Anderson Cooper: Ball Buster

Fox's Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly's New Year's Eve extravaganza ranks dead last on Huffington Post's readers' Must-See TV.

#1 with a bullet?  CNN's Anderson Cooper watching his the ball drop with that annoying dick - foul-mouthed "D Lister" Kathy Griffin.

#2 is ABC hosted by Ryan Secrest with a hologram of  Dick Clark.

Hillary & Sarah: Poll Dancers

Hillary Clinton's got some competition for the top spot in USA Today/Gallup poll's most admired woman: Sarah Palin.  The two are tied with Hillary at 16% and Sarah at 15%.  Oprah's third.  Michelle Obama's fourth. 

USA Today finds Palin is a winner by losing.

Fox's Sugar Cain

In mere hours viewers may lose all Fox programming on Time Warner cable.  Why?  Fox wants TW to sweeten distribution fees and TW refuses to comply. New Year's Day Sugar Bowl and other programs like "American Idol" could disappear into the TV etherland.

A News Corp suit says a deal is unlikely.

It's A Blunderful World

Politico's Michael Calderone's top ten media blunders of 2009:  1) CNN mistakes Coast Guard drill for attack: On Sept. 11, of all days, CNN blasted the following via Twitter: “BREAKING NEWS: Suspicious boat in river near Obama in DC. Police scanner reports of shots fired. Circumstances unclear." As it turns out: very unclear. What the CNN reporter actually heard over the scanner were conversation about a training exercise taking place on the Potomac. But the false alarm spread quickly over Twitter, and the network quickly corrected the report on-air shortly thereafter. Still, the White House wasn’t amused. Press secretary Robert Gibbs slapped CNN on the wrist, saying that “before we report things like this, checking would be good.”

2) The Washington Post’s “Salongate”: It’s understandable that newspapers are seeking new revenue streams, but the Post took things to another level this summer. The newspaper sent a flier to lobbyists and potential corporate backers promising an off-the-record, nonconfrontational sit-down with editors and reporters in the home of publisher Katharine Weymouth. The price per salon: $25,000. Shortly after the news broke of what smelled like a pay-to-play operation, the paper canceled the series. But the Post’s top brass continued dealing with questions on how the salons were organized and promoted for months to come.

3) Fox’s Tea Party trifecta: Fox News had a banner ratings year, and throughout 2009, it gave extensive coverage of Obama administration opponents, especially the so-called Tea Party movement’s events on April 15 and Sept. 12. But coverage of that latter event led to a couple of apologies later on. Video surfaced of a Fox News producer rallying protesters for a live shot, while Sean Hannity mistakenly used the 9/12 footage in describing a smaller rally on Capitol Hill later in the fall. (Hannity owned up to the error, apologizing to of all people, Jon Stewart!). Ironically, Fox News had actually criticized other networks in a full page newspaper ad claiming they “miss[ed] the story” of the 9/12 rally.

4) ABC correspondent tweets Obama’s OTR “jackass” swipe: While a tweet is at most 140 characters, one blasted to more than a million followers can ping-pong around the Internet within seconds. That’s what happened when ABC correspondent Terry Moran tweeted some preliminary, off-the-record chatter between President Barack Obama and CNBC’s John Harwood. He wrote: "Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a ‘jackass.’” Moran’s apology for publishing the off-the-record banter didn’t end the matter, as audio, and later video, of the exchange made its way online. Harwood thought that Moran erred in tweeting the comment, but took things in stride, calling the ABC reporter "a class act and a good journalist.”

5) MSM misses Van Jones, ACORN stories: The resignation of an environmental adviser in the White House may not be Watergate, but the Van Jones controversy — propelled by conservative blogs and right-wing talkers like Glenn Beck — showed the potential for partisan media to move the news cycle even as most mainstream outlets ignored the story. Similarly, Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com conducted an undercover investigation of ACORN that prompted follow-up in the press and calls for investigations from public officials. The New York Times, for one, took notice, with top editor Bill Keller even assigning an editor afterward to start monitoring the budding controversies in the opinion media.

