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07 Nov 2010 22:00

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Politics: Max Headroom: Keith Olbermann’s incredibly busy week

  • The week in Olbermann Keith Olbermann has had a pretty busy week. It started with him ripping Jon Stewart while kneeling to him simultaneously. It ended with him getting suspended and getting Bill Kristol of all people defending him. This is prime territory of two media sources: Howard Kurtz and Mediaite. Both are covered here.
  • Countdown’s quick word “We know you are all looking forward to Keith’s return, and so are we.” We can imagine how weird it must be for Olbermann and the network that Olbermann revitalized to be going through with this. MSNBC sounds like Courtney Cox trying to be diplomatic about her separation from David Arquette.
  • So, to be clear … Eric Cantor, the likely new House Majority Leader, showed up on “Fox News Sunday” today, and was thrown a question on whether he’d allow a government shutdown on Obama’s watch, like in 1995. Notice how he didn’t say no, and suggested it would be Obama’s fault if it happened.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Oct 2010 10:09

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Politics: Howard Kurtz impressed he was the center of attention for an hour

  • Within a few hours of Tuesdays announcement, a Politico reporter told me she was working on a second-day story. And by late afternoon, media columnists were already drawing up lists of who might replace me at The Post. I was old news, just like that.
  • Howard “quitting after 29 years” Kurtz • In his “I’m leaving” announcement on his Washington Post blog this morning. Kurtz was in disbelief that his departure actually led to his name briefly becoming a trending topic on Twitter yesterday “without even popping off, Rick Sanchez-style.” He claimed that he was departing because he found the ability to help mold the new-media landscape “irresistible.” We’ll see what the dude can do with The Daily Beast’s Washington bureau. It might be cool. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Oct 2010 14:17

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Politics: Conundrum: Howard Kurtz hates SEO, likes The Daily Beast

  • Howard Kurtz, about a month ago Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz puts up a rant complaining about how he has to do SEO to get people to read his articles: “Our mission – and we have no choice but to accept it – is to grab some of that traffic that could otherwise end up at hundreds of other places, even blogs riffing off the reporting that your own publication has done.”
  • Howard Kurtz, right about now His dislike of SEO isn’t enough to make him pass up The Daily Beast: “I’ve wanted to work with Tina Brown forever—well, for a long time—and I’m incredibly impressed by the energy and creativity of The Daily Beast staff. After a lifetime in newspapers, I’m ready for the challenge of fast-paced online journalism.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Oct 2010 22:43

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Politics: Max Headroom: In memoriam of Rick Sanchez, a really weird anchor

  • look, CNN’s covering it!Gotta love Howard Kurtz’s comment at the beginning here, mentioning how he had to tear up his programming plans to cover Rick Sanchez’s firing from CNN. Kurtz goes over the Rick’s history with the network, including that bit where our boy got tased.
  • Mr. Twitter himselfOK, while the often-showy Sanchez probably made a lot of mistakes on the air at CNN, one really good thing he did was basically own Twitter before any other major news personality tried. Here, he discusses his experience hosting the tweet-obsessed 2009 Shorty Awards.
  • Behind the scenesEver wonder how “Rick’s List” was made? Neither did we. But in case you were wondering how the low-rated CNN show was created, here’s a clip. As you can see, Rick wears a chef’s hat and says, “I’m a big guy. I can take it.” If that were true, he wouldn’t be in this mess.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

29 Aug 2010 23:16

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Politics: Max Headroom: Epic Glenn Beck rally post-mortem edition

  • Not our next president Beck was asked by Chris Wallace this morning if he would possibly consider a Beck/Palin presidential ticket after the huge success of yesterday’s event. He called himself “unelectable.” Understandably.

  • most over-the-top chatterOn “Reliable Sources” today, Howard Kurtz took his boy Bill Press to task for comparing the Beck rally to “granting al-Qaeda permission to hold a rally at Ground Zero.” Really?! Oh boy.

