Mediaite

On First Day Arizona Law Takes Effect, Pro-Illegal Immigrant Protesters Arrested In Phoenix

A protest in favor of the rights of illegal immigrants in Arizona turned violent today as several protesters were arrested for their behavior. The protest was organized as a response to yesterday’s ruling that parts of the law were unconstitutional and the fact that the law partially went into effect today.

MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer reported live from the scene, where men dressed in military uniforms could be seen watching the crowd. According to Brewer, the crowd was “insisting that they are going to engage in civil disobedience,” and, as the cameras rolled, described several protesters being “dragged away.” The report did not specify how many had been arrested, as it appeared that the police were still working on subduing the crowd. She also spoke to one of the protesters who went by the name Emmanuel, who told her that, despite the potential for arrest, he was out there “for my rights, for the rights of humans.”

Video of Brewer’s report below:

Categories: The Media

Target/Best Buy Gay Rights Boycott Tests Citizens United Decision

Retailers Target and Best Buy are under fire from gay rights groups, who are organizing boycotts over both companies’ corporate donations to support Republican Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, who they say is virulently anti-gay. The donations of $150,000 and $100,000, respectively, were made possible by the Supreme Court’s hotly debated Citizens United decision, which allows unlimited political donations by corporations. This confrontation will test the limiting effect of the free market on Citizens United.

While opponents of the decision fear it will open the floodgates to a political process already corrupted by moneyed interests, proponents of the decision argue on free speech grounds, and that other, market-based forces will naturally limit the effects of Citizens United.

In this case, both Target and Best Buy have made sizable donations to a Political Action Committee (PAC) that supports Republican Tom Emmer’s bid to replace Tim Pawlenty as Minnesota governor. While Emmer is opposed to gay marriage, it is his support for an anti-gay Christian rock band that really rankles:

You Can Run But You Cannot Hide is fronted by a man named Bradlee Dean. And Tom Emmer is a buddy-buddy with Dean and his band. “These are nice people,” Emmer said of the band, who have appeared at various Minnesota GOP functions, from statewide conventions to political candidate soirées.

But here’s what Bradlee Dean has said about LGBT people.

“Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America. This just shows you they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible of the Judeo-Christian God, but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination,” Dean previously said.

Emmer’s campaign, which has previously donated money to Bradlee Dean’s ministry, released this statement on Monday:

“Tom’s position on social issues has been very clear and consistent. He is a supporter of traditional marriage, and he strongly opposes any kind of violence or unfair discrimination against any group.”

This could be a textbook example of the tension between corporate influence and corporate public image. While the ability to make such large donations certainly increases the potential influence that a company can exert, it also ties them more closely to potential political liabilities. The Republicans’ reputation for being “business friendly” must now be counterbalanced with some of their less-attractive social views. This is the flip side of the free speech argument, taking responsibility for what you say.

Target, for example, has developed a reputation as a good corporate citizen, the “good guys” in the world of Big Box retailers. By making such a large donation to Emmer, can they reasonably expect their customers to accept the surgical logic of this Target spokesperson?

A Target spokeswoman said the company supports causes and candidates “based strictly on issues that affect our retail and business objectives.” Spokeswoman Lena Michaud said Target has a history of giving in state and local races where allowed, but wouldn’t provide detail on those donations.

That’s an easier argument to make under the old rules, but a $150,000 donation is difficult to view as anything but full-throated. When I contacted Target with questions about Emmer, they responded with this letter to concerned employees, essentially an expanded version of their existing statement.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but I doubt that it will make or break Citizens United. I suspect that, rather than putting a chill on large corporate donations, it will have the effect of shunting the money to more generic, national PACs that aren’t tied to a particular candidate, or his most extreme views.

This cuts both ways, though. An intriguing possibility is that conflicts like this will cause Republican politicians to moderate their views on a range of issues, counterbalanced by Democratic politicians who become less labor-friendly in search of those big donations.

Categories: The Media

Rep. Aaron Schock Explains The Role Of Toothpicks In Congress On Top Chef

In an interesting move for someone who has previously tried to affirm his heterosexuality (yet a fairly expected one for someone who is now being called a gay icon), Illinois Representative Aaron Schock, with his camera-ready smile and infamous physique, showed up on the Bravo channel last night.

