Washington Post Wins Another Phony Pulitzer
Washington Post reporter Gene Weingarten, one of the funniest journalists I've ever read, won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing yesterday, honored for a piece in which world-class violinist Joshua Bell played incognito at a DC Metro station and drew little reaction among most of the philistine passers-by. No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the ... read more
Tay Zonday Rains on Reporter's Questions
In an interview with MSP Magazine published in January, Tay Zonday, the deep-voiced singer whose "Chocolate Rain" became a YouTube sensation, challenges every premise of the reporter questioning him. Q: Let's talk about the art. What percentage of your success do you attribute to the William Hung factor? A: I don't really follow William Hung. But the blunt question is, "Do I suck, and do people laugh at me because of it?" I don't know. How does any artist know that? Why would any artist worry about that? Would ... read more
Matt Drudge Flamed for Blowing Prince Harry's Cover
Matt Drudge reported yesterday that Prince Harry was fighting in Afghanistan, news that was being kept secret by the British media to prevent him from being targeted by the Taliban. I awoke this morning to a bunch of misdirected hate mail intended for Drudge, sent to me using the news tip box on the Drudge Retort. If my inbox is any indication, Drudge must be getting hammered this morning for breaking the news: You suck! Reporting on his service is well within you rights. It is also sleazeball shit. The ... read more
Vicki Iseman Misses Chance to Rebut Story
The top Google result for the name Vicki Iseman is currently her biography page on Alcalde & Fay, the lobbying firm she serves as a partner. The page was erased today but can be viewed on Huffington Post. Alcalde & Fay has issued a statement denouncing the New York Times story suggesting an inappropriate and possibly romantic relationship between Iseman and Sen. John McCain during his 2000 presidential campaign: The allegations and malicious innuendo reported by the New York Times yesterday are completely and ... read more
Lisa Schiffren: Obama's a Secret Commie Baby
Even though it's a product of the conservative National Review, I read The Corner because it's a great format for political blogging -- a bunch of writers of similar politics sharing links and exchanging ideas with each other. I wish there was a liberal counterpart that took the same conversational approach. (There's also nothing better than watching them suffer in real time on election night when the vote doesn't go their way.) Sometimes, all that like-mindedness draws out ugly sentiments a political partisan ... read more
Weblogs Win Long Bet with New York Times
The Long Bet Foundation, the group that sponsored a five-year wager between blogging evangelist Dave Winer and New York Times executive Martin Nisenholtz over the journalistic value of weblogs vs. the media, announced today that it has declared a winner. The foundation used the same source I did to pick the top five news stories of 2007 -- a vote by Associated Press editors and news directors -- and reached the same conclusion: Weblogs won. Adding up page rank winners blogs win 4 to 1. Adding up page rank ... read more
10 Years Ago Today, Matt Drudge Broke the News
On Jan. 17, 1998, Matt Drudge reported that Newsweek had spiked Michael Isikoff's story about President Clinton's sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky, the first shot in the war between the corporate and cautious culture of mainstream journalism and the completely batshit blogosphere. Six weeks later, I registered Drudge.Com. It's hard to believe that Matt Drudge remains one of the most important journalists in the U.S., 10 years after he nabbed somebody else's scoop. I wish someone had told me, when I was ... read more
