lurio

In the summer of 1987, my family took a trip around Lake Ontario to Toronto. This was the 200th anniversary of the ratification of the Constitution – an event that lacked the fanfare of the nation’s bicentennial only outside of the world of academic historians.

Being a nerdy kid and an American history buff, someone gave me this book, published specifically for the anniversary. A comic book-style deconstruction of our nation’s most important document, I read it voraciously as we made our way into Canada.

It wasn’t trivial. It may have been made accessible using a cartoon format, but it dove deep into the decision-making process behind the document and the legal battles that refined its implementation. I learned about the battle of Wilkes-Barre, Marbury vs. Madison, and each of the Amendments. The book was clearly designed for folks with a decent awareness about history; occasional pop quizzes asked the reader to, for example, “explain the Emperor Norton.”

It’s out of print now, having made only one run on the presses that year. But it’s available used online, which is where I got my copy a few years back. It’s on my bookshelf, ready to entertain the children I’ll one day have in the back of a car I’ll one day own (assuming, God willing, that they’re nerdy and history buffs). They’ll have one advantage – they’ll be able to simply look up “Emperor Norton” to get a perfect score on the quiz. I had to wait until kids a few years older than me invented Google.

–

All the President’s Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

Dissent, while important, is not the highest form of patriotism. The highest form of patriotism comes from ensuring that the nation’s decision-makers (that is, the voters) are informed about their decisions.

All the President’s Men, in detailing Woodward and Bernstein’s slow, meticulous, sputtering uncovering of the Watergate scandal and the role of the Executive branch in exceeding legal limits, is a fascinating read. (And a great movie – that you can watch instantly on Netflix.) But it’s also an important historical document detailing both the perfidies of our nation’s leaders and the efforts of independent (albeit well-equipped) citizens in revealing the truth.

Their methods are archaic; the crisis the nation faced fades more in our memory each year distant. The message, though, remains – and it’s one of particular interest to those in the media. It is this: There is always more that can be learned about how our government functions, and it’s incumbent upon us to learn and share it. Whether it’s the corruption of a President or the decisions of a municipal decision-making body, we are all required to be informed about the nation we live in.

What Woodward and Bernstein accomplished made them rich and famous. But it also made our nation stronger, more transparent, and, on the whole, better.

What is more patriotic than that?

*****

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
This book hardly needs any introduction. Fifty years after publication, the novel remains a classic with striking relevance in what is a far from post-racial America. The idealist protagonist Atticus Finch manages to instill a sense of hope, despite being a fictitious character. You’ll find yourself wondering why more people don’t have the same kind of mentality: if Atticus can look past race, why can’t we? Furthermore, many of the book’s words from 1960 ring true as if they were written today: “sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of–oh, of your father.” While the book definitely points out the country’s flaws, the overall tone will leave you more optimistic than any speech President Obama can muster.

What’s So Great About America, by Dinesh D’Souza
A distinguishing characteristic about this book is that it is written from an immigrant’s perspective–with D’Souza having come to American from Mumbai, India. Staunchly positive, he argues that the United States, “once an experiment unique in the world, is now the last best hope for the world.” The book touts the unsurprising American ideals of liberty and justice for all–but what makes it interesting is how it also points out the simpler things that are often overlooked by those who were born and bred here. The roads are smoothly paved, the phone has a dial tone, the grocery store carries “every imaginable product.” When D’Souza asks a fellow Mumbai man why he wants to go to America, he gets the reply: “Because I really want to move to a country where the poor people are fat.” And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what makes America great. — Mediaite summer intern Meenal Vamburkar

*****

Men Of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book, Gerard Jones’ book on the birth of the comic book, is a great American story. Lower East Side immigrants creating a new art form, small town kid creating Superman to make himself feel better about his father being murdered, companies using these heroes to help get American kids (and adults) through the war, etc. It’s my great American story. — Jedd Katrancha

*****

Confession: I had not heard of Dream Makers, Dream Breakers: The World of Justice Thurgood Marshall, by Carl T. Rowan, before last week, when I published this by Danielle Belton, aka The Black Snob. She calls it “one of my favorite books to this day” and apparently it’s a Black History Month reading list staple. Belton points out it’s an every month staple, too; I will add to that that it’s probably a legal staple as well, and as a former lawyer the combo was enough to put it on my Amazon holiday purchase list. Buying books is patriotic! Anyway, Publisher’s Weekly called it “richly readable” and it said it was a six-week PW bestseller. Maybe Glenn Beck can help make it popular again!

