Media Minutiae II, Duck-Billed Web-Footed Egg-Laying Monotreme Edition

Second media minutiae of the day, because your time is valuable, and I respect that. There is no punchline here, just love. Be kind to your web-footed friends, for a duck (-billed platypus) may be somebody's media writer and TV host: The NYT profiles the Washington Post's Howie Kurtz, who is also CNN's Howie Kurtz. Howie does he do it? Mickey Kaus says not without an inherent conflict; Howie says it's not a problem; Len Downie agrees; Eric Alterman says that the rest of us are all a little scared to rock Howie's boat; Jack Shafer says he's a platypus, which accurately evokes his adorable punum. [NYT] Mapes: Wrongheaded, perhaps, but wrong? Hmmm. Newsweek's (and, occassionally, NBC's) Jonathan Alter reviews Mary Mapes' "Truth & Duty" and finds that she doesn't accept enough of the blame for the slipshod way the piece was put together at the end, but doesn't seem convinced either way on the documents: he finds the CBS report quick to finger-point but not at all to actually delve into the issue of authenticity, and clarifies that the takedown may have been a triumph for the blogosphere, but certainly not its "fact-checking prowess." Upshot? A bungled story and, it seems, a bungled defense. [NYT] Ladies and gentlemen, the crotch. Cindy Adams has some thoughts, people, listen up. [NYP] Scurrilous and unverifiable gossip that we're repeating anyway: Former anonablogger-turned-fabulous-gal-about-town Jolie in NYC (aka Nadine Haobsh) passes on literally whispered gossip about Jennifer Aniston on the cover of GQ: they may be spectacular, but they ain't real. Despite our Kate Moss coverage, Fishbowl does not pretend to be an expert on such things, so decide for yourself here. To Mark Cuban, it's a personal manifesto; to everyone else it's Objectivist smut We got a giggle from The L Magazine's blog "The Local" which, in reporting on Slate's favorite-books-of-famous-people-when-they-were-in-college feature, described Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead" as "everyone's favorite bodice-ripper" (or at least Alan Greenspan's favorite bodice-ripper, surely). Extra points for blog synchronicity with a nod to Bill Simmons' nod to Raymond Carver. We, too, nod accordingly. [The Local] Violet: Not some Cookie-cutter parenting mag MB's own Rachel Kramer Bussel reviews parenting magazine Violet, and finds "new ideas, new twists" and "new ways of looking at life and parenting" which she found totally engrossing despite being conspicuously childless herself. I'll be honest, the title makes me think of Laura Ashley (and I swear, I still prefer Spawn), but Bussel gives it such a ringing endorsement that I'm prepared to let it slide. [MB]

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Media Minutiae II, Duck-Billed Web-Footed Egg-Laying Monotreme Edition

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