Rick Sanchez: Cotton Mouth Whistling Dixie

CNN's Eliot Spitzer seat-filler Rick Sanchez weaves his latest racist gaffe:  Monday Rick referred to Obama as the 'cotton-picking president.'

After apologizing, Rick retorted he picked up the phrase growing up in the land of cotton.

As for Rick's 8p ratings, Rick's listing.  CNN's lowest 8p numbers in three years. Business Insider

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire

Glenn Beck ramps up a news website in a mere two months. The Blaze with 'actual journalists.'  Banner advertiser:  Goldline.
Rival:  Huffington Post (headline, left).

Mike Allen's Politico Playbook:  GLENN BECK LAST NIGHT OPENED HIS OWN WEBSITE, “The Blaze,” to compete with Drudge, Huff and FoxNation: “The Blaze is a news, information and opinion site brought to you by Glenn Beck and a dedicated team of writers, journalists & video producers. Our goal is to post, report and analyze stories of interest on a wide range of topics from politics and culture to faith and family.” The news site was announced on GlennBeck.com, with the slogan: “Nothing burns hotter than the truth.” The site has a big ad for FreedomWorks, Dick Armey’s group, adding another revenue stream to the Beck empire, which was taking in $32 million a year, according to Forbes. The breakdown: publishing, $13 million; radio, $10 million; digital, $4 million; events, $3 million; television, $2 million. (His three-year Fox News contract is a rounding error!)  The Blaze’s managing editor is Scott Baker: “In 2007, Scott co-founded Breitbart.tv. He served as Chief Operating Officer and co-editor of the site for three years.” Glenn Beck tells Mediaite: “Our hope is that everyone who comes to The Blaze finds original reporting, insightful opinions and engaging videos about the stories that matter most. We are excited to launch and I look forward to keeping Scott and his team busy by sending countless ideas at 3am every morning.”

Related:  'Beck may be unlikely leader for conservative Christians' Wash Post  'Beck's marriage of politics and religion raising questions' Wash Post

Hank Stuever Wash Post columnist:  Thank you, New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, Huffington Post, MSNBC, Associated Press and even CBS, with your independent aerial audit on crowd attendance that came to 87,000, give or take, for playing your parts so very well. "No newspaper in America" bothered to convey the message, Beck said, that the next "40 days and 40 nights" will see a profound spiritual shift in our lives. Thanks for that, too. Thanks to anyone who posted Web photo galleries of 8/28-ers and mocking what they wore, what their T-shirts said, how they looked.It was all to Beck's greater good, giving him and the rest of Fox News enough to discuss, ruminate and refute for many hours to come. Even this review, I admit, is just another part of the depressing Moebius strip that guides the American news cycle. 

Cable News Ratingzzz

Friday August 27, 2010  At 10p CNN's Anderson Cooper loses by this much in the golden demo 25-54 to an MSNBC 'special.' 164,000 Anderson, 175,000 MSNBC.

Beau Geste

'The most ridiculous messages sported by attendees at Beck's rally Saturday.'  One of 21 at right so designated by the liberal Huffington Post. 

The most ridiculous blog post sported (and later pulled) by the Huffington Post Monday offered a $100,000 reward for anyone who can produce a Glenn Beck sex tape.  

The clown is the former executive editor of the now-defunct Air America.  Beau Friedlander currently writes for le beau monde Huff Post and LAT. 

Friedlander posted a subsequent apology: 'I was actually trying to mimic what I saw as the way right wingers go about these matters, and by misapprehending the way they do things, I went too far.' 

Beck's radio retort.

H/t ZD

Conan's Cold Finger

Or did the hung out to dry former 'Tonight' show star's finger freeze in mid-air after Emmy host Jimmy Fallon (who inherited Conan's old NBC late night slot) fingered fickle f**kers of Fate -- NBC -- during Sunday's Emmys broadcast on NBC?



Psst.  Jon Stewart got the Emmy and not Conan . . . 

Caption This!