Speaking of Glenn Beck, I can’t believe that’s the launching point for me to mention Gail Collins and her fabulous America’s Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines, but since it’s one of Glynnis MacNicol’s favorite books that seems natural. Oh wait it’s also natural because she *just* wrote about it while writing about Glenn Beck and his teachings about the Founding Mothers. Quoth Glynnis: “A few years ago Collins penned America’s Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines a highly engaging (highly recommended) survey of the under-reported, fundamentally integral, vital, and frequently deadly role women played in the building of this country. Want to talk about the sort of American history that doesn’t get taught enough in schools you can start right there!” Here’s Glynnis’ take: “With her usual, often revealing wit, Collins has created a hard-to-put-down read that will leave you with not only a deep, and sometimes jarring, appreciation of the often terrible struggles women faced for most of this country’s history but also enormously grateful you were born late enough to miss most of it. Needless to say, just like her NYT op-ed columns, it’s also great fun.” Gee, sounds like a book I’d like to read! What, I haven’t read it, you ask? Nope – I bought it….and then lent it to Glynnis. She loved it so much I couldn’t take it back. She then loaned it to Melissa Lafsky. Paying it forward! Glenn Beck would be so proud.

For those of you feeling a little punchy this weekend, go ahead and wrangle over The Thirteen American Arguments: Enduring Debates That Define and Inspire Our Country by Howard Fineman. Some of the questions argued about: Who Is A Person? Who Is An American? What is the Role of Faith? What Can We Know and Say? Stuff you can really sink your teeth into. I love the idea behind this book — that we are constantly evolving and refining the answers, or at least caring enough about them to think, talk and passionately argue about them. And they are relevant as hell, too — “Who is a person?” has come up as recently as the BP Oil Spill, with BP’s corporate personality being raised as an issue in payback, liability and related issues, as well as at the beginning of the year when the ban on corporate political spending was lifted by the Supreme Court. If you think about it, the past year of intense political wrangling over the Tea Party and health care and immigration and pretty much everything can come down to these arguments (“The Terms of Trade” “War and Diplomacy” “Who Judges the Law?” — a Wise Latina? — “The Environment” “Presidential Power” “Debt and the Dollar”) — Fineman published this book in early 2008 but wow do these issues still have this country wrangling today. — Rachel Sklar

Do you have a question, comment or complaint about anything concerning Mediaite? Well if you do, today is a real chance to make your voice heard. We will be holding our Mediaite Office Hours at 3pmET.

Velshi will call in from the Gulf region where he’s been reporting all week. Follow him on Twitter here. Check out Gapper’s blog on FT.com. We’ll also have Philip Bump in studio.

Glynnis MacNicol, Steve Krakauer and Rachel Sklar host the live-streamed call-in show, and others in the Mediaite team, like, Colby Hall and our fantastic interns, will appear periodically, as well as special guests.

Our call-in number is (347) 632-8956. Also, we’re using Skype now, so you can video chat in to our username – Mediaite. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Watch us live here on this page at 3pmET, or check it out at www.livestream.com/mediaite.

See you at 3pm!

For those of you who have forgotten, Van Jones is the founder of Color of Change, an organization that led a successful boycott of Glenn Beck after the Fox News host called President Obama a racist, and Beck was instrumental in Jones’ resignation from the Obama administration, publicizing the fact that he’d once been finagled into signing a “Truther” petition and had once called Republicans “assholes.”

Van Jones is one of the speakers at this week’s America’s Future Now! conference, and I had been looking forward to meeting him. I wonder, among other things, if as an adviser on green energy, Jones might have enacted some change that could have prevented the BP Oil Spill had he remained in the administration, which makes the spill Glenn Beck’s fault.

I saw him off in a corner last night, so I went to introduce myself. “Mr. Jones, I’m Tommy Christopher from Mediaite.”

A flash of recognition crossed his face, and he said “Oh, I know, I really like your work.”

“Really?” I said, “You read Mediaite?” (I’m sure my editors are stoked that I evinced such shock.)

“Yes, and I really appreciate the work that you do.”