6) NY Post’s Obama/ chimp cartoon: The New York tabloid thrives off attention-grabbing tabloid covers and some of the best headlines on the planet. But the paper can also go too far when it comes to attracting eyeballs, such as publishing a cartoon showing two police officers shooting a monkey, with the text reading: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” The cartoon immediately struck some as a racially motivated slight against the president and resulted in apologies from the paper and, a few days later, from the man on top: Rupert Murdoch.

7) Milbank-Cillizza Web show gets pulled: The first-ever White House beer summit — remember that? — prompted a lot of jokes in the media. And Washington Post writers Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza mocked the summit on their “Mouthpiece Theater” Web show, by coming up with what beers political leaders would likely drink. Their suggestion for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — “Mad Bitch beer”— did not go down well with bloggers, drew a rebuke from women’s media groups and resulted in a great You-Tube parody. Both Milbank and Cillizza apologized; Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli went a step further – he killed the video show.

8) Dowd borrows from TPM (by way of “friend”): New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer. So the fact that she had borrowed a passage nearly verbatim from Talking Points Memo inevitably drew attention, and the reason she gave — that a “friend” had sent it to her — failed to end the mini-controversy. While the Times corrected the column, the paper wouldn’t answer whether it’s accepted policy to allow columnists to use passages from others without any attribution. The episode was also a bit ironic considering that Dowd was the one who reported on Joe Biden plagiarizing a British politician just over two decades earlier.

9) Olbermann, Maddow misquote Murdoch and Limbaugh: It’s not always easy to admit you’re wrong — but it must sting a bit more when you have to apologize to ideological foes in the process. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann had to issue a correction over comments he attributed to Murdoch, a frequent target on “Countdown.” Olbermann had quoted Murdoch as saying that News Corp. has "never been a company that tolerates facts" — actually, he said “fat.” Later in the year, Rachel Maddow acknowledged having falsely attributed a quote to Rush Limbaugh about wishing to honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassin — that’s something the top radio host never said.

10) WaPo’s Public Enemy correction goes viral: Craig Silverman, of RegretTheError.com, called it the “the correction that launched a thousand tweets.” And he’s right. Last month, the Post noted that an “article in the District edition of Local Living incorrectly said a Public Enemy song declared 9/11 a joke. The song refers to 911, the emergency phone number.” It was a simple mistake that occurred in the editing process, but the correction somehow hit the sweet spot in media and pop culture and led to imitators on Twitter offering their own faux Post corrections in a chain that followed long after the correction was made.

Please Don't Squeeze The Charm Spin

Politico's Mike Allen:  White House Bulletin: “Media coverage last night and this morning reflects an effort by conservatives to cast President Obama as soft on terror -- criticizing not only the White House‘s response to the recently foiled attack, but on the entire array of its anti-terror policies. Referring to a ‘political firestorm brewing in Washington,’ ABC World News reported that on Wednesday, ‘the President‘s critics clearly sensed vulnerability.’ … To the question ‘Do you really feel like Obama‘s made the less safe?’, meanwhile, Marc Thiessen, a former Bush aide, told ABC, ‘I absolutely do.’ Newt Gingrich also weighed in, saying, ‘Trying to place American lives first should not be political. I don‘t understand why senior Democrats wouldn‘t want to have exactly the same values.’ ABC was the only network newscast to note the political sniping over terrorism in Washington. NBC Nightly News did quote Michael Chertoff, Bush-era DHS secretary, saying, ‘The bottom line is we have the technology. We just don‘t have the will. And that‘s why we‘re finding ourselves in this situation.’”

WH Comm Dir Dan Pfeiffer's in Hawaii - pale as a Ku Klux Klan costume - working overtime spinning Obama's bravado while dismissing former veep Dick Cheney's accusations that Obama's "pretending" we're at war with terrorists and the usual Washington blame game.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan a Taliban terrorist disguised himself in an Afghan national army officer's uniform, got into a U.S. base, blew up seven CIA employees and injured six.

