The establishment of Current TV as a destination for liberal news programming doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing for MSNBC. There are, apparently, millions of liberals who aren’t watching cable news, and this represents an opportunity for both channels to attract a new audience.

Given the details of their split, it’s not surprising that Olbermann would express some (relatively mild) bitterness in the aftermath of his exit, but in recent weeks, his shots have been more directly aimed at some of his former colleagues, plus more intent on poaching the network’s audience…and their talent?

At first, Olbermann confined his disapproval of his former network to sporadic, mildly passive-aggressive tweets about not watching the network anymore, and grammar-copping former colleagues. About a month ago, though, Olbermann ripped MSNBC host Ed Schultz for daring to disagree with (Current TV/Countdown contributor) Michael Moore, calling Schultz a “supposedly liberal commentator, on a supposedly liberal network.”

Just last night, he suggested that his former election coverage partner, Chris Matthews, is a serial credit thief.

He later sought to draw a none-too-subtle contrast between his upcoming Current regime, and MSNBC, tweeting with characteristic passive-aggressiveness, “Presented without comment: Michael Moore named contributor to @Current Michael Steele named contributor to MSNBC.”

In later comments to The Hollywood Reporter, however, Olbermann removed any doubt that this shot was aimed squarely at former colleague Rachel Maddow, whose obvious respect and admiration for Steele must have played a role in his hiring. “There were lots of people who were forced to choose sides,” he told The Hollywood Reporter, “And particularly in Rachel’s case, I didn’t want to add to the pressure on her already. The last thing I need to do is be calling her up and saying, ‘How’s that Michael Steele working out for you?’”

For a guy who doesn’t want to add to the pressure on Rachel Maddow, Olbermann sure has a funny way of showing it. In a recent interview with the Associated Press‘ Frazier Moore, Olbermann openly suggested that he would poach Maddow away from MSNBC at the first opportunity (a suggestion that also turned up in a recent Rolling Stone article):

Maybe Olbermann will find himself another Rachel Maddow, the liberal host who clicked with viewers on MSNBC after Olbermann brought her aboard for a companion show to his at that network.

Sure, nods Olbermann. “Or conceivably,” he says suggestively, “I might just find the SAME Rachel Maddow. You never know.”

While I’m sure there’s a passage in The Art of War dedicated to just this sort of mind game, such a statement is surely not designed to make things more comfortable for Maddow at MSNBC.

There has been pop-psych speculation about an All About Eve dynamic between Olbermann and Maddow, as the student rapidly eclipsed the master. While this doesn’t quite equal a shove down the staircase, Maddow might not appreciate being made a pawn in this game. True to gracious form, she hasn’t commented about this, but Olbermann’s revelation that they haven’t spoken since his exit speaks volumes. “Send to voicemail” goes both ways.

The contrast between Olbermann and Rachel Maddow seems to be at the heart of the two networks’ branding efforts. While Olbermann clearly sees himself as the curmudgeonly mentor here, Maddow’s star has risen on the strength of her willingness to engage the other side, a trait for which Olbermann slams her, but one which has earned her the respect and admiration of centrists on both sides of the political spectrum. That sensibility runs through most of MSNBC’s opinion programming.

Joe Scarborough, host of the influential Morning Joe, usually stakes out center-right territory, while engaging a variety of panelists and guests from across the ideological spectrum. The Last Word‘s Lawrence O’Donnell has a decidedly farther-left point of view, and a more confrontational style, but he also frequently features guests and panelists from the right (O’Donnell’s warm sentiments for Olbermann, alas, have only garnered him a chilly mention as “my replacement” in that Rolling Stone interview). Even liberal firebreather Cenk Uygur engages the right on his 6pm show, and while Ed Schultz‘s The Ed Show has the vibe of a Drinking Liberally meeting, his sensibility is more rooted in an affinity with working-class liberals than in a smug contempt for “the enemy.”

Olbermann, on the other hand, disdains engagement with conservatives, or anyone with whom he strongly disagrees. While he claims such engagement isn’t “illuminating,” his critics paint this refusal as an acknowledgement that the result would be Olbermann’s transformation into a Swiffer Wet Jet™.

As Patrick Gavin‘s review of Olbermann’s Twitter feed indicates, those critics might be on to something. While Olbermann is an undeniably gifted writer, his sub-playground exchanges with Twitter critics display a weakness for real-time debate, and a skin so thin it makes Sarah Palin look like an armadillo.

There’s nothing wrong with knowing your own strengths (Countdown never suffered from its lack of divergent viewpoints) and weaknesses, but attacking a group of people who still profess respect and admiration for you is a risky strategy that could alienate viewers, and industry allies. Countdown will surely improve upon Current TV‘s 50,000 or so average prime-time viewers, but if the linchpin in Olbermann’s strategy is to vanquish an MSNBC lineup that has barely skipped a beat since his departure, Current‘s prospects look to be severely limited. Essentially, the strategy seems to be “the friends of my enemy will become my friends.”

MSNBC, on the other hand, seems well-positioned to weather the challenge. The network is no stranger to negative attacks by competitors. Their “Lean Forward” ad campaign prompted responses (from both Fox News and CNN) that only served to underscore the campaign’s impact. They played hardball with Current TV new-hire David Shuster when they got wind he might be looking to greener pastures at CNN. As far as Olbermann’s impending debut goes, the network has remained tight-lipped. When asked about possible audience defection, MSNBC’s Vice President of Prime Time Programming Bill Wolff would say only, “Our goal remains the same – focus on being awesome at what we’re doing.”

