The journalists, columnists, editors, and one blogger (also along for the ride was the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza, Times editorial page editor Andy Rosenthal, and Cynthia Tucker from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) lunched with Obama, David Axelrod, Anita Dunn, Bill Burton, and Robert Gibbs. It was, of course, off the record, so stop emailing Gail about it already Maureen jeez!

Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo brand new to the official White House press pool, so now Marshall gets to hang out with the grown-up journalists (and David Brooks).

He says, basically: He'd had enough of his country being fucked up and his countrymen being killed. He snapped. And he's not sorry.

The opportunity came, and I took it.

I took it out of loyalty to every drop of innocent blood that has been shed through the occupation or because of it, every scream of a bereaved mother, every moan of an orphan, the sorrow of a rape victim, the teardrop of an orphan.

I say to those who reproach me: do you know how many broken homes that shoe which I threw had entered? How many times it had trodden over the blood of innocent victims? Maybe that shoe was the appropriate response when all values were violated.

So he's a human before he's a reporter. An interesting notion. Not one shared by America's elite press corps. They're more of the "I totally got Bush to autograph a shoe for my kids, isn't that a hoot?" school of professional nihilistic suck-upitude.

So, Muntader explicitly says he's not a hero but I think he is, at least for journalists. You can't go crazy if you don't have a soul.

"He is going to flee," said his brother, Uday al-Zaidi.

That could be fun too! Muntader (there are about 12 different ways to spell his name, deal with it) reportedly plans to snitch on everyone who helped to torture him—including the government officials who authorized it—so he's clearing out of Iraq for good.

Muntader said he was beaten, whipped, subjected to electric shocks, and left outside in the cold while soaking wet. He's also kind of convinced that US intelligence services might assassinate him! God damn. We swear, US intelligence services, if this guy is assassinated we are going to be so mad, we are going to throw mad shoes, and more. Here's his explanation for what he did, which is fantastic:

"I saw the chance and I seized it," he said. "If those who blamed me knew how many destroyed houses I walked over with those shoes that I threw; and how many times those shoes mixed with the blood of the innocent; and how many times those shoes went into homes where the honor of those who lived there was disgraced, then it was probably the proper response."

Let's all take a moment to remember what a great man George W. Bush was.

A tipster forwarded an email exchange, including picture, in which this gregarious gentleman identified himself and claimed to have "plenty of ski here" (again, that means cocaine) and that he can either host at his house or travel somewhere else. After leaving a soul-crushing pressure cooker of a beat — one which got him no small amount of grief for delving into the sexual histories of national figures — 219's no doubt enjoying the free time his current posting affords him. But some blow and blow so early in the morning on a school night? Sir, we salute your hearty constitution! If we're going to quibble about anything it's this: we've all been known to shave off a few years and pounds on internet "dating" sites, but rounding down by a decade... really?

He was diagnosed last year, and his decline was sudden and largely unexpected, though Liz Smith reported on his condition just yesterday.

It was a long and fascinating life. Dunne was a World War II vet. He was a TV director and film producer. He was one of the druggiest of the '70s Hollywood druggies until he cleaned up at age 50. He was a television star. When his daughter Dominique was murdered in 1982, he became a journalist.

His professional home of many years lists his credits:

Dunne—who joined Vanity Fair in 1984 as a contributing editor, and was named special correspondent in 1993—famously covered the trials of O. J. Simpson, the Menendez brothers, Michael Skakel, William Kennedy Smith, and Phil Spector, as well as the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. He wrote memorable profiles on numerous personalities, among them Imelda Marcos, Robert Mapplethorpe, Elizabeth Taylor, Claus von Bülow, Adnan Khashoggi, and Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. His monthly column provided a glimpse inside high society, and captivated readers.

"He became our first star writer," Tina Brown says in After the Party, a documentary on Dunne. She hired him to write a story on the trial of his daughter's killer for Vanity Fair, and she calls him "the defining voice of the magazine."

Dunne covered the trials of "the rich, the powerful, and the famous," he said in the same documentary. And "the reason I can write assholes so well is that I used to be an asshole."

He's survived by sons Griffin and Alex and granddaughter Hannah. There is an obituary and a nice remembrance from Graydon Carter at Vanity Fair.

