After talk of Wallace’s thoughts on the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street, the interview turns, as always, to questions of Fox News’ bias. Wallace reacts just like every other “straight” Fox anchor; with a healthy amount of annoyance. “You want to get into the whole right-wing thing?” he asks the interviewer (Playboy Contributing Editor David Hochman). After that, things get more cordial as Wallace talks about whether or not the tax rate of millionaires should go up and how he manages to remember all his facts and stats while interviewing people live on air.

Then things turn to the massive brouhaha last summer over Jon Stewart’s appearance on Fox News Sunday.

“PLAYBOY: On Fox News Sunday last summer, Jon Stewart called you ‘insane’ for insisting you’re not biased. Was there a moment when you regretted inviting him on the show?

WALLACE: Not at all. First of all, I think he’s an interesting political player. I also think he’s funny. Even when he’s criticizing me, I usually laugh. He’s wrongheaded sometimes, but I think he’s a genuinely clever, smart guy. Frankly, I thought it would be entertaining for our audience to see him on the show.

…

PLAYBOY: He said your role at Fox is to ‘bring credibility and an integrity to an organization that might not otherwise have it without your presence,’ adding that a partisan ideological agenda is ‘the soup you swim in.’ On The Daily Show afterward he mockingly said the beauty of your news network is how it has managed to achieve ‘a narrative of conservative victimization’ that is ‘airtighter than an otter’s anus.’

WALLACE: Well, I assure you Jon knows more about otters’ anuses than I do. I also think Stewart lives in far too transparent a house to be throwing stones. The thing I’ve noticed about him is this: He rightly points out that he criticizes Democrats as well as Republicans, but he criticizes conservatives for being conservative. He criticizes Democrats for being ineffective. It isn’t that their ideas are wrong; it’s that they’re not carrying them out sufficiently. It’s that they’re not liberal enough, not tough enough, not Democratic enough. He criticizes Republicans for being too Republican.”

The interview also discusses Wallace’s long career in journalism. Wallace has a lot of intriguing thoughts, including his opinion that all White House press conferences are horribly “scripted” and have been ever since George H. W. Bush started clamping down on things.

Things go even farther back, focusing on the fact that Wallace was basically born into this. His father, of course, was Mike Wallace, while his step-father was Bill Leonard. Amidst Wallace’s fascinating stories of building a relationship with his biological father and the pain that accusations of nepotism caused him early in his career, perhaps the best part of the whole article comes when he talks about being a gofer for Walter Cronkite for the 1964 Republican convention at age 16. Why? Because of this:

“PLAYBOY: What do you remember most about working with Cronkite?

WALLACE: What I remember most is his daughter Nancy, to tell you the truth. I fell madly in love with her. She was my first girlfriend. She didn’t look at all like Walter, thankfully. She was this beautiful 15-year-old blonde. That was when my dad was anchoring The CBS Morning News and Walter, of course, was doing the evening news. The correspondents all loved seeing Nancy and me together. They said it was like a merging of the two divisions.

PLAYBOY: Are you implying that Walter Cronkite’s daughter was your first sexual conquest?

WALLACE: I know this is Playboy, but you’ve got to be kidding!

PLAYBOY: We are merely interested in chronicling this untold story from media history.

WALLACE: Right, sure. She was my first girlfriend. That’s all you’re going to get.”

It’s a pretty great interview and a good read. Check it out here. Or buy it at the newsstands. If you do that, it comes with pictures of Lindsay Lohan’s boobs.

Host Myles Cochrane shared a snippet from a Hannity segment wherein he stated that Maher “hates God, he hates religion, he smokes pot, he wants to be Hugh Hefner” and that he “has a dark agenda.” Maher laughed it off. “Yeah, Sean’s a little… shall we say frustrated?,” he asked. “I don’t know. Jealous much, Sean? I think that’s what it is.” He recounted how Hannity had even brought on a therapist, Dr. Keith Ablow, to psychoanalyze him. (You remember that segment, right? It stemmed from comments Maher had made regarding Bristol Palin‘s alleged “horniness.”)

But, Maher continued, he’d be totally willing to appear on Hannity’s show himself. Although he believes that’s not terribly likely to happen:

And of course I would go on Sean’s show; I would be happy to go on Sean’s show. But they’re afraid. Of course, with the Republicans, they’re always afraid to talk to you directly. It’s so much easier to have a straw man to work with. So instead of talking to me directly, he brings on this psychiatrist to psychoanalyze me.

He added that “these people” (Republicans? Fox News personalities? Dudes named Sean?) are downright obsessed with the Playboy mansion. He describes America’s most famous bachelor pad as basically consisting of a nice backyard that plays host to some good parties. Not mentioned? It’s also a good place to pick up hepatitis. (Just kidding, of course. I have no idea. I’m never invited to parties, much less the sort where women dress like adorable woodland creatures and men wear their fancy going out pajamas.)

Also of note? Maher pretty much agreed with recent comments made by Sarah Palin (Yes! Really!) concerning what, exactly, constitutes as sexism when discussing/criticizing female political figures. If you’re a political figure, he says, you’re fair game for criticism about your views and beliefs, regardless of gender. In fact, it’d be sexist to think women in politics need to be sheltered or protected from criticism or even ridicule.

Maher also discussed what Bachmann’s big win in Iowa means for the GOP candidate field:

I think we know that the tail is wagging the dog when it comes to who’s running the show with the Republican party. Now, this was just a straw poll in Iowa, and Iowa is known as a place where the Republican machinery there, especially in their primary, is dominated by the Evangelicals. So of course they’re going to love somebody like Michele Bachmann.