Now, this was a little bit awkward, because I wanted to ask him if he meant my work, or the site’s, but that would have seemed egotistical. It’s really just the journalist in me, mainly, and just a little bit of ego. Maybe it was my coverage of attempts to smear other administration officials, or Rachel Sklar‘s coronation of Jones as the Czar of Hotness, that hooked him, but the site’s unique editorial voice is probably what kept him coming back.

After a brief discussion, we parted ways, and he said “Thank you again for the work you do.”

I’m always gratified to learn that someone enjoys our site, and in Jones’ case, especially so. First of all, the guy is super-smart. He’s so smart, when he plays Jeopardy!, they call it “Complete Safety!”

But more than that, it is a testament to the diversity of viewpoint and fairness of Mediaite that both Van Jones and Glenn Beck, two guys so polarized that they make the North and South Poles look like the number 11, enjoy reading us.

It is a matter of record that Mediaite is “growing to be” one of Glenn Beck’s favorite websites. This is thanks, in large part, to Glynnis MacNicol‘s coverage, including her recurring Moment of Glenn feature, but I’m sure Glenn doesn’t just read about himself. Even Beck’s detractors would have to admit that being this neo-Barnum’s go-to media website is pretty impressive.

So clearly there is hope that a new day is dawning; one where even a small thing like a shared affinity for a little-media-website-that-could, can bring people together. Did you feel that, World? That was you, healing a little bit.

Do you have a question, comment or complaint about anything concerning Mediaite? Well if you do, today is a real chance to make your voice heard. We will be holding our Mediaite Office Hours at 3pmET.

Glynnis MacNicol, Steve Krakauer and Rachel Sklar host the live-streamed call-in show, and others in the Mediaite team, like, Colby Hall and our fantastic interns, will appear periodically, as well as special guests.

Our call-in number is (347) 632-8956. Also, we’re using Skype now, so you can video chat in to our username – Mediaite. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Watch us live here on this page at 3pmET, or check it out at www.livestream.com/mediaite.

See you at 3pm!

Do you have a question, comment or complaint about anything concerning Mediaite? Well if you do, today is a real chance to make your voice heard. We will be holding our Mediaite Office Hours at 3pmET.

Today on the show, we have Leitch in studio, author of the new book Are We Winning?. Follow him on Twitter here. We’ll talk to Gay about all of this week’s Upfronts, Campbell Brown‘s exit and more. Follow him here. Also, Rachel is Skyping in from Toronto.

Glynnis MacNicol, Steve Krakauer and Rachel Sklar host the live-streamed call-in show, and others in the Mediaite team, like, Colby Hall and our fantastic interns, will appear periodically, as well as special guests.

Our call-in number is (347) 632-8956. Also, we’re using Skype now, so you can video chat in to our username – Mediaite. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Watch us live here on this page at 3pmET, or check it out at www.livestream.com/mediaite.

See you at 3pm!

Do you have a question, comment or complaint about anything concerning Mediaite? Well if you do, today is a real chance to make your voice heard. We will be holding our Mediaite Office Hours at 3pmET.

Sax is in studio. Check out his book “Save The Deli“. Maynard will talk about her book “The Selling Of The American Economy” and Rosman will discuss “If You Knew Suzy“.

Glynnis MacNicol, Steve Krakauer and Rachel Sklar host the live-streamed call-in show, and others in the Mediaite team, like, Colby Hall and our fantastic interns, will appear periodically, as well as special guests.

Our call-in number is (347) 632-8956. Also, we’re using Skype now, so you can video chat in to our username – Mediaite. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Watch us live here on this page at 3pmET, or check it out at www.livestream.com/mediaite.

See you at 3pm!

They’re seizing on this statement by the President, and interpreting it as an Apple slam:

And with iPods and iPads; and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — (laughter) — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation.

What they’re missing, of course, is the preceding sentence. Here’s the full quote:

And meanwhile, you’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank that high on the truth meter.  And with iPods and iPads; and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — (laughter) — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation.  So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it’s putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy.

He wasn’t slamming the iPad, but rather the content of dubious truth-metering that is available on it.

Mediaite’s Glynnis MacNicol isolated one valid takeaway, that the President warning college grads about new media signal-to-noise sounded a little bit out of touch. Personally, I’m worried about these people who get their news off of the Xbox. Maybe that explains all the gun rallies, they’re tooling up for the imminent God of War attack.