After fighting in Korea, Novak covered politics for the AP and The Wall Street Journal. In 1963, with his wife working in President Johnson's White House as a secretary, Novak teamed up with with Rowland Evans to start the "Evans-Novak Political Report, a daily syndicated column that Novak continued writing, after Evans' retirement, up through this last February.

Novak was a great reporter. That's undeniable. He also used his column to advance a conservative political agenda, which is, obviously, an old tradition that has made something of a comeback. But his advocacy journalism skirted ethical lines on multiple occasions, especially in his constant use of anonymous sources. In 1972, he quoted an unnamed Democratic Senator as saying presidential candidate George McGovern's platform was "amnesty, abortion, and legalization of pot." The catchier "amnesty, abortion, and acid" line caught on, though critics accused Novak of inventing the quote. Decades later, Novak claimed the quote was from Thomas Eagleton, McGovern's eventual running mate. Eagleton had just died, and thus couldn't confirm it.

And, more recently, Novak became famous for his revealing that Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife Valerie Plame was a covert CIA operative, as part of a Bush White House attempt to smear a critic who'd correctly noted that they were inventing intelligence to justify a war against Iraq. Reporting that is generally understood to be a crime, but Novak was never prosecuted.

Novak's role, which he understood and embraced, was to act as a proxy for political attacks by conservative politicians. You leaked your smear to Novak, and he reported that "neutral" Republican sources said something nasty about McGovern or Joe Wilson or even Fred Thompson. He was also generally considered a mean old man and his brain tumor was diagnosed after he was hospitalized after he hit a pedestrian in his black corvette and kept driving, claiming to be unaware that he'd hit anything.

He was 78, and a kinder remembrance may be found at his hometown paper.

You remember Griff Jenkins, right? He's Fox News' hipster ambassador, the innocuous-looking guy they send out regularly to carry on like an idiot around liberals, hoping he'll incite a riot so they can show the clip on their network and say, "look at how crazy these liberals are!"

And that's unquestionably what Griff, who brought his own red carpet to the event like a true journalist, was up to here when he had his "mess with a bunch of ACORN people" day crapped on by Adam Green of Open Left. Things just spiraled so horribly out of control in a matter of a couple of minutes that we doubt Griff was able to carry on. Poor Griff. Why don't liberals respect his First Amendment rights?

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

Finally, it should be noted that Gawker's John Cook is still hot on the tail of elusive O'Reilly Factor producer/creepy stalker Jesse Watters, so keep an eye out Jesse, okay?

Video via Open Left

We wish we were making any of that up! But we're not! Tomorrow at 1 p.m., in DC, insane anti-abortion activist Randall Terry's "Society For Truth and Justice" will throw a press conference about how to "derail Sotomayor and overturn Roe." The email promises that the conference will compare the murder of George Tiller to Nat Turner's slave rebellion and Terry himself reports that this cold-blooded shooting of an innocent doctor by a psychopath "will propel us to victory more speedily."

Now it can be tough to get positive press coverage if you are a dangerous lunatic who should be in a padded cell. But Terry's got that covered.

Time: 12:30 to 1:00 P.M., Chicken Wings and Guinness will be served (for members of the press only). (Please RSVP at 904-687-9804 by Wednesday morning.)

And that is why there will be like two dozen reporters at this press conference, tomorrow.

Here's the full email.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

From: Studio Staff
Date: Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 12:17 PM
Subject: Tiller, Sotomayor, Overturn Roe PRESS CONFERENCE Thurs. 1pm
To: [Redacted]

*How Tiller's death and office closing can help propel pro-life movement, derail Sotomayor and overturn Roe. Four Key Senators will be targeted to vote against Sotomayor; Catholic Bishops will play a role to defeat Sotomayor.*

Press conference 1 PM, Thursday, to announce details how Pro-life groups can derail Sotomayor, and root out hypocrisy in pro-life ranks.

Also: Emergency Pro-life leadership training to be held in DC, June 12-14, with Randall Terry, Dr. Alan Keyes, Norma McCorvey, and Father Norman Weslin. Pro-abortion activists threaten to disrupt meeting.

