JOSSIP IN-DEPTH — Election Day is almost over! Let's all vote multiple times and then drink a shot for every state that Obama wins, or something.
But on the darkest night before the dawn, what will become of the old media guards come November 5th? More likely than not, there will be a spike in conservative programming and a drop in liberal ones, because people always like to whine against whoever is in charge.
But the problem is not merely a political one: with the print industry dying out like white tigers before we had an endangered species list, and not even blogs safe from eminent demise, there needs to be a radical overhaul in how news can be presented, for the cheap.
So: Not like the question hasn't been asked a trillion times already, but let's take a comprehensive (read: radio!) look again at what tomorrow might bring for your favorite news makers.
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There are some media storms that can be weathered. Even the ones that involve connecting "Hillary Clinton" with "big fucking whore," which is what Randi Rhodes did at an event sponsored by her then-employer Air America. When a video surfaced of the event, Air America planned to give her the boot after she refused to apologize, but Rhodes quit before they could. But now … she's coming back. The Randi Rhodes Show will begin airing weekdays beginning Monday, for a 3-hour slot beginning at 3pm. We'd love to hear how the relationship got patched back together from those in the know.
Law & Order's Munch, Richard Belzer, will fill in for suddenly vacated 3-6pm slot on Air America, which used to be filled by Randi Rhodes. Bezler hates pedophiles, not Hillary Clinton. [HuffPo]
Just as the Washington Post has certain words (or letters) it cannot print, so, too, does the Los Angeles Times' style guide prohibit cursing. Which makes for the most amusing Mad Libs article about complain-y Randi Rhodes ever. (Click image for larger version) [LAT]
Just like Don Imus did when CBS Radio kicked him off the air, Air America host Randi Rhodes claims her employer violated her contract in suspending her. It appears there was no clause in her deal that allowed for her removal if she called a presidential candidate a "fucking whore."
Says Rhodes: "[Air America is] in breach of my contract and have damaged my hard won excellent reputation in the broadcast industry." Um, they damaged it?
MSNBC may have one regular Air America correspondent on its airwaves, but shockingly the host who called Hillary Clinton a "big fucking whore" was not her! It was Randi Rhodes, here with Bill Clinton, and she said it during a speech at an Air America event where she appeared on behalf of her employer, and a video clip of it popped up on YouTube.
Now the radio network has canned Rhodes, suspending her indefinitely, which means Air America now has three hours of daily programming it's gonna need to figure out.
In a statement, Air America's Charlie Kireker said: "Air America encourages strong opinions about public affairs but does not condone such abusive, ad hominem language by our hosts."
Rhodes hasn't yet updated her website about the ordeal, but we imagine the words "sorry" and "apology" will appear in there somewhere if she hopes to return to air.
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“EXCLUSIVES” The Huffington Post is more than a fancy RSS of celebrity blogs. It’s also a news source, and don’t you forget it. And they’re running an exclusive that Charlie Kireker succeed Stephen L. Green as owner of Air America. They may be the first with the story, but they may also be the only ones who care. [HuffPo]
Over at Queerty, they're always encourage a Positive Mental Attitude, even when they're acting kind of PMSy.
Today's interview with Air America reporter Rachel Maddow is all about PMA. An anecdote about reporting for MSNBC shows the importance of staying upbeat and also not passive aggressively insulting Keith Olbermann:
So, I showed up that night and walked into the make-up room and there are Kelly O’Donnell, an anchor I don’t know and Keith Olbermann sitting in the make-up room and I walked in and, like an idiot, without thinking, say, “Aw, I feel like I’m getting bumped up from the kid’s table at Thanksgiving,” which was a dumb thing to say because A. self-deprecation doesn’t help in a professional context if you’re trying to seem like a bigger deal than you are and, B, I’m subliminally calling them old, which is not a nice thing. But that’s honestly how I felt: I get to be in the adult media! I do feel like - I dress like a first grader, I’m a big lesbian, I’m not pretty like a Barbie doll and I come from talk radio, which is the wild west of media… In a lot of ways I do not fit the mold, but I get a lot of air time and I have a great time doing it and always really happy to be up there, otherwise I wouldn’t do it at all.
So true. If you don't love yourself first, no one will love you second.
• Anna Wintour might've rebuffed Project Runway, but she's all set for an A&E documentary about how many skinny people are required to produce September Vogue.
• Atoosa Rubenstein incorporates, sets up expense account.
• FHM may be gone, but Maxim is still causing trouble at the hands of Vanity Fair.
• Steven Spielberg offers filmmaking hopefuls the chance to be the next Project Greenlight disaster.
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• Google flipped its rivalry with Yahoo over the sizes of their search indexes into a marketing gimmick, asking users to guess how many billions of pages it's scoured.
• Meanwhile, Google is taking back its one-year blacklist of CNet after a News.com scribe used Google's own search engine to find out information about its execs. Finally they're getting the hang of this PR thing.
• Air America is scrounging for cash, begging listeners to help keep it afloat by donating cash and buying schwag. Embarrassingly, unlike NPR, Air America is a for-profit venture.
• By now, Katie Couric is used to being thrashed in the media, but that won't stop her from showing a little leg.
• Graydon Carter confirmed the widely acknowledged rumors that Tom Ford was brought on board to oversee Vanity Fair's next Hollywood photo spread.
• The average person spends nine hours each day consuming media .. and exactly 15 seconds forgetting about it.