No, he wasn’t tossing back cocktails with Andy Cohen during a Watch What Happens Live after show, unfortunately. He was tasting some finger foods and offering valuable ethics lessons as a guest judge on Top Chef.

Presenting the non-elimination Quickfire Challenge, Schock and host Padma Lakshmi fumbled through a hard-to-follow explanation of the role that food plays in the relationship between members of congress and the lobbyists who try to court them. The challenge came together, however, when Lakshmi revealed that the chefs would have to create dishes that could be served on toothpicks to sway Schock in their favor. Still confused?

The challenge recalls recent legislation that makes it more difficult for lobbyists to bribe politicians. In an apparent loophole, supplying congressmen with fancy hors d’oeuvres is still allowed as long as the treats can be enjoyed while standing. And thus the point of the challenge: “devising a delicious hors d’oeuvre that packs the punch of a full dish” and can be skewered on a tooth pick, putting the chefs in the role of lobbyists and Schock in the position of the hungry and possibly impressionable politician.

Watch Schock and Padma deliver the fun, educational, and tasty congressional ethics lesson below:

Categories: The Media

Gossip Cop Celebrates Its One Year Anniversary

This time last year, a new kind of gossip site hit the web. Gossip Cop, co-founded by Michael Lewittes and Mediaite founder Dan Abrams, was created with the mission of policing celebrity news and rumors — or “busting bad dish.” The site factchecks sites ranging ranging from Perez Hilton and TMZ to magazines like Life & Style and Star. In light of this anniversary, we spoke to Lewittes about how the site’s first year has been, where it’s headed — and how it’s made both friends and enemies in a short time.

Gossip Cop ranks celebrity news stories on the Rumor to Real scale (0 to 10). So far, Lewittes said the site has exceeded expectations, receiving “half a million” mentions in the media — but more significantly, he notes that several publications have printed retractions as a direct result of his site’s work.

One area where Gossip Cop has developed a particular expertise in the past year has been in tackling pregnancy rumors. Lewittes uses Perez Hilton as an example:

“It’s dizzying how often he’s wrong. He said Halle Berry was pregnant. Wrong. He said Katherine Heigl was pregnant. Wrong. He said Nicole Kidman was pregnant. Wrong. The only thing fertile is Perez Hilton’s imagination. 

Several months ago Perez also claimed Mariah Carey and Penelope Cruz were pregnant. They weren’t. He said Liv Tyler was pregnant. Wrong. He said Anna Paquin was pregnant. Wrong.”

The reference to Hilton is just one example of his prey, but what Lewittes said has surprised him the most is the “schism between solid reporting and how bad certain blogs and magazines are. It’s truly shocking the fiction that’s sometime printed or published.” People and TMZ are two outlets cited as having “solid reporting.”

While Gossip Cop may be butting heads with some outlets it keeps under surveillance, it has also managed to make many friends on the other side:

“Celebrities appreciate us. Just this past year, a slew of stars, including Demi Moore, Kim Kardashian, and Jessica Simpson have thanked us on Twitter for correcting inaccurate stories about them.”

In a media climate in which celebrities seem to constantly be defending themselves via Twitter, it is not surprising that they would welcome a site that is willing to take on the sordid and often untrue gossip media. The unique nature of Gossip Cop is a major factor in what has helped it cross over the 1 million monthly unique visitors mark in May, and is now ranked in the top ten celebrity blogs by Technorati.

Gossip Cop does not compete against the ever growing number of celebrity news outlets — but rather, it holds them accountable. And accountability is something we all like to see.

Categories: The Media

Amanpour Says Her Version Of This Week Will Bring ‘Different Voices And Perspectives’

Christiane Amanpour takes over ABC’s This Week Sunday, and today she was on ABCNews.com’s “Top Line” to talk about what viewers can expect and to preview the first show.

The “double exclusive” will include Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“I’ve landed in a place where there’s a massive story and it has been so for a few years, and I think it’s really peaking right now,” said Amanpour to hosts Rick Klein and Jon Karl. “It’s going to be competitive, because it is a Washington-based show.”