But it’s not going to be that different from around the country. The people who vote in Republican primaries are the far, far, far right. So, as always with the Republican party, to get the nomination, you have to sell yourself to the crazies. I think this is why Tim Pawlenty dropped out the other day: Because he kind of got it that, “Look, as much as I try to pretend I’m as nuts as these other people, I can’t even pull it off when I’m lying.” These “authentic crazy people” are always going to be the ones who are going to win these straw polls and these primaries. So he got out while he had to, while he could, while he didn’t completely lose his dignity.

But, yeah, they’re going to nominate somebody who either is Michele Bachmann or is imitating what she says, because that’s what they want to hear.

Regular readers here likely know I’m not exactly cutting out pictures of Bill Maher to keep in my Trapper Keeper, but I have to admit he’s spot-on in terms of what it takes to court the Republican base and nab a nomination. I might substitute “crazies” for “members of a certain special interest group,” maybe, but the gist is relatively the same.

So. Would you like to see Maher appear on Hannity’s show? Personally, I’d rather watch him spar with O’Reilly, because I think a debate with Hannity might depend a little too much on both men being sure to remain “in character,” if that makes sense. But, all the same. I’d definitely watch.

Have a listen, via the 94.1 KSLG:

Johnston alleges that Track Palin, the elder (and rarely seen) son of Sarah Palin, was forced by his mother to enter the army once she was announced as John McCain‘s running mate in 2008. One possible reason Palin wanted her son out of the way? Mercede says that Track, whom she dated briefly, “did OxyContin but mostly cocaine.” She adds that Bristol, with whom her brother has a young child, is a “sociopath” who would routinely steal her parents’ credit cards, send nude photos to admirers and use poor, poor Levi as a prop:

She literally took Levi from a hunting trip and flew him to the Republican convention. He didn’t have a choice. … She doesn’t care, as long as she’s going to the top. But it’s screwed my whole family up. Levi was a prop, and once they didn’t need him he was out the door.

Mercede also claims that Bristol and Levi had been trying to conceive “for months,” and that their teen pregnancy was, in fact, very much planned.

And then there’s this (anonymous) claim about Sarah herself, via The Fix:

The Playboy story goes on to recount much sketchier allegations against Sarah Palin, who is still debating a presidential run. The author cites an anonymous source who “makes the incredible claim to have snorted coke with [Sarah] at the Mug Shot [a local bar in Wasilla] and points to the very spot on the bar where said lines were cut up.”

Ok then!

Whatever Track did or did not do in his spare time in the past, however, he’s guaranteed a busy future: Reporter Joe McGinniss, who is writing a book about the Palins, blogged that the 22-year-old and his wife, Britta, welcomed their first child this weekend. Track is now father to a little girl — Kyla Grace Palin. So far, the couple has not released photographs of their new child.

h/t The Fix and People.com

One of the strangest wrinkles in the story has been the fact that Harris was supposed to be on the cover of the July issue with a huge headline “Introducing Mrs. Hugh Hefner.” Not only does this rule out the usual revenge tactic of spreading naked pictures of your ex on the Internet since, well, he was gonna do that anyway, it makes for a slightly awkward situation since the issue has already been printed. Last night, though, Hefner tweeted this:

Nice.

It could be worse. He could badmouth her using a secret code of stars in the letter “P.” That’s what my friend’s older brother totally told me he’d do.

(h/t TMZ)

Regarding MSNBC’s success as counterprogramming to Fox News, O’Donnell says:

“It was a wonderful creative accident driven by Keith Olbermann. At a certain point in the progress, or lack of progress, of the Iraq war, Keith, who had his show on MSNBC, took a sharp turn to the left, and the ratings skyrocketed. If those ratings had gone down, that sharp left turn would have been stopped.”

And on the subject of his time slot competitor O’Reilly, he admits:

I can’t take Bill seriously. He’s a character . . . the braggadocio Irish guy who plays as if he’s smarter than you, but in fact he doesn’t know very much and can’t really back up what he says. . . . You know, the tough-guy part of it is the biggest fraud of all. Bill’s from Long Island. Sorry, that’s not tough-guy territory.

And O’Donnell seems to regret that Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin enjoy continued popularity as a result of them being “media creations.”

For O’Donnell’s thoughts on many, many more topics, check out the full interview at Playboy (and don’t worry the link to this particular page is family-friendly).

(h/t TVNewser)

Struggling to explain him, Lieberman– who received access through O’Keefe after convincing him to trust the columnist because they “inhabit the same circles”– alludes to everyone from Johnny Knoxville to Woodward and Bernstein to G. Gordon Liddy himself: an “ace performance ­artist–political shit stirrer–jackass.” This convoluted description, while accurate, doesn’t explain too much, though the background that Lieberman gives on his life certainly adds some clarity. O’Keefe has been at this since performing in high school musicals. That preposterous “pimp” coat he wore in the famous ACORN video? On loan from grandma. Yes, he lives in his parents’ house, but he’d rather not talk about it. He is very poor and appears to trust people he barely knows on a whim. He has a cache of juicy “investigative” pieces he can’t release because of the legally questionable way the information was obtained, one– Lieberman’s favorite– in which O’Keefe plays a “high-roller” who visits a resort owned by a prominent politician in search of prostitutes. Always the prostitutes with this one.

That latter point made and broke his career– the acclaimed ACORN sting was not his idea, but that of 20-year-old Hannah Giles, the “prostitute” in the video turned fellow conservative wunderkind. Giles found O’Keefe on Facebook, pitched the idea, and it was a go. “We met in person the day before we went undercover,” Giles confesses in the piece. Conversely, the CNN dildo boat was the idea of one Ben Wetmore, a  law school friend who first helped fund his Rutgers conservative pamphlet, The Centurion. Their relationship Lieberman, through sources, identifies as “master-puppet,” and one gets the idea that it is Wetmore who has led O’Keefe astray. “Yet in the space of two years,” Lieberman writes, “his supporters have splintered into true believers (i.e., Wetmore) and the rest of us (i.e., Blackwell, Breitbart and I).” Yes, Lieberman puts Andrew Breitbart, one of O’Keefe’s most vocal supporters, in the skeptic column, likely due to his scolding post-CNN debacle and the fact that O’Keefe’s latest, against NPR, debuted on Tucker Carlson‘s Daily Caller. Meanwhile, Wetmore tells Lieberman, “I don’t think he’s risky enough.” There the line is drawn.

