webcast It's time for a new episode of Mediaite Office Hours, from Livestream.com's studio at 3pmET. Joining us today will be The Wrap's Josef Adalian, Salon's Alex Koppelman, and more. (more...)

webcast It's time for a new episode of Mediaite Office Hours, from Livestream.com's studio at 3pmET. Joining us today will be Slate's Mickey Kaus, Jonathan Fuhrman,

webcast It's time for a new episode of Mediaite Office Hours, from Livestream.com's studio at 3pmET (and featuring an all-female hosting team). Joining us today will be MSNBC's Willie Geist, CNET's Caroline McCarthy and more. (more...)

video This weekend I was on CNN's Your Money with host Ali Velshi and CNN's Richard Quest, talking about a variety of topics including Snowmageddon's effect on jobs and the claim by various analysts that around 200,000 jobs would be lost as a result (which we all viewed with extreme skepticism), whether it was still a Snow Day for those in computer-enabled industries who could work from home and what Google Buzz would mean for the social media - and media - world. (more...)

webcast There's a lot to discuss today on Mediaite Office Hours live from Livestream.com's studio at 3pmET. Joining us today will be NPR's David Folkenflik, Politico's Patrick Gavin and more. (more...)

video Uncontroversial, that is, in terms of what is shown and what is literally said. When it comes to coded language, connotation and sponsorship, though, the ad is exactly the spark plug it promised to be. The Tebow Story is, of course, the work of Focus on the Family, the controversial evangelical nonprofit, and comes along with the tag line "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life™." The intentions are clear to anyone paying attention, but the commercial itself is beyond tame. The spot never mentions abortion or public policy at all - on screen, it's just sweet family goodness. (more...)

webcast We've got a packed Mediaite Office Hours today for Super Bowl Thursday, live from Livestream.com's studio at 3pmET. Joining us today will be Fox News' Brian Kilmeade and some of the SportsGrid and Styleite team. (more...)

webcast We've got a packed Mediaite Office Hours today from Livestream.com's studio at 3pmET. Joining us today will be CBS News' Mark Knoller, New York Times' Brian Stelter and more: (more...)

video Because really, why wouldn't he? He likes to weigh in on everything else. Admittedly, it's a slightly less bloody reaction than Rachel Sklar's, but good for a laugh nonetheless (note: the language is not necessarily 'safe for work'): "There's nothing manly about it, at all! I wanted to watch videos of lolcats while laying on the couch. But no, they won't even give it Flash support. " Video below. (more...)

live blog Come join us for Mediaite's live blog tonight of Pres. Barack Obama's one-time-only first-ever State of the Union speech. It's going to be HUGE (or forgettable). Either way we've assembled an all-star group from the media, comedy and business world to discuss the speech and coverage in real time. With your help. Check it out - we're live at 8pmET! (more...)

Mediaite's Rachel Sklar was a guest on CNN's "Reliable Sources" with Howard Kurtz to discuss NBC's late night imbroglio, Conan O'Brien's last Tonight Show and whether Jay Leno is really the bad guy in all this. With The Wrap's Ray Richmond and the Baltimore Sun's David Zurawik. (more...)

Last night I was on the Joy Behar Show to discuss the Conan-Leno-NBC-Late-Night kerfuffle. Joy spoke first with Bill Carter of the New York Times, pretty much the go-to expert on all things late night thanks to his seminal — and still relevant! — book The Late Shift. Following Carter's comments (he thinks NBC and Leno will be just fine, by the way), Joy discussed the brou-ha-ha with her panel, which consisted of me, Rachelle Carson of "Living With Ed" (her show with husband Ed Begley) and comedian-actor-musician-pop-culture-expert Hal Sparks, who made me crack up on the air with a lube joke. Well done, Hal. Lube jokes are never rendered obsolete by breaking news stories. (more...)

webcast We're back with Mediaite Office Hours today from our comfortable and spacious Livestream.com's studio at 3pmET. Joining us today will be ABC News' Rick Klein, Los Angeles Times' Matea Gold and more: (more...)

going rogue Today, Mediaite Office Hours goes rogue. Because of some tech issues our friends at Livestream are having, we're going to go old school with a conference room mini-show. Conan, Leno, Game Change and more - at 3:30pmET. (more...)

Jay Leno will be exiting the primetime 10 pmET slot starting February 12th to go back to a late night show, NBC Universal TV chairman Jeff Gaspin confirmed to reporters at the Television Critics Association meetings. Via Deadline Hollywood: (more...)

webcast We're back with Mediaite Office Hours today - our first show of 2010 - from Livestream.com's studio at 3pmET. Joining us today will be MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski, Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch and more: (more...)

