Wonkette

Mark Halperin, former ABC News “Political Director,” is leaving the world of network punditry for the world of still appearing on TV constantly but with a different, more respectable little title on his chyron. That’s right, he’s going to Time. Eric Alterman’s head will explode. MORE »

Bob Franken just forwarded us the email he sent out to all his good friends at CNN, where he no longer works. It’s got fewer vulgarities than the farewell email we send our fellow Gawker Media employees every week or so, but the tone’s about the same:

Anybody want to buy a used CNN jacket?

There’s this live shot I always wanted to do:

“AND NOW FOR A REPORT ON WHAT THESE WASHINGTON DEVELOPMENTS MEAN, WE GO TO CNN’S BOB FRANKEN. BOB, WHAT DO THEY MEAN?”

“NOTHING WOLF. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING”

Rest of it’s after the jump.

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As multiple-Bloggie award-winners, we congratulate our print media brothers and sisters who won these quaint and antiquated “Pulizter Prizes” today.

The Virginia Press Association had its big awards ceremony on Friday night, at the world-famous Watergateside Hotel, which is “separated from the waterfront by an Outback Steakhouse and a Hooters” and is also in Norfolk.

It was a magical night: The Washington Post came in third place (or lower) for (nearly) everything, Dana Milbank was burned in effigy and the Washington Times won top honors.

Read the hilarious report from our Anonymous Wonkette Operative, after the jump.

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How did one jerkoff with a goofy nickname kill an American Institution? Well, waiting until it had been thoroughly debased didn’t hurt. And he had help: Tim Russert, Judy Miller, and a whole ragtag gang of media whores successfully defanged the first amendment with him. The New York Times today quotes about a dozen media experts and journalism professors saying variations on “the Libby trial is over — begun the clone wars have,” then trashing the journos who got us into this mess: MORE »

Working at the Washington Times sounds about twice as fun as any other media gig we can think of. Whether your boss is threatening violence: MORE »

Anonymous Senior Administration officials: They’re always good for a laugh. And they’re so mysterious! Take the two White House press releases shown above. Apparently, right in the middle of a SAO briefing aboard Air Force 2, Vice President Dick Cheney burst into the cabin armed with a boxcutter and began taking questions on the record — only to disappear just as mysteriously, D.B. Cooper-like, mid-flight. MORE »

When the Post’s Howard Kurtz emailed us to let us know that he was writing about Michelle Malkin, we were excited. After all, not nearly enough is known about this reclusive, media-shy shrinking violet.

And if there’s anyone worthy of being taken seriously, it’s Malkin. From her groundbreaking book on Japanese Internment, Those Nip Fucks Deserved It, to her recent work exposing as fictional the Iraqi police officer/AP source who was later disappeared for talking to the press, Malkin is an intellectual powerhouse whose views need to be heard and publicized.

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Court TV is at the Scooter Libby trial, and, as can be expected, they’re blogging up a storm… about the other bloggers at the Scooter Libby trial! MORE »

Last night, we learned that Rep. Loretta Sanchez quit the Congressional House Caucus because its chair called her a whore. This evening, an operative forwarded us this email from The Politico’s talented Josie Hearn to a number of her collegues.

Subject: Loretta Sanchez story
From: “Josephine Hearn”
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2007 16:24:40 -0500
To: [Redacted]

Hi all,

If you are working on a story about Loretta Sanchez and the CHC, please credit Politico.com for breaking the story.

Below I am including stories I have written over the past year on the CHC rift. They may be of use to you.

Thanks,
Josephine Hearn

Unfortunately, one of the recipients had already kinda broken the story too. Full, cranky email exchange, after the jump.

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Who could hate that face??? MORE »

Like everything else poisonous and wrong with America today, the curse of the “senior administration official” is all Henry Kissinger’s fault. This we learn from Mike Allen in today’s Politico, as he takes us on a magical journey through the world of journalistic euphemism. MORE »

There’s nothing the press likes more than a prominent politician hated by every single member of his own party. In a medium where discussing ideology is complex and not particularly fun, it’s easy to declare someone a “moderate” based on nothing but the vehement disgust they inspire in committed partisans. So Joe Lieberman and Chuck Hagel, who hold two of the most extreme positions on Iraq in the US Senate (in opposition to their respective parties), are brothers-in-centrist-arms. MORE »

The city’s newest waste of sidewalk space, Capitol Hill rag The Politico, launched today with some heavy self-congratulation from all the Post and Time dudes they lured over there with promises of riches. What’s the verdict? It’s, uh… a website! And some blogs! It’s kind of like the Post’s politics section, except NEWER and with laxer editing in the in-house blogs: MORE »