The party was held at the Gramercy Park Hotel, which, while fancy, also possesses an undeniable schmanciness as well. When you walk in, there’s no sterile check-in counter, just one guy behind a low antiquey table with a guest book on it. I thought he was just waiting for someone to bring him a latte. I got there an hour-and-a-half early, not so I could secure on-street parking, but for some other good, strategic reason.

Luckily, the Gramercy Park Terrace (or The ‘Rrace, as I like to call it) was open to the unfashionably early, so I went up to get the lay of the land. There, I was met by an MSNBC PR staffer, who showed me around, and got me a copy of Chris Matthews‘ Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero to peruse while I waited. I also finally got to meet some of the MSNBC PR staff, whom I’d only ever spoken to via phone or email. In fact, it looked like MSNBC’s entire PR staff was there. If they were cops, I’d have been out robbing a bank.

The ‘Rrace is a lush, zen-like space with two open bars (!), lots of plants everywhere, and a muted, nature-themed decor. I took a few pictures, grabbed a Diet Coke (the bartender informed me that it takes more skill to pour one of those than any other drink), and sat down to read Matthews’ book until the partygoers arrived.

One of the first to arrive was MSNBC President Phil Griffin, followed closely by Mediaite Managing Editor Colby Hall (also a Project: In Vino operative), both of whom headed straight for the bar. That was my cue to grab a glass of champagne, just to blend in, you see. Michael Calderone was another early arrival, whom I hadn’t seen since the last media-elite book party I’d infiltrated, for Bill Press‘ Toxic Talk, so we spent some time catching up. Since then, Mike has gone from Yahoo! News over to The Huffington Post.

Also in attendance was the lovely and talented Ann Curry, who was also at the Mediaite launch party. In fact, there were quote a few Mediaite launch party alums, including Willie Geist (who claimed to read Mediaite every morning, and passed a quiz to prove it), and broadcasting giant Dan Rather and his wife, Jean (who really like the vibe of the ‘Rrace). In that way, these things are kind of like summer camp, but with better S’mores and booze.

Other luminaries in attendance included comedy legend Jerry Stiller, New York Times media wunderkind Brian Stelter, Game Change co-author John Heilemann, MSNBC anchor Tamron Hall (no relation to Colby), Andrew Ross Sorkin, PBS’ Charlie Rose, and a couple of my White House comrades, Renegade author Richard Wolffe and newly-minted MSNBC dayside star Alex Wagner.

Wolffe asked after my bum ticker, but I caught the subtext. He was obviously trying to enlist me in some sort of scheme to promote socialized medicine, so I played along. I congratulated Alex on her new show, and after my second glass of champagne with no food, corralled Phil Griffin to let him know that whoever decided to give Alex her own show ought to be promoted. Any idiot can see her megawatt TV appeal, but she was also one of the hardest-working reporters on the White House beat for Politics Daily.

In conversations with the denizens of this media ivory tower, there were a few consistent themes. Herman Cain’s recent troubles came up a lot, with the general consensus being that he could probably survive the scandal absent a flesh-and-blood accuser coming forward, but that his campaign needed to learn how to handle it better. James O’Keefe‘s recent activity was also the subject of some buzz, with requisite outrage over his treatment of Sam Stein, but also disappointment that his expose´s weren’t more interesting.

A few people even expressed some positive feelings about the burgeoning prime-time slate at Current TV, the feeling being that there’s room enough in the sky for two forward-leaning lineups to succeed.

Chris Matthews was there, of course, and though I missed his remarks due to an ill-timed smoke break, I did manage to hear his shout-out to Willie Geist as “the most influential man in America at 5:30 AM.”

Matthews worked the party tirelessly for several hours, rarely sitting, and as the crowd began to thin out, I approached him to see if he’d sit for a brief interview, “whenever you’re ready.”

“Sure,” he said, “let me just say good-bye to a few people.”

I set up my camcorder (which cleverly decided to ignore the fact that I had plugged a microphone into it), and antsily waited for Matthews to return. With a three hour drive ahead of me, I guess impatience got the better of me, and after a few minutes, I started angrily composing tweets in my head about how Chris Matthews had ditched me at his book party. Fortunately for me, he showed up shortly thereafter, and even though it was probably the last thing he felt like doing, answered all of my questions at length.

All in all, it was a very good night. True, nobody got hammered (although I did feel a little lightheaded after my 2nd champagne on an empty stomach, and had to snarf down 3 emergency Wagyu beef skewers), and I didn’t get the smoking gun footage on these elites that I’d hoped for, but as I boarded the elevator to head back to Jersey, I felt pretty good about the whole thing. As the doors closed, a tall, strikingly beautiful woman hopped into the elevator. As we descended, she eyed my tripod, smiled, and asked, “Were you the photographer at the Victoria’s Secret party?”

No. No, I was not.

Take a look at are some photos from the event, via my crummy camcorder and MSNBC:

NEXT>>>> Photos from Chris Matthews’ Book Party

Limbaugh’s take went more like: “My dogs have created more shovel-ready work than Obama has just this week alone. The new puppy. Honest to God. More shovel-ready work for me this week than Obama has created all two and a half years.” There were more puppies, but the gist is the same.

“I guess I’ve become show prep for the GOP debates now, too,” Limbaugh told Huff Post, sounding flattered that Johnson might pass the joke off as his own.

Johnson claims the lift was an accident, and that he had been sent several jokes “by his buddy” earlier in the day to consider and thought, “wow, that was really funny.” He feigns ignorance as to where his buddy originally heard the joke.

So no points for creativity, but kudos to Johnson for knowing the good jokes, even if he doesn’t know where they come from.