Bury "Shovel-Ready"

My late friend, Bill Rabe, at Lake Superior State College in Michigan's U.P. started a trend 35 years ago that survives to this day.  Words and phrases that should be banished.  Here's 2010's list.

Let me add "notion", "at the end of the day", "we have to leave it there."

Rush Heart Attack Scare

Rush Limbaugh's website reports he is "resting comfortably" after hospitalization in Hawaii for chest pains and in stable condition.  Heart attack still unconfirmed.

Wikipedia wasted no time updating Rush as dead.  Reax varies.  Even MSNBC's liberal lesbo Rachel Maddow wished Rush well.

Photo, Rush and fiancee Kate Rogers.  KITV Honolulu reports paramedics found Rush sitting in a chair in his posh Honolulu resort room Wednesday at 2:41 pm.  Rush told paramedics he'd been taking medication for back pain.

Related:  NYDN "Loudmouthed Limbaugh Rushed To Hospital"

Nancy Pelosi - relaxing in luxury at taxpayer expense (she denies it)  in a Big Island resort - was observed sticking a hat pin into the heart of a Rush Limbaugh voodoo doll...  Nancy's ensconced in the $10,000 a night Presidential Suite.

The Dominator. Fox News.

"Listen! And understand! That dominator is out there. It can't be bargained with! It can't be reasoned with! It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!"

Yeah, "I'll be back" warns Fox News. "No TV news organization is ending the year on a higher note than Fox News, which has come to totally dominate the the 24/7 cable landscape in 2009."  David Zurawik Baltimore Sun

Obama Swimming Against The Tide

Your tax dollars at work.  Obama's Hawaii security. Cryptome photos here.  Above, Obama with a Secret Service agent.  Captions anyone?

The NYTimes reports today that the U.S. government had "early signs" of a holiday terrorist plot.  Translation:  Obama is blaming competing intelligence agencies for dropping the ball and admitting "some linkage" with al Qaeda.  The NYDN - incensed by Obama's four-day delay in addressing the Underwear Bomber - demands "it's time to get a grip, Mr. President."

A NYT editorial blames Bush, Congress, Obama, and the still vacant top job at the TSA.

NYT's Maureen Dowd laments a missing-in-action Obama:  On Tuesday, Obama stepped up to the microphone to admit what Janet Napolitano (who learned nothing from an earlier Janet named Reno) had first tried to deny: that there had been “a systemic failure” and a “catastrophic breach of security.”

But in a mystifying moment that was not technically or emotionally reassuring, there was no live video and it looked as though the Obama operation was flying by the seat of its pants.... Citing the attempt of the Nigerian’s father to warn U.S. authorities six months ago, the president intoned: “It now appears that weeks ago this information was passed to a component of our intelligence community but was not effectively distributed so as to get the suspect’s name on a no-fly list.”

In his detached way, Spock was letting us know that our besieged starship was not speeding into a safer new future, and that we still have to be scared.

Heck of a job, Barry.

Related: Politico "President Obama Takes the Heat President Bush Did Not" Wash Post: "Republican see political opportunity in Obama response to failed airplane bomb"  Financial Times:  "Republicans Seek Political Advantage"

Former veep Dick Cheney takes a shot at Obama for trying to "pretend we're not at war" with terrorists, citing the now-politically incorrect phrase "war on terror."

It is time to stop paying lip service to America's fatuous airport security and go full-tilt boogie profiling suspected terrorists.  Like Israel.  Al Qaeda gets the last laugh as Obama was either boldy set up or coldly inept.  Or a combination of both.  Either way American airline insecurity is a global joke as the Obama administration wastes time and money searching for more than three ounces of Grandma's Geritol stashed in her Vera Bradley bag and C4 in Dr. Scholl's shoe inserts.