Lieberman concludes charitably, offering O’Keefe some unsolicited advice:

If O’Keefe were my client, I would hand him a flowchart of the positive people and the parasites in his life. Then I would take away his internet connection until he could come up with a long-term plan. And I don’t mean a new hit list of liberal targets to lampoon. He needs to figure out how to leverage what he’s accomplished into a paying gig that doesn’t rely on the generosity of anonymous wealthy donors with an ax to grind. He can’t run his movement from his parents’ house forever.

In some ways, Playboy is the perfect medium in which O’Keefe can let his hair down, with just the right amount of frivolity to undermine the seriousness of some of the graver accusations against him. But it also perpetuates the thoroughly unlikeable image of O’Keefe as a scrawny conservative wannabe ladies’ man that won him so many enemies the first time around, particularly when coupled with his alliance with someone like Wetmore. One gets the feeling, however, that this is precisely what O’Keefe is after.

Perhaps he is pursuing the high of getting as close to universal dismissal from the public discourse as possible without actually losing influence– the old Werner Herzog adage that there is nothing more exhilarating than being shot at and missed. The article makes a point of highlighting how little O’Keefe cares for money, and it becomes impossible to see what he seeks to gain from his performance art projects if not ignominy. While Lieberman argues that O’Keefe “possesses awful judgment,” his attempts at muckraking seem far too deliberate for O’Keefe not to intend this seemingly endless flirtation with disgrace that handicaps him before many on the right who would otherwise support his efforts.

It is, perhaps, a sign of the times that the onetime mothership of hedonism and debauchery is suspected of causing an outbreak, not of some exotic malady of the penis, or of peculiar muscle strains, but of Legionnaires’ Disease. This is the sad tale of a dusty, ancient relic of a bygone America, and his mansion.

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably wondering, “what exactly is Legionnaires’ Disease?”

I had always assumed it was some horrible plague that got its name by wiping out scores of Foreign Legion troops during some exotic 19th century campaign. As it turns out, it was discovered in 1976 when over 200 attendees of an American Legion convention in Philadelphia became infected. If you ask me, that’s a stupid way to name a disease, like calling chronic masturbation “Trekkie’s Disease.”

According to LA County public health officials, the legionella bacterium is “commonly found in moist environments,” which rules out Hugh Hefner himself as the source.

Bashir wisely employs the tactic of playing an inherently funny story straight, calling in noted non-epidemiologist and former Hefner girlfriend Izabella St. James, and deadpanning such questions as “While you were there, were you aware of possible sources of contamination?” and “Dog urine isn’t exactly an aphrodisiac, is it?”

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The former world headquarters for orgiastic indulgence is now a urine-reeking hotbed of airborne contagion, and former Nightline anchor Martin Bashir gets to report on it.

Here’s the clip, from MSNBC:

Although her remark was clearly meant to evoke what some see as an Orwellian manipulation of language, the intense heat given to the mighty #Mooreandme protest over the dismissive treatment of rape allegations on MSNBC’s Countdown could spark a similar surge of outrage over Kelly’s remark. Here’s why I don’t think it should. (h/t Doug Mataconis)

Here’s the clip of Kelly’s remarks, from Fox News:

Kelly’s comparison is, without a doubt, self-contradictory. “Non-consensual sex partner” is a double-plus-oxymoron, in that without consent, you cannot have “sex,” nor can you be a “partner.” She would have been better served sticking to the burglary analogy, or perhaps drawing on the real-life marriage-dissolving National Organization for Marriage for inspiration. Even in misusing the comparison, though, she doesn’t trivialize rape. Indeed, the effectiveness of her analogy rests on the seriousness of the offense.

Intent matters, however, so while the remark could be seen as offensive, it’s clear to me that the intent (however misguided) was to illustrate the slippery slope that this sort of manipulation can lead to. In fact, it is here that Kelly’s guest, Jehmu Greene, falls short. She rests her argument on the notion that using the term “illegal alien” leads to violence against the undocumented, when the Society of Professional Journalists makes the more relevant point that the term “undocumented immigrant” is a less factually biased phrase. Creating a less charged environment should have remained a welcome, but secondary, side-effect.

In a similar vein, Fox News Managing Editor Bill Sammon landed in hot water when internal memos surfaced that showed exactly this sort of manipulation, but not because he was simply trying to dictate a more neutral standard, but because it appeared that his effort was driven by a desire to create bias where none existed.

Megyn Kelly and I probably disagree about a great many things, but I have always admired her toughness and skepticism, as well as her willingness to engage those with whom she disagrees. One instance in which we agreed completely, however, was the occasion of an online Playboy article that was an attack on women everywhere. Hopefully, her remarks on that issue will illuminate her intent in this case:

Update: Two things. First of all, my argument in Megyn Kelly’s defense is that she should be given the benefit of the doubt. I still hope that she apologizes, or clarifies her remarks.

Second, I wanted to point out this odd little kicker at the end of a writeup on this story by Huffington Post’s Katy Hall:

Last month Megyn posed in lingerie for GQ.

What does this have to do with rape culture, immigration, or political correctness? I do not know.