There is a clear path to success for Current, but it doesn’t figure to involve trading body blows with MSNBC. With Countdown as its anchor, there is plenty of camera-ready liberal talent out there (Thom Hartmann, Sam Seder, Bill Press, and for late-late nights, Mike Malloy) who would fit in well with Olbermann’s leftier-than-thou ethos, and an opportunity to build an audience that’s currently not swimming in the cable news waters. I think most liberals would agree that two healthy liberal networks are better than one.

Weigel is a friend of mine, so I had mixed feelings about reaching out to Betsy Rothstein, whose publication of Weigel’s Journolist emails quickly led to his resignation from The Washington Post. On the other hand, Betsy had endeared herself to me by frequently quoting me (a surer way to my heart than a scalpel and a rib-spreader), and with her self-possessed writing style.

We first met a few weeks ago, for some off-the-record drinks at the Hotel Dupont, and for some reason, I was expecting Rothstein to look like a cross between Dame Edna and Bootsy Collins, with a big voice to match. What I found was an attractive, petite, conservatively dressed, soft-spoken young (younger-looking than her resume´ suggests) woman. I told several White House colleagues that I was meeting Betsy, some of whom expressed enthusiastic fandom (she’s probably on more radar screens than she knows), along with bemusement at the notion of journalists as subjects of celebrity-style gossip. It was then that I first got the idea to interview Betsy for Mediaite.

Let’s put it this way: If Osama bin Laden had been Betsy Rothstein’s boyfriend, he’d probably be alive today. When I took a stab at her romantic status, she said, “I wouldn’t tell you my favorite color, do you really think I’m gonna go there?”

I pitched the idea to her during that first encounter, and was greeted with what I assumed was de rigeur, “Oh, who wants to hear about me?” modest reluctance, but when it came time to actually arrange it, I discovered she was dead serious. Complex negotiations that rivaled the START Treaty ensued, with Rothstein flatly refusing to appear on video, reluctant even to allow a reference recording, and in order to get her to agree to let me take some pictures, I had to agree to let her select which photo would be used. She’s a tough customer.

She’s also very protective of her personal life, an angle Betsy quickly derides as “stale.” Perhaps, but when an interview subject becomes evasive when asked what her favorite color is, it is at least noteworthy. Getting Rothstein to talk about herself isn’t like pulling teeth, it’s like pulling her entire jaw. When I asked her where she was from, she paused, and replied, “Ohio.” She must frustrate the hell out of her GPS navigator.

Let’s put it this way: If Osama bin Laden had been Betsy Rothstein’s boyfriend, he’d probably be alive today. When I took a stab at her romantic status, she said, “I wouldn’t tell you my favorite color, do you really think I’m gonna go there?”

When I asked Betsy what the least favorite part of her job was, she delivered her quickest response of the day: “This interview (which she later described, jokingly?, as “torture”).”

That’s not to say that Rothstein is prickly; her responses are guarded, but good-natured, and she delivers periodic critiques of my questions (“that’s not interesting”) and her answers. The meta-banter fits perfectly into a conversation between two reporters who report on reporters.

Rothstein goes on to volunteer that she sometimes doesn’t like “the grind of it…feeling like I have to publish something that may not be very good, wishing I had more time. I always feel rushed.”

She becomes considerably more voluble when I ask about her favorite part of the job. “I like the moment before you’re about to run a really controversial item, that moment right after you hit the ‘publish’ button, and you’re waiting for all hell to break loose.”

“When I write about Howard Kurtz,” she says, for example, “I tend to be somewhat obnoxious. I got that feeling on the last thing I wrote, Howard Kurtz: Mr. Suckup. It’s not the kind of thing that the whole town would come down on me for, but usually when I write those kinds of items, I notice that I get some backlash.”

From Kurtz? “Who knows? I mean, these people write in anonymously…I kind of think that, maybe, he’s written in comments, but I can’t prove that.”

When I ask her about those she calls “the haters,” she volunteers, “Jason Linkins is an asshole.”

I try to draw her out with a cutesy Mad Libs question that she finds clever, but tough to answer: I consider myself a blank first, and a blank second. Finally, she responds, characteristically, “I consider myself a journalist first, and whatever my party affiliation is second.”

When I ask her about those she calls “the haters,” she volunteers, “Jason Linkins is an asshole.”

Linkins, The Huffington Post‘s Eat The Press editor, reciprocates the sentiment. He told The Washington City Paper that Rothstein was ““the platonic ideal of a complete f***ing moron.”

Betsy says that many of her critics are “cowards who won’t give their names,” but she says she respects those who are willing to insult her using their own names. “Who are the haters? The Boy Banders…Jason Linkins. I don’t know if (Linkins) actively dislikes me now, but I was on his active list at one point. It all started from the Weigel mess, their little nerdy bunch stuck together, so Jason Linkins jumped right on board, told me I should die in a fire. Some of his colleagues wrote me and apologized for him, but that doesn’t really count, it’s not an apology from him.”

“The fact is, I’ve never met him,” Rothstein says. “It’s kind of this weird aura of hate with people who have never actually sat down and had coffee together (with me).”

Of Betsy’s numerous DC detractors, only Dave Weigel would comment for this story, and even then, somewhat reluctantly. I asked Dave what he thought of the idea that, while the Journolist story was an unwelcome upheaval, it significantly raised his profile, and his career looks stronger than ever. “It’s almost like Betsy was to you as my heart attack was to me,” I said.

Weigel conceded, “I would definitely say that in the parallel universe where I’m still the blogger-on-things-conservative at WaPo, and I spent the last week chasing Sarah Palin‘s bus, I am much less happy…”

When I ask Rothstein about Weigel, she calls back to an idea that we discussed during our first meeting, a Love Connection-style date/interview with Weigal and her, and me as Chuck Woolery. “I thought we were going to go boating!” she says.

