HuffPost media writer busts a gut mansplaining Meet the Press… No doubt he had to unbuckle for this one. For someone who stopped live blogging NBC’s Meet the Press in early January so he could stuff his face over brunch (I’m not even joking about this), HuffPost‘s media writer Jason Linkins sure has a hell of a lot to say about the program that plans to take the show into real towns with real people. A few lines that jumped out: “I will naturally take credit for this. I fought ‘Meet The Press,’ and I won — a little.” And this one: “Best to remember that the world needs more Beltwaysplaining like it needs pancreatic cancer.” Wait, isn’t that what he just did? Right, never mind. Read Linkins’ dump on the show here.
NYT‘s editor addresses reporters getting cozy with sources… For any reporter working in Washington, this is a must read. Over the weekend, Margaret Sullivan addressed just how close may be too close. She presents three different scenarios involving a reporter getting close with a source. Above all, she says something that might be extremely difficult for many Washington journalists: “maintaining distance makes good sense.” She reasons, “In some ways, this is the eternal problem of the beat reporter (or specialized writer or critic): When you cover a subject for many years, familiarity can turn into friendship. Cultivating a source over drinks may be one thing; accepting an invitation to Thanksgiving dinner quite another.” NYT Magazine reporter Mark Leibovich has a stellar quote in her piece about the famed White House Correspondents’ Dinner, an event, as the name suggests, that is supposed to honor correspondents covering the White House. He asks, “We’re celebrating what, exactly?” Read here.
“I think [Lincoln] was actually sexy”… Tonight Politico‘s Roger Simon writes about presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and an interview she gave at an Alumni house at the University of Chicago. Her interviewer was former Obama advisor and now MSNBC contributor David Axelrod. Goodwin spoke of the changing mediums in which we hear our Presidents — a letter to a newspaper was printed in its entirety and later became a pamphlet, a radio fireside chat was listened to by every household. She spoke of her book on Abraham Lincoln and Steven Spielberg‘s 2012 movie that brought Lincoln sexy back. Running this quote on the same day that yet another Washington sex scandal broke seems rather poetic. See the full column.