The question has now become, was Disney involved. No one from the film appears in the pictorial. No Olivia Wilde, nude or otherwise. No Jeff Bridges standing next to the models as the various James Bond actors do for that franchise’s long collaboration with the gentleman’s magazine. And, as Rope of Silicon pointed out, the photos credit “Replica Chopper: Parker Bros” which would imply the lightcycles aren’t actual movie props.

Still, it seems unlikely that the money-strapped Playboy would risk the ire of Disney unless they got some kind of go ahead. The general theory right now is that Disney, a company that used to shuffle any movie even slightly controversial to one of their other wings like Touchstone, is looking for any extra way to market a movie that has been rumored to cost more than $300 million and so decided to just let this slide as long as their name was nowhere near it. If the pictorial doesn’t vanish and Disney doesn’t make a comment, we might have to assume that to be the case.

As one of the few people who will still admit to loving the original Tron as well as someone who doesn’t mind naked ladies (I’ve gotten to write two Playboy posts in as many days!), I don’t have a problem with it. Besides, since the models have their naughtier bits covered by lighting and make-up or body paint, the shoot is as racy as recent Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues. Still, the whole thing is rather interesting.

Watch the (slightly NSFW) pictorial video below:

An amused airline passenger noticed Conyers studying the magazine’s soft-core images during a flight to D.C., so he, of course, recorded it with his camera phone. The lesson? Conyers is old-fashioned and kind of creepy. Makes you feel bad for the TSA agents that had to touch his junk.

Watch an iPad-less congressman fly coach in the short video below. (h/t Business Insider)

Twelve months of focus groups and research later, they have their answer: in 2011, Playboy TV will “begin shifting from traditional pornography toward a higher-quality, female-friendly slate of reality shows. Just as Nickelodeon has its Nick at Nite, Playboy TV will call this block of shows TV for 2.” Here’s a taste of some of the new programming that will appear on TV for 2:

The first new series is “Brooklyn Kinda Love,” a docu-reality program scheduled to make its debut on Jan. 15. Produced by Joe and Harry Gantz (HBO’s Emmy-winning “Taxicab Confessions”), “Brooklyn Kinda Love” follows the intricacies of four real couples’ relationships. Another new show involves monogamous couples receiving advice on how to achieve greater intimacy. In all, the channel will add six new shows by the end of next year.

The content remains firmly sexual — this is subscription television — but Playboy insists that it is less identifiable as pornography. The emphasis is now on intimacy, learning as a couple and of course those all-important higher production values.

“This is not just a face-lift,” Mr. Rosenson said. “This is a major movement away from the type of adult fare that you can easily find on the Web.”

He added, “They say that every important TV niche has been filled, but I’m pretty sure we’ve found one that hasn’t.”

It’s a clever idea—and it’s also sort of refreshing to see a porn purveyor purposefully trying to court women. Though many people might still think that women simply aren’t interested in watching pornography, Playboy’s research shows that’s not true: They just want to watch a different sort of pornography.

Specifically, writes Barnes, Playboy discovered “that women — particularly younger women — were not opposed to pornography as long as it had certain attributes. Among them: real chemistry, nonenhanced body parts, varied body shapes and ‘contextualized’ sex. ‘They want the romance to flow organically from the story and not pop up in a forced fashion as is the case in so many adult movies,’ Ms. Lee said.”

In other words, to get women to watch Playboy TV, the channel is going to have to start airing higher-quality programming featuring sex that doesn’t look fake or cheap. It’s unclear exactly how Playboy translated this information into ‘let’s air a bunch of reality shows,’ but even so, we’ll be standing by to see if the experiment works. Read the rest of Barnes’s article at NYTimes.com.

From Reuters:

“‘This is the first time we’ve literally swung the doors open’ to the public, Playboy editorial director Jimmy Jellinek told Reuters. ‘The average reader will go home with stories they can’t tell their wives and girlfriends but will last forever.’

Jellinek said he dreamed up the promotion one day when he was thinking about Wonka, the eccentric candy maker of Roald Dahl’s children’s book ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.’

Wonka, of course, hides five golden tickets in the wrappers of chocolate bars, and kids around the world search for them in order to win a trip to his mysterious candy factory.

‘Hef thinks of this as a golden dreams ticket,’ Jellinek said.

Not only will the winners get into the mansion, Playboy is flying them to Los Angeles, putting them up at the posh Petit Ermitage hotel and paying for dinner at upscale restaurant, Simon LA.”

Wow, not only might this be the only time any of us normal people get to wander around and be too shy to talk to any of the models, it might be one of the last times anyone gets to. As the A.V. Club points out, there have been reports that the magazine’s financial trouble might lead to them selling the famous mansion, thus killing the childhoods of millions of American men.

Whatever the case, this next issue should sell a hefty amount. While we wait for it to come to newsstands this Friday, we’ll be left to imagine the wondrous times we might have if we find one of those tickets. And also, ask one important question: does this mean Larry Flynt is Slugworth?

Unsurprisingly, Hefner has a very pro-traditional media point of view.

“You can go on The Huffington Post now, and with two clicks, you can find topless photos of the latest starlet,” said Kurtz. “Has [the media's embrace of sex] carried the revolution too far? Has it drained all the mystery out of it?”

First of all – starlets! Now here’s Hefner’s response, word for word:

The very nature of change and progress, so called, you get something and you lose something. The internet was an incredible blessing in terms of communication, but in the process, people are less informed in other ways. I think that young people have a less sense of who they were, or who we were, than they are, than when I was growing up. I think that reading is different on the internet than it is for books and newspapers and you don’t retain as much.

Well I’m not completely sure what Hefner doesn’t like about the internet, but there definitely is something. Meanwhile, despite Playboy losing more than a million dollars in the first quarter of 2010, Hefner says “the brand is so hot I want to take advantage of that opportunity,” and he plans to try to buy the magazine and take it private.