NBC's Bad Check

Every time NBC gets caught paying for "gets", the Peacock parrots the line "we don't pay for interviews."  Maybe not outright but indirectly.  Flights, hotels, limos, expensive food.

SPJ press release:  The Society of Professional Journalists' Ethics Committee is appalled NBC News breached widely accepted ethical journalism guidelines by providing the plane that carried David Goldman and his son Sean back to the United States from Brazil after a high-profile custody battle.

NBC conducted an exclusive interview with David Goldman during the flight it financed and another exclusive interview once the Goldmans returned to the United States.

Journalists know this practice as "checkbook journalism."

The SPJ Code of Ethics urges journalists to act independently by avoiding bidding for news and by avoiding conflicts of interest.

By making itself part of a breaking news story on which it was reporting — apparently to cash in on the exclusivity assured by its expensive gesture — NBC jeopardized its journalistic independence and credibility in its initial and subsequent reports. In effect, the network branded the story as its own, creating a corporate and promotional interest in the way the story unfolds. NBC's ability to report the story fairly has been compromised by its financial involvement.

"The public could rightly assume that NBC News bought exclusive interviews and images, as well as the family's loyalty, with an extravagant gift," Ethics Committee Chairman Andy Schotz said.

The news media's duty is to report news, not help create it. The race to be first should not involve buying — directly or indirectly — interviews, an unseemly practice that raises questions of neutrality, integrity and credibility.

"Mixing financial and promotional motives with an impartial search for truth stains honest, ethical reporting," Schotz said. "Checkbook journalism has no place in the news business."

The SPJ Code of Ethics also urges journalists to "clarify and explain news coverage and invite dialogue with the public over journalistic conduct."

"NBC must now, belatedly, explain why it entangled its news reporting and corporate interests in this story, as well as the terms of any deal it made with the Goldman family," Schotz said. "NBC also is ethically bound to adequately disclose its active role in the story in each of its future reports on the Goldmans."

MSNBC Continues To Short-Change Viewers

The last time MSNBC ran (high-rated for MSNBC) in the can weekend programming instead of breaking news, the liberal Daily Kos whined:  "What are they, a high school radio station left on autopilot from Friday night to Monday morning?"

It happened again Christmas night when MSNBC refused to change course.  Rather than covering the breaking Underwear Bomber news, MSNBC went to tape.  Zzzzzzzzzz...

So much for news credibility, eh?  Change agents they ain't.

Glenn Beck: Trading Up

Glenn Beck's New Canaan, Connecticut manse is on the market for $4 mil.  They paid $250,000 more in 2005.  Beck reportedly made $23 mil in 2008 so I'm guessing 2009 was a banner earning year for Beck and he's movin' on up...

Fox Rox

Huff Po's Danny Shea and The Year Of The Fox.

Hunka Hunka Burning Love

For Underwear Bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who will never again feel an erotic burn with what law enforcement sources in Detroit told Chickaboomer Sunday describe as a stump where his dick used to be:

Ooh, ooh, ooh,
I feel my temperature rising
Help me, I'm flaming
I must be a hundred and nine
Burning, burning, burning
And nothing can cool me
I just might turn into smoke
But I feel fine

It's coming closer
The flames are reaching my body
Please wont you help me
I feel like Im slipping away
Its hard to breath
And my chest is a-heaving

Lord almighty,
Im burning a hole where I lay:

 

Carat and Stick

Obama must pay quite well. Or maybe Obama's OMB czar Peter Orszag skimmed from TARP. The 41-year-old divorced dad proposed Monday to ABC News biz babe Bianna Golodryga with a five carat diamond from Harry Winston after a whirlwind courtship that began at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in May. He stashed the ring under her restaurant menu.

Orszag says he was attracted to the 31-year-old beauty because "she's a Russian Jew who gets up earlier than I do."

Tongue In Cheek

Cash and Carry

Fox wants Time Warner cable to pay more to carry the Fox brands.  Time Warner is balking.  The warring parties have until Thursday to come to terms.  Monday Time Warner put out an ad that looks like a ransom note:  "Pay our price or you'll never see Fox again."