I ask her if she thinks she went at Weigel a little too hard. “Nope,” she offers quickly, “not at all. Our anniversary’s coming up, I think at the end of June. The anniversary of Weigel-gate.”

What’s the proper gift for such an anniversary? “I think he should have lunch with me.”

Weigel and Rothstein have a lot of mutual friends, and she says “I was at a party with him fairly recently, I tried to talk with him, I just kind of want to know, what’s this guy like that I’ve been writing about? And he would not talk to me. I just find it funny.”

She says she tried to ask Weigel some innocuous question about an upcoming story, and he looked at her and said, “I don’t talk to you, and you don’t talk to me.”

Rothstein says of the venom that at first, “I couldn’t shake it off very well…I remember my first week, people wrote in, and I was like, ‘It’s gonna be a long year.’ People wanted their old Fishbowl back. That was kind of hard at first.”

“People think I want to have Ezra Klein’s baby,” she offers, with a laugh, “I think there are a lot of people who would like to see that, just for the comedy of it. I don’t know, would an alien come out of me?”

“(Now) I can laugh it off very quickly, and if I can’t, you know, I can write whatever I want, (laughs) so, you know, I can immediately respond.”

And respond, she does. FishbowlDC co-editor Matt Dornic says, “What I see as a weakness could also be considered an incredible strength – the inability to walk away from a Twitter feud. Although her tiffs have been good for gaining followers, they can become overly-consuming. The constant need to respond to people pummeling us with comments, questions and oftentimes insults on Twitter is exhausting and mentally taxing. I only use @FishbowlDC at events or if a subject is especially interesting to me. She’s on it all morning, day and night.”

On whether she deserves her reputation as a provocateur, Betsy says, “In Washington? Sure, everyone here is so thin-skinned. (But) in New York, I don’t know if what I do would have an impact.”

Tucker Carlson: “She’s fearless, she actually doesn’t care. She writes honestly about people, when few others do.”

Her reputation doesn’t hinder her ability to get a story. “It doesn’t matter if people will talk to me, they can still be a character on Fishbowl,” she says. “I’ve never met Ezra Klein, which is strange considering how much I’ve written about him.”

“If there’s a perception that people won’t talk to me,” she continues, “that’s wrong. I couldn’t do my job if people didn’t talk to me.”

“People think I want to have Ezra Klein’s baby,” she offers, with a laugh, “I think there are a lot of people who would like to see that, just for the comedy of it. I don’t know, would an alien come out of me?”

“It’s funny, people are like, ‘Why do you hate these guys?’ I do this feature where I rate (Politico reporter) Amie Parnes‘ on how much she ass-kisses Michelle Obama, and people ask me ‘Why do you hate her?’ I don’t know her, I’ve not met her, I’m covering people. I’m not trying to make friends with everybody.”

“Of course, I do have friends, I’ve been doing this a long time, and some of these journalists are my friends, but that doesn’t mean I won’t cover this beat the way that I want to cover it.”

Washington Times columnist Charles Hurt, a “huge fan” of Rothstein’s, underscores this. “…you invite her to your party at your peril. Betsy does not get won over by an invite and she will cover things exactly as she sees them, which isn’t necessarily so pretty.

While Rothstein’s critics have no problem being profanely blunt, her fans all agree on a different f-word to describe Betsy: fearless. Bob Cusack, Betsy’s old editor at The Hill, sums up what I heard from everyone I contacted about Betsy: “She is fearless. She will ask a question that will make everyone in the room uncomfortable, and defend her right to ask that question.”

He also identifies the same possible weakness that others notice in Betsy, her penchant for scrappiness. “Betsy can be stubborn, no doubt about it. When she and I got into fights over what should, and should not be in her gossip column at The Hill, the battles were loud and long. But they were healthy confrontations, and any bad feelings between us didn’t linger.”

Cusack says he used that streak against her once. “…a couple years ago…I set up a fake gmail account to pretend I was an annoying PR person who repeatedly tried to get her to write a story on something really lame. She yelled and yelled at this fictional character over email for a week and complained to me about him.”

“Later his fictional ex-girlfriend, using another gmail acct, said she wanted to meet Betsy in a DC park to give her a picture of this supposed nutcase. Sure enough, Betsy showed up and we videotaped her at the park.”

Liberal radio host Bill Press is firmly in the Team Betsy camp. “I’m a huge fan of Betsy’s,” Press told me. “She’s EVERYWHERE! NOTHING happens in Washington that she doesn’t know about. Usually, ahead of time. Wicked sense of humor. Sees the fun or mischief in everything.”

Press identifies a major part of Betsy’s appeal. In a business where everyone seems to be writing versions of the same story, she writes about things you won’t see anywhere else. “My favorite story,” Press relates, “was the time I missed a show because of food poisoning – maybe, I thought, because of a hot dog I’d consumed on AMTRAK. Betsy heard about it, got on the case, ended up getting a full ‘OUR HOT DOGS ARE SAFE AND HAVE NEVER MADE ANYONE SICK’ statement out of Amtrak.”

The PR departments at the various TV and cable networks can be particularly onerous for media reporters. “For about the first six months, it just seemed like a non-stop stream of people yelling at me,” Rothstein says of the various PR flacks, “but now, I think they’re used to me.”

I ask her what interview she’s been unable to get due to PR interference. “Anybody at Fox News,” she says. I ask her what she would ask if she could, and she says, “I would ask Bill O’Reilly about The View, when Whoopi Goldberg and Joy (Behar) walked off, I’d want to know how he felt about eliciting such emotion, basically by his mere presence, that he could get them to walk off the set.”