Here’s the first segment of the interview:

—–
» Follow Steve Krakauer on Twitter

Will the lengthy Rolling Stone profile signal his downfall, or will he survive to see another day. Let’s take a look five recent career-threatening profiles or interviews, and whether the subjects were able to keep their job?

1. Eric Massa vs. Glenn Beck – Career-ending? Yes.

Technically Massa had already quit Congress by the time he sat down with Glenn Beck for a live interview on March 9, but if he was hoping for any career in politics after the tickle-scandal to end all tickle-scandals, he lost it after his bizarre and amazing interview.

There’s a reason this is the only live TV interview on this list – these types of train-wreckingly bad interviews just doesn’t happen. You were able to watch a career implode with each awkward passing moment until Beck finally apologized to his audience for “wasting your time.”

>>> NEXT PAGE: The problem with Albany.

Judged by a panel that includes luminaries such as the LA Times‘ Andrew Malcolm and Jonah Goldberg from the National Review, the list delivers on its meager promise. So who’s on the list, and what’s wrong with it?

Here’s Right Wing News’ 20 Hottest Conservative Women In The New Media: (linkbait accomplished!)

20) Elizabeth Blackney from Media Lizzy & Friends

20) Skye from Midnight Blue Says

19) Michelle Malkin

17) Courtney Messerschmidt from GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD

17) Kerrie from The Liberal Heretics

15) Michelle Oddis from Human Events

15) Shelly Roche from ByteStyle.Tv

13) Lori Ziganto from Snark and Boobs

13) Ann Coulter

12) S.E. Cupp from Red S.E. Cupp

11) Liz Stephans from The B-Cast

10) Sharon from The Liberal Heretics

7) Tabitha Hale

7) Freeman Hunt

7) Laura Ingraham

6) Columnist Orit Sklar

5) Hannah Giles

4) Mary Katharine Ham from the The Weekly Standard

3) Ashley Herzog from Herzogian

2) Lila Rose

1) Dana Loesch from The Dana Show

Today marks exactly one year since my firing by Politics Daily’s Melinda Henneberger over Playboy’s list of “Top 10 Women I’d Like to Hate F***,” (I wrote an article denouncing it, and Henneberger deleted the story, then deleted me) which is what made me realize that ranking conservative hotties must be a seasonal thing. This year finds a much milder fleshfest, judged by a panel of doughy bloggers for the website Right Wing News. I’m going to have a problem with any list that includes Elizabeth “Media Lizzy” Blackney at any rank other than #1. I have several with this one.

Now, I’m not one of those people who think it’s never acceptable to notice that a beautiful woman is beautiful, and I understand the lure of easy linkbaiting (hence the headline). But there are ways, and there are ways.

In the modern media landscape, sex appeal is certainly a relevant factor to consider. What Right Wing News’ 20 Hottest Conservative Women In The New Media misses out on is that it’s not the only factor.

Their list consists of just that, a list and a photograph. No biographical info, no descriptions of their accomplishments, or critiques of their work. Just a picture and a link. There’s nothing there that would make anyone want to read anything these women write. Lest you doubt the level of the pig factor here, there’s this from one of the judges, James Joyner:

I would note that it would be useful to break the contest down into age brackets, as it’s a bit silly to have 20-somethings pitted against 50-somethings.

Maybe they ought to bring in a livestock scale, too, and break it down into weight classes.

My perspective on this list is influenced by the fact that I know a lot of the women on it. Aside from the fact that if I went up to Mary Katherine Ham and said “You’re hot!” she’d probably punch me in the arm, it’s just not an adequate measure of her worth as a human being. Sure, she has a beautiful smile that lights up a room, but she also pounds the pavement with an old-timey reporter’s notebook, noticing things that escape me.

And what about Michelle Malkin? You mean to tell me that a panel of 8 right-wing bloggers couldn’t crank out a paragraph about Michelle Malkin?

Which brings me to Lizzy. Like everyone on this list, I couldn’t disagree more with her politics, nor she with mine. However, she’s been a loyal friend and fan since before anyone had ever heard of me. She’s a Gold Star Wife, widowed at the age of 25, and mother of a now-14 year-old daughter. Much to my shock, she and I share many common views on parenting.

When I got into trouble for denouncing that Playboy article, Lizzy risked, and ultimately lost, a very beneficial relationship with AOL in order to do the right thing, not just out of loyalty to me, but to her own closely-held values.  While we don’t get to gab nearly often enough on her radio show, she’s always in my heart.

I don’t expect a link-baiting top 20 list to be able to take the full measure of Lizzy, or Tabitha Hale, who does huge work for Freedomworks, or Lori Ziganto, whose tweets will make you laugh out loud. But this list doesn’t even try.

According to Lizzy, who was thrilled to be on the list, the women get their turn next. Dr. Melissa Clouthier is putting together a list of Hottest Men in New Media, and Lizzy is one of the judges. I’ll be interested to see if they manage to get any further below skin-depth.

Besides talking about her new book, The Bedwetter, King closed the interview with a question about Sarah Palin. This wasn’t going to end well.

As Newsbusters points out, King tossed Silverman the softball and, naturally, she hit it predictably right down the middle. “Sarah Palin, what do you think, Sarah Palin, I’ve got to say her name because we have to say it every night,” said King.

“About what? Her posing in Playboy?” asked Silverman. “I think she should go for it.”

Now, if it ended there – fine. It’s expected from a comedian as blue as Silverman to throw something like that into the middle of the discussion. But then, King quickly responded, “Agreed. Thank you Sarah.”

So now the host of the prime time cable news show – on the network that continues to do all the journalism the other networks supposedly won’t – is agreeing that Sarah Palin should pose in Playboy. Was he joking? Sure. But does that make it ok?