Obama's rain check . . .   Via Michelle's Mirror

Splitting Hairs: It's Not How Long You Make It. It's How You Make It Long.

Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion scribe Robin Givhan pens a 1,000 word piece on the State of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's hair.

Chickaboomer's Executive Summary:  Hillary Clinton, 62,  is exhibiting 'her latest act of defiance' by flaunting longer hair that society tells use looks better on much younger babes.

Obama's Short Game

From golf to the Gulf.  Barack Obama jets from Martha's Vineyard to New Orleans to mark the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

If you ask me, Obama seemed teed off.

NBC 'Nightly News' anchor Brian Williams sat down with Obama after he landed Sunday. Transcript and video here.

Bottom Line:  Obama's still blaming Bush for every ill.

Beck: Step Right Up

Mike Lupica NYDN: Whatever the size of Beck's crowd Saturday - estimates had it anywhere from 87,000 to half a million - this event was the kind of political showbiz that seems to inform so much of American life these days. Starring carnival barkers like Beck. Who dress up Hallmark platitudes about honor and freedom and God and country and actually delude themselves into believing they're doing it for something other than ratings.  You go back and watch his speech, and watch Palin's, and realize this was just another made-for-TV event, a reality show masquerading as a momentous political happening.

The New York Times' token conservative columnist Ross Douthat writes Monday that he 'underestimated Beck': To this rally-goer, though, the most striking thing about “Restoring Honor” was the way the pageant effortlessly tapped into the same rich vein of identity politics that has given us figures as diverse as Palin and Howard Dean, George W. Bush and Barack Obama — but did so, somehow, without advancing any explicitly political agenda. Now more than ever, Americans love leaders who seem to validate their way of life. This spirit of self-affirmation was at work in evangelicals’ enduring support for Bush, in the enthusiasm for the Dean campaign among the young, secular and tech-savvy, and now in the devotion that Palin inspires among socially conservative women. The Obama campaign raised it to an art form, convincing voters that by merely supporting his candidacy, they were proving themselves cosmopolitan and young-at-heart, multicultural and hip.In a sense, Beck’s “Restoring Honor” was like an Obama rally through the looking glass. It was a long festival of affirmation for middle-class white Christians — square, earnest, patriotic and religious. If a speaker had suddenly burst out with an Obama-esque “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” the message would have fit right in. But whereas Obama wouldn’t have been Obama if he weren’t running for president, Beck’s packed, three-hour jamboree was floated entirely on patriotism and piety, with no “get thee to a voting booth” message. It blessed a particular way of life without burdening that blessing with the compromises of a campaign, or the disillusioning work of governance.For a weekend, at least, Beck proved that he can conjure the thrill of a culture war without the costs of combat, and the solidarity of identity politics without any actual politics. If his influence outlasts the current election cycle, this will be the secret of his success.


Okay.  I'm done with the Monday morning three-ring circus Beck quarterbacking . . . 

NBC's Emmys Dumb Down To Reality TV Gnats

'The best fashion comeback was Tina Fey, who jumped on the mermaid train and finally got it right with the help of Oscar de la Renta.'  NYP fashion editor Serena French

2010 Emmy winners . Photos.

NYP TV critic Linda Stasi was Emmy ecstatic!  Loved the show, thanking the producers for making her 'laugh until I cried.'  I also want to thank the Academy for not awarding Conan O'Brien -- that whining crybaby who walked away with 40-odd million dollars in severance pay for getting the boot from his short-lived "Tonight" show gig -- anything.

NYDN's old hand TV critic David Hinckley's head was spinning like 'The Exorcist's' Linda Blair as producers flew through the broadcast at Twitter speed: By pushing the show forward to a sleepy weekend in late August because it didn't want to lose a night of football next month, NBC seemed to be suggesting this night was largely for core fans.


Indeed.  The only people I recognized were Betty White, Tina, George Clooney, Fallon, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, and a few others.












Breeder turned reality TV star Kate Gosselin doesn't even remotely resemble her pre-reality TV days.  Nice boobs.