What’s funny is that I was just wondering if President Obama has some kind of apple obsession. I mean the fruit, not the iStuff producers. When the White House released this photo of the POTUS and Elena Kagan this morning, with a bowl of what appear to be McIntoshes in the foreground, it reminded me of the towers of green apples that adorned every table at last year’s Father’s Day barbecue. Note to Sarah Palin: Is this all part of his plan to “keep the doctor away?” Wheels within wheels, man. Wheels within wheels.

Frances Martel asked that very question yesterday, and I have the answer (via Politico): publicity, for his book and his consulting company. His disaster recovery consulting company. No, I’m not kidding.

Brown tells Politico:

…he just wants the publicity. He wants to sell his new book, he says, and he wants to get some clients for his company.

“There’s that phrase, ‘Any publicity is good publicity’” Brown told POLITICO. “I kind of buy into that.”

Sure, if there are companies that need a consultant to tell them how to deploy their secret black helicopters. Brown’s drumbeat that the Obama administration deliberately let the BP Gulf Oil Spill worsen is only slightly more hinged than what Robert Gibbs thought he said. (It turns out Dana Perino was the one who floated the sabotage theory, not Brown.)

To paraphrase LL Cool J, don’t call it a comeback. Seriously, don’t, because it isn’t.

Do you have a question, comment or complaint about anything concerning Mediaite? Well if you do, today is a real chance to make your voice heard. We will be holding our Mediaite Office Hours at 3pmET.

We’ve got a great show today, with O’Donnell on to talk about D.C. politics and Rovell to talk sports and business. Follow Rovell on Twitter here.

Glynnis MacNicol, Steve Krakauer and Rachel Sklar host the live-streamed call-in show, and others in the Mediaite team, like, Colby Hall and our fantastic interns, will appear periodically, as well as special guests.

Our call-in number is (347) 632-8956. Also, we’re using Skype now, so you can video chat in to our username – Mediaite. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Watch us live here on this page at 3pmET, or check it out at www.livestream.com/mediaite.

See you at 3pm!

Do you have a question, comment or complaint about anything concerning Mediaite? Well if you do, today is a real chance to make your voice heard. We will be holding our Mediaite Office Hours at 3pmET.

Today we’ll talk to Klein about the D.C. political happenings – from Charlie Crist to Nerd Prom. Follow him on Twitter here. We’ll talk with Poniewozik about CNN, Glee and more. Follow him here.

Glynnis MacNicol, Steve Krakauer and Rachel Sklar host the live-streamed call-in show, and others in the Mediaite team, like, Colby Hall and our fantastic interns, will appear periodically, as well as special guests.

Our call-in number is (347) 632-8956. Also, we’re using Skype now, so you can video chat in to our username – Mediaite. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Watch us live here on this page at 3pmET, or check it out at www.livestream.com/mediaite.

See you at 3pm!

What will you find that’s different? Well the biggest universal change is a more image-friendly home page. The stories across the the top of the pages – what we call the “Top Shelf” – are significantly bigger, and so to our those images that our in the media specific categories found below the lead story. We’ve also added two more stories to these sections, which has given us the room to add thumbnail images to the stories on the right hand column. We feel strongly that this will allow users to more easily access a lot more of the great content our writers publish each and every day.

The other big layout change? We no longer are differentiating between Online and Print categories in our homepage. Yes, those categories still exist – you can find all of your online and print specific stories by clicking the respective icons on the navigation bar atop the page. But we couldn’t help but notice that now nearly every print story is now an online story, so we’ve simply doubled that space and have effectively made two closely related categories into one.

While it would be great to claim the the graphic refresh was a collaborative effort, but that wouldn’t entirely be true. The redesign was led (and implemented) by Mediaite’s own Scott Smitelli. For more insight into the tortured mind that informed our redesign, I encourage you to read his exegesis on the KFC Double Down™ (in which he lovingly re-brands the sandwich a “meat heap”). Yes, Scott is a triple threat: web developer, blogger AND consumer of mass-marketed artery cloggers.

Internet publishing is, among many things, an iterative process – so there will likely be some minor tweaks and changes in the coming weeks and months as well. We still dream of adding an auto-tune plug-in to all of our videos, – how great would it be to hear Chris Matthews or Greta Van Susteren sing the news? But we will now wait to work on that feature when auto-tune comes back in ironically detached vogue (yeah, it’s played out.) Until then, enjoy the site and please feel free to share your thoughts on the redesign in the comments section below.