Decked in a helmet and flack vest, stationed in the back of a rebel pick-up truck, she was the first, and perhaps best placed, western reporter in Libya yesterday. And just how did she make that happen? With her MacBook Pro and a mini-satellite dish connected to the truck’s cigarette lighter socket, charging like you might a cell phone on a long car trip, and a producer who was savvy enough with a compass to keep the signal up throughout the  broadcast.

Technical logistics aside, to be first on the scene of such a momentous occasion is a feat; and with bullets flying everywhere, albeit in celebration, it was a great one. Sky News executive editor Chris Brikett told Michael Calderone of the Huffington Post that Crawford had made close contacts with Libyan rebels earlier this year in Zawiya, and that, as a result, she was able to “to make an assessment whether it was safe to go in with the rebel convoy into Tripoli” while others may have hesitated.

Crawford was eventually joined on-air by Al Jazeera English’s Zeina Khodr and CNN’s Sara Snider, but not before she became a world wide trending topic on twitter and attracting over 1,000 U.S. viewers to Sky News’s broadcast, streaming live on-line, where most viewers were getting news while MSNBC let their regularly scheduled programming run until 8PM. As a result of a content-sharing agreement, her report was later rebroadcast by CBS News, as well as by Sky’s News Corp. sibling, Fox News.

The tone of the video clip below, is all-around, and rightfully, jubilant.

Michael Calderone (pictured), formerly Yahoo’s senior media reporter, has been named HuffPost’s new senior media reporter. Trymaine Lee leaves The New York Times to become the site’s new senior reporter. The New York Daily News‘ Michael McAuliffe has been named senior congressional reporter. The Daily‘s Jon Ward has been named HuffPost’s senior political reporter. Soon-to-be Harvard grad Bonnie Kavoussi has been named business reporter, and, finally, freelance writer and Unigo (a site devoted to college students and graduates) founding editor Lucas Kavner has been named entertainment reporter.

The hires demonstrate the newly-formed Huffington Post Media Group’s dedication to original reporting – perhaps, although it’s still too soon to tell, over the site’s popularity as a news aggregator. Or, as Group editor in chief and HuffPost founder Arianna Huffington phrased it, the hires reflect the Group’s goals of delivering “engaging and high-impact journalism.”

The three new blogs include The Cutline, a media blog run by Michael Calderone and Joe Pompeo; The Lookout, a blog covering national affairs run by Zachary Roth, Brett Michael Dykes, and Liz Goodwin; and The Ticket, a political blog run by Holly Bailey and Rachel Rose Hartman.

The announcement on the Upshot says:

The Upshot has just given birth to triplets.

Since the site launched in July, we’ve hustled to pull together the most interesting and important news on three core beats: politics, national affairs and media. Our bloggers have broken news and analyzed big stories, pointed out to great stories by other publications, and done our best to offer you a comprehensive media diet.

And you’ve responded. Readers inside and outside of the Yahoo! network have read the site by the millions, shared our stories via email, Twitter and Facebook, and engaged with our bloggers.

So today, we’re launching three new sites dedicated specifically to the topics The Upshot was already covering.

In addition, Advertising Age has a lengthy piece out today about Yahoo’s growth — and struggles — which reveals that although Yahoo! has had layoffs recently on the tech side, they continue to bring in new editorial hires, including Deadspin founder & New York Contributing Editor Will Leitch, who will head up movie coverage. Yahoo also recently hired former Defamer editor Mark Lisanti to head up their entertainment coverage, as well as a number of other bloggers and reporters to fill out their yet-to-launch entertainment and finance blogs.

Although Yahoo is the web’s #1 most-trafficked news site, much of their content has long been syndicated from places like the Associated Press and Reuters.  With the launch of the Upshot and three sister blogs, as well as their growing stable of veteran reporters poached from other media organizations, Yahoo is clearly betting on original content as the key to their success strategy.

Just 30 percent of respondents believe the mainstream media is interested in political cooperation, according to a new ABC News/ Yahoo! News poll; 63 percent say reporters help stoke division.

Here’s a look at how that breaks down:

Conservative radio hosts also clocked in at 30 percent in terms of cooperation, with 61 percent saying they help foster division. Cable news programs came in at 29 percent for cooperation, 59 percent for division.

Yowch. Surprised? As Calderone points out perhaps the only really surprising thing is just how much the public blames the media, not that the media trucks in division as the quickest way to gin up ratings and traffic. Meanwhile, contrary to what you might have concluded from said media, President Obama gets high marks for cooperation from the nation.

A majority of respondents agreeing that [Obama] was interested in political cooperation, at 59 percent. Sarah Palin and the tea party movement polled at 34 percent and 31 percent on the same question, respectively.

Except people everywhere will have a hard time getting their hands on images of Koran burning if the AP has anything to do with it. Yahoo’s Michael Calderone reports (via Romenesko) that the AP has announced it will “not distribute images or audio that specifically show Qurans being burned, and will not provide detailed text descriptions of the burning.”

Tom Kent, the AP’s deputy managing editor for standards and production, told staff Thursday that while the AP will cover the Gainesville, Florida event organized by pastor Terry Jones, it’s important to “plac[e] the actions of this group of about 50 people in a clear and balanced context.”

It’s a slippery slope. On the one hand, this is a story that desperately needs some context and balance, (or needed…that horse has sort of left the barn so to speak) and the decision not to add fuel to the fire with upsetting images is in many ways admirable. On the other hand, balance and context where this story is concerned went out the window a while ago — in the interim Gen. Petraeus, Hillary Clinton, President Obama and the State Department have all weighed in, meaning for better or worse this story has attained international importance. And good intentions aside it is always worrisome when a large news organization censors its own news reporting. Even when they are censoring things you wish had never been made newsworthy to begin with! As Calderone points out the “AP not distributing Quran images is big deal because of how many US papers rely on them — dozens used AP shots of Jones on Wed front pages.”

