Herman Cain: Read His Lips

Rush Limbaugh: "What's next, folks? A cartoon on MSNBC showing Herman Cain with huge lips eating a watermelon? What are they gonna do next? No, I'm not kidding. The racial stereotypes that these people are using to go after Herman Cain, what is the one thing that it tells us? It tells us who the real racists are, yeah, but it tells us that Herman Cain is somebody. Something's going on out there. Herman Cain obviously is making some people nervous for this kind of thing to happen."

"This is how the mainstream media keeps the Republican Party in check: They're scared to death of this kind of thing happening to them. Pure and simple. It's also why (I'm just predicting) you're not going to see too many people in the official Republican establishment rise up to Herman Cain's defense. You know, if this exact circumstance (as I just mentioned) had happened in a conservative publication, not only would the Democrats and the media be going after the women -- as James Carville did and others during the Clinton years -- they'd be going after the reporters. They'd be going after the publication. Anybody who had anything to do with the story, it would be search-and-destroy. Our side will not do that. Herman Cain stood up to the media, he did not act afraid, and so he had to be slapped down. Is it coincidental this all happened at night before his address to the National Press Club."

NYDN

The Skinny On Sean

Press shy Fox's Sean Hannity in GQ: "What are skinny jeans?"

I'll Get You, My Pretty . . .

Photo by: Alexandra Davis Thomas Oct. 31. 2011

Related:

Huff Post

The Atlantic Wire

Cain went on Fox News this a.m. to lay the groundwork for his National Press Club appearance, all of which was picked up by rivals MSNBC and CNN.  Mediaite  TVNewser

Now That Herman Cain Is On Top (of the polls): Cain as Clarence Thomas

Joe Biden has filed a formal complaint after Herman Cain was ambushed by a reporter as he was exiting CBS News Washington following an appearance on Face The Nation Sunday.

Politico's Jonathan Martin shoved a camera in Cain's face to get Cain's reax to Politico's scoop that Cain paid off a couple of chicks in the 1990s.  Politico was dogging the Cain campaign to get answers after discovering the pair had filed sex harassment complaints when Herman was head of the National Restaurant Association in DC.

On MSNBC's Morning Joe Monday a.m. Martin wouldn't be pinned down on what Cain is accused of doing to these women.  Willie Geist got nowhere with Martin.  NewsBusters 

Politico: He breathed audibly, glared at the reporter and stayed silent for several seconds. After the question was repeated three times, he responded by asking the reporter, “Have you ever been accused of sexual harassment?”



Wash Post: Cain camp denies harassment allegations Wash Post The Fix Chris Cillizza: How bad is it for Cain? Will Cain pull a Clarence Thomas?

Geraldo Rivera got his Aussie on, pummeling Cain's campaign manager Sunday for not denying the payoff while calling him "mate."  Mediaite Huff Post

Huff Post

Instant Classic in the Annals of Memorable Excuses

Sunday quote du jour:  CNN Reliable Sources host Howard Kurtz: "Due to a brain freeze last week, we interviewed Jim Lehrer and forgot to mention the title of his book. It's 'Tension City: Inside the Presidential Debates From Kennedy-Nixon to Obama-McCain.'"

CNN transcript.

Obama Sham: Wow, No Leg To Stand On

Obama "wants to win so badly" that he "is going to show some leg" in a "secret plan" to pluck the heartstrings of jobless American voters.

Venerable insider Bob Woodward reveals the above with the unfathomable end result -- "people are going to say, 'Wow, he really wants the job,' and this emotional connection could take place" -- to MSNBC's Chris Matthews, to which Matthews replied (as his third leg began to tingle):  "Wow!  I'm impressed by that."

(NewsBusters vid and transcript)

Related: The Last Words of Steve Jobs:  "Oh wow, oh wow, oh, wow!"  NYT NYDN

CNN's Musical Chairs

Banfield to CNN: NYP Page Six Oct. 30

Actually, TVNewser was given the cat to "let out of the bag" in September. Liberal Ashleigh got her ass in a sling at MSNBC after delivering a 2003 commencement speech that was widely seen as a shot at NBC for sleeping with the enemy by embedding reporters with American troops in Iraq, and thus, reporting the Pentagon's glossy spin. Ashleigh claims NBC inflicted enhanced torture tactics in retaliation.  Connecticut Magazine Truth and Consequences

In that same speech Ashleigh took a shot at Fox News: "I'm a journalist and I like to be able to tell the story as I see it, and I hate it when someone tells me I'm one-sided. It's the worst I can hear. Fox has taken so many viewers away from CNN and MSNBC because of their agenda and because of their targeting the market of cable news viewership, that I'm afraid there's not a really big place in cable for news. Cable is for entertainment, as it's turning out, but not news."