She also explained how her foreign coverage will inform her D.C.-centric program:

I am fascinated by the policy, by the principles of the US government, by the way the government works. Can it actually meet the needs of the people? I’m always fascinated by ‘what does this mean for the people?’ I’ve been searching that out in my travels abroad and I want to search it out here.

Besides Gates and Pelosi, Amanpour said to expect the roundtable that viewers “know and love” to remain on the show, however with some new guests. “We’ll also want to eventually start adding and increasing the different voices and different perspectives,” she said.

We’ll have more on Amanpour’s first week of guests as we get it…

Here’s Amanpour on ABCNews.com’s “Top Line” appearance:

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Categories: The Media

Obama Takes In The View, Elisabeth Hasselbeck Holds Her Own

President Obama made his much-anticipated appearance on The View today. Actually, I’m not really sure how anticipated it was, per se — my Twitter feed was pretty dead through the hour. But it was definitely discussed! People were worried that an appearance on The View was beneath President Obama, who to the best of my knowledge has appeared on everything but a daytime talk show, a fact which may account for the light Twittering.

That said, it was a tad disconcerting to watch the President tread the path to the hot topics couch, but once ensconced I think both he and the ladies acquitted themselves well. Better, in fact, than a number of “serious” interviews I’ve seen the last few months. Turns out it’s harder to wiggle your way out of a direct answer when you are face to face with five inquiring women and a live audience. To be sure, the questions were not terribly in depth, but they were reasonably substantive, and commensurate with with the sort of questions one imagines The View’s audience would be interested in answers to. Namely, the economy, his children, the economy, Shirley Sherrod, cable news (no mention of Fox by name), Afghanistan, health care, Lindsay Lohan, Sn00ki, and Chelsea Clinton. Mostly in that order.

Two exchanges in particular that caught my attention: The discussion about Shirley Sherrod. And Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Televised discussions about race in this country tend to be painted in fairly broad strokes, and I thought that between Barbara asking the president why he didn’t call himself a biracial president, to Whoopi asking him how black people should think of themselves in America, the discussion went a bit deeper than it might otherwise have in a different setting. For the record, Obama conceded “”people in [his] administration” overreacted in the case of Sherrod.

Obama also noted that the things the media may focus on are not necessarily the things he is focused on, and that signing letters to family members of men and women killed in Afghanistan tends to put things in a different perspective. What is frustrating, he conceded, was the sense that he was always on on the campaign trail: “we shouldn’t be campaigning all the time…there’s a time to govern.” Moreover, Michelle doesn’t think any of the [cable news] criticism is fair. (Neither does Joy.)

Enter Elisabeth Hasselbeck, whom I happen to think was rather impressive. Hasselbeck is well-known to viewers of the View for her conservative politics and is never shy about voicing her criticism of the president. What I found impressive was that she managed to respectfully articulate her economic concerns to the president, instead of shying away from the discussion when the spotlight was on. Anyone who has watched Jon Stewart go soft while attempting to interview face-to-face one of the subjects of his sharp criticism knows it is not easy to be critical to someone’s face, let alone the President of the United States. It actually left me wondering whether she has political aspirations. (Palin-Hasselbeck 2016 anyone?)

Now for the celebrity portion: Obama knows Lindsay Lohan is in jail, doesn’t know who Sn00ki is, and hasn’t watched a Mel Gibson movie in years. Bases covered! Watch clips from the hour below.

Categories: The Media

WSJ Hires Deborah Needleman, Takes On T Magazine

On Monday, when The Wall Street Journal announced that it had hired former Domino editor Deborah Needleman to head its lifestyle glossy WSJ., media minders immediately started making comparisons between her and newly named T Magazine editor Sally Singer.

Read the rest of this entry »

Categories: The Media

Megyn Kelly And John Stossel Debate Pornography From The ‘Big, Fat Federal Government’

On his usual appearances alongside Megyn Kelly, John Stossel limits his libertarian leanings to debating feudalism, showing off his mustache, and taking rides on his government-funded go-cart. For better or worse, today’s conversation took a turn for the awkward, with Stossel as a passionate defender of bad Showtime pseudo-porn against big government overreach.

