Sometime last night, link factory and cable news talking point shaper Matt Drudge posted a link to an article about Gwen Ifill, the PBS vet and broken legged moderator of tomorrow's VP debate, claiming she was coming out with a pro-Obama book on Inauguration Day. If true, an obvious favoring of Obama could jeopardize Ifill's plans for tomorrow night's session, since moderators are supposed to remain objective; any harsh questions aimed at Palin could then "justly" be labeled by the right wing as unfair and bias.
Except Drudge, to be sure, is not the nonpartisan link factory Fox News would have you believe. So it makes sense that the news outlet he linked to for the story would be the right-wing zealot website WorldNetDaily, a place where, much like Drudge, ordinary news topics get twisted ever so slightly to become slanted in such a way that the reader would be forgiven for realizing he bought into the spin. (For instance, an article about how Americans can relate to Obama is headlined, "Do Americans have anything in common with Obama?" See the twist?)
So is Ifill's book even about Obama? And if it is, is it really pro-Obama? You can take a guess. CONTINUED »
• Martha! Howard! Cosmo? Kate White is teaming with Sirius for a 24-hour channel to launch in 2006. But at this point, we're about the only ones without our own Sirius show. (Especially now that Oprah is signing on too. Jeez.)
• NBC News president Neal Shapiro is stepping down to pursue "the kind of creativity I've had in previous jobs." Namely, mastering the elongated chevron knitting stitch. Jeff Zucker named his replacement: Steve Capus, who's a bigger fan of the mistake rib.
• Meanwhile, Shaprio's stepping down is just the latest blow that's put network news on the brink of disaster that also includes ABC and CBS. Seating is first come, first served.
• Razor publisher (and Internet porn peddler) Richard Botto cut his staff loose on Thursday, notifying all that the struggling magazine would cease printing.
• Oh where, oh where, has MSNBC's weekend staff gone? With Hurricane Katrina taking up all available resources, they're operating on a skeleton crew — with honcho Rick Kaplan even exec producing their telethon. "there is NOBODY in charge … NOBODY!!!"
• Former ESPN reporter Adrian Karsten was found dead from apparent suicide after facing a prison sentence for failing to report more than $600,000 in income.