NYDN's Richard Huff:  Fox, meanwhile, has been running a campaign against Time Warner telling viewers not to believe the cable giant's claims and they can get Fox programming elsewhere. "If they get tough, you don't have to roll over," the latest Fox spot says.

It's not just Fox fighting with the cable giant over increased fees.

Dickwad

What did I tell you yesterday morning? The Northwest Underwear Bomber injected the penis-shaped PETN with flammable liquid, set it on fire, and immolated his dick. NYP: Shorts Fuse  NYDN  ABC News nabbed the burned jockey shorts.

Law enforcement sources in Detroit told Chickaboomer Sunday that there was no way the thing would go off without a detonator cap that wouldn't pass TSA security. Popular explosive C4 would've been detected but not PETN.

Off The Mark

NBC News Washington Bureau Chief Fred Willard's illegitimate son Mark Whittaker blames "the meanness and mayhem of Washington" for Obama's 2009 failures.  The Washington Post gave the Obama suck-up precious column inches in Monday's paper to spin his bullshit.

H/T NewsBusters

Sinator JFK

The backstory:  A guy inherits this smoking gun JFK Meditteranean naked chick plunge photo from his dad.  TMZ's got the goods on how this 1950s shot - had it been published then - might have altered American politics.

Trouble is, the website The Smoking Gun claims TMZ fell for a fake.

Update:  TMZ admits it was duped.

A Woody For Guthrie

"She has the spunk of Mary Tyler Moore and the toughness of Lou Grant. I'm selfishly glad she chose journalism over law."  NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams on the TV "It Girl" - Savannah Guthrie, NBC WH co-rrespondent w/ Chuck Todd. 

LAT names Guthrie the "face to watch in 2010."

MSNBC: Snack Journalism

MSNBC finds peppering daytime with "personalities" isn't luring viewers. The ratings-challenged cable network continues to format-founder. MSNBC's New Year Incarnation: Vending machine news.

AP's David Bauder quotes MSNBC czar Phil Griffin: "All three cable networks kind of struggle during the day trying to figure out their identity. We're going to get into a more aggressive headline and information programming... We did some experimentation to find out what the audience during the daytime wants and I think we found out they want your basic facts - give me the facts, ma'am.  We can still do it with our passion and a fast pace."

MSNBC may need to prove its news commitment to viewers. With news of the attempted terrorist attack on a plane bound for Detroit breaking late on Christmas, the network stuck with pre-taped programming. CNN and Fox covered the story much more extensively.

Raucus Baucus

Dem Sen. Max Baucus' drunken performance during the Senate health care debate is ignored by the Mainstream Media:



What if Baucus were Republican? How would the media cover a rambling, argumentative boozed-up Republican senator?

Boyz In The Manhood

Had the Nigerian Northwest failed Christmas Day bomber exited the planet, he would've had no use for the 72 virgins awaiting him in the beyond. Law enforcement sources tell Chickaboomer (who was at Detroit's Metro airport the same day of the incident) that the guy is minus his dick after burning it off.

The backstory according to my sources:  The guy had a wad of malleable PETN explosive which he molded into a fake penis and put it in his pants.  The reason the thing didn't go off is because there was no detonator cap.  He'd indjected the wand with flammable material which didn't explode the PETN when he lighted it.  But 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's penis burned to a crisp...

In a related development, Donald Trump's ex Ivana's tongue explosion grounds a Northwest plane.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Secular Humanists

Have I left anyone out?  I'm outta here.  Be back Sunday.

God Rest Ye Scary Gentlemen

Club Gitmo wishes you and yours a Merry Christmas!

Slightly Warped

"I am twisted and have my own issues." NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams confesses on his Daily Nightly blog.