A slightly queasy Megyn Kelly began the segment by taking the term “public square” as literally as possible, telling Stossel: “You think the more sex the better- let’s show it in the public, let’s have it on the internet, let’s go for it.” Luckily for everyone, “sex in the public square makes [Stossel] as uncomfortable as anyone,” but that’s where the line ends for him, taking the “more freedom” stance and defending sex on cable TV and the internet.

Kelly seemed particularly irritated on the matter of internet porn, reading from a court ruling that claimed “internet porn is the new crack leading to addiction, misogyny, pedophilia, boob jobs, and erectile dysfunction.” Predictably, Stossel blamed this on big government: “That sounds like a psychologist looking for a government grant,” and later argued that he say little damage could come to children who were exposed to breasts.

The latter came about as a result of Kelly’s outrage at “boobgate,” the time about a decade ago when millions of unsuspecting children were exposed to the horror of Janet Jackson’s bejeweled nipple during the Superbowl. In light of that, Kelly saw no problem with the federal government banning all “boobs” from television. Stossel, dismayed, argued that “some people want to watch boobs!” and that cable TV and “Showtime” and the like should not be subject to the federal government’s prudish whims. Needless to say, both Kelly and Stossel used the word “boobs” way more than necessary to make their points.

For those of you that need to watch even more of John Stossel defending porn, he’s got an hour’s worth of it coming up on his eponymous Fox Business show.

Below is the discussion, in which, besides the strange nature of the conversation, you’ll find one of the strangest and most random montages in the history of Fox News, including clips of Stossel filming unsuspecting Times Square porn shop customers walking out with their purchases, boot camp footage, Lady Gaga, Bill Clinton (Bill Clinton!) warning about the threat talking about sex represents to children, and plenty of PG-rated internet porn previews:

Categories: The Media

Report: Sandra Bullock Withdraws Support of BP-Backed Oil Spill PSA

Today, in Wait-Nobody-Told-Me-That world, Sandra Bullock is backpedaling to condemn a PSA she helped make as part of the Restore the Gulf campaign. The PSA, called “Be the One,” features Bullock and other celebrities asking viewers to sign a petition to Congress demanding a fully funded restoration plan for the Gulf. Turns out, though, that the campaign is sponsored by an organization called America’s Wetland Foundation, which, despite the nice sounding name, is actually a greenwashing front group for big oil companies likes Shell, American Petroleum and, you guessed it, BP.

From ThinkProgress:

This greenwashing campaign, first uncovered by DeSmogBlog.com’s Brendan Demelle, subtly includes mentions of “safe domestic energy” and oil industry factoids, while implying that American taxpayers, not the unmentioned oil industry, should pay for restoring the region BP has poisoned

ThinkProgress spoke with Bullock’s publicist who said that Bullock was originally contracted by her attorney to be a part of the campaign and that no one had ever made her aware of the campaign’s big oil ties. Bullock’s representatives have demanded that “her participation in the PSA be removed until the facts can be determined.”

Given that the PSA is already a cut and polished video, the likelihood of simply snipping Bullock’s shots out of the PSA is unlikely. It seems that in the BP age, background checks on even supposedly well-meaning organizations wouldn’t be remiss. That or don’t trust your attorney’s suggestions.

Watch the PSA below:

Categories: The Media

ESPN Will Not Re-Publish Controversial LeBron Article, Integrity Takes Hit

ESPN's journalistic integrity takes a serious blow as they decide to forgo republishing a controversial article on one of the world's most famous athletes.

Categories: The Media

The Self-Awareness Dilemma: Can A Post-Famous Jersey Shore Still Be Great?

We’ve reached a point in our reality TV consumption where we no longer need to actually believe it is real – the suspension of disbelief for shows like The Hills or Real Housewives is as accepted as in professional wrestling.

But what separated MTV’s Jersey Shore when it beat the beat onto the scene in December was how fantastically real it was. As we await the second season premiere tonight, let’s hope this hasn’t changed.

At the time I called it the “worst best show of all-time”: “Everyone can be famous for nothing – and that now includes, fake-tanned, uber-egocentric, unbelievably dense ‘guidos’ and ‘guidettes.’”