In a town where graduating to the next medium, or a higher-profile outlet, is the Holy Grail, Rothstein’s ambitions are remarkably grounded. “I don’t have a five-year plan,” she says, “(but) if I had some faraway goal, it would be, maybe, Washington editor for some magazine. That would be fun…What I’m doing right now is pretty ideal.”

That’s probably a good thing, since Betsy’s brand of fearlessness isn’t always the best career propellant, as Politico’s Patrick Gavin points out.  ”Betsy’s most unique characteristic has always been her lack of interest in what anyone thinks of her. She’s very fearless in that way.”

“It’s also what makes her noteworthy in this town,” Gavin continues, “which is filled with people who are trying to safely navigate the career waters, where networking and source-greasing run rampant. There are a lot of posts and approaches she takes that make me think, ‘Man, I never would have done that.’ I don’t think she has that voice inside her head.”

The Daily Caller‘s Tucker Carlson called me up within minutes of my email request, and one of the first things he said to me was, “She’s fearless, she actually doesn’t care. She writes honestly about people, when few others do.”

Carlson is also impressed by Rothstein’s mysterious ability to obtain internal Daily Caller memos. “I’ve asked all forty people who work for me, no one will ‘fess up.” Carlson says her ability to procure his internal emails leaves him “Infuriated, baffled, and impressed.”

Infuriation aside, Carlson is firmly on Team Betsy. “She is everywhere. She’s a ferociously hard worker. She’s also very thoughtful, she has a deep understanding of how this town works.”

Toward the end of our interview, I try to shake something loose with some fluffy lightning-round questions about herself, and the deflector shields go up. What’s your favorite color? (long pause) “It changes, but generally…I don’t know.”

Do you have any tattoos? “No.” If you were going to get a tattoo, what would it be? “I wouldn’t get a tattoo.” Why not? “I think they’re…trashy.”

Favorite sports team? “I don’t like sports.”

What’s your greatest guilty pleasure? (long pause, hemming and hawing) “I guess it’s not guilty.”

Fine, what’s your greatest pleasure? (laughs) “Avoiding your questions.”

She perks up, though, as a meta-critique of the interview process pops into her head.”God, now I see how stupid these questions are…(I laugh)…No, I can see how they wouldn’t work. I ask some of this stuff, too. I guess, depending on who you ask, some of the real narcissists will have all of these answers ready for you.”

“So, then, I guess you don’t consider yourself a narcissist?” I ask.

“I don’t think I am,” she responds. “Not today.”

I caught up with Betsy’s former Hill colleague Sam Youngman at the White House later that day, and when I asked him about her, the affection in his voice was palpable. “Betsy’s a dear friend,” Youngman said. “Betsy has the right sense of humor for the job she does, and she brings a journalist’s sense of duty to that beat.”

He pauses for a moment. “I know not everyone in Washington loves her,” he says, wistfully, “but I do.”

The event-goers dive into the freezing cold water for only about 20 seconds, but Edwards donned a wetsuit to keep her core warm. After taking the plunge, she said it “really makes you wish for spring.”

Interestingly, no other members of Congress decided to participate, but Politico’s Patrick Gavin was on hand to unleash a string of expletives and jump around (jump around).

Check out video of the event, via Politico:

Legend has it that the editors at Washington Post and the NY Times communicate each day to confirm that they have different lead stories/images on their front page. Well, it appears that the communication lines between Marcus Brauchli and Bill Keller were not open last night, as both venerable newspapers lead with the same image from the tragic Cambodia stampede from yesterday. (H/T Patrick Gavin)

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.

That’s essentially what he did to Politico’s Patrick Gavin on Sunday, responding testily to Gavin’s breakdown on Politico of the most frequent guest on Reliable Sources this past decade. Kurtz defended himself against Gavin’s piece and then “outed” Gavin as having “repeatedly asked and cajoled” to come on the show. And, forgive me Howie, but it was weird.

Weirdness point #1: It wasn’t even that critical a piece.

Of course I read it immediately — I wanted to see if I made the cut! I’ve been regular-ish on Reliable Sources for the past few years, and have been a regular watcher for the past five, even through those excruciating exchanges between Kurtz and John King. And so I was not surprised to see names like Clarence Page and David Zurawik and Michelle Cottle and Gail Shister and Jill Zuckman and Eric Deggans and Jeff Jarvis and Rich Lowry, because I’ve seen them all plenty. That’s a list that Kurtz should be damned proud of — it’s a helluva lot more diverse than you see on any other cable news show. A diverse group makes for diverse opinions and a diverse show, which I’ve enjoyed on Reliable Sources plenty of times.

Gavin says he wishes Kurtz had more D.C.-based media critics and reporters on the show, citing a few overlooked media specialists “in his own backyard” that had not yet been invited on; Gavin does not cite himself either way, but does explicitly note his own personal bias in making a criticism based on including his own slice of the industry. Fair point? Definitely. You can always make a case for worthy, smart people to contribute, and when it seems like WaPo is getting favored by a CNN show because Kurtz happens to host it, it’s definitely fair to point that out. Gavin also quotes Karl Frisch saying he wishes there were more media critics on, and cites Jay Rosen and Glenn Greenwald as examples. I wish Gavin had pointed out that Jay Rosen had actually been on the show before. Fine. Finger-wag. Move on. [UPDATE: Finger-wag for me, as I originally stated that Rosen had been on the show 10 times, missing that not all the mentions had indicated he was actually on the show. Rosen emailed to correct me: "I think I was on 3 times max. Possibly four." Rosen, however, said that he had not been on beyond that because "I asked not to be invited any more because I felt my performances sucked and I could not adjust to the rapid pace of Howard's questioning. This is on the record.  Cheers." Jay, I am sure you did not suck. I, however, do and apologize to readers for my error. Moving on.]

