Okay, we've had just about enough of AP entertainment editor Jesse Washington, who guarantees in the above video to give you "good bang for your buck" if you pass on exclusive information to the wire service. You remember Washington, right? "If Britney passed away, it’s easily one of the biggest stories in a long time," he told US when explaining why the AP had Britney Spears' obit ready. "If we wait an hour to have a really good obituary for someone like Heath Ledger, we're totally out of the game. And that’s not a place that I ever want to be," he said on NPR this weekend. We've got no problem with the AP canning Britney's obit (we wouldn't want them to be caught off guard like they were with Ledger's.) But this guy could use a handler. Or a muzzle, maybe? It's one thing to respond to press queries with a comment offering explanation. But Washington's remarks are a tetch tone-deaf. Or are they?

Washington is the author of last year's No More Paris Hilton Coverage memo, and also tells the hobgobliny man interviewing him here that the AP is the place to go for celeb news. "If you want to know that it really happened, then you're going to have to go to AP," he says. "If we put it out, you can bet the house on it that it really happened." That's the kind of statement that's never going to come back and bite you in the ass!

Speaking of Washington's ass, it was beaten badly about ten years ago by a Puff Daddy producer miffed over a piece Washington wrote for Blaze, a music mag he'd founded. Washington also wrote an editorial accusing Wyclef Jean of aiming a shotgun at him; Jean denied it and called the editorial a publicity stunt. A what? A publicity stunt, you know one of those things you do or say to get attention? Like, say, for a book you've got coming out next week from Simon & Schuster called "Black Will Shoot," for example? Hey, if you did have such a book, now would be a great time for a string of said attention-getting stunts!

2:03 PM on Tue Jan 29 2008
By Maggie
2,102 views
15 comments

Comments

KarenUhOh at 02:08 PM on 01/29/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 897

I don't go out on a limb very often, but that interviewer was born for Public Access.
IndianSlipper at 02:08 PM on 01/29/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 330

wait! holy crap, Brit is dead?
rojac at 02:13 PM on 01/29/08
Reply by Email
*

"People are very interested in images these days..." AP-- the tip of the spear for new media.
the supergoddess at 02:15 PM on 01/29/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 345

hobgobliny
oh maggie, you really do have a way...
Tammany_Fall at 02:21 PM on 01/29/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 183

Yes but will he give me good bang for my house if I bet a buck?
mathnet at 02:26 PM on 01/29/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 581

SCIENTOLOGIST
Ricky Roma at 02:39 PM on 01/29/08
Reply by Email
*

Why wouldn't the interviewer ask the man to sit? It looks like that scene in "Lord of the Rings" where the hobbits talk to the giant trees.
Truculent at 02:40 PM on 01/29/08
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 144

"If we put it out, you can bet the house on it that it really happened."

Makes me feel better about an incident a decade ago, when I accidentally sent Ralph Bellamy's obit on the AP wire even though he was very much alive. So I was right and the really pissed off Ralph was wrong. Fancy that.
DaeSu at 02:41 PM on 01/29/08
Reply by Email
*

In a past life as a newspaper journalist, I penned my share of advance obits, usually for famous folks over 65, or some celebrities in poor health. Sometimes I lobbied, to little avail, for advances on those with prodigious substance abuse problems, regardless of age. But I know for a fact at least one prominent newspaper that had Chris Farley's obit written a good six months before he died. Sometimes it just pays to be prepared, and I always preferred to have something ready in the can rather getting a call from some breathless editor on a Saturday night.
AndIAmTellingYou at 02:56 PM on 01/29/08
Reply by Email
*

As jr. reporter, I was on the night shift when news about Diana broke. We had to scrap the mag. Later we made a list of all the celeb obits we needed, and while it seemed like a macabre death list, it's just part of the breaking news business.
lellolicious at 02:57 PM on 01/29/08
Reply by Email
*

Ha! I ride the train with that interviewer every day. Well, not *with* him, but you know... he's on my line. Seems like a nice enough guy.
Contemptster at 03:03 PM on 01/29/08
Reply by Email
*

What can an obituary teach us about Briney Spears that we don't already know? I've seen her vadge more often than I've seen my penis. And I pee...a lot.
DaeSu at 03:05 PM on 01/29/08
Reply by Email
*

@AndIAmTellingYou:

Exactly. It may seem morbid, but it's a necessary part of the business, and every mainstream outlet does it. Or at least they should.
DSSimonVlogViews at 03:49 PM on 01/29/08
Reply by Email
*

Hey,

I guess you can't take the "public access" out of me--I was doing public access pieces at the University of Michigan in 1981. Regarding the "height issue" I agree that Jesse Washington is fair game but I don't think you should pick on him because he's abnormally tall. However, Randy Newman is a "bleep."
chuchobaby at 06:53 PM on 01/29/08
Reply by Email
*

Actually, I got no beef with Mr. Washington.

At least Britney has given me music I can work out to.

Paris has given me nothing -- just like her granddaddy is giving her! NOTHING!!!!!!!

There, I feel better.