Over at the Black Table today, there's a man-on-man catfight posing as an interview. Full-time bastard interviewer AJ Daulerio at the Black Table finally found himself out-snarked by former Newsweeker (and fellow bastard) Seth Mnookin:
The oh-so-reclusive, camera-shy Tina Brown of CNBC's Topic A made an appearance last night, in a public chit-chat with Jesse Oxfeld of Mediabistro. Andrew Krucoff dared to attend this spectacle, and offers up this helpful translation:
A reader writes in with an unverified report from tabloid-land:
Katie Couric's new colonoscopic frightmare will be her interview with serial fabricator and ex-journalist Jayson Blair — it'll run Friday night. In defending being part of his publicity machine, Couric goes so far as to call Jayson's history "repugnant." Sheesh. Sure he's a screw-up and he pretty much single-handedly thrashed the New York Times — but it's not like he's a babyfucker or anything.
NBC's Couric defends interview with Blair [AP]
New editor Adam Moss rides the high seas at NY mag, pirating hither and yon. Avast! Snacky Swede Hugo Lindgren, who Moss stole from NY mag years ago, is set to return as deputy editor. Said Moss, "Yearrgh! With swashbuckling Hugo back on board, my magazine will scuttle the competition!"
Perhaps I spoke too soon regarding the world's illing-est press release. This just in: Karen Bond, former federal inmate #65078-061, is ready and willing to speak to the press about the conditions Martha Stewart may face if she's convicted. "I'd advise her to take a crash course in martial arts," writes professional prisoner Bond. Ostensibly a prison reform-focussed project, it's hard to tell who's making the bucks here. But hey, cheesy local TV stations: "When the jury foreman reads the guilty verdict are you prepared with your coverage?"
In this roundtable, the ombudsmen — or, as they like to be called now, public editors — of the big media outlets say they get ceaselessly harassed by email and weblogs. Aww. NPR's Jeffrey Dvorkin pushes a shady theory about reader complaints: "The credibility of the complaint is inversely proportional to the volume of e-mail that is generated on that subject." Right: because the more people that want to discuss something, the less accurate it must be. It's like a variant on the old joke: Why do so many men wind up in homes for battered ombudsmen? Because they just don't fuckin' listen.
Ombudsmen Discuss Good, Bad and Annoying of the Internet [OJR]
· The new NYT Book Review editor hotlist: VF writer Sam Tanenhaus, and former Newsweeker Sarah Crichton. The appointment won't be announced in today's staff meeting. [Rachel Donadio (last item)]
· Is Adam Moss trying to recruit columnist Frank Rich for New York mag? [Lloyd Grove (3rd item)]
· Among the best mag launches of 2003: Do!, Modern Dog, Radar, and Trailer Trash, porn for the trailer park set. [Samir Husni]
· Who will save the bankrupt Vanguarde Media? Even Russell Simmons doesn't want to play. [Keith Kelly (2nd item)]
Is it just me, or is this a particularly foul time for PR people who want things?
Elizabeth Spiers claims she's neither a cyborg nor a non-blogger. The Kicker, her website at New York mag is, allegedly, alive and well. She'd personally like to take Gawker to task for not calling her for comment, but she knows very well I don't get paid enough to do actual reporting. Doesn't Verizon charge two cents every time you make a local call or something? That would cut wayyyyy too far into my salary — plus the phone is too far from the intern who's holding my ashtray for me.
Rumors of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated [Elizabeth Spiers]
· The New York Times fires a stringer because of his shady past as a — gasp! — AIDS activist ten years ago. [Duncan Osborne]
· When rich white men buy magazines and newspapers: an anthropological study. [Jack Shafer]
· Thus sayeth the Times ombudsman: don't whore up your stories on the cover of the magazine. (We would say the same thing to NY mag for their use last week of "scare Courier," the classic ploy of using a typewriter-like font to indicate seriousness, academic scandal, or maybe that the cover was mocked up using a rickety old Remington.) [Dan Okrent]
The absence of certain irregularly-updated web-only content is the first visible sign of the new regime of Adam Moss over at New York mag. Ah, The Kicker: the mag's weblog written by Elizabeth Spiers, Gawker editrix emeritus, seems to be no more. We imagine that now Elizabeth floats in the digital matrix of New York like a virus, looking for editorial sections to destroy using the evil programming with which we filled her cyborg head. Should we set her on detonate and send her towards Amy Sohn's cubicle?
Amy Sohn: Hooking Up at Yoga Class [NY Mag]
It's been five months since Lloyd Grove started his gossip column at the Daily News. Blubbering.com, using a patented celebrity-namecheck process (also known as "skeeving off Lexis-Nexis"), has issued a progress report. It's pretty bad news: over the last five months of Lloyd's column, John Kerry has gotten more than three times as many mentions as Ben Affleck? That's pretty sick.
· Times fabricator Jayson Blair: coked-up boozehound. Blah blah blah. [Paul Colford]
· In one of those odd, off-putting moments, the Times discusses Jayson Blair's book about the Times — despite last week's Bill Keller memo about ignoring the book. [Jacques Steinberg]
· Magazines currently not being published: Gear and the untitled Ralph Lauren mag. [Greg Lindsay]
In an interview today, Jesse Oxfeld, the editor of Mediabistro.com, fantasizes about owning the New Yorker:
Today is make-it-or-break-it day at New York mag: new editor Adam Moss wants ten items on his desk from each editor and he wants them stat! (Though some reports say it's only two ideas. That's more like it.) Ah, the old sink or swim method. But good gravy: ten whole story ideas? Terribly taxing. That's more than most magazine editors have all year.
· Who will fill the media beat post at Women's Wear Daily? Paul Colford propagates the rumor that it's the Post's Keith Kelly. [Paul Colford]
· YM gets a new editor-in-chief really, really fast: Linda Frears, formerly of Parents, begins a new regime. [Keith Kelly]
· Clear Channel takes on Howard Stern. [AP]
· More trouble for Michael Eisner at Disney: that Mouse is rabid. [Peter Henderson]
· The endless search for a NYT Book Review editor is starting over, but this time in high gear. [Tom McGeveran]
· Every journalist and also some "journalists" are big whiners about people stealing their items: reportedly, Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly steals from free subway paper amNewYork — uh, where would he see a copy of that? Did his driver take the subway to work? And, if his ceaseless harping can be believed, everyone steals from poor Roger Friedman at FoxNews.com. [Lloyd Grove] and [Cynthia Cotts]
· Jayson Blair will be forced to give that big heap of profits he expects from his forthcoming book to charities, not journalism schools — they don't want his filthy lucre. Since maybe ten people are going to buy his book, maybe he shouldn't worry about this too much? [Adam Lewis]