*For immediate release: Dateline: Washington DC Contact: Kathy Veritas, 904-687-9804*

Press conference will cover:

1) How Mr. Tiller's death can propel the pro-life movement forward based upon lessons from Nat Turner's slave rebellion, and how abolitionists responded;

2) Plans of pro-life groups to seize moment to defeat Sotomayor, and expose hypocrisy within the GOP; names of 4 key Senate Targets to be released.

3) The role certain Catholic Bishops must play to insure Sotomayor's defeat;

4) Upcoming pro-life training: Pro-abortion activists threaten to disrupt.

Location: National Press Club, 14th and F Street, Washington DC

Time: 12:30 to 1:00 P.M., Chicken Wings and Guinness will be served (for members of the press only). (Please RSVP at 904-687-9804 by Wednesday morning.)

Press conference to begin at 1:00 P.M.

Members of press will be provided concise yet comprehensive research on the above topics. Upcoming plans and details of June 12-14 seminar will be laid out.

Randall Terry States:

"Tiller's death will either set the pro-life movement back twenty years, or propel us to victory more speedily. The outcome depends on our courage over the next 3-6 months.

"If we follow the example of the abolitionists, we will prevail; if we run like French Soldiers, we will be imprisoned in irrelevance.

"Our upcoming seminar is designed to raise up stout hearted, peaceful pro-life warriors, who do not fear, but follow this maxim: ".urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD." (William Lloyd Garrison)

—
Society for Truth and Justice
904-687-9804
P.O. Box 23775
Washington, D.C. 20026

[Photo: AP]

With a title, "The Emergence of President Obama's Muslim Roots," that just pathetically screams "please link to me Matt Drudge," Tapper regurgitates a slew of widely-known facts about Obama's family's Muslim faith, slaps a provocative title on the piece, and repackages the whole thing as some sort of breaking news story in conjunction with Obama's trip to the Middle East. The highlights of the story are these:

-Obama's father was a Muslim.

-Chicago has a high concentration of people who practice the Muslim faith.

-Obama spent time living in Muslim countries as a child.

Voila! And that's how your Jake Tapper jerky journalism sausage gets made ladies and gentleman! Isn't he just swell?!

Predictably, the right-wingers are hysterical over this. In addition to the feature link on Drudge, there are at least four Free Republic posts on it that we saw, not to mention postings in just about every other conservative gathering place online. Just Google "the emergence of Obama's Muslim roots" and see for yourself. Or better yet, go sample some of the comments on Tapper's post. They're amazing.

As for Jake Tapper, we can't put our feelings for him into words much better than Daily Intel's Jessica Pressler did back in March of this year.

There are only a handful of people who live up to the sophomoric term "tool" quite the way ABC reporter Jake Tapper does. For starters: His big break was selling out the story of a date he had with Monica Lewinsky. He dated a Miss America contestant, once called a college-age reporter a "pussy" and, at the beginning of his career, reportedly handed a Salon reporter a wad of his chewed gum, telling her it would be "worth something someday." We're not trying to be mean or anything, or saying he's a bad person. It's just true: The man is a tool.

Yep, that about sums it all up rather nicely.

It was neither a convincing nor a funny fake news story, and the link in the email didn't actually work, but still, Tapper, that intrepid newsman, forward the email about how torture memo author John Yoo had been arrested in Italy to the "internal news distribution system."

And then he Twittered something about how it wasn't very funny anyway, that story, which, fair enough, but seriously? You couldn't get the link to work and you still forwarded? Let's hope Nigerian princes never get ahold of your email address.

Here, the three ways Julia says she is going to get paid:

1) "Hopefully we'll sell — well, 'we' meaning myself and I and Lilly [her dog] over there — we'll sell a book, we'll sell a company, we'll sell a television show, and we'll sell a screenplay."

2) "I have started to do a lot of public speaking. I've spoken to all the senior execs at A&E, and the top three hundred marketing execs at Unilever."

3) "We take the [standard] click-through ad sales and tweak it so it's much more personal...People look at us like we are their friends, so when we recommend something it has a hell of a lot more value than an ad."

Here, the two ways Julia says she will not get paid:

1) "It can't be dependent on me writing more articles. You can make what? $50,000 a year?"

2) "What, like fucking my way to the middle? Yeah, I didn't do that."