"Historic Vote" Over

"We're in the Senate, please!"  VP Joe Biden, presiding over the Senate health care vote, admonishes laughing senators when the roll call got to Harry Reid's aye or nay vote.  That wild and crazy Reid first responded "no." Passes 60 to 39.  All 60 Dems voted aye.  Reid only needed 51. The bill now goes to a House-Senate conference committee where the REAL work begins.

Caption These

Michelle Obama with dog Bo.

The Obamas with?

Ugh. "Flying Nun" flaps. Her rear looks like sun-blistered ready-to-peel skin.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Although Golf Digest is bagging Tiger Woods' golf instruction column, Woods retains his masthead as, are you ready for this, Playing Editor, and the $3 mil a year the mag forks over for his name and expertise.

NY mag mulls: "Why Must We Label Tiger Woods A Sex Addict?"

George: Right Up His Ali

"To this day he walks in the door and my heart still goes pitter-patter."  Ali Wentworth, Meryl Streep's co-star in "It's Complicated" on her husband, George Stephanopolous.  Wentworth dishes on George with his GMA co-host Robin Roberts.

It's complicated, but she wasn't interested in him when they first met.  He had no idea who she was.  But they married five months later.  All's well that ends well...

Uh, Ali, just because George is shorter than you doesn't mean you have to assume that unflattering Katie Holmes pose...

Dr. Nancy: Dead On Arrival

MSNBC has canceled Dr. Nancy Snyderman's noon show after a mere six months. If you ask me, it was D.O.A. on its June 29th debut. A non-sequitur between hard news blocks.

No shock. It was just a question of when.  If  you ask me, and you haven't, I suspect MSNBC suits figured Dr. Nancy would attract viewers interested in the health care debate.  Nancy flatlined right out of the box...

Senate Nuts Roasting On Obama's Open Fire

The Big TV Guns are up early to blather about the Historic Vote this Christmas Eve morning in the Senate.  MSNBC's Joe Scarborough hauled his ass out of bed Way Too Early to be on the air at 5a with the rest of the "Morning Joe" crew.  Tom Brokaw popped up at 6a.  Blowhard Chris Matthews in the first half hour of "Morning Joe."  David "Pimped Out Chelsea" Shuster supplanted the "Morning Joe" crew at 6:30a.

Fox News' Bret Baier is on the air at 6:55a to report on the Historic Vote sked at 7a. Never mind the Historic Vote has to be reconciled by Senate/House committees for a House vote.  Obama gets what he demanded:  a bill before Christmas.

Cue Barbra Streisand's "Happy Days Are Here Again":



Related: NYT analysis

Well-Hung

"I'll sure hang this 'diploma'".  Larry King on his honorary degree from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.

Naked Ambition

Fox Biz babe Alexis Glick pulls a Lou Dobbs. Quits on the air this a.m. for a mysterious new venture. Glick flicked off FBN by announcing today was her last day on "Opening Bell."  Thirty-seven year old Glick was hired in 2006 by Roger Ailes.

LA Times' Joe Flint has the backstory.

Bill O'Reilly: Glennlivid

Fox News cafeteria has a new ominous presence.  A Glenn Beck food taster now that Glenn scored #6 after less than a year at Fox on former MSNBCer Dan Abrams' Mediaite 50 "Innovators and Influencers Who Shook Up 2009" and higher-rated Fox vet Bill O'Reilly only came in at #20.  Bill's All Shook Up.

Glenn even beat out Rupert at #8.

Mediate spells Scarborough wrong but that's small stuff compared to the wrath of Mika Brzezinski billed as "the adorable blond cheerleader."  Scarborough is the new "Big Dog of MSNBC. Olbermann? Yes yes, have your pretty night show."  And your little dog too.

Keith Olbermann protege Rachel Maddow clocks in at #24.  Maddow has eclipsed her mentor in ratings-busting appearances on NBC's "Meet The Press" leading Mediate to wonder why NBC didn't pick her instead of David Gregory.

CNN's Soledad O'Brien and Christiane Amanpour made the list's mid-40s while HLN's Joy Behar's #25 with a show with ratings embarrassing and beating parent network CNN.