This is not the first time the AP has made headlines for its coverage Islam-related coverage, last month they announced they would not refer to the proposed Lower Manhattan community center as the Ground Zero Mosque.

Congrats to White House Correspondents’ Board on its hard work: AP moves to Helen’s center seat, Fox to AP’s front-row seat, NPR to 2nd row.

It’s an interesting shuffle and no doubt some speculation will go into why Fox, who pushed hard for Thomas’s seat, was not in the end totally successful. That said, they have been moved up to the front row (a scenario Tommy Christopher predicted back in June). Says the Upshot’s Michael Calderone: “The idea of moving the AP — which normally gets the first question at presidential press conferences — was under discussion in recent years, long before Thomas retired.”

Bloomberg, who also pushed hard to be considered, remains in the second row, and NPR, who made a late move for the spot, has been bumped up from the third row to Fox New’s current spot. Other shuffles via Calderone include:

The Financial Times will now get a regular seat, while U.S News & World Report—a news organization that has been scaled back in recent years—lost its seat. The foreign press pool also now gets a permanent seat.

Also, Politico and American Urban Radio Networks moved up to the third row. The Washing Times, which has cut back significantly in the past year, moves from the third to fourth row.

Update: Fox is apparently pleased with the decision. From Bill Sammon, Vice President of News and Washington Managing Editor, FOX News: “We are pleased with the decision of the White House Correspondents’ Association and look forward to working with our colleagues in the front row and the rest of the James S. Brady briefing room.”‬‪

Update again: Major Garrett twitters: Those of us who will sit in the front owe a debt to Jim Angle, Carl Cameron, Bret Baier and network that supported them.

Limbaugh explained to Calderone, who reached out for comment on the matter, that his intention– and his “stock in trade”– is “illustrating the absurd by being absurd,” and that the use of the term “cracker” (and retelling of his help to African Americans around him) was, in essence, an attempt to ridicule the New Black Panther Party:

“In the past two weeks, the President of the NBPP, Malik Zulu Shabazz, has been in the media attacking white crackers. One of the NBPP members from the Philly incident, King Samir Shabazz, appeared at a rally and suggested  that blacks would only be free when all the crackers were dead and further said that killing cracker babies was called for [...]

So…George Steinbrenner dies and I, being absurd to illustrate absurdity, make my comments, pointing out that this cracker created many African American MILLIONAIRES (and fired a bunch of white managers) to establish HIS CRED!!!”

He also takes a shot at Media Matters, who he admits actually “does listen” to his show, but “purposefully distort the things I say” and then spread the distortion to reporters who “print the erroneous take.” Vice President of Research & Communications Ari Rabin-Havt responded by arguing that “Rush just hates that his abhorrent remarks are now available to those not in his listening audience.”

It seems like his comments were, as many on his program are, deliberately baiting the other side to take offense, but it is strange to see Limbaugh so frankly admit that he was intending to be absurd, rather than standing by his words as serious in order to further infuriate (or, as he says in the email, make the left “pretend to be offended” by his “clever” comments) the other side.

Calderone has published the full email he received from Limbaugh to avoid taking Limbaugh out of context over at Yahoo , where Limbaugh explains he appreciation for Steinbrenner in detail.

Bloomberg:

“”We don’t believe the seat should be awarded on the basis of seniority, ideology, tradition (it has been occupied mainly by the wire service) or discussions held three years ago; it’s not something to be conferred,” Hunt wrote. “It should be on merit, the journalistic contribution that the occupant of that valued seat will make to the briefings and to informing the public.”

Fox News:

“Now that Helen has retired, I’m hopeful the WHCA will make good on those assurances and approve Fox’s long-expected move to that seat,” Sammon wrote. “All five TV networks — ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and FNC — now support this move. Even Helen herself is on record saying the seat should go to Fox.”

You can read the full letters here. Both sides are going to have to wait another month before the new WHCA board reconvenes and makes their decision. In the meantime, what do you think, Bloomberg or Fox? Vote below.

Calderone reports on media for Yahoo! News after recently leaving Politico, and just wrote in a post published late Monday:

Is Fox News keeping an author off the air because his recent book includes criticism of Bill O’Reilly?

That’s what Zev Chafets, author of “Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One,” thinks is happening. In the Rush-approved biography, Chafets asked the radio host what he thinks of O’Reilly.

“He’s Ted Baxter,” Limbaugh said, referring to the pompous newscaster played by Ted Knight in the ’70s on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”

“Sorry, but somebody’s got to say it,” Limbaugh continued.

That line got picked up by publications like The Hill and splashed on the Drudge Report. And it’s because of that one comment, Chafets believes, that he then got bumped from a couple of Fox News shows.

Chafets told Yahoo! News that he was scheduled to appear on “Fox & Friends” on May 26 — the day after publication of his Limbaugh book — and the following Monday, May 31, on Greta Van Susteren’s “On the Record.”

Some background: author Zev Chafets published his book Army of One last month, which thus far, despite its provocative subject, has made relatively little news.

According to Fox News there was some interest in the book by producer’s of On the Record, hosted by Greta Van Susteren, who requested the book to gauge interest, but never booked Chafets. Producers at Hannity also claimed to have received a number of calls from Chafets’ publicist, but never demonstrated any interest in actually booking the author; and Fox & Friends claimed to never have called to book Chafets, but again was aggressively pursued to have him on.