Viewers choose which channel to watch; they are not "taken away." 

"I'm hoping that I will have a future in news in cable, but not the way some cable news operators wrap themselves in the American flag and patriotism and go after a certain target demographic, which is very lucrative." 

The same demographic CNN is desperately seeking.  The golden 25-54 demographic sought after by all of cable news and broadcast television.

The Emmy-winning journalist is competing with Keith Olbermann for the longest TV  resume:

From Ashleigh's official website not updated since 2008 before she joined ABC News.

CNN's American Morning time slot talent shuffle includes John Roberts (left for Fox News).  Kiran Chetry (left in July). The slot's had at least four anchor teams in 10 years.  TVNewser

Monday a.m. update:  NYT Brian Stelter fleshes out the American Morning retool.  Sounds like CNN is lifting Fox News The Five ensemble format.

Ruth Less

Ruth spends her night reading library novels, watching Netflix movies and living in terror of chipping a tooth “because she can’t afford to go to a dentist."  Once-babe Ruth Madoff in Truth and Consequences out Monday.  NYP

Welcome to the life of millions of retirees like me existing on Social Security!

Amazon book blurb: "Muzzled by lawyers, vilified by the media and roundly condemned by the public, the Madoffs have chosen to keep their silence—until now. Ultimately, theirs is one of the most riveting stories of our time: a modern-day Greek tragedy about money, power, lies, family, truth and consequences."

Brian Williams: Headmaster

"NBC’s Brian Williams will no longer appear on future Vanity Fair lists, as he is being honored — and retired — into the magazine’s fashion Hall of Fame after four appearances."  MSNBC on VF's 2011 International Best-Dressed List.

What a lame, unfunny pimp for The Brian Williams Vehicle Rock Center opening Monday night 10p. A minute fifty-eight. Interminable 9:50 en toto on fellow fashion plate (he of the $80 socks), MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell.

Williams: "Your audience will like our broadcast. We're going to do hard news. This is going to be a really good television ... [interrupted by Larry] . . . . We'll do stories that'll get stuck in your head.  Stories you'll think about at all times thereafter. Uh, and uh, cash giveaway. But, um, uh, no tricks or gimmicks.  Cash giveaway. We're just gonna do it. Play it straight." 

Hard news, huh. In our heads. At all times.  NBC secreting subliminal images in Brian's show?

Huff Post has the vid.

Yeah, we've had the NBC not in it for the ratings spin rammed down our throats.  Low expectations.  Rock Center is just another doomed NBC ensemble show to showcase Brian Williams' spotty shtick.

Cable News Ratingzzz

Thursday Oct. 27, 2011 TV by the Numbers

Larry King's Family Jewels Intact

Lucky Larry King tells Extra how he (a) invested $4 mil with Bernie Madoff, (b) took out $3.3 mil, and (c) lost the remaining 700 grand but got it back. $200 grand from the Madoff estate and a half mil from the government for paying taxes on stock he didn't even own. Huff Post

I'm still scratching my head over the Larry photo Huff Post used with the headline Larry King's Bernie Madoff Investments Almost Cost Him Millions:

Caption This!

Disaster: AC in DC

Huff Post

DCRTV's Dave Hughes: Anderson Bombs On 7 At 4 - Anderson Cooper, whose "Anderson" talk show replaced "Oprah" at 4 PM, has been a disaster for Channel 7/WJLA. The Allbritton-owned ABC affiliate's rating at that hour are down 68%, compared to the same period last year, according to the October ratings. So, WJLA might replace Cooper with Katie Couric's new show, "Katie," when it launches next fall, reports Lisa de Moraes at washingtonpost.com. NBC-owned Channel 4/WRC is enjoying a 160% ratings hike among women age 25-54 at 4 PM with news programming. 

