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Karl Rove

conflicts of interest

AP To Karl Rove: "Keep Up The Fight"

The Associated Press' Washington bueau chief, Ron Fournier, has been pissing various people off with his "accountability journalism" since he was installed in May. His bitter former boss at AP trashed his credentials to Politico, and influential website Talking Points Memo wondered if he wasn't responsible for the AP's "atrocious campaign coverage this year." Fournier has said his new approach, which involves taking more pointed stands within news articles, is driven by an in-depth examination of the facts, while critics say it is simply biased, advocacy journalism dressed up in new clothes. Fournier has had the backing of top AP brass in New York, but that may soon change, given the following recap of a 2004 email from Fournier to then-White House senior advisor Karl Rove, published this evening on TPM: More »

punditry

'Times' Shocked That Rove Succeeds on TV Despite Hideous Appearance

Another story about how Karl Rove is a surprisingly adept television pundit. Wow! Everyone is shocked that Rove doesn't spit blood and cackle maniacally and speak in tongues when asked to opine in Hillary Clinton's political future! At least this one mentions conflicts of interest and how some nutcases view the increasingly fuzzy divide between 'journalism' and 'paid political consulting' as worrisome (or at least they did a decade ago when the Clintonites first made the leap). Still, there's this: "As an on-camera presence, Mr. Rove is not necessarily a natural. Neither his doughy chin nor his ashen complexion would be confused with those of, say, Brian Williams of NBC News." We can't all be as pretty as BriWi. [NYT]

politics

Karl Rove Portends a Roger Clemens Pardon

GQ interviews beloved and chatty former Bush adviser Karl Rove. Q: "Wait, quickly: Do you believe Roger Clemens?" A: "Um, yes, I do." Ok! Rove also repeatedly asks to go off the record whenever he wants to deliver a POTENTIALLY CONTROVERSIAL opinion, because he, as a true friend of The Free Press, loves nothing more than disseminating his manipulative bullshit via anonymous quotes and suggestions in millions of news stories. On the record, he's just a bit of a testy dork. Off the record he'll tell you what an anonymous Republican operative really thinks of Barack Obama! [GQ]

Tase Them!

Rove Supporters Create Awesome New Chant

Are dirty hippies and anti-war wusses breaking up your awesome conservative circle-jerk? Well now you have something funny to scream at them! Former George W. Bush bag man and current Fox News talker Karl Rove was giving a speech at George Washington University Friday when some students held up a sign reading "WAR CRIMINAL" and started trying to shout down the pudgy master of evil. Ho-hum. But as they were being escorted out by security, some Right Wing funsters got up a chant of "Tase 'Em! Tase 'Em!" You know, coz that one guy said, "Don't tase me, bro"? Video after the jump. More »

rants

Apple Fetishists: Grow Up

Karl Rove loves his iPhone. He uses it all the time! (The entire Bush administration has good reason to love the little gizmo.) The roly-poly Machiavelli also recently admitted to owning a damn MacBook Air, the laptop whose sole selling point is its ability to fit in an envelope. Drug-addled radio tyrant Rush Limbaugh had to ask Apple to help fix his own new Mac. Your favorite propagandists love the sleek design and friendly usability of Apple products. Crypto-fascists—they're just like us! Which brings us to this plea: can we please, please end the tiresome trope of Apple having any sort of hip sensibility? More »

the evil that men do

Everyone Loves Karl!

Roly-poly Republican strategist Karl Rove has a bit of a bad reputation, what with his mastery of quasi-legal dirty tricks, spearheading of underhanded whisper campaigns, and cut-throat dedication to enabling the most damaging presidential administration in living memory. So everyone basically thinks of him as a figure of cartoonish evil, like Dick Cheney. But now that he's on Fox News as a commentator, the liberals who run the rest of the media are shocked to find that they actually like Karl Rove! More »

Media: Stay Away From Karl Rove's Prep School Speech The press has been barred from covering Karl Rove's speech today at Choate, the chichi Connecticut prep school. Sort of like Rove was barred a few weeks ago from delivering the school's spring graduation address. "This is a special program, a school event, and we typically don't invite the media to a school event," a spokeswoman said. "It's our standard way of doing things." Well then!

karl rove

Fox's Dumb New Hire

So—Karl Rove is going to be a Fox News contributer! What an exciting and unexpected move. We hope it goes well for them! It probably won't, though. Because Karl Rove, that Machiavellian Boy Genius, is terrible on-air and also not even particularly adept at analyzing politics. He's a great smear campaigner, sure! But he's not even Lee Atwater's equal in that dubious regard. The man micromanaged one of the least popular presidencies of the last hundred years, parlayed untold goodwill and love into worldwide scorn, and also lost two of Bush's most important elections. Namely the 2006 midterms and, oh right, Bush's initial election itself. The only people who still think Karl Rove is some sort of brilliant political mind are semi-literate Kos commenters. And Roger Ailes, apparently. Even Keith Olbermann thinks Karl is only the third worst person in the world! See for yourself, after the jump. More »

jobs

In Totally Unstunning Development, Karl Rove Joins Fox News

Oh, well, why the hell not. Karl Rove is the newest contributor at Fox News, according to Drudge, who says the former Bush advisor will be "likely used throughout Super Tuesday coverage." We can't wait for his dispassionate and not at all demonic insights.