And now they are famous – more than anyone could have predicted after episode #1. But with the fame comes the realization we no longer may get a reality TV show. And for Jersey Shore that could spell disaster. The struggle here is simple: in season one these were some of the least self-aware people ever put on TV. Self-awareness will ruin this show, as it tends to have a habit of doing.

The cast of Jersey Shore has been doing some promotion for the new season, but they’re busy shooting season three so the cast isn’t everywhere. In fact, Morning Joe’s executive producer Chris Licht revealed today he asked the crew for an interview this morning and they…passed. Erin Burnett echoed the same sentiment regarding an appearance on CNBC when they were at the NYSE yesterday.

But they were on the Today show this morning, incomprehensibly joined by correspondent Jeff Rossen on the roof of the season one Petri dish of a shorehouse. Rossen intro’ed the segment, gave a brief tour of the surroundings (‘this is the hot tub where…aaand moving on’) and tossed to Matt Lauer for the interview.

What followed made me nervous.

Compare the interview below to February’s appearance by the gang of GTL’ers. Just days after the finale of season one they were still fun and awkward. Today we met Mrs. Snooki and Mr. Pauly D. The cast echoed ‘we’re just happy to be here’ with each reference to salary. Lauer asked them about the criticism from Gov. Chris Christie. “If we can help out the pockets of New Jersey that’s a bonus for us,” said Vinny (the politician).

Will they play up conflict for the cameras? “We just come out here and have a good time,” said Snooki, fairly unconvincingly.

Maybe they’ve just gotten more PR-savvy. They have a lot more riding on the way they are perceived, and the pressure to remain believably famous must be excruciating. Hopefully once the Ron-Ron Juice is flowing and the hot tub is crowded, the awareness-abandonment returns. We’ll begin to find out tonight.

And if not – since they’ve gone and taken their, um, talents to South Beach this season, maybe they can pass all their newfound self-awareness to the person who needs it the most – LeBron James.

Here’s the Today show segment:

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Categories: The Media

Chelsea Clinton Is Getting Married: A Short History (SLIDESHOW)

Chelsea Clinton is getting married this weekend, something which has lead me to wonder whether Chelsea Clinton’s wedding is the new Shark Week. How else to explain the level of attention being devoted to a woman whose major public achievement has been managing to stay out of the harsh spotlight that has been focused on her family for the past 20 years. To be clear, all things considered, this was no small achievement.

Michael Wolff thinks all the hoopla is part of the nation’s buyer’s remorse over President Barack Obama: “Hillary is the do-over and if-only choice. That’s the wedding dynamic: This is the official celebration of the once and future Clintons.”

I suspect it has more to do with the nation’s weariness over political stories involving the economy, race, war, and Tea Parties. Sometimes it’s just nice to see someone happy. And when that person is someone you have, even from a great distance, watched grow up, even better. Chelsea is set to get married this weekend in Rhinebeck, New York. In case you have missed any of the pertinent details, here is a short history.

This may be why everyone is so interested in Chelsea, she's been in the national spotlight since she was a sweet, awkward young pre-teen. In the tumultuous Clinton years that followed often felt like she was the one redeeming quality about her parents.

Categories: The Media

Obama Tells The View “He Has No Idea” Who Snooki Is, After Joking About Her At WHCD

Snooki-Gate? President Obama was on The View today, where he charmed the audience with jokes about how he wasn’t invited to Chelsea Clinton’s wedding and how he had no idea who Jersey Shore’s Snooki is. But he must be using a different joke writer these days, because he seemed to know all about the pint-sized “guidette” a few months ago during the White House Correspondents Dinner. Scandal!

At the White House Correspondents Dinner on May 1, Obama mentioned Snooki, along with other members of the Jersey Shore cast, when trying to incite some LOLs about his tanning tax. Obama joked “This next provision (in the health care bill) is called the Jersey Shorah. It reads, ‘The following individuals shall be excluded from the indoor tanning tax within this bill: Snooki, JWOWW, The Situation and House minority leader John Boehner.””

Sadly, the joke made at the WHCD was kind of a flop (even though the rest of his routine killed.) Perhaps that’s why he’s now trying to distance himself from New Jersey’s most famous resident?

