In your cackling Wednesday media column: Hoda Kotb describes her love of working with the mentally ill, Conde Nast's other McKinsey go-around, an intern is led astray by J-School demons, and Janice Min denies everything.

Hoda Kotb is speaking out on her job and stuff! She was rejected 27 times before she landed her first TV job 20 years ago. She was a Tri-Delt in college! "With Kathie Lee, she's insane — completely insane," Hoda says, speaking the truth. Is that why you drink, Hoda? We like you!


John Koblin reminds us that this is not the first time that Conde Nast has called in the dreaded McKinsey consultants, to kill people on its staff:

Back in 2001, Condé Nast had hired McKinsey to help streamline the company's finance and human-resource divisions and develop a back office for employees in Delaware. That was a time when Condé Nast was blooming into a grown-up company. This time …"It's worse," said a source.

Mercy! Apparently all of Conde Nast headquarters is currently a den of backbiting and stress. Uh, more than usual. Our survival guide seems more important now!


NPR has cruelly conned Jonathan Shia, one of its interns a guy they asked to write for their intern blog, into writing a tearjerking blog post about why he decided to enroll in Columbia Journalism School this fall, which is a horrible financial mistake. "For my part, at least, it's an expression of perhaps naïve optimism, a faith that journalism can never possibly cease to exist. Will there ever come a day when we have no interest in the world around us? Will we become so solipsistic that we no longer care about anything besides ourselves?" Please. Most journalists—particularly in Washington—become more interested in themselves the more successful they become. It's the goal to which journalists aspire.
Of the rise of the internet, Jonathan says: "I view this transformation with regret in part because I am old-fashioned and can think of nothing better than waking up to the morning newspaper outside my door...The vast majority of online writing-and I speak here with personal experience-is of a slapdash, ephemeral nature, created quickly with the explicit intention of a limited shelf life." You are too young to be old-fashioned, Jonathan. It is not mathematically possible. Or maybe it is? We haven't "fact-checked" because such things are optional on the internet, because hey, here today, gone tomorrow.
That's free advice that the J-school types won't tell you. Instead, they'll tell you horrible, nonsensical lies like this: "as my old editor told me, now is not only the worst time to go to journalism school, but also the best." It is not too late to withdraw, Jonathan. Because while you might spend all that money and come out without any career prospects, your old editors do have a career prospect: J-School professor. Don't encourage them.


Janice Min left Us Weekly and now she is talking about it! She denies that money was a factor in her decision to leave, and also denies that she's going into TV for her next gig. Mike Steele has been named her (apparently interim) successor, but she refuses to speculate on who might be his successor, if there is one. So if Janice Min goes on to a higher-paying job in TV, remember this day.