rebellions

Prep Schoolers Kick Karl Rove's GOP Tail

If only MoveOn.org knew that all it took to push Karl Rove around was a bunch of pissed-off tony prep-schoolers. After student protests (and a Drudge link) the Bush advisor has backed out of his commitment as this year's graduation speaker at Connecticut boarding school Choate Rosemary Hall. You know, where Ivanka went? Aww, whassamatter, Karl? Can't take a little high-class heckling? [AP]

Rove Taps Pubs For Fast Book Cash Simon and Schuster—publishers of Hillary Clinton and of the notable "God Wants You to Be Rich"!—have got the Karl Rove book. [NYO]

catch me a catch

'Newsweek' Hires Karl 'Turdblossom' Rove

Pudgy angel-faced devil and former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove left the White House under a cloud of reeking suspicion and ignominy. Amazingly, it took Newsweek only three months to scoop him up. Well done! Rove will have a column in which he muses on the 2008 Presidential elections. [Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham also retained the Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas as a counterpoint to Rove.] To be fair, the man known as "turdblossom" has been remarkably open with the media in the past. After all, he even told Robert Novak all he knew of ex-CIA agent Valerie Plame! More »

Tomorrow's corrections today: "Mr. Rove, who is leaving the White House at the end of the month, didn't cut an especially heroic or villainous figure. The strategist who looms in the public imagination as a political mastermind and West Wing Svengali used a rare appearance on camera to deliver an exiting White House aide's most time-honored Washington message: mistakes were not made, and it's not my fault. He even denied responsibility for his hip-hop performance as a rapping 'M.C. Rove' at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in March." Rove was right to deny responsibility: The performance in question occurred at the Radio & TV Correspondents' Association dinner. [NYT]

When you sent us an email this morning with a link to your BREAKING NEWS that Karl Rove is resigning, we collectively snarfed up some coffee. (Or a Rolaids-coffee mixture, for some of us.) You know, we all read newspapers. [Fishbowl]

rodent exits capsizing vessel

Karl Rove To Be Evil Out Of The White House

It's a sad day for those of us who like having cynicism and malevolence embodied in one doughy package. After nearly seven years in the White House, President Bush's political adviser Karl Rove is to resign, effective at the end of the month. More »

gossip roundup

Anna Nicole Smith's Literary Legacy

  • Says the writer whose once-shelved Anna Nicole bio is getting a new lease on life thanks to that lady's death: "I feel morally compelled to put her words out there." [R&M]
  • Candace Bushnell and producer Darren Star are deeply on the outs because of the similarities between his 'Cashmere Mafia' and her 'Lipstick Jungle' TV pilots. [Page Six]
  • More »

    gossip

    Gossip Roundup: Sopranos Hits Close To Home

  • Observer goss boy Spencer Morgan's dad got kneed in the balls on the Sopranos last night. Also, Spencer is Harry Morgan's grandson. Now you know. (All about the eyebrows.) [Observer]
  • Tommy Lee has a taste for Kid Rock's sloppy seconds. [Page Six]
  • American Idol oddity Sanjaya Malakar gave Eliot Spitzer an autograph at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, thereby defeating our valiant attempt to never mention him. [R&M]
  • Also at that dinner, Sheryl Crow and Laurie David mixed it up with Karl Rove about global warming. His response? "Don't touch me." [HuffPo]
  • Madonna's trip to Malawi is over, apparently sans a promised reunion with her adopted son's biological dad. [People]
  • More »

    media bubble

    Media Bubble: People Do Read Newspapers, They Just Don't Buy Them

    • Hey, maybe newspaper readership isn't actually declining, if you count all those people who read papers on the web. Which would seem to make sense. [E&P]
    • Syd Schanberg points out that old media will have to stick around in some form, because someone has to do the original reporting. To which we say: Duh. [VV]
    • Jack Shafer says Daily Newser Lloyd Grove was right to piss on Time Warner's allegedly off-the-record Scalia event. Just like we said yesterday afternoon. [Slate]
    Judith Miller might put Lewis Libby in jail, but Time's Viveca Novak is key to keeping Karl Rove out, apparently. [WP]
    Tom Friedman sued for copyright infringement over World Is Flat cover art. By someone right here in the United States, no less. [E&P