A Fox News insider referred to Chafets’ account of getting bumped from Fox News as result of an alleged feud as nothing more than “wishful thinking that reeks of desperation” and said, “We tend to have authors on whose books actually make news and have buzz – Zev’s book has neither.”

Skeptics may see this item as a publicity stunt designed to sell a book that is sill trying to move past its current ranking of 90th on Amazon’s bestsellers, and 1,288th on Barnes and Noble’s list.

It is hard to blame producers of these shows for not booking the author of a biography of the provocative Limbaugh, particularly when it’s been such a busy month of remarkable news stories that include the BP oil spill, Arizona’s controversial immigration law, the economy, and the primary season. It’s entirely plausible that this is nothing more than an instance of producers not being interested in a book that has so far achieved relatively little buzz.

In fact, Chafets and his publisher have apparently been shopping an item around claiming that FNC booked him to talk about his book and then canceled, suggesting that FNC – and some of its hosts – hold a grudge against Rush Limbaugh. This seems odd considering both Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Megyn Kelly were among the guests at Limbaugh’s wedding this weekend.

It seems somewhat surprising that Calderone appears to have relied solely on one source, the author, for what some may see as a publicity stunt. At least the author received another mention of his book, though probably not the sort that he will relish.

Famous young internet journalist Michael Calderone has penned an in-depth analysis of famous young internet journalists and their newfound relevance in the media market– and what it means for the older, established class of print reporters. Needless to say, the people who spent most of their twenties reporting on lost puppies and local fires are not too happy about the success of people like Ezra Klein and Chris Cillizza.

Calderone reports the rise of the young blogger with little “real news” experience is concerning to some who view the influence people like Klein, Cillizza, new Washington Post hire David Weigel as a threat to the ailing body of old-school, objective newspaper and network programming news. This crop of twenty- and thrity-somethings, Calderone writes, are simply no longer averse to bias and see no benefits to making a name for themselves on unwanted news beats:

They offer an edgy style and expertise in a particular field, but have never spent a day covering cops or courts or county boards — traditionally the rungs of the ladder all reporters had to climb… While still in their twenties and thirties, this new breed is winning TV time and book contracts, and, in many cases, newsroom salaries that reporters in their forties or fifties can only dream about.

Nonetheless, elder statesmen like Newsweek‘s Howard Fineman take issue with the fact that “many [new writers] lack journalism experience outside the Beltway.” It is the chasing after hurricanes and interviewing county sherriffs that gives a journalist their seasoned experience, he argues.

But deeper than that, there is a key generational difference in attitudes towards bias. Subjectivity was a dirty word for many of the more established writers; young bloggers are open about their beliefs, and often more open to discussion with the other side for it. Klein, for example, is a former Prospect writer and admitted lefty who, despite being on an angry rampage lately since politely disagreeing with the Wall Street Journal‘s Shelby Steele and railing against grilled vegetables, is usually mild-mannered enough to make for intelligent discussion with the other side. His colleague Weigel, a former Reason correspondent, is so open-minded he shot a segment for Keith Olbermann the other night.

Needless to say, not everyone in the industry is particularly upset that the new breed of journalist is an opinionated blogger that can only be trusted to adhere to their bias. A cheerful Andrew Sullivan tells Politico that “trust in the old media brands is largely over. Everything has an individual character or dies,” and he doesn’t sound particularly upset about it. Then again, Sullivan was one of the first to acknowledge the power of the internet and get on the blogging bandwagon.

In the end, it’s not entirely the bloggers’ fault that their stock is rising. After all, Klein wouldn’t have assistants do research for him if the Post didn’t give him that privilege, nor would Weigel hop from a libertarian magazine to a Beltway blog to a major newspaper without some seasoned reporter giving an ok along the way. But the fear of being outdone by “pipsqueaks” with laptops is only going to rise as the panic to “save” old media increases.

The exodus at Politico–which has done its own poaching of top reporters since its inception–has become fodder for its rivals. In the past few weeks, Politico has lost three other reporters in addition to Calderone and Henderson.

But as Betsy Rothstein reported for FishBowlDC the recent losses at Politico could be attributed to a number of new start-ups, like Yahoo’s efforts which lured Calderone, and the hiring spree by Bloomberg. The Washington Post and New York Times are also beefing up after losing a number of high profile staffers.

The loss of Henderson comes as Politico has been on the defensive for its lack of diversity in its editorial and reporting ranks. Henderson is the most high-profile African American reporters at the paper, covering Michelle Obama on the White House beat. Since Mediaite reported on the diversity problems at Politico, the paper has also lost one of its top female editors, Pia Catton, to the Wall Street Journal.

While there is often grumbling about unhappiness in the Politico ranks, it’s also clear that Politico is a hothouse environment where people are expected to work incredibly hard and  build a brand for themselves and the paper. That kind of situation is going to result in a lot of turnover as people move onto bigger and better things.

Here’s a bit from Calderone’s farewell.

So why leave? Here’s what VandeHei told me in November 2006, the day he left the Post for a brand-new online venture: “I have one of the coolest jobs in journalism. Why would I give it up for this?”

Good question! But I’m now very excited to join Yahoo! News as part of a new project being helmed by Andrew Golis and Chris Lehmann and with a fast-growing group of excellent bloggers. I’ll still be writing on all things media, and the project will be getting off the ground soon.

Cut to this little tidbit this morning from Politico:

“From: Call Center … Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 2:00 PM … To: System Administrators, All … Subject: System Advisory – House Telephone Circuits Near Capacity … Due to the high volume of external calls, House telephone circuits are near capacity resulting in outside callers occasionally getting busy signals.”

Coincidence? There’s no way to know for absolute sure but the timing is interesting…right down to the time stamp on that internal email. Rush’s show runs from 12-3, Calderone’s first post went up just after 1pm, meaning if Rush’s listeners took his advice to heart at 2pm system alert would suggest a direct correlation (and something that Rush speculated would happen as a result).