Rock Center: "We're not doing this as a ratings play." NBC News Czar Steve Capus

Wash Post's Snidely Whiplash TV critic Lisa de Moraes on NBC's Brian Williams primetime vehicle Rock Center premiering 10p Halloween night: NBC News held a news conference via phone this week with The Reporters Who Cover Television to take questions about the show. But first, a network foursome — the head of NBC News, the show’s senior exec producer, the show’s exec producer and Brian — wanted the reporters to know: ●This is the first time in nearly two decades that a news division has tried to launch a new newsmag. ●The timing is right, what with everything that’s happening around the world. ●NBC News is “uniquely situated” to take on such an ambitious project. (By that, they meant NBC News has MSNBC and CNBC, in addition to the No. 1-rated evening newscast, and the No. 1 morning infotainment behemoth, a.k.a. “Today.” The execs did not mention that NBC is mired in fourth place in prime-time ratings among broadcast networks — thanks mostly to the failure of its entertainment programming and a now-departed management that believed in programming to margins. They also did not mention that “Rock Center” is part of new owner Comcast’s campaign to stanch the bleeding, but there was talk about Comcast suits having come to them when they took over and asking them: “What car is missing in your garage that you’d like to have?” NBC News President Steve Capus also wanted — in a big way — to manage expectations. “We’re not going to sit here and predict for you that we’re going to be a smash hit right out of the starting blocks,” Capus said by way of opening the phoner. “In fact, I actually think it’s going to be the opposite: We’re not doing this as a ratings play. We’re doing this as an attempt to give NBC News . . . an important news outlet in prime time.” (What about “Dateline,” you ask? Glad you did! “Dateline,” the execs on the call explained, is a very successful vehicle for reporting about crime stories. And with that, they thought the subject was closed.) Capus wanted to make it perfectly clear that the show would be moving from its Monday-at-10 berth — a.k.a. NBC’s former “Playboy Club” time slot — in the first quarter. But, unlike reporting on the fate of “The Playboy Club,” he did not want to see any reports that “Rock Center” was being yanked because of lousy ratings. It was preordained that Brian would be yanked from the slot to make way for Marilyn Monroe.

Radio Daze

"Radio's Worst Week Ever." Veteran Chicago media scribe Robert Feder on radio giant Clear Channel's permanent beaching of hundreds of employees in mostly small and medium markets.  Feder quotes a CC spox in the industry bible, Inside Radio (owned by Clear Channel): “We’re making these changes to improve the quality of what we provide to each of our local communities,” a company spokesperson told Inside Radio. “There will be more localization, not less.”

One Iowa radio suit had enough and quit rather than swing the axe. He was immediately hired by a Milwaukee station. Radio Info is keeping a national tally of those canned. So is All Access:

 NYT media star Brian Stelter wrongly claimed "dozens of local D.J.'s" :

CC riffed hundreds of producers, reporters, managment, on-air talent, refusing to reveal how many.

All Access Thursday Oct. 27

How about Occupy San Antonio? Hundreds of angry CC employees converge on CC's TX HQ protesting CC blithely blowing them away.  CC Thursday Oct. 27 press release quoting CC's Tom Poleman, new president of National Programming Platforms:  "I’m proud to say that we’ve assembled an equally unmatched group of talent to lead our new National Programming Platforms division. This division will enable us to be even more relevant and effective for our audiences, partners and advertisers, and build our national scale and reach by putting together products, events and relationships that nobody else can.”

In 2009 CC canned 11% (nearly 2,000) following the completion in 2008 of CC's 2006 $20 bil merger deal with Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners, and, as part of the deal, $400 mil in cuts. At the time  CC CEO Mark Mays vowed: "We will get through this together." Media Daily News

Blame the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) 1996 Telecommunications Act that cleared the way for Clear Channel to gobble up stations like the 1950s horror movie The Blob: 

SEC. 202. BROADCAST OWNERSHIP.

(a) NATIONAL RADIO STATION OWNERSHIP RULE CHANGES REQUIRED- The

Commission shall modify section 73.3555 of its regulations (47
C.F.R. 73.3555) by eliminating any provisions limiting the number
of AM or FM broadcast stations which may be owned or controlled by
one entity nationally.

