Wonkette

New York mag has a lengthy profile of Henry Kissinger. What we learned:

* Henry Kissinger is short, has a deep voice.
* Henry Kissinger is a sycophant.
* Henry Kissinger is very charming.
* Henry Kissinger has lots of rich Manhattan liberal media friends.
* Henry Kissinger is BFF with John “WALLNUTS!” McCain.
* We miss Peter Jennings, if only for the occasional stories like this:

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Doesn’t this seem a little insensitive for ABC? MORE »

• Peter Jennings’ memorial service, where the balance of tears was repaid: “the slightest achievement by his children, or even his dog, would wet his eyes.” [WP]
• “Stuck on stupid,” not really so imaginative. [Exploding Aardvark]
• Andrea Mitchell on being married to Alan Greenspan: “how careful we have been, over the past 18 years since he has been at the Fed, to establish a firewall.” Hot. [WP]
• Bill O’Reilly’s biggest whooper yet: “Mr. Donahue, with all due respect– ” [J$P, C&L]
• More from inside Fox News: “It doesn’t matter if CNN is running it at the top of the hour. If drugs are involved we don’t run it.” [BitBA]

• Inside the Beltway: Pollster Frank Luntz sold his company, attended the Emmys, advised Schwarzenegger, had his Corvette was stolen, and is slowly writing a book. [WT]
• Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown: Media celebrities and family members honor Peter Jennings at New York memorial service. [NYDN]

The Daily Briefing is on vacation. MORE »

Daily Briefing is on vacation. Relax, it’s good for you. MORE »

• Novak gone from CNN? [TVNewser]
• Dan Quayle: “Non, je ne regrette rien.” [Gawker]
• Downie tried everything short of showing up dressed in Saran Wrap to keep Steve Coll from jumping to the NYer. [NYT]
• Rather will miss drunk-dialing Jennings. [NYM]
• Potential FCC guideline: “we’d like to explore bringing soccer uniforms up to the decency standards of more fully clothed American sports such as baseball and football.” [AdAge]

• New programming at CNN: “Get ready for Anderson Cooper 360 Full Monte, a panoramic view of the Mini Cooper, if you catch my drift.” [Mr. Sun] MORE »

• Under the Dome: Could ‘08 bring a McCain-Kerry ticket?. . . Hatch faces fire for his position on intellectual-property rights. [The Hill]
• Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown: Is Matt Cooper job hunting at The New York Times?. . . MSNBC President Rick Kaplan “erupted angrily and at length” towards Keith Olbermann after the anchor told viewers of his own cancer scare. [NYDN]
• Liz Smith: Peter Jennings had told Aaron Brown: “Aaron, drop this morning paper idea. You are not funny!” [NYP]
• Names & Faces: Mayor Williams makes risotto and lamb on Channel 16’s “InStyle Washington” cooking program. [WP]

Feel the need to weigh in on Peter Jennings but have nothing to say? Follow the example NJ Star-Ledger’s Matt Zoller Seitz and write what you know:

He was Mr. Spock to Brokaw’s folksy Bones McCoy and Rather’s impetuous Captain Kirk — an alien intelligence from the planet Canada, offering not a hug or even a reassuring pat on the shoulder, but a poker face that was accented, on rare occasions, by a faintly raised eyebrow.

Guess that would mean Bernie Shaw is Lt. Uhura. But mostly it means Mr. Seitz is in the wrong line of work should get out more.* MORE »

You didn’t ask, but we’ll say anyway: We’ve avoided giving you the exhaustive Peter Jennings coverage because his death makes us sad. We’re glad other people have taken on the duty of pulling together the massive number of tributes: TVNewser has excellent round-ups and ABC has a surprisingly moving message board. But we know that in troubled times, people also value continuity. So we’re going to go on making the jokes and manufacturing the snark — we think Peter would have wanted us to. MORE »

As the much-deserved memorials pour in for ABC anchor Peter Jennings, it is difficult to resist speculating about the future of the network nightly news. Television execs will cast about for how — or even if — they can revitalize the genre. It might involve fog machines or podcasts or Jon Stewart. Jennings was there when the first generation of old men gave way to the network suits’ bright ideas about people wanting to see a hipster read the news:

“It was a little ridiculous when you think about it…A twenty-six-year-old trying to compete with Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley. I was simply unqualified.”

Jennings may have realized it right away, though it took three years for the network to send him back into the field for seasoning. The good news is that things move faster today. The bad news is that networks don’t seem to learn from their mistakes. After a couple months of podcasts, television journalism will be “Fear Factor” meets “Dateline.” MORE »