But it gets more interesting. Politico’s Michael Calderone contacted Rush to find out why Limbaugh was suddenly using his show to so directly advocate his listeners. The result being that Rush answered him on air, but not before — and I sort of love this — warning Calderone that he’d be losing his “exclusivity” if Limbaugh responded on his show. Calderone was okay with it. From Rush:

“This is ball game. This is ball game, and Michael, the only reason we’re at this point is because the American people have stood up. The Republicans don’t have the votes to stop this. And the Martians don’t have the votes to stop this. Republicans may as well be Martians on this given their influence. All we can do is continue to have the American people let it be known they want no part of this — the substance of the bill or the process. They don’t like it. And that’s why I am urging — because this is a transformation of our country into something that no one has ever seen it be like. And we don’t want that transformation to take place. We like America as it was founded. We don’t want to turn it into a third world country.”

It’ll be interesting to see whether there’s any ‘Rush effect,’ as it were. The pols who could ostensibly feel the ‘effect’ of this sort of thing would be the Dems in swing districts, and I’m not sure how many of Rush’s listeners fall into that category (maybe a lot?). Also, just to be a bit of a devil’s advocate here, it frequently falls into the government’s hands to pass laws that are not popular, or that the country may not be ready for yet. Just saying. Regardless, this is going to be close.

Desirée Rogers began to understand she was in trouble when David Axelrod summoned her to his office last spring to scold her.

Ms. Rogers had appeared in another glossy magazine, posing in a White House garden in a borrowed $3,495 silk pleated dress and $110,000 diamond earrings. But if the image was jarring in a time of recession, Mr. Axelrod was as bothered by the words and her discussion of “the Obama brand” and her role in promoting it, according to people informed about the conversation.

“The president is a person, not a product,” he was said to tell her. “We shouldn’t be referring to him as a brand.”

Michael Calderone points out that it was during this interview with the WSJ mag that the brand remark came up. More juicy stuff:

The tension with her colleagues was building long before November when Michaele and Tareq Salahi, socialites from Virginia, managed to slip uninvited into the State Dinner for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India. Ms. Rogers’s hip style, expensive clothing and presence at fashion shows at first were seen as symbolizing a new Camelot but ultimately struck many as tone deaf in a time of economic hardship and 10 percent unemployment.

The White House eventually clamped down on her public profile. She was ordered to stop attending splashy events and showing up in fancy clothes on magazine covers. When Michelle Obama learned one day that Ms. Rogers was on a train heading to New York to attend an MTV dinner, the first lady told her longtime friend to cancel, associates said.

Perhaps, not surprisingly, Rogers feels no one came to her defense. Read the whole piece here.

But Quinn did chat with Michael Calderone at Politico where she told him she was finding the whole print column, called “The Party,” boring because it had strayed from its faith roots and “generosity of spirit” into actual entertaining, but that she had “absolutely no regrets at all” about using her column to respond to gossip about her family.

She told Calderone that WaPo executive editor Marcus Brauchli told her that he wouldn’t have approved the column if he had seen it and she confirmed that he had sent her back to the “On Faith” section she edits with Newseek’s Jon Meacham.

Quinn said that the dueling wedding drama has been resolved with her son’s wedding moved back to its original October date so that her husband’s granddaughter’s wedding can go on as planned in California (although Quinn and Ben Bradlee has already bowed out because of tension between with the bride’s parents, Ben Bradlee Jr. and ABC’s Martha Raddatz).

In an oddly candid–and naive–moment, Quinn thought that writing a column about the mix-up would take the heat off of her son Quinn and his fiancee, who had just announced she was pregnant.  While the column succeeded in moving the glare off her son and onto mom, it’s hard to believe that a savvy hostess and Washington public figure would think that controversy wouldn’t arise.

She also refused to discuss the ongoing tension with Bradlee Jr. and Raddatz–who contacted WaPo publisher Katharine Weymouth after last week’s column–saying only, “[w]hat I will not do is talk about the family.”

Seems a little late for that.

Stapelton’s competence as Palin’s spokesperson has been consistently questioned since Palin arrived on the national stage in late 2008, mostly recently during the whole Rush Limbaugh/”retard” debacle. Also, for a spokesperson she was reportedly rather hard to reach. Says Politico’s Michael Calderone:

[G]etting a comment or sometimes even an acknowledgment from Stapleton could be difficult. I tried several times in recent months on Palin-related stories, and Stapleton never responded, while her voice mail was repeatedly full and unable to accept messages.

But here’s where it gets really interesting. Apparently, Palin has no plans to hire another spokesperson! The Palin family is apparently “comfortable speaking in their own voice.” Per Calderone:

So as of right now the only contact seems to be through Palin’s PAC, which provides a phone number which goes right to an answering machine and an e-mail address with no specific person to contact (info@sarahpac.com).

Crafty or crazy? Palin is, obviously, one of the most talked-about women/politicians on the planet, and a lot of that talk is not nice. I suspect “responding in her own voice” actually means one of two things. Palin has decided that answering questions from actual reporters is very last decade and is either going to let a combination of her Fox analyst appearances and the take-no-prisoners Fox News PR team speak for her (one can dream). Or! She has concluded, and not without good reason, that her one-way Facebook mouthpiece is all the public access she requires. It’s worked so far. Why bother with the fourth estate at all when all you need is a catchy Facebook note to derail an entire health care bill.

According to Michael Calderone at Politico, Keith Olbermann has declined the invitation. “I appreciate their invitation but with my Dad still in intensive care all this time, I have been only able to leave New York one night in the last six months,” Olbermann tells POLITICO in an email.