Earlier in the interview, King asked Silverman if there was “anything you won’t joke about?” “Probably not,” she said, but pointed to one area: “Fat jokes about women. That always bums me out. I feel like we live in a country where fat women, at least in white America, don’t deserve love.”

Also, Silverman made her pitch for Larry King’s anchor chair, which he called the “best job in television.” “Get in line,” he joked. “I just feel I’m a better fit,” she said. Well if her guests would be Silverman-esque, maybe she’s right. Tomorrow night on Larry King Live: actor and reality TV rehab regular Tom Sizemore.

Meanwhile the chyron writers had a field day with the various Silverman segments. Here were some of the favorites:

“SILVERMAN ON WHY SHE TOOK 16 XANAX A DAY: ‘It was a time you didn’t question doctors’”

“SARAH: DAD TAUGHT ME TO SWEAR WHEN I WAS 3″

“SARAH SILVERMAN: ‘I HAVE NO RELIGION’”

Oh great. Here’s the Palin comment (at the end of the first video) and one of CNN’s embeddables with the “fat jokes about women” part is below:

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He did a lengthy interview with Playboy in which he discussed his racist penis, having sex with Jessica Simpson, dropped an n-bomb and much much more. Here are some highlights.

So here’s the full Playboy interview. There’s a whole lot there. But here may be the most insane quote to come out of the entire interview:

My dick is sort of like a white supremacist. I’ve got a Benetton heart and a fuckin’ David Duke cock. I’m going to start dating separately from my dick.

John Mayer has a “David Duke cock,” ladies and gentleman.

Now the singer/songwriter/tabloid fodder has not shied away from speaking his mind in interviews before, and it has led to some memorable exchanges. But this may be the height of his ‘he’s so edgy and refreshing’ honesty. While we’re talking about David Duke, here’s Mayer dropping an n-bomb while describing how much black people love him: “And by the way, it’s sort of a contradiction in terms, because if you really had a hood pass, you could call it a nigger pass. Why are you pulling a punch and calling it a hood pass if you really have a hood pass?”

MSNBC contributor Toure has been dressing down Mayer on Twitter this morning (no response yet from the musician). To the above comment he writes, “Whatever you wanna call it, you don’t have it any more.”

Update at 5pm: Mayer is apologizing on Twitter. Here’s some of what he wrote:

And while I’m using today for looking at myself under harsh light, I think it’s time to stop trying to be so raw in interviews…
It started as an attempt to not let the waves of criticism get to me, but it’s gotten out of hand and I’ve created somewhat of a monster.
I wanted to be a blues guitar player. And a singer. And a songwriter. Not a shock jock. I don’t have the stomach for it.
Again, because I don’t want anyone to think I’m equivocating: I should have never said the word and I will never say it again.

Alright more from the Quotable Mr. Mayer -

• Of Jessica Simpson:

That girl, for me, is a drug. And drugs aren’t good for you if you do lots of them. Yeah, that girl is like crack cocaine to me…Sexually it was crazy. That’s all I’ll say. It was like napalm, sexual napalm…Have you ever been with a girl who made you want to quit the rest of your life? Did you ever say, “I want to quit my life and just fuckin’ snort you? If you charged me $10,000 to fuck you, I would start selling all my shit just to keep fucking you.”

That last line is actually from his upcoming single, “Your Body Is A Fuckin’ Wonderland And Shit”.

• Let’s go back to race – and specifically, Kerry Washington:

She’s superhot, and she’s also white-girl crazy. Kerry Washington would break your heart like a white girl. Just all of a sudden she’d be like, “Yeah, I sucked his dick. Whatever.” And you’d be like, “What? We weren’t talking about that.”

I’m like “what?” right now, so…

• And now, to Jennifer Aniston:

I wish I could be with her. But I can’t change the fact that I need to be 32…That woman was the most communicative, sweetest, kindest person. When people hear the record, I hope the songs make them think about their lives, not my life. Like, when you listen to Coldplay, do you think about Gwyneth Paltrow? I don’t write songs in order to stick it to my exes. I don’t release underground dis tracks

See, I always thought Chris Martin was like the British John Mayer.

• We’ll just let this entire exchange sink in for you:

PLAYBOY: What does the word womanizer mean to you?

MAYER: Well, wouldn’t a womanizer have dated more than two girls in two years?

PLAYBOY: You and Aniston got back together and broke up again in 2009. How many women did you sleep with in the eight months after the breakup?

MAYER: I’m going to say four or five. No more.

PLAYBOY: That’s a reasonable number.

MAYER: But even if I said 12, that’s a reasonable number. So is 15. Here’s the thing: I get less ass now than I did when I was in a local band. Because now I don’t like jumping through hoops. It’s been so long since I’ve taken a random girl home. I don’t want to have to submit myself for approval. I don’t want to audition. I’d rather come home and edge my shit out for 90 minutes. At this point, before I can have sex I need to know somebody. Unless she’s a 14 out of 10.

John Mayer has standards people, unless she’s really hot.

• And finally, a little about the true love of John Mayer’s life – John Mayer:

What that explains is that I’m more comfortable in my imagination than I am in actual human discovery. The best days of my life are when I’ve dreamed about a sexual encounter with someone I’ve already been with. When that happens, I cannot lay off myself.

The End…to something.

> Update: The interview was conducted by Mediaite contributor Rob Tannenbaum.

> Update at 5pmET: GossipCop points out Mayer has apologized for his use of the n-word.