Former SNL funnygal Amy Poehler's real boobs were dangerously close to a wardrobe malfunction. 

The sea of fishtailed gowns would've rendered Charlie Tuna speechless. Star-kissed misses like this costume cinching 'ET's' Mary Hart's aging form. 

Keith Olbermann: Genus Envy

Chickaboomer's Beck rally Executive Summary comes Sunday from Matt Lewis on CNN's Howard Kurtz 'Reliable Sources' media gotcha show:  "MSNBC would love if Keith Olbermann could turn out 300,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial. He couldn't do it. Glenn Beck can do it, and there's a difference."

 'Reliable Sources' transcript here.

'Not a chance.'

A post-rally apology from Glenn Beck to Obama -- and his take on a Palin-Beck 2012 presidential ticket.

Size Matters

I predicted the media mavens would be fixated on how many suckers showed up for Glenn Beck's rally -- and size would be the story.

 To wit, Sunday's New York Daily News.  'Depends on who you ask' chronicles the TV networks' all-over-the-map tallies.

The paper quotes CNN's on-air observation that coming up with a number was like guessing “how many jelly beans are inside a huge jar.”

And how many souls showed up for Al Sharpton's thing?

Nightmare: I Have A Wet Dream

My, my.  MSNBC, CNN, NBC et al. are waking up to limp dicks not remembering who fucked them Saturday, what with Glenn Beck's DC rally drawing upwards of a half-million (NBC estimated 300,000.)

NBC weekend anchor Lester Holt kicked off with 'Tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands...' ) Saturday in the same spot on the same date 47 years ago where MLK Jr. delivered his 'I have a dream' speech.

CBS hired a professional crowd estimator who put the total at a mere 87,000. Beck Himself tells Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace he'll produce his own aerial photos showing the crowd was at least 300,000 -- maybe even 650,000.

Flaccid:  MSNBC's Keith 'God will do magic tricks' Olbermann, Ed 'I'm gonna torch this place' Schultz, Rachel Maddow. MSNBC's Chris "I have a nightmare" Matthews, POLITICO,  Huffington Post (head right), Al Sharpton, NYTimes columnist Frank Rich (ejaculating all over the billionaire Koch - say 'Coke' - brothers 'bankrolling' the Tea Party).

NYTimes begrudgingly billed the crowd 'enormous' in an event the paper pimped as less political and more like a church revival.  Head:  'Glenn Beck Leads Religious Rally...'  

In contrast Al Sharpton's thing attracted only a couple hundred.  After all was said and done, Al appeared on Fox's 'Geraldo At Large' and challenged Beck to another duel - an on-air Ground Zero mosque debate on 'Geraldo.'

The chastened media narcissists gazed into the Reflecting Pool and, for once, weren't blinded by their own beauty.  No 'racism.'  The only thing the media could hang its tattered liberal hat on was a mostly white crowd.  Even that rang hollow.

As for CNN, the 'Most Trusted Name In News' couldn't be trusted to deliver truth.  What's wrong with this picture?  Via ICN  Sour grapes CNN alloted far more coverage to Al Sharpton than Beck.

Should be intriguing to watch the media fashion the Monday spin...

Update Sunday 1:23p Mike Allen's Politico Playbook: WHAT THEY WERE SAYING AT THE HAWK & DOVE LAST NIGHT: Reporters who walked right up to Beck think he was wearing a Kevlar vest - you could see it in the back. His speech rambled, and had no clear takeaway. The media's crowd estimates are probably low - there were lots of folks off to the sides of the Mall. Attendees followed Beck's directive not to bring signs. The overt religion was surprising, but Beck invoked a “God” so vague it could be anything. Little talk about government spending, THE issue on the right. The result may be a narrower but more intense base, which DOES seem to be a formula for success in business and politics. Beck is bigger now, but maybe not as big as he thought he'd be.  SPOTTED, sweating backstage at the Beck rally: Christiane Amanpour. 

CNN's Weasel Words

Why is CNN refusing to call a spade a spade?  In this case, a Muslim terrorist a terrorist?  Phil Mushnick NYP

Caption This!

NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg cross-dresses for a round on Martha's Vineyard links with Obama where the golfers reportedly killed two birds with one stone by talking about the disasterous economy.

A smug Bloomberg flew up to Martha's Vineyard Friday to play golf with the prez, fooling the press in his Palestinian keffiyeh.  

The mayor commissioned the undercover costume after the fallout over his bizarre comment on Jon Stewart this week asserting 100% of 9/11 families support the Ground Zero mosque . . . 

Photo Weasel Zippers

Olbermann and Beck: Low and Behold

And behold Beck came, smirking at his one-night dominion over the KENNEDY Center. He feigned a Boston accent when he first took the stage. Later, he choked up, backed by a car-dealer-sized American flag:  “There are thousands and thousands of people that are [web] streaming this right now, and it makes me so happy to know that Keith Olbermann is one of them. [Laughter and applause.] Because while you-all got in here for free, Keith had to pay $6.95 a month. [Cheers and applause. Beck blows a kiss to the camera.] … This is a preview of what’s coming – not just tomorrow, but for a very long time. … This is the beginning of the end of darkness. We have been in darkness for a long time. …  -- Mike Allen's Politico Playbook from which MSNBC's 'Morning Joe lifts content in an unformalized 'content-sharing' deal like the 'joint venture' NBC has with the NYT.  In exchange the ink-stained scribes are rewarded with face time on MSNBC. 

NYDN:  Glenn Beck may be losing he eyesight, but he says he wants to lead America  out of the "darkness."

MSNBC's Prince of Darkness Keith Olbermann ascends the circular staircase to the 'Rain Man' padded room MSNBC constructed to insulate employees from Keith's frequent primal screams, foot stamping, and rocking -- to spend the weekend glued to Glenn Beck's $6.95/mo. premiere subscription 8/28 live stream.  CB hears Phil Griffin's adding an adjoining room for Ed 'I'm gonna torch this place' Schultz. 


Olbermann's reflecting in his pod after musing on air 'Are we expecting to see [Beck] part of the Reflecting Pool?'  Paul Farhi Wash Post


Farhi found rival networks' flacks closed-mouthed on how they were going to cover Beck's event.

MSNBC's Ed Schultz: The Mel Gibson of Cable News

'We're starting to play in the arena of the big boys now,' spits MSNBC's metrovexual Ed Schultz parsing his August ratings over Fox and CNN. . . . 'In my bones, in my very soul! In my heart! I want to kick Fox's ass! I want to drive them into the ground! I want to spike the ball! I want to kick 'em in the teeth on the way back to the huddle! And then I want to turn around and lift my leg on 'em! Because that's all they're worth! They lie, they cheat, they steal . . . '  Via Radio Equalizer

Ed, why not just go full-tilt boogie bonkers and torch Fox like you threatened to do to MSNBC when you were left out of the election night promos?  Via ICN

A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste

'If you're an unemployed reporter who likes to talk and does not like to think, Fox News is hiring.'  Stephen Colbert on Fox's WH correspondent Major 'David Gregory On Horse Testosterone'  Garrett's bolting to The National Journal.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Fox News Job Opening
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News

Larry Back To Radio?

If this NYP report is true, Larry King's dream CNN replacement, Merv Griffin's media mogul successor Ryan Seacrest, will soon be his boss as Larry returns to radio.  H/t Jim Bohannon

Bloomberg's Bore-scht Belt

'The two wisecracking New York Jews are, not surprisingly, great together.'  New York mag on NY Mayor Mike Bloomberg's mosque-thumping appearance on Jon Stewart.

Bloomberg, claiming 'one-hundred percent' of the 9/11 families 'support' the mosque, believes the mosque madness will go away after the November elections. 

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Michael Bloomberg
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Nuts and Sluts

So . . . who is MSNBC's metromaniacal (H/t Jim Bohannon) bumping fuzz with now?  Now that his 'dear friend' Katy Tur dumped him after he got the half-his-age live-in jobless TV wannabe a reporter gig at WNBC?

