Taking Out The Trash, 02.02.07

This is the one time of year commercials get some love. C-SPAN reports that New York Times Baghdad correspondent John Burns confirms that he'll remain in Iraq until mid-summer before moving to London to become bureau chief. Burns confirmed it during a taping of Q & A on Friday. In his online chat today, Jonathan Weisman notes, "Reporters on television -- and in on-line chats -- put themselves into a perilous place. We are supposed to keep our opinions ourselves, and at the same time, be engaging and fun. That said Tom Ricks' book Fiasco definitely takes a strong point of view, backed up extensively by facts, and no one has jumped on him." (Hat Tip: Romenesko) Julie Mason reports, "A suspcious package prompted the evacuation of the press corps' temporary White House press room on Jackson Place this morning. A dog apparently sniffed out some explosives in a car parked nearby." Don't worry. It was a false alarm. This weekend on C-SPAN2, Book TV will air an "Encore Booknotes" program with columnist Molly Ivins. In 1998, C-SPAN's Brian Lamb interviewed Ivins about her latest book, "You Got to Dance With Them What Brung You: Politics in the Clinton Years" for the award-winning author interview series "Booknotes." The interview airs on Saturday at 1:15 pm ET and Sunday at 9:30 a.m ET. RockCritics.com's Jason Gross picks his best music writing for 2006. Among the winners are the Washington Post's Philip Kennicott and Hank Stuever. Somewhere, Josh du Lac quietly weeps...and not over concerns that his name isn't as cool as Russ McCracken's. Lots more below... Our own Dorian Benkoil examines, "Why the split between 'old' and 'new' media doesn't make any sense." Cousin TVNewser has "CNN's response to FNC's ad on Drudge." TVNewser also reports,"Mary Cheney thinks Wolf 'was trying to get a rise out of my father'" during last week's interview. She went on to say that she felt Wolf had crossed a line. AP reports, "Gannett Co., the nation's largest newspaper publisher, said Friday its fourth-quarter earnings rose 3 percent, as record levels of political advertising on its broadcast outlets helped offset higher newspaper costs. Gannett reported a fourth-quarter profit of $354 million, or $1.51 per share, compared to $343 million, or $1.44 a share, in the year-ago quarter." C-SPAN will have live coverage of the DNC Winter Meeting from 9-11:30 a.m. "Scheduled speakers on Saturday include Howard Dean, DNC Chair, Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, Chair of the Democratic Governor's Association, Senator Joseph Biden (DE), Governor Bill Richardson (NM), Senator Mike Gravel (AK), Governor Tom Vilsack (IA)." Slate's John Dickerson recounted what it was to watch his "former Time colleague Matt Cooper" take the stand at the Scooter Libby trial. "But for us, who obsess about crafting our final product, it's never pretty to look at the scraps we put into making it. So, while Cooper was mostly calm and measured, it was excruciating to watch him talk through the notes he took while talking on the phone with Scooter Libby on July 12, 2003." CBS.com's Jennifer Hoar adds some notes on Cooper's testimony. Is Bill Powers right? Does Barack Obama need "a massive media disaster"? TVNewser notes that "ABCNews.com is promoting its recap of the Fox/CNN spat on its home page today." The story points out that while Greta Van Susteren is top rated, Anderson Cooper is not that far behind among key demographics. Daryn Kagan featured CNN's Betty Nguyen on her newish blog. She also gave a shout out to Judy Woodruff and Greta Van Sustern. The Council on Foreign Relations newsletter announced that the Washington Post's Sebastian Mallaby was named head of the Geoeconomics Center and Deputy Director of Studies. David Phinney offers more insight on the Scooter Libby trial. Media Research Center reports, "Obviously, the networks believe some demonstrators are more newsworthy than others. It might just depend on whether the cause is liberal or conservative,' based on this new Media Reality Check. A reader notes, "OK, so the Prez goes to NYC, talks about taxes, trade, about the great economy, a 5300-wd stem-winder. What does the press -- all the press -- report? The 177 words spent on exec comp." Check it out here. The Health Journalism 2007 Conference is being held March 15-18. Sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism and AHCJ, the conference will take place at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City. We received a slew of comments regarding this post. Here are some of our favorites: -- Last time I checked, you didn't have to pay to read The Hill's website either. I wonder how many visitors they've been getting lately. -- The question to ask is, "Who has the highest audited circulation." Dumping paper all over doesn't mean anything other than how many you print. -- The Politico may distribute copies off of Capitol Hill, but so does The Hill. There are boxes for the Hill at the Cleveland Park and Tenleytown Metros. And, for that matter, you can buy Roll Call at the Barnes & Noble in Georgetown (though Roll Call isn't given away for free off the Hill the way the other two are). And yes, the Politico writes about the presidential race and other non-Congressional topics, but then so do the Hill and Roll Call. Bottom line: if the Politico circulates more copies, the Hill should change their slogan. There's no logical counterargument. -- Actual House & Senate Circulation: The Hill: 13,000 Roll Call: 12,500 Politico: 13,500 -- There's a politico paper box right around the corner from my office, which is located "Downtown," (17th and M St., NW) not on "Capitol Hill." Ergo, it's not a "Capitol Hill publication" (at least, in terms of distribution.

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Taking Out The Trash, 02.02.07

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