 "The world is watching Clear Channel." Tom Taylor Radio-Info

Obama's Bundlers in the Political Jungle

Center for Responsive Politics via NYT

NYT Friday:  Despite a pledge not to take money from lobbyists, President Obama has relied on prominent supporters who are active in the lobbying industry to raise millions of dollars for his re-election bid. At least 15 of Mr. Obama’s “bundlers” — supporters who contribute their own money to his campaign and solicit it from others — are involved in lobbying for Washington consulting shops or private companies. They have raised more than $5 million so far for the campaign. Because the bundlers are not registered as lobbyists with the Senate, the Obama campaign has managed to avoid running afoul of its self-imposed ban on taking money from lobbyists. But registered or not, the bundlers are in many ways indistinguishable from people who fit the technical definition of a lobbyist. They glide easily through the corridors of power in Washington, with a number of them hosting Mr. Obama at fund-raisers while also visiting the White House on policy matters and official business. As both a candidate and as president, Mr. Obama has vowed to curb what he calls the corrupting influence of lobbyists, barring them not only from contributing to his campaign but also from holding jobs in his administration. While lobbyists grouse about the rules, ethics watchdogs credit the changes with raising ethical standards in Washington. But the prevalence of major Obama fund-raisers who also work in the lobbying arena threatens to undercut the president’s ethics push, raising questions about whether the campaign’s policies square with its on-the-ground practices.

Center for Responsive Politics:   Employees of Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest video and internet services provider, made the company Obama's top contributor until the third quarter, when it was overtaken by Microsoft. Still, Comcast employees have given Obama $116,000 and the company's executive vice president, David Cohen, has bundled at least $500,000 for the president and the Democratic National Committee so far this year.

Related:  "John D. Arnold, whom the New York Times described as “a former star trader at Enron who is now an energy hedge fund billionaire,” will host a fund-raiser at his mansion in Houston for Michelle Obama on Tuesday. John Arnold was one of the top bundlers for President Obama, raising $176,400 in the 2008 campaign. He has donated $114,900 personally to Democratic candidates and the party in recent years, including $28,500 to Obama’s victory campaign, according to Federal Elections Commission records.Tickets start at $10,000 and the campaign will collect contributions up to the legal maximum of $35,800 for the appearance by Missus Obama." Daily Mail's Don Surber (H/t Jim Lipe)

Branding Irony

“Who, What, When, Where and Why” has now been overtaken by “Huh?” Wash Post old fart ink-stained wretch Gene Weingarten on what passes for journalism these days.  All hail the death of Branding!

Inspect Her Gadget

A creepy TSA luggage checker is yanked from inspecting airport bags after he manhandled a lady's vibrator and tucked a note in her suitcase: "Get your freak on girl." Washington Post

Although the lady's privacy was violated big time, the TSA refuses to finger the perv. Ed Morrissey Hot Air

Martha Stewart's $1,500 18 carat gold-plated Swedish vibrator would've been fenced in the half the time it took to fly from Newark to Dublin where the privacy violation was discovered.

OWS: "Olbermann has left all the other cable and network TV journalists in the dust."

Baltimore's McKeldin Square:  "Confluence of corruption."

Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik: "I have been watching in admiration lately as night after night he's covered the Occupy protest movement like no one else in the media .I am  surprised that he has not received more praise for getting to this major story before anyone else and understanding the massive sociology of it better than anyone yet."

"Those college students and young adults who were dancing in the streets on election night in 2008 after seeing TV coverage of  Barack Obama in Grant Park are some of the same people sitting in tents in the cold and rain in American cities tonight. And no one in the media speaks to them and is telling their story like Keith Olbermann."

"Olbermann has been telling their story every night while cable channels like CNN have been  sending smug, superficial anchor-hosts like Erin Burnett down to the Occupy Wall Street encampment  to ridicule those who are protesting. And they are doing it in empty-headed, right-wing, 1960's, pot-and-bongo-drum stereotype-think worthy of Spiro Agnew -- or Pat Buchanan. . . . I have to admit, Olbermann has left all the other cable and network TV journalists in the dust on this big story. And by telling it so passionately, while others at first ignored it, he has been providing a great public service. Yes, and that means he is legitimately operating on this story in the tradition of his hero, Edward R. Murrow."

1. Murrow he ain't and never will be.
2. Tax scofflaw Olbermann's Current TV pay is reported to be $10 mil a year. It's easy to "understand the massive sociology" from a high-paid perch. I want to understand the massive forces supporting the "sociology."
3. Dust devil Olbermann, collecting ratings dust, desperately requires a hook to boost Current's laughable numbers.
4. Zurawik, what are you inhaling? 

Valid point about the shallow, biased coverage from empty-headed, self-important dust bunny Erin Burnett.