Huff Post: "Thanks to a breaking story and sheer chance, Keith Olbermann wound up interviewing his ex-girlfriend on Wednesday's "Countdown."


Sheer BS.

Nuts and Dolts

The DNC fingers liberal MSNBC 'golden girl' Rachel Maddow to do its dirty work in a new anti-Tea Party ad also featuring CNN's John King.

A DNC 'honcho' tells Politico's Mike Allen it's just a 'coincidence' these ads are up and running on the same weekend Fox's Glenn Beck stages a huge rally in Washington: "This is being coordinated across committee and campaigns. The fact that it happens to coincide with what is certainly going to be an ugly display of extremism on the Mall this weekend will only amplify our message even more."

Allen pimps the campaign with a new riff on the Clinton chestnut 'Nuts and Sluts' defense against the wackos and lying bitches who tried to take down the narcissistic POTUS:

FIRST LOOK -- DNC TODAY UNVEILS WHAT YOU MIGHT CALL A “NUTS AND FLAKES” STRATEGY. Dems tell us they still hope to hold the Senate only because of the colorful slate of candidates Republicans have put up. A new web video, “GOP Tea Party: These People Could Be in Charge,” strings together bites (and wrestling clips) by and about Sharron Angle, Rand Paul, Linda McMahon and others, and ends with the slide: “Imagine, These People Could Represent YOU.” A Democratic official says his party will paint the opposition as “radical and flawed”: “Republicans want to make this election about the generic ballot. But these are anything but generic candidates: They are flawed and as far out of the mainstream as you can imagine. And the Republican Party knows it. They didn't want Sharron Angle or Rand Paul or Ken Buck or Rick Scott or Linda McMahon to be their candidates, because they know what will soon be obvious to voters; they are flawed and out of the mainstream. Republicans want to make this election about the national political environment. But all politics is local, and candidates matter.” 

This companion ad makes it look like the 'Republican Tea Party' is organized crime with a 'Contract on America.'

Cable News Ratingzzz

Wednesday  August 25, 2010

Fox's Jennifer Griffin: Back On The Block

Fox's Miracle Girl Jennifer Griffin is back on the Pentagon beat after beating breast cancer.  The veteran correspondent landed an interview with Gen. David Petraeus in Afghanistan, but here, gets personal with Fox News Studio B's Shep Smith:

Plugging The Dyke Redux

Will 37-year-old Rachel Maddow marry her much older Saphhic muse in Massachusetts?  Will Rachel flay the Ground Zero mosque protestors and Fox News?  Again? Yet another profile of MSNBC's 'golden girl.'  (The former label attached to the late NBC News anchor/reporter Jessica Savitch.)

Putz Schultz

"The only thing that's on fire are Ed's ratings, and the only people crying are at CNN." An MSNBC spox reacting to a Page Six query about rumors of an Ed meltdown on the set August 12th.  

As the story goes, Big Ed's ego went stratospheric after he was left out of MSNBC's election promos.  Ed supposedly threatened to 'torch the fucking place,' and cried when angry boss Phil Griffin vowed to fire him if he ever went batshit again. 

Friday update:  NYP Page Six reports Ed's squeaky wheel was greased by MSNBC brass. 

Cable News Ratingzzz

Tuesday August 24, 2010

Major Bummer

Eye candy Fox News WH correspondent Major Garrett is going back from whence he came:  print. He's been hired by The National Journal.

Major's last day is September 3rd.

"I want to talk less and I want to think more. I always considered myself an accidental TV reporter." When he told Roger Ailes he was leaving, Garrett said, the Fox News chairman replied: "You're one of the few guys who never got addicted to TV."  Howard Kurtz Wash Post

Was the WH war on Fox News wearing him down?  Major tells Howard he'd be 'a liar' if he said it hadn't, adding he saw himself as a 'conscientious objector.' 

With all due respect to Thomas Wolfe,  you CAN go home again...