Watch Obama name drop Snooki on The View

Obama’s Snooki reference at the White House Correspondent Dinner:

Categories: The Media

Time’s Rick Stengel Explains Reasoning Behind Bold Cover Image

This week’s Time magazine cover might startle you. It might make you a bit uncomfortable. And that’s exactly what Rick Stengel, the magazine’s managing editor, intended. The cover image shows 18-year-old Aisha, an Afghan woman who, after leaving her abusive in-laws, had her nose and ears cut off by the Taliban. The story’s headline reads: What Happens If We Leave Afghanistan.

Stengel wrote an accompanying letter explaining the decision behind the cover image and story about “how Afghan women have embraced the freedoms that have come from the defeat of the Taliban — and how they fear a Taliban revival”:

I thought long and hard about whether to put this image on the cover of TIME. First, I wanted to make sure of Aisha’s safety and that she understood what it would mean to be on the cover. She knows that she will become a symbol of the price Afghan women have had to pay for the repressive ideology of the Taliban.

Additionally, Stengel writes that he is aware that children will see the image, and had consulted with child psychologists to discuss the potential impact. He apologized to readers who find the image “too strong.” But Stengel is firmly supportive of the image and explains why he feels it is important:

But bad things do happen to people, and it is part of our job to confront and explain them. In the end, I felt that the image is a window into the reality of what is happening — and what can happen — in a war that affects and involves all of us. I would rather confront readers with the Taliban’s treatment of women than ignore it. I would rather people know that reality as they make up their minds about what the U.S. and its allies should do in Afghanistan.

[emphasis ours]

This reasoning follows what many might agree is the definition and purpose of good journalism. The things that are hard to look at are often the things that are most necessary to look at. Whether readers think the cover is bold or too graphic, the shock value cannot be denied. Without diminishing the value of telling a difficult story about a seemingly endless war, it’s hard not to wonder how the shock value will translate in terms of newsstand sales.

Categories: The Media

Shirley Sherrod Saga Continues: She “Will Sue” Andrew Breitbart (Update)

Cable news’ most important story last week will continue – Shirley Sherrod says she “will sue” Andrew Breitbart, the conservative site owner who first published her out-of-context video clip, according to the AP.

This was the brief AP alert:

Ousted USDA employee Shirley Sherrod says she will sue conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, the Associated Press reports.

She has previously said she wants BigGovernment.com shut down. Here’s all our Sherrod coverage.

> Update: Here’s MSNBC with the news:

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Categories: The Media

This Exists: Neil Cavuto Invites “Johnny Sack” To Whack Obama’s Fiscal Policies

Okay, it wasn’t the Soprano’s character, but it was the actor who portrayed him Vincent Curatola who showed up on Your World with Neil Cavuto. As one can see in the following clip, the actor and character seem to have a lot of the same mannerisms. Rarely does one see a public personality or actor speak with so much bile about an elected official (particularly the President of the United States) but one gathers that is the exact reason he was booked on Your World.

One can only wonder the booking process that preceded this booking: Producer A: “Hey look at this clip: Governor Christie is pals with the guy who played Johnny Sack on the Sopranos.” Producer B: “Call him up and see if he’s willing to trash Obama on TV.” Producer A: “Great idea!”

Need an example of his anti-Obama screed? Check out a partial transcript below:

If he had respect for the country he would throw his hands up in the air and say “I’m done.” “I have no idea what to do with any of these situations.”

I’ll tell you one thing. One-time president. I believe that and I’m not a psychic. The damage between now and the next 2 1/2 years with this guy, especially to the small businessman absolutely outrageous.

I would love to know if people can come back from the dead from world war II and saw in — saw this today, my God, they would move to a communist country. It didn’t work in the soviet union, not working in Cuba. We don’t need the government, get out of the way. Tell the banks that you bailed out, lend money out to credit-worthy people and let business take ca of business because it always does.

Cavuto defended the booking by ending the segment by claiming “for those of you who criticize my choice of Vince as a guest, because Vince has a better track record.”

Really?

Categories: The Media

Julian Assange Is Angry The NYT Didn’t Link To WikiLeaks

The WikiLeaks leak, and its ramifications for both journalism and military security continued to be debated in the aftermath of Sunday’s dump. Buried in some of the larger questions about responsible reporting (hundreds of Afghan informants names were reportedly made available by the leak, endangering their lives), and the death of secrecy, is a short anecdote regarding web etiquette. WikiLeaks head Julian Assange is angry that, among other things, the New York Times did not link to his site in their mammoth report.