Weirdness Point #2: It was really, really fair.

I’m not just talking “fair” like, threw in a “still” or an “even so,” I’m talking fair as in publishing a full four-paragraph response from Kurtz, in which he drops 17 other names of people he’s had on his show and responds in detail to Gavin’s concerns. About a third of the piece (at least) consists of Kurtz’s response. He then further published an update, an email from CNN Senior Executive Producer Tom Bettag, reproduced in full at the end of the column, which was as long or longer than Kurtz’s response. Sigh. Because I am a data-nerd, here are the breakdowns: (1) Gavin’s original article: 754 words; (2) Kurtz’s response: 254 words; (3) Bettag’s reponse: 287 words; (4) Kurtz + Bettag combined: 564 words; (5) Gavin’s article with the Bettag update: 1063 words. So – Kurtz’s response made up a third of Gavin’s original article, and Kurtz + Bettag make up half of the updated version. I’d say you do the math, except I just did it.

Weirdness Point #3: Reading Gavin’s Email? NOT COOL

I would have thought it was weird to respond so fully to Gavin’s column anyway, given the response Kurtz and Bettag had given in print, and the reasonableness of it, and, going back to Point #1, given that the story actually showcased Reliable Sources as pretty diverse (never mind that it was data-based – as in, the Top 20 over a decade). But my mouth dropped open when I saw (actually read, in the HuffPo exclusive that CNN apparently sent out before the show) that Kurtz had “outed” Gavin for having “repeatedly asked and cajoled” to come on the show — then reading from a private email Gavin sent!

Two things here. First, my mind instantly flitted back to last week, and the protectiveness Kurtz seemed to have for the “unspoken agreement” of keeping “embarrassing” stuff off the record, vis a vis Michael Hastings and Lara Logan. There are differences here, sure — last week Kurtz was asking questions, not making statements (albeit leading ones that established the direction of the interview); also, we’ve seen no indication that Gavin and Kurtz spent a month together in the pressure-cooker crucible of Afghanistan. Still, Kurtz’s own column this week suggests that casual emails being fair game is at the very least an eyebrow raise. Even assuming that such an email was not explicitly off the record, its use should at least have a legitimate journalistic purpose if you’re going to use it — shouldn’t it? Unless of course we want our discourse to be “pathologically cautious and mind-numbingly banal.”

Second, I find it odd that a television host would try to shame someone for wanting to be on their show. “Oh please can I be on your awesome awesome show?” “Why thank you, my young friend with excellent taste, I will consider it.” Anyhow, it’s a moot point because there is no shame in being a media writer and wanting to participate in an influential dialogue about media. (Look at me doing it right now!) Why wouldn’t Gavin want to represent himself and his publication, Politico, on Kurtz’s show? Why shouldn’t he pitch himself? I see Gavin all the time on Morning Joe, and don’t think, “Oh God, did he ask to come on the program? How embarrassing.” Did Kurtz’s publisher pitch him to go on the Daily Show? I would think so, otherwise Kurtz would have had a crappy publisher.

In conclusion: Howie Kurtz, I hope this doesn’t mean you won’t have me on your show again, but I think you misfired big time on this one. It’s okay, you can make it up to the world by having me on to debate Kathleen Parker. Can’t wait!

While the #nerdprom hashtag was out in full force last year, it actually did not cross over into mainstream coverage all that much. I used it in the headline for my coverage at the Daily Beast (“Why The Nerd Prom Matters“) and Chris Cillizza used it on his WaPo blog, The Fix (“Twittering Nerd Prom“), but it was largely the province of the online-and-Twitter-savvy. Cut to this year, where there are now 33,800 Google hits for “nerdprom” and 17,500 for “Nerd Prom” – plus all sorts of headlines: “Real Nerds Skip Nerdprom‎” (New Republic); “Kim Kardashian plays chess at DC’s annual ‘nerd prom’‎” (Telegraph UK); “Rate The Celebrities from Nerd Prom!” (HuffPo) and, my personal favorite, this from the venerable WaPo “Reliable Source” column, veteran of many a WHCD: ““Nerd Prom” no longer: Celebrities steal spotlight from press, president, politicians, at White House Correspondents’ Dinner and after-parties.” From zero to being a “no longer” of a years-long tradition in 365 days flat. That’s quick work for a meme.

I can only find two places confirming that Cox started the #nerdprom meme: Dylan Stableford at The Wrap this year and Cillizza last year. I’m sure there are more, but it seemed worthwhile to get this important piece of WHCD history officially on the books.

It should be noted, btw, that Cox did not coin the actual phrase “Nerd Prom,” just applied it to the WHCD. “I think ‘nerdprom’ was coined to describe Comicon,” Cox wrote me in an email. “But I think I helped make WHCD into nerdprom east.”

Indeed it was, and indeed she did.

Related:
PHOTOS: NerdProm 2010 [Mediaite]

*A clarification on the usage of the term “Prom” for the WHCD: According to Washingtonian Magazine editor Garrett Graff,
Anne Schroeder was the first to
usen “prom” in reference to the WHCD, in the “Names & Faces” column in the Washington Post. Graff, who was then writing FishbowlDC, used it for the WHCD cateogory (see the exhaustive “Prom” list), first using it in April 2005.