Brian Williams: Bubblegum Rock Center

The Rundown for NBC's Rock Center news mag's Halloween 10p premiere is hot off the press!  NBC News press release:

Kate Snow investigates a new industry: women paying big bucks to come from China to America in order to give birth and go home with US citizenship.

Richard Engel makes a dangerous trip into Syria to report on the anti-government activists who refuse to give up or give in.

Harry Smith takes us to the one place in America with a NEGATIVE unemployment rate; if you have a pulse, you have a job.

And, there’s a new way to end the agony that is the airline boarding process!

Yawn.  Harry went to Williston, North Dakota. Check.  Faster plane herding?  Just read this or watch this. Check.  Story rundown hits all the hot spots: outrage, danger, hope and change.

The show pimp on Twitter, Today, Facebook, the HGTV studio tour, is mind-blowing.   Like CNN's Princess of Pimp Erin Burnett's hype worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster. What a waste of money and resources on a show that flatlined right out of the box October 4th.

Related:  Rock Center hires veteran news producer Tom Bettag as a segment producer. Bettag's last gig was senior EP of CNN's Candy Crowley Sunday show. NBC press release

NYT: Cain Disable

NYT hit piece on Herman Cain quotes former staffers bitching about Cain's inaccessibility, campaign "chaos" and "ambivalence":  And then there was that e-mail to the staff about traveling in a car with Mr. Cain: “Do not speak to him unless you are spoken to,” the memo said.  “I found it odd,” said a former staff member who liked to prep Mr. Cain for appearances while driving. The aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, quit not long afterward, citing the e-mail as one of the deciding factors.

Politico plucks the pummel.

CBS Early Show: Moment of Dim

CBS Early Show airhead: "There's still time to find a great costume.This is the do-it-yourself costume of the year, no?" 

Chirpy chick guest: "I think so. Last year it was the Chilean miners.  This year it's gonna be Occupy Wall Street which is a movement that's happening across the country."

Jon Stewart's Moment of Zen

Can you fathom Charlie Rose doing this interview?

Don't Bette On It

Who cares if Gerald Rivera is or was a lousy lay. Bette Midler was reminded of her decades ago fling with the once "adorable" TV star on Tuesday's Joy Behar.  Bette: "It was nothing to write home about."  Danny Shea Huff Post 

Geraldo bragged about bedding Bette in his 1991 autobiography Exposing Myself.

What did she expect?  Don't get me started . . . I wouldn't do Geraldo on a bet. Then or now.

(H/t Vinney)

CNN: Get The Hook For Erin Burnett

Bill Gorman TV by the Numbers: Erin Burnett OutFront isn't getting much traction. It delivered its lowest 25-54 demo viewership for the show since launch (67,000). And it was CNN’s lowest 25-54 demo viewership of the year in that time period and second lowest total viewership.

Tuesday Oct. 25, 2011 cable news ratings

Much traction? A freaking understatement. Burnett right out of the box has been an unmitigated ratings disaster -- and the comely cipher's lack of journalistic chops a major embarrassment.  Another example of CNN's Peter Principle.  See Rick Sanchez. Eliot Spitzer. Or an Erin-exclusive mutation of the Peter Principle.  

Media Smoke and Mirrors

MSNBC's CHRIS MATTHEWS: A strange ad, with smoking in it!
HLN's JOY BEHAR: Are they going from the pro-emphysema vote here?
CNN's JOHN KING: To celebrate smoking at the end of a video I find reprehensible.
CNN's KYRA PHILLIPS:  Is it cool, weird, or just inappropriate?
CNN's WOLF BLITZER: He survived stage 4 colon cancer.  Anyone promoting smoking, not necessarily a good idea.
FOX's BRIT HUME: What do you get out of having some miscellaneous middle-aged guy smoking a cigarette and saying you're the right candidate?
FOX SPECIAL REPORT panelist JONAH GOLDBERG: You're not allowed to show people smoking.
MSNBC's CHRIS JANSING: At the end, he’s smoking!

Wednesday Rush Limbaugh on the media furor over Cain campaign manager Mark Block's video vérité: 

"Herman Cain's getting a lot of mileage out of this.  He got a lot more mileage out of this than what the ad cost 'em.  That's not too dumb."