Related Stories:

Keith Olbermann Slams Texas For Stupidity

Is Rachel Maddow Now More Respected And Influential Than Keith Olbermann? Yes.

Keith Olbermann Owes Ann Coulter an Apology

Burton made a quiet entry into 140 character land during the Christmas holidays, and has since amassed 4000 or so followers. Roberts Gibbs’ arrival on Saturday, it will probably not surprise you, was somewhat more splashy — in just over a day he clocked in 17,000 followers (he now has 21,000-plus): “watch out Kim Kardashian!”

Who wants to start placing bets on how long it is before Gibbs creates a national incident with that Twitter feed? Two weeks? A month? In the meantime, Michael Calderone reports, the White House is using their new presence in Twitter land to keep a sharp eye on what politcal journos are reporting.

Gibbs told POLITICO that he was inspired to join after watching Burton’s account during President Barack Obama’s surprise visit to the White House briefing room last Tuesday.

Burton could see that reporters were having non-news related side conversations over Twitter and chastised them for not focusing on the president. Gibbs said it was “fascinating to see what people are thinking, writing, doing in real time.”

Sounds a lot like they are positioning themselves as Twitter hall monitors! Let’s hope it’s not quite so boring as all that. There is also the assumption they will (and in Burton’s case, have) use Twitter to quickly push back on stories they disagree with. How this will pan out exactly in real time should be interesting to see: Gibbs’ first press briefing as a Twitterer is today. To tweet or not to tweet?

“Last week I mentioned three books on air…Friday all three of these were in the top ten…Don’t let anybody tell you, [cue funny voice] oh you watch Glenn Beck, oh you’re just a dumb-dumb-dummy. This audience reads more books than I think any audience I’ve ever witnessed.”

I checked and during yesterday’s show, ‘Lincoln at Peoria” ranked #25,689. It is currently at #251. Not top ten exactly, but not too shabby either considering it’s a “careful, balanced look at Abraham Lincoln’s stirring 1854 Peoria, Ill., speech, writer and historian Lehrman finds a ‘prelude to greatness’ that put the little-known lawyer and politician on the path to national prominence while laying the intellectual groundwork for his presidency.”

In related news, perhaps WaPo writer Dana Milbank (who apparently recently cottoned on to what we’ve been aware of for quite some time, ahem) is hoping for a similar boost in sales for the book on Beck he has reportedly been signed to pen. From Politico:

Milbank, who only had about 750 words to tackle that question in his Washington Post column, is now writing a book on the conservative radio and television host: “Tears of a Clown.” And he’s already started researching.

“I’ve signed up for the elite membership on GlennBeck.com,” Milbank told POLITICO.

Milbank said that what sets Beck apart is a willingness to go where other hosts will not. “I think he has a lower bar, and commercially, it’s pure genius,” Milbank said. “He has found the absolute sweet spot in the market right now.”

No kidding.

Related:
Glenn Beck [Mediaite]

From the Post:

Gov. Paterson was spotted nuzzling, neck-kissing and cooing like a smitten schoolboy with a pretty young woman — not his wife — in a New Jersey steakhouse yesterday afternoon, The Post has learned.

“I saw him kissing her neck,” said Sharon Farrell, a lawyer sitting two tables away from Paterson and his mystery gal pal at the River Palm Terrace in Edgewater. “He was right on her neck, nudging, like back and forth.” [Do you know the mystery woman? Email the Post at webeditor@nypost.com!] Paterson’s spokeswoman later said the governor’s dining partner was just a friend, and that he never got romantic with her.

And this from the slightly less salacious Daily News, which blames the Gov’s beleaguered funds for the story not being cut off at the pass:

Paterson was forced to put out another political fire: a report alleging a romantic rendezvous at a New Jersey steakhouse.

Although both the governor and the woman insisted they are nothing more than family friends, political insiders said the latest headline shows the beleaguered governor just can’t catch a break – or find the money to fix his image.

Short version? Just another day in the life of an Albany politician.

Now, the next issue of The New Republic dedicates its cover story to evolution at the storied Washington Post under the new reign of Katharine Weymouth and Marcus Brauchli. According to an excerpt posted by Michael Calderone at Politico, the story uses “interviews with approximately 50 current and former Post staffers” and “tells the story of the internal conflicts that have unfolded at the paper in recent years.” Here’s the full teaser via Politico:

“It’s no secret that The Washington Post has had a rough few years. From financial struggles to ethical controversies to bureau closings to buyouts of top reporters to the death of its book review section to the rise of a dogged competitor in Politico, the Post has often seemed beset by bad news. In our latest cover story, media reporter Gabe Sherman takes readers inside the Post’s struggles with a fascinating account of the paper’s turmoil. Drawing on interviews with approximately 50 current and former Post staffers, Gabe tells the story of the internal conflicts that have unfolded at the paper in recent years. He provides a detailed look at the paper’s two relatively new leaders – Katharine Weymouth, promoted to publisher two years ago, and Marcus Brauchli, the executive editor she chose to lead the newsroom. And he offers a persuasive theory for the Post’s problems: Unlike The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, it hasn’t been able to settle on an identity. “

We’ll have more when the piece surfaces online.

To the Newsroom:
The catastrophic earthquake in Haiti has prompted many staffers to make donations to aid quake victims. We encourage that. However, if you have an AT&T cellphone, you may have received a text offering you a chance to make a contribution to assist them by simply texting a number. Remember, however, that if you have a company-paid phone, that bill goes to the company and is paid by the company. it is not a personal contribution. So, Bill Schmidt reminds everyone that if you would like to make a contribution, please use a method other than this one.