On Sunday, Mediaite reported that singer Beyoncé Knowles had given a private New Year's Eve performance for an exclusive crowd in St. Barth — and made the case that she had performed and been paid by relatives of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi (variously known as Khadafy, Qaddafi, Quadhafi and more). Atlanta-based blogger Necole Bitchie reported a $2 million fee; the UK Mirror reported a "six-figure sum" and yesterday Media Takeout made the same claim, repeating the $2 million number and confirming the Gaddafi-hosted party from a guest who was there (hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons also placed Beyoncé at a "Khadafy party." Today Page Six confirms our original report, with one new piece of information: the party was thrown by Hannibal Gaddafi, son of the Libyan dictator who less than a week before made headlines for allegedly attacking his wife in a London hotel. (more...)

Yesterday, we asked: Did Beyoncé perform on New Year's Eve for the family of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi? Rumors had been slowly percolating that Beyoncé's fabulous private New Year's Eve performance at the exclusive Nikki Beach club on St. Barth was hosted by family members of Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Ghaddafi. Various of his sons are said to have held a similar New Year's Eve bash at Nikki Beach for the past few years; last year, his son Moatessem-Billah Khadafy reportedly hired Mariah Carey to perform for $1 million. (more...)

Let's get one thing straight: If anyone could predict the future, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. There were many smart people who gazed into the crystal ball a few years back and not only saw nothing, but doubled down on the Titanic (R.I.P. Portfolio). Smarter people, however, looked around at what was happening and bet on the future. This is the only model that will work in 2010 - because the future is here. The 2008 election was a giant distraction (did anything else happen that year?) but in 2009 all sorts of trends emerged, and diverged and/or converged. (Clearly, we're on the verge.) Anyhow, it was with all of the above in mind that I made a few predictions about the New Yecade* for The Daily Beast today. (more...)

This post is cross-posted from ArtFagCity, a blog about New York art news, reviews and gossip. Here's a better model for year-end link lists: Only chose one link! I asked 18 of my favorite professionals to do just this, leaving the subject matter completely at their discretion. The format doesn't solve the inevitable difference of taste issues between readers and linkers -- one person's trash is another person's Titian -- but it at least eliminates the impossible chore of having to rate 20 unrelated items. It also creates a list in which each link is special to someone. For me, that creates a year-end list worth reflection. (more...)

I started out this year wondering if the white-hot intensity of the 2008 campaign could be even partially sustained, a daunting question for a $10-a-post blogger trying to hustle his way into a career in journalism. I'm ending it as a White House reporter and political correspondent for two national online publications, well on my way to going from Pinocchio to real boy. Along the way, I learned some lessons and saw some things that I'd like to share with you. This isn't a roundup of the (Best/Worst/Most) of 2009, but rather a peek behind the curtain.

My story starts in the middle of the year. It was mid-June, and I had just gone through a well-publicized breakup with Politics Daily. I was sitting in the front row of the White House press briefing room, tapping away on my laptop before the briefing, when Lynn Sweet approached me.

Lynn had been my stablemate at Politics Daily, and we had only met for the first time a few weeks earlier. During that initial meeting, she talked to me for almost an hour, dispensing frequent "razz the new guy" barbs and journalistic lessons learned. I considered it a profound honor to have my chops busted by a legend like Lynn Sweet, whose work I had enjoyed so much during the campaign. If someone has to tell you "Go cover City Hall, kid," you could do a lot worse.

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The age of Twitter has spawned new rituals, among them the watchdogging of reactions to the deaths or illnesses of polarizing figures. Rush Limbaugh's chest-pains scare from last night was no exception. Almost immediately, conservatives began to catalog the good, the bad, and the ugly in online reaction to Rush's peril, and some others were eager to hang the ugliness on the collective left. We've got a sampling of each for you, including some very good behavior by the left's most visible media figure. (more...)

useful Despite the billions spent since 2001 on intelligence and counterterrorism programs, sophisticated airport scanners and elaborate watch lists, it was something simpler that averted disaster on a Christmas Day flight to Detroit: alert and courageous passengers and crew members. -- New York Times, Dec 26, 2009. (more...)

webcast It's time for a special edition of Mediaite Office Hours - our final show of 2009 - from Livestream.com's studio at 3pmET. Joining us today will be Mark Knoller of CBS News, A.J. Daulerio of Deadspin.com and more: (more...)

video Sunday morning on Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz, Mediaite's editor at large Rachel Sklar stopped by to chat about George Stephanopoulos' move to Good Morning America and Charlie Gibson's final week on the ABC News. It's time for Stephanopoulos to "flex a few different muscles," Sklar said, based on his week one performance. "It's time to go online and surf the net!" That, or "they should all just go out for karaoke," she suggested. As for Gibson, Sklar was "surprised to see Muppets in his farewell." See the full clip below:

webcast We're back with another edition of Mediaite Office Hours, from Livestream.com's studio at 3pmET. Joining us today will be Brian Ross of ABC News, Alan Sepinwall of the Star-Ledger and more: (more...)

the aughts This new decade has snuck up on us. It's mid-December and only just now has the media world seemed to have awoken to the fact that, wow, we're about to enter a new decade. I myself had not even realized it until I got an email from Newsweek inviting me to participate in their end-of-decade package. What a difference from ten years ago, when a millennium was drawing to a close and we lived in fear of the havoc to be wrought by Y2K even while we were partying like it was 1999. (I was dreaming when I wrote that.) By contrast, this year has been so crazy that just chronicling the madness of 2009 has seemed like more than enough work, let alone reflect on the past decade. But part of the import of a passing decade being so overlooked lies to in how un-unified it seemed. The 90s were a big deal because they were so different from the 80s and so different from the 70s. And when we left the 90s behind, we left them for...what? (more...)