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Once upon a time the December newsstand was filled with angels, Christmas trees and Santas of all shapes and sizes. And this wasn’t just Christian iconography; these were covers that were funny, creative, surprising, provocative, that made political statements, and most of all, that engaged their readers in a visual dialogue. Now, with the notable exception of the New Yorker, the only attempt at Christmas creativity comes on the occasional women’s service magazine, with sad little plates of cookies or fruitcakes. We’re going to get all George Lois here and say that what was once an opportunity for brilliant magazine-making has now become just another set of bland, focus-grouped, by-the-numbers covers, put together by folks who are scared stiff of offending or provoking anyone.

Esquire, Fortune, Playboy, Vanity Fair, New York: it’s time to put the X back into those December covers! End the War on Christmas Magazine Covers. Who knows, magazines might even increase those newsstand sell-through numbers that are all doing so terribly if they just get back into the holiday spirit.

We’ve collected the Top 20 Christmas Magazine Covers of All Time. In the interests of non-sectarianism, we avoided covers that were mere reproductions of classic Christmas religious art. We stuck with Santa Claus, Christmas trees and gifts, and we found a lot of great ones. Who could deny that our world would be a much better place with a return to this fun and soulful style of magazine covers?

Esquire, 1963: The classic George Lois-designed December 1963 Esquire cover, featuring world heavyweight champion Sonny Liston.

GQ, 1974: GQ, back in 1974, when it was known as Gentlemen’s Quarterly, featuring Barbara Streisand.

The New Yorker, 2005: We’ve got to give many props to The New Yorker, for maintaining a high quality of holiday covers. This one, by illustrator Anita Kunz in 2005 captured the middle-of-the-Iraq War malaise perfectly.

Jet, 1968: Jet magazine has a long history of putting celebrities in Santa outfits on their covers. Bill Cosby, Marvin Gaye, Sherman Hemsley (twice!) have all graced the cover, but none was better than the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, celebrating Black Christmas in the Ghetto in 1968.

Baltimore City Paper, 1999: Back in 1999, Shepard Fairey was still a scrappy street artist and poster-maker. He did this cover for alternative weekly newspaper Baltimore City Paper, who ran it just like this, without headlines or even a cover logo.

National Lampoon, 1970: This December 1970 cover of the National Lampoon is a classic, with fighter planes from an unidentified Asian Communist country (North Vietnam? North Korea?) shooting down poor Santa as they yell “Eat death, bloated lackey of the capitalist toy mongers!”

Fortune, 1938: For many years after its launch in 1930, Fortune ran beautiful, elegant, illustrated holiday covers. We could have filled a whole list of 20 with their brilliant selections, but this one, from 1938, by Antonio Petrucelli, struck us as singularly memorable.

>>>NEXT: Andy Warhol gets his 15 minutes, and more.

]]> http://www.mediaite.com/online/the-war-on-christmas-magazine-covers/feed/ 3 http://www.mediaite.com/print/et-tu-playboy-hugh-hefner-outsources-jobs-preps-for-layoffs/ http://www.mediaite.com/print/et-tu-playboy-hugh-hefner-outsources-jobs-preps-for-layoffs/#comments Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:50:36 +0000 Joe Coscarelli http://www.mediaite.com/?p=49912 a report from Reuters.]]> Playboy magazine is not the cultural touchstone it once was and is on track to lose $8 million this year. To counteract such disappointing numbers, the company has decided to outsource all of its publishing jobs, excluding only editorial, to generically named American Media Inc., according to a report from Reuters.

Apparently all of the things the magazine is good for are available for free online. Except killer investigative journalism! But it’s not the 1970s anymore, that much is certain.

Florida-based American Media, the fourth-largest U.S. magazine publisher, will take over production, circulation, advertising sales, marketing and support functions of both Playboy magazine and the company’s other domestic publications.

…

The move will result in about 25 job cuts, leading to a fourth-quarter charge of $2 million, Playboy said, adding that some of the positions will be transferred to American Media.

Playboy Chief Executive Scott Flanders said the magazine would be profitable again by 2011, but hopefully, by then it will be someone else’s problem, as rumors are currently circulating that would have the company sold for around $300 million in the not so distant future. And to think, nudity once seemed so recession-proof.

But he didn’t stop there! Jon Stewart’s Beck impression warranted a hat’s off: “Congratulations Jon, very funny stuff.”

The New Yorker, SNL, and Playboy — where you will find him “between the cheeks and the nipples” — also received honorable mentions. Video below:

Today, Beck went purple over SEIU (The Service Employees International Union) including inviting “the purple shirt people” to the show to make sense of the health care bill, because without the purple shirt the health care bill would not be 2,000 pages long (as opposed to the Constitution, which is only 17 pages long and runs the entire country). Beck’s analogy of the country vs. the health care bill? It’s a doozy (video below):

We’re the young girl saying ‘no, no help me,’ and the government is Roman Polanski. In the end I think we’re all going to be cowering in France.

The special collector’s edition — available only on newsstands, sorry, loyal subscribers — will also feature an “interview” inside called “The Devil in Marge Simpson” that will run with three pages of pictures — including the centerfold. My blood runs cold!

Playboy EIC Jimmy Jellinek has reportedly demurred on whether she’ll be depicted nude (“It’s very, very racy“) but I heard on Canadian AM radio that Marge’s virtue will be preserved, so there’s that.

There’s also common sense: There’s no way The Simpsons is going to let Playboy display Marge in some tacky peekaboo pose. Ew. They’re a brand, for God’s sake. No, this is just for buzz, and Marge will be just coquettishly covered enough to make everyone happy.

Marge is the first cartoon character to be featured on the cover (take that, Jessica Rabbit!) and, depending how old she would have been on the premiere 20 years ago, the oldest: If Marge was 35 or older, then she’d beat Terri Moore, reportedly the oldest model featured in Playboy at 55. (Pic is here. NSFW.)