**It must be noted: the phrase gained its own version of immortality a solid two decades before any of this, on Saturday Night Live with nerds-in-love Todd and Lisa, aka Bill Murray and Gilda Radner. The original “Nerd Prom” sketch is below.

Photo via Vanity Fair.

Kevin Drum of  Mother Jones typified the reaction, saying Allen’s Playbook represents the “groupthink” that already permeates Washington’s cool-kids set, adding “[f]or years I’ve avoided reading Playbook (and The Note and First Read) solely because everyone else does read them.”

Allen, who has successfully avoided ideological labels, was  largely hit by left-leaning journalists and pundits who view his success as evidence of too much ambition and desire for celebrity.  Sarah Posner, who is a contributor at the American Prospect and an editor for Religion Dispatches, tweeted:  “If Times felt need to profile how journalist works, I would’ve been interested in different people — ones who wouldn’t've wanted a profile.”

But the criticism wasn’t just on the left.  Mark Hemingway at the conservative Washington Examiner noted Leibovich’s lengthy disclosure that Leibovich and Allen go way back, titling his critique “Great moments in media sycophancy.”

While some questioned how many would actually read the whole thing, Jason Linkins at the Huffington Post did the heavy lifting, surmising “the fecund womb of the New York Times magazine has birthed into the world Mark Leibovich’s seventy-kabillion word essay on Politico’s Mike Allen, which I think is titled “I Was Told There’d Be Cheap Media Narratives” or something.”

And where would Politico be if it wasn’t providing some meta-commentary on the story about Politico. Patrick Gavin gushes that the profile is “interesting,” “well-written” and “honest.” He later noted a classic reaction from an unnamed Washington Post rival, “WaPo loses the morning? Big buzz on a profile (in an old Post rival) by a former Post star about another former Post star, who now stars for a new Post rival, started by former Posties.” His colleague Ben Smith calls Allen’s Playbook “an unusual phenomenon” because “it’s so collegial, warm, and small-towny in a city whose inhabitants are, in reality, trying to destroy one another.”

One of the best reactions came from Christopher Weaver, of the Kaiser Health Reports, who tweeted: “How many scoops weren’t revealed today b/c reporters were busy reading the new Mike Allen profile?”

“There definitely aren’t a lot of laughs around the briefing room these days,” says Washington Examiner White House correspondent Julie Mason. “Robert’s little digs and evasions have lost their power to amuse — particularly since we haven’t had a presser since July.”

Mason also reports frustration in the ranks: “Reporters know how close the press secretary is to the president, and yet the quality of the information we get doesn’t often reflect that.”

Call me crazy but I’m fairly certain the quality of the information any White House Press Corp. gets almost never reflects the relationship between the press secretary and the president. Though, Chip Reid also expressed similar frustration with Gibbs’ inner circle position and the lack of info he’s willing to impart. That said, I suspect it’s at least somewhat a matter of familiarity breeding contempt combined with a “beleaguered” press corp who is less than thrilled that the President seems to have chucked part of the press room performance these last seven months, namely a full presser (though he did take some questions the other day after his appearance during the regular daily briefing), to do an end run around the corps and straight to the public.

Or maybe it’s just that Robert Gibbs isn’t funny. His terribly inappropriate, Palin-inspired, writing on the hand stunt from earlier this week even elicited a sharp rebuke from Andrew Sullivan, who had this to say in a post titled ‘The Cheapness Of Robert Gibbs‘: “Really: this stunt is pathetic, demeaning and stupid – a disgrace to his office.”

“Before stepping into the boxing ring for a friendly match with Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the one thing you need to know is that he will, in fact, punch you in the face.”

— Politico’s Patrick Gavin, in what may be the best lede ever, describing his ill-fated boxing match with the slap-happy King.

In a week of D.C. fisticuffs, Gavin and King were squaring off as part of his “Game Changers” series where he plays games with politicos. Gavin — who is a big guy, but wears a lot of pastels — probably wasn’t expecting to be roughed up too much. But turns out King had other ideas:

“I’m going to beat Patrick Gavin for a thousand reasons,” King said, with classic boxer bravado. “I’m smarter, I’m better looking, I’m stronger; [I’ve] got a better jab, a better right, a better hook; and I’m a nicer guy. I mean, good guys win! Good guys win in boxing, and there’s no reporter that can ever stand up to a politician.”

Wow. Gavin may think twice the next time he invites a politico to play a friendly game. Good thing he’s still got a while before his his wedding day. Brides don’t like their grooms bloody.

Unrelated: Doesn’t Patrick look like an old-school 80s Karate Kid-type hero in the pic above? You can almost see the sweatband.

Game Changer: Boxing With The King [Politico Click]

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.

Daulerio was a big part of the Steve Phillips sex scandal story yesterday, as Deadspin.com, who felt they were victims of ESPN spin when they had a similar tip last month. The response: unleashing some past sex scandal tips, unconfirmed, about ESPN staffers. We’ll talk about this story…and yes, his Phillies making the World Series last night. Follow him on Twitter here. Scherer writes for the Swampland blog on Time.com – we’ll talk to him about the White House/Fox News battle, health care and more. Follow him on Twitter. And Gavin works for the new Politico blog “Click”, highlighting the intersection of politics and entertainment in D.C. He’s on Twitter as well.

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.

As for the schedule, we’ll talk to Scherer, then Daulerio and then Gavin.

See you at 3pm!

Sometime around 8pm last night (side note: when will Twitter get proper time stamps?) ABC’s Terry Moran, who belongs to the million-high club, twittered out this: @TerryMoran: Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a “jackass” for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT’S presidential.

