And in other "our government is totally fucked up" news, the National Journal brings us a Plamegate update.
As was pretty much suspected, but never actually testified to a federal grand jury, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby admits that he "received 'approval from the President through the Vice President'" to leak intelligence regarding invisible WMDs to the Washington Post and the New York Times.
In some instances, the information leaked was directly discussed with the Vice President, while in other instances Libby believed he had broad authority to release information that would make the case to go to war.
Of course this led to the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame, an investigation into Judith Miller which resulted in her going to jail for protecting her source, and Dick Cheney laughing in the corner because his plan to distract the media from the war is going perfectly.
Next week, when the veep accidentally shoots someone, we can only hope the gun will backfire.
Libby Says Bush Authorized Leaks [Murray Wass, National Journal]
After 82 days in captivity, American journalist Jill Carroll, was released by her abductor and dropped off at Sunni Arab political offices this morning. Her friends at the Washington Post were the first reporters to be contacted. (Soak it up folks — after today we will all forget about her survival and start fighting over who gets the first interview.)
"I was never hurt, ever hit," she told a Washington Post reporter. "I was kept in a safe place and treated very well." Carroll, 28, a freelance reporter working for the Christian Science Monitor, arrived safely at the party headquarters just after 1 p.m.
So far we know that she has spoken with her father and is being taken care of by Islamic political leaders. After her kidnapping in western Baghdad on January 7, members of her family along with the journalism community lobbied diligently for her release. Videos released from Iraq on January 17 and February 9, in which Carroll asked her supporters to do whatever was necessary to gain her release.
The story aired on Good Morning America this morning, where Charlie Gibson pointed out that this was a release, not a rescue, but as far as we know, none of her captors' demands for money or the release of female Iraqis were met.
Carroll knew little about who was holding her captive, but said she was allowed to watch TV once and was taken for a shower. No TV for 82 days? Torturous.
Journalist Jill Carroll Released in Iraq [Jonathan Finer and Ellen Knickmeyer, Washington Post]
What do we like about CBS News' Lara Logan more than her accent? How adamantly she defends the media's reporting from Iraq on Howard Kurtz's show — and her demanding Laura Ingraham shut her trap and report from Iraq. You know, even though Ingraham already did.
• The "Final Four" potential buyers for the Knight Ridder papers have been announced. Fine, we promise no more attempts at sports humor. [NYT]
• Get ready for Wednesday, when Elizabeth Spiers tunes into the Wall Street gossip with her long awaited blog, DealBreaker. Finally, some gossip about people with money. [Fishbowl]
• Spending all day in your apartment in sweatpants doesn't mean you'll never fall in love. The blogosphere's first torrid romance was consummated this weekend. [Media Mob]
• When you're nasty rich, nobody cares that you're a geek. Bill Gates, anyone? [MSNBC]
• Hey, remember when Bob Woodruff showed us that Iraq wasn't so bad by covering an ice cream parlor and a ballet school? Too bad that was before he got his face blown off. [WaPo]
Bob Woodruff's brother (or 'bro' for those Daily Newsers) was able to "joke" with him about his looks during a recent visit.
"You know, Bob, I hate to tell you, but you still have a face for TV," said David Woodruff. But, it was a joke, so … we're confused.
We're still not sure if he's ok, or if (as our tipster's sister's cousin's roommate's ex-best friend's lesbian love child revealed) his face is still hanging from a hatch in Iraq.
Anchor hurt in Iraq 'still has a face for TV' - bro [Helen Kennedy, Daily News]
Earlier: Only the best pain meds for Woodruff
From the desk of ABC News president David Westin comes this Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt update:
Bob has made some substantial progress in recent days. He is now conscious and talking, although he remains under fairly heavy medication for pain from his various injuries, which are healing well.
They have him up and walking around. He's conversing with [his wife] Lee, with his children and with the nurses. He's approaching the point where he will be leaving Bethesda Medical Center, and they are working hard at the moment to make sure they have the right facility to continue his recovery. Once again, it's important for all of us to bear in mind that this will be a long process. We're not close to the end yet. But, as he has throughout, Bob is exceeding expectations and giving us real reason for optimism.
Doug Vogt, who was also injured in the Jan. 29 attack, is back with his family in France and recovering well. He will continue to undergo treatment there and come back for occasional checkups.