The complaint caught my eye because it’s something the Times has been taken to task for in the past (for much, much smaller stories). This time however the non-linking was very, very intentional. Here’s what NYT managing editor Bill Keller told the Daily Beast:

As I read his remarks, his complaint is that The Times — in a note to readers explaining how we handled the secret archive — made a point of saying that we did not link to the material posted by WikiLeaks. Since we normally do link to source data that we have used in our stories, we thought readers were entitled to know that the absence of a link was intentional, not some oversight, and to know the reason for it.

In our own publication, in print and on our website, we were careful to remove anything that could put lives at risk. We could not be sure that the trove posted on WikiLeaks, even with some 15,000 documents held back, would not endanger lives.

Assange is also angry that the Times felt it necessary to notify the government of the story (which is the established practice when national security is at stake) and also confirm some facts with them. The whole argument is a bit of a Catch 22 2.0. WikiLeaks wanted the NYT stamp (and the Guardian, and Der Spiegel) of approval to give their report both credibility, readability, and headline making oomph. The NYT was only willing to put that stamp on specific parts, thereby retaining their own credibility, which WikiLeaks is continuing to benefit from. If you want to know what the new media is going to look like for the next while, this is it.

Categories: The Media

Worst Idea Ever? Fan Wears LeBron Jersey To Cleveland Game (Video)

Not surprisingly, it didn't turn out well. A crowd became a mob, as hundreds of fans pointed and booed at the 'Bron-sympathizer. It got so bad that security had to escort him out.

Categories: The Media

Breaking: President Obama Is NOT A Justin Bieber Fan

Our friends at Gossip Cop have cracked open a potentially huge story that perfectly captures the divided nation in which we now find ourselves. During the much criticized taping of The View this morning, President Obama revealed that he does not have Justin Beiber on his iPod. Given that Bieber is a Canadian pop star, this clearly has Foreign Policy implications.

President Obama finds himself in New York city for fund raising purposes as well as this appearance on the ABC daytime talk show, which airs later today (Thursday) at 11:00 AM.

Below is the potentially damning transcript of Obama’s admission that his mp3 device is in fact “Bieber-free” (from Gossip Cop)

ELISABETH HASSELBECK: Have you thought about an iPhone at all, making the switch?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I haven’t made the switch yet. I do have a pod though; I’ve got a great iPod

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Can I ask you what’s the first couple of songs on your iPod?

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: You name a song, I’ve got it. Whether it’s (pauses)

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: “Didn’t I Blow Your Mind This Time”?

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I’ve got Jay-Z on there. I’ve got Frank Sinatra on there. I’ve got Maria Callas on there

SHERRI SHEPHERD: Justin Bieber

(AUDIENCE LAUGHTER)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I’ve got Maria Callas on there

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I do not have Justin Bieber on there

(AUDIENCE LAUGHTER)

BARBARA WALTERS: No but I bet your kids have Justin Bieber on there, but I have met Justin Bieber he came to sing at the White House. He’s a very nice young man

For more information about Obama’s appearance on The View (and other Justin Bieber news) please check out Mediaite’s sister site GossipCop.Com.

Categories: The Media

Stephen Colbert: Basil Marceaux Will Have A Beer With You Whether You Want It Or Not

If it weren’t for the fact they have an excess of material to choose from these days one might wonder whether Basil Marceaux, candidate for Tennessee governor, wasn’t merely a plant by the comedy shows to give them something to talk about during the dog days of summer. Alas, it seems he’s for real.

In case you missed Marceaux’s public debut, he popped up earlier this week on a local news clip that has since gone viral, touting his platforms…such as they are. Suffice to say, he makes Alvin Greene look like a political genius (something I’m not entirely convinced he’s not).

Said Stephen Colbert last night: “People always vote for the candidate they feel they could have a beer with, and it looks like he had several even before that statement. He’d have a beer with you whether you want it or not.”

Struggling to keep a straight face, Colbert then proceeds go through Marceaux’s website including his views on…slavery. Watch below.

Categories: The Media