Wash Post's Paul Farhi: "Block, and by extension Cain, may be keeping it real for both nicotine slaves and those who don’t like to see them pushed around.What’s more, with his droopy mustache and graying temples, Block is no supermodel. And maybe that’s the point, too. Block is anti-glamorous and anti-slick, in stark contrast to a silky pro like Mitt Romney. The cigarette drag just intensifies the rogue impression: This isn’t about business as usual. And neither is Cain."

And the media give the Occupy Wall Street protesters' illegal joints a pass.

Odd Jobs

NYT columnist Maureen Dowd on Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs tome: An Apple C.E.O. who jousted with Jobs wondered if he had a mild bipolarity. “Sometimes he would be ecstatic, at other times he was depressed,” Isaacson writes. There were Rasputin-like seductions followed by raging tirades. Everyone was either a hero or bozo. 

Mild?  Sounds hardcore in my DSM-IV. With Steve's mind in mind, it is tempting to diminish the Book of Jobs.  Jobs had warneth Obama "You're headed for a one-term presidency." To which Fox News The Five host and veteran Dem campaign guru Bob Beckel respondeth: political naïf Jobs doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about.  Or words to that effect.

Poynter's Steve Myers dug out this verse from the Book of Jobs on the Apple founder's relationship with News Corp's Rupert Murdoch:

Poynter's head:

Huffington Post's head:

Poynter also pointed out that Jobs was hell-bent on helping the NYT charge online readers:

It's also important for the country not to take everything Jobs sayeth as gospel.  

Obama as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

Keep praying, Friedman.

Friedman: So let’s be clear: Up to now, as a commander in chief in the war on terrorism, Obama and his national security team have been so much smarter, tougher and cost-efficient in keeping the country safe than the “adults” they replaced. It isn’t even close, which is why the G.O.P.’s elders have such a hard time admitting it. 

Henry the K?  Obama's slow, schizo, inept, fawning (the bows), pedestrian, clueless -- insert your own -- foreign policy.  A handful of terrorist takeouts and voila!  Obama as Kissinger?  

Mr. Lucky: Community organizer/senator/president fighting terrorists from the White House storm sewer.

Obama: Corny Island

Obama makes his fourth appearance on Jay Leno -- second as prez -- during a West Coast fundraising swing. The Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove: "Leno seemed content to provide the nation’s top Democrat with an informercial masquerading as a guest-shot."

NYDN  Obama's motorcade slows to a halt in L.A.freeway gridlock.  LAT

A fitting metaphor for a stalled presidency.

Wash Post TV critic Lisa de Moraes: Leno went out of his way to make Obama feel welcome, devoting most of his opening monologue to bashing the GOP and its presidential hopefuls: 
●“As you know, a Libyan rebel has admitted to killing Gaddafi. He said he shot Gaddafi twice in the temple. To which Michele Bachmann said: “I didn’t know he was Jewish.”

●“They say Moammar Gaddafi may have been one of the richest men in the world . . . 200  billion dollars. With all of the billions he had, he spent very little on education or health care for his country. So I guess he was a Republican.”

●“Earlier today, Rick Perry unveiled his new tax plan. He says he wants a flat tax. He believes that the tax should be flat, just like the Earth.”

●“In an interview with Parade magazine, Rick Perry said that after meeting with Donald Trump — there’s a meeting of the minds right there — he says he isn’t sure that Obama’s birth certificate is real. He says there’s room for debate. The good news is, Perry loses every debate he’s been involved in.”

(H/t NewsBusters)

Les Misérable: NYP Christiane Amanpour No Amour?

NYP Page Six

Joe Biden's Rape Scene

Watch Biden's ambush.

Thin-skinned Joe Biden, orally massaged by a young conservative reporter in a Senate hallway, files a complaint with the Senate press gallery claiming the reporter broke Senate rules.   

As the vice president left the Russell caucus room, Mattera weaved his way through the entourage, shook Biden’s hand and asked him to pose for a photo. While shaking Biden’s hand, Matter asked him if he felt “regret using a rape reference to describe Republican opposition to the president’s bill.”

Human Events scribe Mattera defends his use of a pretext to get Biden's attention: “ABC and CBS have done undercover sting operations and have done them for decades. The fact that a conservative publication goes after a public official who was misrepresenting himself and a Senate bill to the public and tries to get an answer from him, that’s great." The Hill

(H/t NewsBusters)

U.S. Senate Press Gallery rules. Find the Senate rule that prohibits what Mattera did.