Hilarious One-Paragraph History of Politico's News-Invention Morning-Win Technique

We're now abouteightnine pages into this very long NYTmagazine thing about The Politico, and it's mostly the stuff you know about -- the funny cartoon video somebody made, all the reporters who quit, etc. But there's one crucial bit of Win the Morning hilarity we must share with you, as it succinctly describes the entire news process at The Politico, which consists of "make up something, let it bounce around Washington a few hours, and then breathlessly report the official denial."

More recently, Allen asked in his April 10 Playbook: “Good Saturday morning: For brunch convo: Why isn’t Secretary Clinton on the media short lists for the Court?” By Monday, the convo had moved from the brunch table to “Morning Joe” (where the host, Joe Scarborough, advocated for her) and “Today” (where the Republican senator Orrin Hatch mentioned her, too). Later that day, Politico’s Ben Smith quoted a State Department spokesman who “threw some coolish water on the Clinton-for-Scotus buzz in an e-mail.” By then, the cable and blog chatter was fully blown. The White House issued a highly unusual statement that Secretary Clinton would not be nominated. Politico then sent out a “breaking news alert,” and Smith reported that the White House had “hurriedly punctured the trial balloon.” End of convo.

"Convo."