Have any screenwriting, public speaking, or product endorsement work that does not involve writing articles or fucking? Contact "the next Oprah," thx. [Huffpo. Fun fact: Jeremy Abelson is the mastermind behind "Fashion Meets Finance." Appropriate!]

Now reporting that "DC-area reporters went out to happy hour and then karaoke with some political hacks" is like reporting that "kittens are adorable" or "that video of Verne Troyer making out with a doll will scar you" or "most prominent journalists have numerous undisclosed damning conflicts of interest that they can explain away only by claiming to be so obviously independent-minded as to require no scrutiny whatsover so lay off."

But still. This is the story of your Mark Salter and Tucker Bounds getting wasted and singing Dylan with your Ana Marie Cox and Michael Scherer. And then next campaign season Tucker Bounds and Mark Salter will explain that their candidate is an outsider who enrages the inside-the-beltway media elite with his authenticity, or something, and we'll all go to hell.

That quote is from John Koblin's piece in today's Observer. It's got more gems: Adam Nagourney couldn't find a seat at his own paper's workspace, then bitched about having to cover the convention with so many other, lesser reporters. Fox's Greta Van Susteren, though, was more than happy to be there.

Greta Van Susteren, the Fox News anchor, spent Aug. 25 blogging—“I like the blogging!” she said—and produced 10 blog posts, including an online poll: “What do you think Michelle Obama thinks about Hillary Clinton?”

But there are hardships!

“I don’t like it,” said the Bloomberg News editor Al Hunt, who is covering his 17th convention. “It’s chilly and you can’t hear anything. Have you been to the porta-potties here? Because don’t go.”

Elsewhere in the Observer, Felix Gillette reports that he thought he knocked over Bill O'Reilley's laptop! But no, it was Karl Rove's laptop.

At HuffPo, media critic Rachel Sklar asks Anderson Cooper about the altitude, and Cooper reveals that he wishes he'd had a Bar Mitzvah. If, somehow, Cooper had added that he also wished to be on Saturday Night Live, in a Broadway musical, and Canadian, Sklar probably would've fainted. (After filing 1,500 words.)

And hey, did you know that there are bloggers at the Democratic National Convention? It's true, according to the Chicago Tribune's Washington Bureau. "The political bloggers are here because this week Denver is the center of the Democratic Party's political universe," we're told. Good to know! Even Katie Couric stopped by the blogger area to figure out what bloggers did all day, exactly.

And lovable David Carr, America's Favorite Recovered Crack-Addict-Turned-Times Reporter, hauls his Carpetbagger vlogging suit out of the closet to bug "members of the media" in Denver! Watching this video, we were struck by how these were exactly the same parties that are thrown in DC every week except in Denver. They still look terrible.

People stuck on the plane:

Ben Lerer —Thrillist
Justin Rocket Silverman —New York Post
Brian Niemietz —New York Post
Charles Forman —ImInLikeWithYou.com
David Karp —Tumblr
Julia Allison —Star
Justin Fluck —The Onion
Ben Hudson —The Onion
Caroline McCarthy —CNet
Rachel Sklar —The Huffington Post
Verena von Pfetten —The Huffington Post
Streeter Seidell —College Humor
Jack Savage —Fox News
Emily Anderson —CNN
Jessica Steiner —NY1
Glynnis MacNicol —Mediabistro

If Bashir continues to appear on Nightline, he'll be just the latest manifestation of the eternal desire to work through crisis. Patrick Swayze, the dirty-dancing actor who just months ago announced a dire case of pancreatic cancer, just got clearance from his doctors to return to acting—which he will do in the upcoming season of the A&E network show The Beast.

Mike Wallace, the prototypical broadcast journalist who is both older and more respected than Bashir, retired from 60 Minutes for health reasons in 2006, but couldn't stay away forever; he hung on to his "correspondent" role even through a recent heart surgery. Others take the quiet route; word is that English filmmaker Anthony Minghella, who died in March at the age of 54, kept news of his cancer from his business partner, Sydney Pollack.

Ultimately, the urge to keep on plugging away at a career no matter what the prognosis is completely understandable, and perhaps fundamentally representative of successful people. But recuperation, it goes without saying, should come first; no TV show is worth killing yourself for.