Notice, of course, that there's no mention of what the future of World News Tonight is going to look like, especially with Liz Vargas out on baby leave. But at least Diane Sawyer is stepping it up.
Meanwhile, we're reminded of us an email that landed in our inbox late last month, which we didn't have much of a newspeg for at the time. Couresty David Westin, now we do. Cue the "sister's cousin's roommate's ex-best friend's lesbian love child" music.
I was speaking with an acquaintance last night who told me that his friend's son is serving in Iraq, and, in fact, was with the unit that had Bob Woodruff embedded with it. He was apparently in the armored personnel carrier that was hit, injuring Woodruff and his cameraman. According to my friend, when the two injured newsmen were pulled back into the APC his friend's son described Woodruff's face as having been "blown off".
This morning I heard that Woodruff is still in a medically-induced coma. The incident in which he was injured took place almost a month ago.
In searching the internet for further information today, I came across the following Associate Press article from February 3rd. Google had it cached, which was lucky since there doesn't appear to be a direct link to it anymore. It appears from the text of the article that my friend's friend's son may have been accurate in his assessment.
Note the phrase ""I saw Bob's face hanging from the hatch…"
Sad shit…
Speaking of sad shit hanging from the hatch.
As if the dangers encountered by Jill Caroll and Bob Woodruff weren't enough to convince you, the New York Times is here to remind us that Iraq has become a scary place for journalists.
Upon first reading the headline, we were like, "yeah, no shit. Helooo, there's a war. War=death." But then we kept reading and realized that not only is it the deadliest place for journalists right now, but it's the deadliest of the last quarter century.
Is this the fault of Iraqi insurgents? Or our own government? Nope. It's Judith Miller's fault. Says, Paul E. Steiger, Wall Street Journal managing editor,
The example set by the United States "may have contributed" to these trends.
"With a prominent U.S. reporter jailed for 85 days, new legal threats emerging every day and the U.S. military stonewalling investigations into the deaths and detentions of journalists in Iraq," Mr. Steiger wrote, "the press fared badly at the hands of U.S. authorities." The journalist jailed for 85 days last year was Judith Miller, then a reporter for The New York Times.
Yep, you heard that right. Dick Cheney is shooting people, but it's really Judith Miller who is increasing violence.
Iraq Has Become the Deadliest Place for Journalists, Report Say [Katharine Q. Seelye]
Unlike Colin Ferrell's sex tape, not a soul has seen the footage of Bob Woodruff and his cameraman Doug Vogt experience of their vehicle bombing in Iraq.
ABC executives made the controversial decision not to remove the tape from the camera.
"It is not first, second, or third thing on anyone's mind," said the insider.
The camera will be hand-carried and delivered to ABCNEWS headquarters in New York later on Thursday, from Washington, a source claims. "No one has seen what is on the tape. No one."
In some sort of bizarre evidence like treatment of the video, ABC execs have left the tape in the camera, not even removing it to watch what's on there. Plans to treat the tape with the "same editorial judgement applied to any war footage."
Which means nobody will ever see it, because that would actually require bringing the war to the public's attention. Wait, wasn't that, like, the point of Woodruff being there in the first place?
ABCNEWS HOLDS TAPE OF ANCHOR BOMBED IN IRAQ [Drudge Report]
Even we thought it might be hard to take on Jon Friedman's column today, given its emotional twinge as Jon-Jon effuses on journalists in the war zone, from Christian Science Monitor scribe and current hostage Jill Carroll to Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt, whose roadside IED attack have left them both hospitalized.
But Friedman – quickly gaining notoriety around Jossip HQ as "that guy who won't participate in our talking head email polling" – has managed to accomplish something we never expected: prove us wrong.
You see, we can take on his column today! Begins Friedman:
I wonder if it's time for the media to reject the whims of hostage-takers in Iraq and elsewhere, and decide not to air terrorists' news footage.
On Monday afternoon, MSNBC showed a brief, heartbreaking image: a television clip of Jill Carroll, the American freelance journalist who had been taken hostage in Iraq on Jan. 7.
The riveting shots, made available by al-Jazeera, showed the 28-year-old Carroll clad in a white head scarf. We saw the stricken, agonized expression on her face as she spoke. The footage lasted less than a minute — not quite the time it takes to air a Coke or Pepsi commercial. Still, the pictures provided such an indelible portrait of one courageous woman's fear that it will be a long time before I can get them out of my mind.