  • View from the MetroOne enterprising DC blogger, Carlos in DC, did a lot of his own coverage of the rally, and most of it is worth reading. The highlight for us is this clip which shows the glut of people from another angle.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Aug 2010 21:57

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Politics: Max Headroom: According to Sarah Palin, Jan Brewer has balls


  • Talkin’ ’bout cajones On “Fox News Sunday,” Sarah Palin totally stumbled through what she was trying to say, only to make an amazing comeback by suggesting that Jan Brewer has the cajones to take on immigration – and Barack Obama doesn’t.

  • Gettin’ used to AmanpourCNN’s “Reliable Sources” seems to not know what to make of Christiane Amanpour’s first appearance on “This Week,” with Howard Kurtz and his guests stumbling over themselves to say the same thing – she’s new.

  • Anthony Weiner = cajonesPeople in New York, you have pretty much the loudest congressman in history. And we mean that in the nicest way possible. We swear. This scene in Congress last week is a method acting tour de force disguised as anger at the GOP.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 May 2010 10:18

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Politics: Did the mass media fly over the Nashville floods?

  • You get Tennessee pride and the feeling that if there was looting here, the national media would be all over it. I think that’s unfair, but that’s the way some people view it.
  • Tennessean editor Mark Silverman • Regarding the way that the mainstream media mostly glossed over a huge story – a massive flood in Nashville that killed 30 people. But why? The simple answer is that there were seemingly bigger, more nuanced stories happening that week, and a major flood seems old hat. It’s absolutely the worst way to think about it, but it seemingly couldn’t compete with terrorism (the failed Times Square bombing, where nobody died) or a slightly-more-epic disaster (the BP oil spill). The truth is, though, the story got underplayed by the usual suspects, to the point where Anderson Cooper took his crew down there later in the week and apologized for not getting down there sooner. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink
 

12 Apr 2010 10:10

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Politics: The professional god-like newspaper critic: A dying art form?

  • We’re all critics. If I were starting Entertainment Weekly today, it wouldn’t be a magazine, and it likely wouldn’t hire critics.
  • Entertainment Weekly founder (and iPad hatah) Jeff Jarvis • Regarding the state of criticdom. With a much wider variety of voices and the decline of the newspaper industry, the importance of movie, music, food and book critics is quickly declining, and some wonder if the nuance of the art will go away. “If Roger Ebert says it, does it carry value? Yes,” Jarvis notes. “But how many Roger Eberts are out there, and how many do we need?” Personally, we like Roger, but Metacritic gives a wider range. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 4 Comments • Permalink

11 Apr 2010 23:43

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Politics: Max Headroom: Newser’s Michael Wolff misses the point of short

  • We’ve been following the Newser/the wrap tiff with great interest. Because we find the whole thing silly. Today, the conflict took a turn for the insane, with poor Howard Kurtz right in the middle. As fellow ShortFormers, we agree with Michael Wolff’s ideals, but the problem lies with his execution. There’s no respect for the content. (Although we feel Sharon Waxman’s rules of the road are a bit extreme.)

  • the conflict First off, we want to encourage everyone to go to Mediaite for more context. (Their clips are great. Their embeds, not so much. Please fix this, guys. We love you!) Anyway, it’s clear what’s happening here. Waxman asks for something reasonable (fair attribution that encourages further reading on her site). Wolff bites her head off. Ouch!

  • Newser‘s Goals Recently, Wolff was trying to make his arguments about the shortening of content on GRITtv, and on their face, we totally agree with them. Problem is, it seems like he’s done this in a self-serving way. Look, Michael, we like short, too, but respect the sites you’re pulling from. In the long term, this lack of respect only hurts you.

  • The Wrap‘s goals This promotional video made near the time of The Wrap’s launch shows similarly lofty goals for Waxman’s brand of entertainment journalism. Seems to us there’s room for both Waxman’s ideas and Wolff’s. The problem, it seems to us, is that Newser seems to lack respect for Waxman’s work. Yo, Michael – make deals, not enemies.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Mar 2010 20:38

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Politics: Bret Baier’s freaking: Obama’s gonna show up on Fox News

  • The president hasn’t shown up on Fox News in ages. President Obama may not be getting interviewed by Hannity or Glenn Beck, but he will get some prime attention from Bret Baier on “Special Report” tomorrow. Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post has a lot of fun with the piece, saying, “He must really want to pass that health-care bill.” Well, yeah. Might as well try. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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