Snap! Shortly, thereafter Politico’s Patrick Gavin RT’d it, and shortly after that Gavin noted that the tweet had been deleted. Politico quickly did some digging and was told by ABC

That In the process of reporting on remarks by President Obama that were made during a CNBC interview, ABC News employees prematurely tweeted a portion of those remarks that turned out to be from an off-the-record portion of the interview. This was done before our editorial process had been completed. That was wrong. We apologize to the White House and CNBC and are taking steps to ensure that it will not happen again.

It seems Moran was watching the feed of CNBC’s interview with the President and it was maybe unclear to him which portion of it was off the record. The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder notes: “If Terry didn’t know it was OTR, then he’s not bound by the term. The issue here (I think) is whether it was ok to tweet off the CNBC feed.” That said, the President should probably know better than to use that sort of language in front of a group of journos in this day and age of free-flowing information if he’s really worried about it reaching the public.

The bigger issue may be how the super-fast, unfiltered response time that Twitter allows for does not favor the “editorial process.” And whether slip ups like this (enjoyable for the public though they may be!) will cause either news organizations and/or the White House to place restrictions on Twittering. Or whether the public-at-large will merely get used to the unfiltered public figure. Steve Krakauer and I had Terry Moran on our mediabistro.com podcast last winter. At the time Moran had made headlines for tweeting whilst aboard Air Force One, and I asked him (approx 3min mark) if he thought there would be any security concerns which would arise from such unfiltered access: “the keep the President really safe, and they keep the Press away from anything that could compromise that safety.” Not counting his own mouth it would seem!

That was back in February, Twittering times have changed enormously since then. So much so, news organizations will likely have to put in place some sort of Twitter policy asap if they haven’t already done so (ESPN is already there). One can only hope the powers that be will err on the side of transparency, and that one slipped jackass will not make a jackass out of everyone.

The under-the-radar Fashion Beast has been subsumed into this sexier Beast, which will presumably allow for larger coverage (it is Fashion Week, which grounds stories like Yigal Azrouel stealing Katie Lee Joel from poor Billy Joeland a Bryant Park Fashion Week retrospective, but the lead story is pure lifestyle fun: Rebecca Dana recounting her adventures trying to follow the path to becoming Gwyneth Paltrow through GOOP, Paltrow’s chakra-licious lifestyle newsletter and guide. A sampling:

And then, like magic, at some point in the middle of week two, I stopped noticing what an unbelievable hassle it was to follow this ridiculous plan. My ear adjusted to Gwyneth’s affect, and rather than guffawing at some of her more outlandish suggestions, I found myself intrigued by the $249 Voltaic Solar Backpack and her recommendation to “take your drinking water to the next level” with a $900 alkaline filtration system. What vegan shoe designer does Cameron Diaz recommend? I suddenly wanted to know. GOOP has been on hiatus for much of the summer while Gwyneth is traveling and spending time with her family, and without being fully conscious of it, I tried to “police my thoughts” for negativity as I impatiently awaited her return.

It’s a fun piece — though the random introduction of Rue McLanahan DEMANDS a photo! — but more to the point, it grounds what is basically the “lifestyle” section of the Daily Beast into something that is about voice and attitude as well.

More generally, the “lifestyle” pathway seems to be well-trod these days — on Tuesday, Politico launched their offshoot website, “Click,” described as “a new lifestyle section online and in print that will serve as the premier destination for news and gossip on Washington D.C.’s social scene.” Topping the page is a piece about D.C.’s most powerful siblings (which means: Raaaaahm! And his brother.) The site promises to make good use of the “scene” reporting skills of camera-happy partygoers like Anne Schroeder Mullins and Patrick Gavin — given the fascination with everything Obamaland, in retrospect, it’s surprising that it took so long. And of course, HuffPo has been making great use of its Style section for a while, mixing up must-click slideshows from (Summer Style Statements!) to politics (Presidents in bathing suits, anyone?).

So: I guess this means you should watch for Sexy-ite soon. Starring Van Jones, Czar of Hotness, of course!

In the meantime, I am beyond excited to have an excuse to post this Funny Or Die video of SNL’s Abby Elliott sending up Gwyneth making Chicken a la Goop. It’s based on this Goop video, which to be fair, seems pretty reasonable. Of course, like Stella McCartney, I don’t eat chicken.

Back then, hearing the news of a VP selection by text message made us all giddy; hours of cable news time was spent pondering the hubris of Greek pillars at Invesco Field; Hurricane Gustav was threatening to wipe the whole GOP event off the map; and the country was about to be introduced to a little-known politician who showed enormous promise named Sarah Palin. Wow.

PHOTOGALLERY: 2008 CONVENTIONS

Through it all, a cadre of journos, news execs, pundits in TV makeup, upstart bloggers and jockeying political operatives had gotten used to each other’s faces on the campaign trail, through stops in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, Super Tuesday and more, with their speeches, rallies, debates, spin rooms, hoe-downs, barbecues, fundraisers, black-tie dinners, arugula, waffles, shots of JD, the thrill of final victory and the bitter, bitter pall of defeat. In August-September 2008, it all converged into one Mega-Week (give or take a few days of travel time) as the whole gang plus everyone else who could score some couch space converged on Denver and Minneapolis/St. Paul. It was lots of work but lots of fun — like sleepaway camp for politicos. So – if you’re bored and nostaligic on this sleepy summer long weekend, you’re in luck — I took the best of my 600+ photos from last year and winnowed it down to the very best of the bunch, for some golden Kodak moments featuring any and all of — 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, Chad Hurley, Jon Hamm, John Dickerson, Obama Girl, 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, Sammy Hagar, Rahm Emanuel, Katie Couric, Peggy Noonan and various people eating free food at the CNN Grill. Was that just a blatant attempt at showing up in all of your Google alerts? Perhaps. But still, the pics are pretty fun. Check them out here — and happy Labor Day Weekend!