There's one radio guy on the list and it ain't Rush:  CBS News' Mark Knoller.  His must-read political tweets nabbed Knoller the #25 spot.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts is #3 and Fox's Roger Ailes is #1.

Other Usual Suspects:  Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer, George Stephanopoulos, ABC's Jake Tapper, Michelle Malkin, Conan, Letterman, Fallon, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Fox TV's Wanda Sykes, the annoying Greek Arianna Huffington.

MIA:  NBC Nightly News empty Armani Brian Williams... Already so five minutes ago now that Katie and Diane are sucking all the media hot air...

Well-Hung

Why is the face of commie leader Mao on ornaments hanging from a White House Christmas tree unbeknownst to the WH?  Maybe Anita Dunn hung the ornaments as a parting shot to Fox News:

Let's go to the Sayings of Chairman Mao commonly known in the West as "The Little Red Book":  "In the world today all culture, all literature and art belong to definite classes and are geared to definite political lines. There is in fact no such thing as art for art's sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or independent of politics. Proletarian literature and art are part of the whole proletarian revolutionary cause; they are, as Lenin said, cogs and wheels in the whole revolutionary machine."  Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art" (May 1942), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 86.

Priceline Congress: Name Your Own Price

NY Sen. Chuck "I'd Walk A Mile For A Camera" bagged more than three pheasants on a recent hunting trip to Nebraska with health care hold-out Ben Nelson.  He bagged Ben the rat.  Although the millions inserted into the Senate bill for Nelson's district helped change Nelson's mind...

This photo begs captions.  Look at Schumer in the foreground.  Chuck's got his Manson face on...

Beck's Bad Boy

Our comrades at Media Matters are making a list and checking it twice, finding Fox News full of naughty political activists in 2009. 

Oh, wait!  Isn't that Bill Press on CNN attacking Fox News?  Lumps of coal for everyone. 

Press Pass

Liberal radio talker Bill Press has found a novel way to get around the Radio TV Correspondents Galleries denial of a press pass.  Press is now an intern for socialist Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Bill's application was turned down for using his radio and website as a bully pulpit to advocate liberal causes.

Cute, Bill.  Cute.

NOVA Kaine

"Barry from DC" calls in DC's all-news radio station WTOP, ostensibly to complain about Northern Virginia traffic, but instead invites outgoing VA Governor Tim Kaine to a viral snowball fight in the Rose Garden and a beer with gun-pulling DC cop Detective Baylor:

Peter Principle: CNN's Rick Sanchez

Peter Principle:  Rising to the level of one's incompetence.  Or in this case, CNN.  The fourth-place cable news network slashes an hour from Wolf Blitzer's "Situation Room" to make room for:  "Rick's List" 3-5p starting January 18th.

The twit announced the move on his Twitter page. Brace for a Rickocentric show with his Twitter as the centerpiece.  I wonder what Wolf thinks?

Rick's slogan:  "I Twitter, therefore I am."

Is CNN czar Jon Klein's Sanchez move a portent of things to come as the network trolls  for a ratings-enticing identity? 

Diane's Baby Bump

Diane Sawyer's debut as anchor of ABC's "World News" appears to have boosted viewership of the evening newscast, even during a slow holiday week. According to early Nielsen data, an average of 8.9 million people tuned in to ABC from 6:30 to 7 p.m. Monday night. That's only a rough indication of the true viewership of "World News," because not every station carries the broadcast during that time period. But it's larger than the newscast's season-to-date average of 8 million viewers and this season's Monday average of 8.4 million viewers.

By comparison, 9.3 million viewers tuned in to NBC during the time period and 5.9 million people watched CBS. Final Nielsen data will be available next week.  Wash Post

Bret Baier: Well-Appointed

"Glenn is the best lead-in any guy could ask for." Fox News "Special Report" anchor Bret Baier. Bret's 2010 goal? "I'd like to be appointment viewing for political junkies."