Sigh. And yet, can you really blame them. These are tough times. Obviously not as tough as Haiti, but still not great.

After taking the publishing world by storm with her memoir Going Rogue it may be the book industry has gone a bit sour on the Wonder from Wasilla. Michael Calderone reports that a former NBC reporter who was signed to Wiley to pen a book about Palin’s “rise to national prominence as the Republican vice presidential nominee this year, and her subsequent fall from grace,” is no longer working on the project, because there is no project:

In December 2008, Berger signed a deal with Wiley to write a book on Palin, which he tells me is no longer happening. “The marketplace changed, and we decided not to move forward with the manuscript,” Berger said.

Which is strange. Admittedly this is not the same as a publisher canceling a book by Sarah Palin, which would be even stranger. However has the publishing marketplace really changed that much where Palin is concerned? She is a known quantity, which is the sort of thing the struggling publishing industry is interested in these days. Also? The media loves her (in the sense that all publicity is good-ish publicity). Anyway, sounds to me like there is something else at work here beyond the marketplace changing, because I don’t see Sarah Palin becoming less saleable anytime soon.

You may recall that last summer during talk of Murdoch purchasing the floundering Newsday the idea was floated the the Post and the News would share printing press costs. Turns out it was just too nice a story to be true (or, alternately, the apocalypse as measured by New York tabloid standards, has yet to arrive). From this week’s New York:

But in the end, the hatchet was simply too huge to be buried. According to sources involved in the talks on both sides, discussions between News Corp. and Zuckerman collapsed several months ago, never making it far enough for the moguls to appear in the same room. “It turned out to be too complicated, the cultures were too incompatible with too much bad history.”

Also too good to be true, rumors of NYP editor Col Allan’s retirement. The same New York piece reported that Allan was considering retirement. Not so, apparently that was merely “wishful thinking at the Daily News.”

You know the drill, loyal, smart, and attractive readers: below is a list of our nominees for the top site of 2009, including The Business Insider, Ars Technica, Politico, and Talking Points Memo. Vote for your favorite, or leave any deserving candidates you think we left out in the comments:

Ars Technica: In the tech web, Ars Technica is a bit of an oddity. A Web-only publication acquired by Condé Nast in 2008, it’s neither an online distribution arm for a flesh-and-blood magazine, like Wired‘s or PC Mag‘s websites, nor is it quite fair to call it a blog, like the also-excellent Engadget and Gizmodo. But whatever taxonomy one wants to lump Ars into, it excels. It’s not just that the staff knows their gadgets, though they do: Ars is also the rare tech publication that can authoritatively cover the law and policy affecting technology. And serious MacHeads know that when John Siracusa has something to say about Apple, they’d better listen.

The Business Insider: Even in a web culture of numbers, numbers, numbers, The Business Insider stands out for its freakish speed and volume of posts. According to Google Reader, it clocks 522 posts a week: compare that to Gawker’s not at all shabby 246/week or ABC News’ 480/week. Of course, TBI’s staff size is a tiny fraction of the likes of ABC’s, but with Dan Frommer on the tech beat, Nick Carlson on the media and advertising beat, and John Carney and Joe Weisenthal on business and finance, with occasional backup from EIC Henry Blodget, it’s a question worth asking: who needs squads of reporters, anyway?

The Daily Beast: It’s taking more money than most web ventures to get off the ground: AdAge‘s Simon Dumenco passed on reports that it would spend $18 million in its first three years. But in the year-and-change since its launch, Tina Brown‘s Daily Beast has become the web’s closest thing to a high-end glossy, drawing star-studded columnists (Meghan McCain, Christopher Buckley), stirring up lively nationwide debate (listing America’s smartest and dumbest cities), and meeting the required meta-enabling quota (slideshows!). The Daily Beast’s most promising innovation may not be on its website at all: Beast Books, its rapid-publishing imprint, could just be the vehicle to translate highbrow web chatter into cash flow.

The Huffington Post: The designation that The Huffington Post got in media write-ups as recently as last year — “a left-wing political blog” — sounds about as out-of-date in 2009 as calling Nintendo a card company. In one short year, the site has ballooned in size, traffic, and scope, sprouting new verticals (Books, Tech, Sports) like dandelions. Old-timers can complain with some justification that in its expansion, HuffPo has traded some of the righteous fire in its belly for sleek, streamlined, traffic-driving content. But the site’s traffic powerhouses — among them founding editor Roy Sekoff, media editor Danny Shea, senior features editor Katherine Thomson, and news slideshow wizard Anya Strzemien – have reshaped the site into a formidable force.

Mediabistro: Mediabistro, every day, is simply a great resource. It may not be the flashiest shop in media, but is it ever servicey — thousands receive its daily Newsfeed email with essential morning media headlines, its various blogs cover a wide range of beats, often as industry leaders (GalleyCat, TVNewser) and they are constantly offering ways for people to grow from, learn about, and break into the biz. I may be biased here, because I got my start at MB — its January 2002 “Boot Camp for Journalists” class was my first contact with New York media (and with Mediaite Senior Editor Glynnis MacNicol!) but I have seen too many other people rise through those ranks not to appreciate what they have to offer there. And here comes our Victor Kiam moment: We also owe them a hat-tip for providing Mediaite with said Senior Editor MacNicol and TV Editor Steve Krakauer. Definitely their greatest contribution to 2009. Thanks guys! - RS

Politico: Some might balk at Politico’s inclusion as a ‘site’ — it does, after all, have a DC-area print edition. But Politico has made its name by adhering to the giddy, caffeinated 24-hour online news cycle. It’s the rare publication with enough feet on the ground to do it, and media-transfixing scoops like this year’s revelation that David Axelrod met with Roger Ailes are proof of the payoff. But it’s not all frenetic shoe-leather reporting: columnist/bloggers like Ben Smith, Mike Allen, and Michael Calderone regularly shape the debates of the day.