PHOTOGALLERY: 2008 CONVENTIONS

(photo via Washington Post)

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs seems like a nice enough guy. He has a sense of humor about his work, he maintains a friendly banter with reporters, and he was even the goalie of the North Carolina State Wolfpack soccer team.

But Gibbs largely gets a free pass from the media for his many blunders. Just this past week, his attempts to brush off Sarah Palin’s comments on health care backfired, and he gave Iranian election protesters a major slap in the face when he referred to Ahmadinejad as “the elected leader” of Iran. Both times, there was a bit of hubbub that quickly blew over.

How does he do it? Maybe Gibbs is the Alessandra Stanley of the Obama Administration; he could just be skating by on his personal charm. A more sinister theory is that members of the White House Press Corps are afraid that if they criticize him, he’ll cut off their coveted access, a la Ari Fleischer under Bush. In comparison to Bush’s press secretaries, Gibbs has made a good impression overall. But has he earned it? Decide after you read these:

1. Sarah Palin’s Healthcare Comments

Sarah Palin’s Facebook note about “death panels” managed to sidetrack the health care debate for a good two or three days, which no doubt frustrated Gibbs and the White House. But Gibbs’ snark yesterday about how “you [reporters] cover a lot of process and you cover a lot of — you cover noise and heat and light” was the wrong kind of dismissal, and did nothing to brush the matter away. As Kansas City Star columnist Yael T. Abouhalkah put it:

Sorry, but when the former vice presidential candidate of the Republican Party says something that quickly enters the national debate over health care — no matter how ridiculous it might be factually — it’s worth talking about, if only to discredit it.

2. “Elected Leader” Ahmadinejad?

Gibbs put his foot in his mouth on August 4th when a reporter asked if Ahmadinejad was “the legitimate president of Iran” and Gibbs responded that he was “the elected leader.” Gibbs’s intent seems to have been to artfully delegitimize Ahmadinejad, but he inadvertently made it sound as though the White House recognized the disputed results of the Iranian election. Gibbs eventually backtracked, saying, “whether any election was fair, obviously the Iranian people still have questions about that and we’ll let them decide that. But I would simply say he’s been inaugurated and we know that is simply a fact.”

3. Laff-A-Lympics

Gibbs has a habit of joking and laughing away tough questions. When Politico‘s Patrick Gavin looked into the matter in May, he found more than 600 instances of “(Laughter.)” from both Gibbs’ and the Press Corps’ end in press briefing transcripts — more than ten each day. Sometimes, this falls into the “charm” category, but when Gibbs does things like laugh at the size of the national deficit, as he did in April, he comes across as tone-deaf.

4. Taking on Cheney

On March 16th, Gibbs briefly channeled the HuffPo comments section when he responded to Dick Cheney’s remarks that the U.S. was less safe under Obama than it had been under Bush by quipping, “I guess Rush Limbaugh was busy … so they trotted out the next most popular member of the Republican cabal.” When you’re the White House Press Secretary, show a little respect for the former Vice President, even if you disagree with him.

5. What Joe Biden “Meant to Say” About Swine Flu

If protecting the White House from the press is like being a minesweeper, then protecting Joe Biden is like being that crazy guy from The Hurt Locker; there are just too many gaffes to defuse. That said: on April 30th,  Gibbs attempted to spin Biden’s infamous “closed container” remarks on swine flu into a handy health advisory. Jake Tapper called him out for not saying anything “remotely close to what [Biden] said.” Gibbs’s response? “I understand what he said, and I’m telling you what he meant to say.”

6. “The Fraternal Order of Police Endorsed McCain”

When a reporter asked if Obama’s remarks during Gates-Gate would lead to a backlash among police groups, Gibbs responded, “I think the Fraternal Order of Police endorsed McCain, if I’m not mistaken.” It quickly shot to the front page of Drudge. No doubt Gibbs had prepped the response, but it came out at the wrong time in the wrong way, and made Obama’s response to the situation seem vengeful.

7. Monarchy in the UK

Gibbs unwittingly kicked a hornet’s nest in June when he told reporters that the Obama administration was working to get the Queen to attend D-Day commemorations in Normandy. As Swampland noted,

Buckingham Palace protocol demands that Her Maj receives a formal invitation before traveling to a foreign country. Gordon Brown has insisted that if the Queen wishes to attend, he’ll sort her out an invitation. Gibbs’s intervention seemed to suggest that the Prime Minister was too impotent to deliver on his promise without White House help.

As it turns out, the White House hadn’t even been in contact with Buckingham Palace; Gibbs was winging it. The Queen did not end up going to the commemorations; Prince Charles attended and represented Britain at the D-Day commemoration ceremonies.

UPDATE – Robert Gibbs Fact-Check’s Mediaite’s Gaffe List

This post has been corrected and updated since publication.

For those who make it to the very end, here’s the finished version of Rachel’s Beer Summit-inspired song to “Gin & Juice.”

Previously:

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 3rd “Mediaite Office Hours” at 4pmET.

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.

You can call in to (347) 637-1713 at any time.

Also, here’s how to check out the show:

- Watch us live here on this page at 4pmET, or check it out at www.livestream.com/mediaite.

- You can listen to it in audio form live at BlogTalkRadio.com.

As for the schedule, you’ll hear Geist in the first half hour and Gavin in the 2nd half hour.

We’re still tweaking the production of the show, so suggestions welcome…

See you at 4pm!