Mediaite in the News Remember a few weeks back when Ann Coulter was on Julie Menin's show talking about Maxine Waters and racking up the pageviews on HuffPo and this site in her usual, controversial way? Well, that probably won't happen with Menin's latest interview, which was with me. Still, I enjoyed it, mostly because Menin is a smart, prepared interviewer who hits a lot of different points well and with an eye to conversation and dialogue, not soundbites. (more...)

webcast We're back with another edition of Mediaite Office Hours, from Livestream.com's studio at 3pmET. We've got a packed show, with CNBC's Darren Rovell Time Magazine's James Poniewozik and more. (more...)

Mediaite has been rightly called out for a big, glaring error: On our list of 28 media leaders we've lost this decade there was not a single person of color. Not a one. It's an omission we are fixing even as I type this, but that's not the point: the point is taking responsibility for it and holding it up as yet another reminder of how easily groups are marginalized in our media. Even by people who loudly complain about being marginalized. (more...)

webcast We're back with another edition of Mediaite Office Hours, from Livestream.com's studio at 3pmET. We've got a packed show, with CNN's Ed Henry, Paul Rieckhoff of the IAVA, Aaron Hicklin of Out magazine and more. (more...)

the traffic game If you want to write an article that gets the people talking, one good way is to just start classifying women in random groups, related to age and hot sexxx. Hot sexxxy cheetah ladies cannot resist this delicious media bait!...The headline of this story should be, "I Really Hope Many People Get Very Vocally Mad About This Story, And Talk About Sexism, Because Then It Would Be Funny How Seriously They Took This Story." -- Gawker's Hamilton Nolan responds to Spencer Morgan's piece in today's New York Observer. (more...)

Today is the last day of Movember. That's right, Movember. Don't look for it on your caledar, mofo, unless you belong to some weird pagan sect that can't spell. No, Movember is so named because it's a MOVEment, about MOustaches. If you've noticed your gentlemen friends sprouting wantonly on their upper lips, well, that may be why. Here, we'll let Thrillist explain:

By now you most likely know the essence of Movember: that magical month in which folks all over the world grow moustaches for charity, be they jaunty, distinguished, menacing, filthy, magnificent, wispy, or "other". raise some sweet cash for prostate and testicular cancer research.

webcast We're got a lot to talk about today on a special edition of Mediaite Office Hours, coming to you live from Livestream.com’s studio at 3pmET. James Poniewozik of Time magazine and more. (more...)

webcast We're got a lot to talk about today on Mediaite Office Hours, coming to you live from Livestream.com’s studio at 3pmET. We'll be joined by Andy Levy of Fox News' Red Eye, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post and CNN and more. (more...)

Several months back, I attended an all-female panel assembled to discuss why women don't typically participate on media panels. I noted in my review that "the goal was to demonstrate to future conference planners and columnists that women offer a unique voice and belong on the panelist circuit." As these issues take great deals of time to resolve, it's difficult to believe that any real progress has been many in the two months since this initiative was made. What is clear now, though, is that the world is starting to notice the missing women. (more...)

Here is a video of the GELF "Overlooked Women In Media" panel from September 2009, featuring Mediaite's Rachel Sklar and Glynnis MacNicol, CNET's Caroline McCarthy, Jezebel's Anna Holmes and Slate Double X's Jessica Grose. (more...)

webcast We're back with a live Mediaite Office Hours today, coming to you from Livestream.com’s studio at 3pmET. We'll be joined by ABC News correspondent Jake Tapper, the team behind "Martin Eisenstadt" and more. (more...)

webcast Today on Mediaite Office Hours we're coming to you live as usual from Livestream.com’s studio at 3pmET. We'll be joined by Time magazine's Michael Scherer, Deadspin.com editor A.J. Daulerio, Politico's Patrick Gavin...and you! (more...)

Shalom! I write this from balmy and bustling Tel Aviv, where I landed Thursday morning, marking my first-ever visit to Israel. I will be here for the next week or so and will be writing occasional dispatches from the Holy Land as I sightsee, get in touch with my People, and eat hummus. Seriously, whoever said this was the Land of Milk and Honey forgot to mention the hummus. (more...)