The Root: This year, any talk of Slate’s sibling publication The Root must inevitably circle back to its editor: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., also known as the Harvard professor half of the infamous “beer summit” in the White House Rose Garden, alongside Cambridge police officer Sgt. James Crowley. But that’s selling the site short: since its launch at the beginning of 2008, The Root has established a distinctive voice not only about African American culture, but about the great debates of our time. Given the homogeneity and groupthink that occasionally afflict media, The Root’s perspective is a welcome one at the table.

Slate: Slate has become such a constant in the online arena that it’s easy to underestimate its importance. If Microsoft hadn’t taken that gamble way back when in the mid-90s, who’d've known that a smart, sprawling, literary site could also be one of the most-read sites on the whole Internet? Slate occasionally takes its drubbings for its aggressively contrarian theses (the rock band Creed is “seriously underrated”): the #slatepitches Twitter hashtag is a good place to find them from time to time. Hope this contrarian stance doesn’t blow your mind: for raising the level of online discourse and keeping the bar high, Slate is still a major player.

Talking Points Memo: The crown jewel of the Bush-era left-leaning political blogs, Talking Points Memo has sent sparkles of hope into the hearts of many old-school journalists by proving that actual reporting will occasionally get its just rewards, even on the Internet. Even in its impressive expansion (TPMDC, TPMMuckraker, TPMCafé), TPM has had the integrity not to grasp at the Balloon Boys of the online news cycle, maintaining a focus on politics, policy, and mostly hard news that has been rewarded by an engaged, affluent, educated readership. This year, TPM’s Josh Marshall made waves by putting out an ad to hire a publisher (the position hasn’t been filled yet): The Awl’s Choire Sicha mused that this could finally ease the struggle between editors and publishers that has gone on for eons.

The Wrap: It’s hard to believe that entertainment and media news site The Wrap only launched this January: in terms of its impact, it feels like it’s been around for much longer. This year, The Wrap’s Sharon Waxman established some serious cred by laying the site’s reputation on the line to call an NBCU-Comcast deal before anyone else. She was treated with derision by Nikki Finke and with skepticism by many outlets (including ours) — but as time has told, she was right. Scooping the entirety of business and entertainment media about a multibillion dollar merger: not bad for year one.

Related: Who Is The Top Magazine Editor of 2009?
Who Is The Top Online Editor of 2009?

Here’s a roundup of people who have reportedly taken the buyouts thus far via Michael Calderone, Gawker, Business Insider, and NYTPicker, which today confirmed that long-time Timesman Ralph Blumenthal is taking a buyout.

From Business Insider:

* Louis Uchitelle, who has covered economics for the NYT since 1987. Ironically, three years ago he was the author of “The Disposable American: Layoffs and Their Consequences.”

* Geraldine Fabrikant, who joined the NYT in 1985, has six publishers awards and a Loeb Award. She previously worked at Business Week

* Alex Berenson, who has been a reporter at The Times since 1999. He reported from Iraq in 2003 and 2004. He has written 3 spy novels. We hear he plans to become a full time novelist while still making occasional contributions to the Times.

* Jonathan Glater, who joined The Times in September 2000 after a stint as a Wall Street lawyer

Gawker has a much longer list:

This list is unconfirmed, but the source is generally reliable.

* Claiborne Ray — Deputy editor of the Obituaries desk and Q&A columnist in Science Times
* Nancy Sharkey – Editor; see this link.
* Andy Revkin – Science Reporter/Dot Earth. (Described as “possible,” not confirmed).
* George Kaplan — veteran national desk copy editor
* Juliet Gorman — a top web producer
* Mary Hardiman – Photo desk
* G. Paul Burnett — veteran staff photographer
* Jim Simpson – Photo editor
* Nicole Collins — A metro editor
* Barton Silverman – Veteran Photographer. He’s still a “Possible,” not confirmed.
* Additionally, eight more copy editors from various sections, three “Admin” personnel, and a foreign desk clerk are taking buyouts, according to our source.

Politico’s Michael Calderone has some D.C. names: Stephen Labaton, Neil Lewis, David Johnston, and David Stout.

Managing editor Bill Keller has said the Times needs to shed 100 positions so we may still be looking at layoffs in the coming days.

Cut to nine months later and it looks like the inmates may be ready to take over the asylum. Just this week the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which runs the White House pool has started letting Talking Points Memo, Salon, and the Huffington Post in to share the pool duty. Pool duty, as you may or may not know, is when one reporter covers an event (say, President Obama’s golf game) and the notes (and frequent funny asides) are made available to the rest of the press, which they use as the basis for their reports.

Anyway, a number of establishment people are up in arms about seeing these, in the words of Michael Calderone, “online news organizations, which may or may not be bound by the same professed standards of objectivity, begin taking on the responsibilities of long-standing print publications.”

It’s not that reporters are criticizing the work of either Christina Bellantoni or Sam Stein, but some have expressed concerns about pool reports coming from left- or right-leaning news organizations that will then be used by the rest of the press corps.

“This is really troubling,” said New York Times reporter Peter Baker in an e-mail to POLITICO. “We’re blurring the line between news and punditry even further and opening ourselves to legitimate questions among readers about where the White House press corps gets its information.”

Calderone also notes that one of the reasons behind the new inclusions is that WHCA is trying to fill empty seats left open by papers who have had to cut back in recent months.

So what to do.

>>>NEXT: If Fox and MSNBC are there, why not the blogosphere?