Letterman's Terms of Endearment

David Letterman on Obama's penchant for vacations: 'He'll have plenty of time for vacations when his one term is up.'



Letterman noted this is Obama's sixth vacation . . . H/t NewsBusters

Is Chuck Todd The New Dan Rather?

Election night Ratherisms, that is. Dan's 'This race is spandex tight,' 'This race is tighter than the rusted lug nuts on a '55 Ford,' 'Can't get a cigarette paper between 'em,' is trumped by this.

NBC's Chuck Todd's hotter than a Times Square Rolex . . .

She Came In Through The Bathroom Window

Michelle's Mirror catches up with the Obamas at dinner Tuesday night. Michelle clad in a ghastly schmata from the early '70s that even I wouldn't have been caught dead in back in the day.  Where's her carpet bag?  Michelle completes the multitude-of-sins-concealing 'look' with leggings and zebra flats.

Mosque Of Error

Something's bubbling under the surface of the so-called Ground Zero mosque.  And that something's got to be money.  Somehow the whole mosque issue boils down to money.  Who's got the greasy palms?  NY Mayor Mike Bloomberg?

An uncompromising Bloomberg stepped up to the media plate Tuesday defending the mosque in a speech in which he trotted out America-loving Muslims:  'To implicate all of Islam for the actions of a few who twisted a great religion is unfair and un-American. Today we are not at war with Islam -- we are at war with al Qaeda and other extremists who hate freedom.'

New York Times

Islam is just not a religion.  It is a way of life that colors every facet of the practitioners' Earthly existence.  

Wednesday's NYT reels in the years to 1946 when Little Syria was a thriving neighborhood near the Ground Zero site. '... it is worth recalling the old sights and sounds and smells of Washington Street as a reminder that in New York — a city as densely layered as baklava — no one has a definitive claim on any part of town, and history can turn up some unexpected people in surprising places. (The Abyssinian Baptist Church, for instance, was once on Waverly Place.)'

CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric cautions against  'fear and rage' that is tearing down 'the towers of core American values.' 


This is how crazy it's getting.  An elderly Holocaust survivor is the target of a hate-filled fuck harangue:



Bottom line:  follow the money . . . 

CNBC to CNN: Cluck Off!

Viewers in the golden 25-54 TV demo find a CNBC bio on Kentucky Fried Chicken king Colonel Sanders is almost as  finger lickin' good as CNN's Larry King.  CNN's Rick Sanchez loses in 25-54 to HLN's Nancy Grace at 8p.

TVbytheNumbers for Monday August 23, 2010

Katie's Limbo Rock

How low can she go?  Katie's about an inch off the floor.  TVNewser

Sweet 'n Low

The following is FAR MORE entertaining than ABC News Jake Tapper's Political Punch Obama vacation predictable press pap. Pity the poor press frozen out by the WH.  No photos.  'Privacy,' the WH bleats.  The American troops in Afghanistan.

Obama Vacation Blogger Eric Williams:  While his Prez-ness was noshing on the finest food known to man at the Sweet Life Cafe in Oak Bluffs, we were out standing in a monsoon. I have never been so cold in the summertime. There was a small, bizarre crowd of onlookers huddled around the perimeter set out by the Secret Service, but presidential enthusiasm dimmed as the rain fell harder. But then the Weed Guy entered the frame.

The Weed Guy wanted to cross a street that was closed off–it seemed like he wanted to get to his car. So the Secret Service Guy waved a security wand up and down his body and it beeped. The Weed Guy emptied out his pockets and promptly produced a one-hit marijuana smoking device that consists of a wooden box to hold the weed and a metal pipe to smoke it. The Secret Service guy just started laughing and called over a local cop. “What were you thinking?” asked the cop. “You can’t tell me that stuff doesn’t kill brain cells,” said the Secret Service guy.

But they let him go. And he stuck around, hoping for a glimpse of the president. “Are you the Weed Guy?” I asked him. “No,” he said. “Yeah, I am, so what. This is Massachusetts. It’s no big deal.”