Look for the predictable stories to come about what Homer and Bart et al think. Actually, the only one I’m really interested in hearing from is Lisa, I can just hear her lecturing Marge on allowing herself to be used as an instrument of the patriarchy.

But will it be sexier than Levi Johnston’s centrefold? That’s the question. No, really, that’s the question:

Vote early and often! Or, just once. This is serious.

Related:
Marge Simpson poses for Playboy [Times UK]
Marge Simpson makes cover of Playboy [Reuters]
My Angel Is The Centerfold [J. Geils Band]

Looking the list over, a few patterns start to emerge:

Racial Overtones

The greatest common denominator of many of the controversial covers was the way that they dealt with race relations, particularly in their depiction of African-Americans. Back in 1971, it was shocking for Playboy to feature an African-American model at all; by the 90s, the issue shifted to negative stereotypes perpetuated by covers. Time’s darkened mugshot of OJ Simpson, Vanity Fair‘s Lebron James/Gisele cover, which many said evoked King Kong, and The New Yorker‘s tongue-too-far-in-cheek cartoon of a radicalized Obama couple all fit that description.

Religion

One of the two topics you aren’t supposed to mention at a dinner table: Whether it’s Time‘s earth-shattering “Is God Dead” cover from 1966 or Kanye’s wearing the crown of thorns and talking about masturbation for Rolling Stone in 2006, religion on a magazine cover is a surefire way to offend at least a fraction of your readership and stir up controversy.

Homosexuality

This one didn’t manifest itself in negative depictions of homosexuals so much as in acknowledging they existed at all. In particular, Vanity Fair‘s k.d. lang/Cindy Crawford cover and Time‘s Ellen: “Yep, I’m Gay” cover outraged many readers at a time when female homosexuality was still a taboo subject.

Exposed Female Flesh

This’ll get ‘em riled up: Vanity Fair’s (they sure seem to pop up a lot on this list) nude, pregnant Demi Moore cover, Entertainment Weekly‘s cover photo of nude Dixie Chicks tattooed with the slogans and slurs surrounding their opposition to the invasion of Iraq (full disclosure: this cover was designed by Mediaite editor Colby Hall‘s wife), and even Baby Talk‘s picture of a woman nursing her baby in a way that actually involved her breast all led to protest and public debate.


Can you think of any controversial covers that the original list left out?

Last night on his Great American Panel, he featured FNC regular and longtime Democratic strategist Bob Beckel, right-wing regular Erick Erickson of RedState.com…and Playboy cover model and “singer” Aubrey O’Day. The conversation, inevitably, moved to masturbation.

First some background: for those unfamiliar with O’Day, she’s a former member of P. Diddy’s female pop group, Danity Kane – she’s about five steps below Lady Gaga and one step above Heidi Montag. For those unfamiliar with why she’s featured on Fox News during prime time, we’re not too sure.

But despite confused glances from Beckel and Erickson throughout the lengthy segments, O’Day was well spoken and knowledgeable, especially when discussing a recent UN report on sex education guidelines (yes, somehow two separate stories related to sexual practices of five-year-olds were on cable news yesterday).

But the highlight of the back-and-forth took place later in the show, when Beckel and Erickson joked about the “masturbation of five-year-olds” and “Playboy covers” and O’Day turned the tables on the boys. “You boys never wondered what you were doing and wished to be educated about it earlier than you were, are you going to sit up there and tell me that?” she asked.

“I didn’t have a clue about any of this stuff until I was much older,” said Hannity. (As much as we’re surprised to admit this, Hannity’s comment does pretty much prove O’Day’s point, right?)

It is stunt guesting like this that you just don’t see on the rest of Fox News (well, maybe rarely on O’Reilly). So for that, it makes the program that much more interesting. But it is at least a bit jarring seeing ultra-conservative Sean Hannity introducing someone on his “Great American Panel” while a fullscreen image of a Playboy cover is shown.

Here’s the Great American Masturbation Segment:

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The half-hearted challenge seems to have left Lieberman a little shaken, though, as the Connecticut senator took to CNN’s “State of the Union” to dust off the potential contest, telling Baldwin: “Make my day.” In what might be interpreted as a smug tone and with a nervous chuckle, Sen. Lieberman continued, “You know, I must say that I respect Alec Baldwin as an actor and as a comedian, and if he wants to run, that’s his right.”

Fear not, Joe, because Baldwin has no real interest in running against you, as he made clear in a blog entry on The Huffington Post:

Lastly, no I am not moving to Connecticut to run against Joe Lieberman. As much as I think Lieberman is an enormous letdown to the party that gave him their nomination for Vice President, I am sure that Democratic Party leaders in that state will take care of themselves.

Check out the clip of Lieberman responding to the non-story below.

A brief but candid interview

FOLIO:: What about your experience at Freedom Communications, and elsewhere throughout your career, has prepared you to serve as chief executive at Playboy?

Flanders: I have operated in the media business my entire career and have taken on situations with businesses in transition. Everywhere I’ve gone I’ve been a change agent. In 1999, I joined Columbia House, which was a $1.5 billion marketer of music and VHF tapes right before Napster was released and DVDs emerged. We had a business that was over 50 years old, that started in the same timeframe as Playboy, that needed to migrate into the new model, including online. I think that singular experience is most analogous to the opportunities for Playboy.

It’s worth noting that Mr. Flanders facilitated a leveraged buyout of Columbia House by The Blackstone Group in June 2002. In conjunction with the transaction, AOL Time Warner and Sony Corporation each retained minority ownership interests. In May 2005, Blackstone sold the company to Bertelsmann in a transaction which closed in July 2005.

This begs the question — is Playboy officially on the market? Back to the interview:

FOLIO:: So, then, is Playboy on the block?

Flanders: The company, as a policy, does not comment on “rumors.”

We’ll let you be the judge.