You see, even we aren't using something as gravely solemn as Carroll's hostage situation to tip off the likes of McCann-Erickson and FCB Worldwide on how to sell more soda. Just get a white female with tears in her eyes and a plea for help and – bam! – they could probably convince consumers New Coke Is It! in a mere 30-second spot.
How the media can help Jill Carroll [Jon Friedman, Marketwatch]
Injured ABC newsman Bob Woodruff is back in the U.S. after a medical stopover in Germany. He's in a Maryland hospital en route to recovery and, at long last, there's a talking head updating the press on his status besides ABC president David Westin.
Yep, Bob's brother David Woodruff is filling us in on the World News Tonight anchor's status.
"It's tough to look at. He definitely has some facial wounds, but they're pretty much on one side of his face. It looks like kind of a burn that you might get from being hit with some sand," he said.
"Those things, frankly, for us, are minor compared to just making sure he's going to return from the injury to his head."
Maybe minor to family members, but you think Westin is going to let Woodruff – chosen for his pretty boy looks, like Liz Vargas was chosen for her "grace" – return to the air looking like one of the bloodied soldiers he tried to report on? Harsh, sure. But true none the less.
Meanwhile, as we predicted, ABC has asked Charlie Gibson to fill in the WNT anchor chair — and Diane Sawyer as well. So expect even more saddle bag undereyes, as their Good Morning America duties haven't been relinquished just yet.
Anchor improves [Helen Kennedy, NYDN]
Gibson, Sawyer to fill in for injured Woodruff [AP]
Earlier: With Woodruff shock over, let's start talking numbers
Earlier: Alessandra Stanely just couldn't help but weigh in on Woodruff
Earlier: Forget Woodruff's health. What about ABC's ratings?
Earlier: Bob Woodruff & Doug Vogt 'stable' after Iraq assault
Related: All Bob Woodruff coverage
Last night, we watched as Dan Abrams closed his show by backhanding the New York Times – much as we did in the wee hours of the A.M. – for running such an impersonal article about how Bob Woodruff's injuries in Iraq would affect World News Tonight ratings.
Now, from an AP story filed yesterday afternoon, just as Jossip was closing up camp:
With "World News Tonight" anchor Bob Woodruff showing improvement Monday, a reeling ABC News division was coming to grips with what his injuries mean for the future of the recently revamped newscast and its ratings prospects.
That's the first graph. At least the Times waited till the fourth.
(Meanwhile, Woodruff is said to be returning to the U.S. as soon as today.)
ABC's Woodruff Improving After Iraq Blast [David Bauder, AP]
Earlier: Alessandra Stanely just couldn't help but weigh in on Woodruff
Earlier: Forget Woodruff's health. What about ABC's ratings?
Earlier: Bob Woodruff & Doug Vogt 'stable' after Iraq assault
Related: All Bob Woodruff coverage
Leave it to Matt Drudge to perfectly capture our smoking war hero fantasies.
The War Within [San Francisco Chronicle via Drudge Report]
Damn, looks like "tawonda" got the leg up on us all! She's the last Bob Woodruff well wisher to get a word in before David Westin & Co. locked us all out.
World News Tonight Forum [ABCNews.com]
Given Alessandra Stanley's recent (and historical) ability to deliver egregious factual errors in any body of copy, we were a little concerned when we spotted her byline accompanying an item about something so serious as Bob Woodruff's attack in Iraq. So, the investigative journalists that we are, we decided to go through her piece with a fine-toothed comb. And we mean fine-toothed, folks. This comb has got tiny ass bristles. Like, skinnier than Nicole Richie's calves.
So begins Stanley:
Bob Woodruff was in Baghdad for ABC reporting the good news that the Bush administration complains is ignored by the news media, and he ended up as a glaring illustration of the bad news.
So far, so good, 'Sandra.
Mr. Woodruff, the newly named co-anchor of "World News Tonight," spent Friday chatting with friendly Iraqis on the street and slurped ice cream at a popular Baghdad shop to show how some in Iraq are seeking a semblance of normalcy.
Sure, we've got no way of independently verifying that Woodruff "slurps" his ice cream rather than bites into it with his front teeth, but given Iraq's heat index, we imagine that's how a news anchor might eat his ice cream. So, check.
Yesterday he and an ABC cameraman, Doug Vogt, were badly wounded while traveling in a routine convoy with Iraqi military forces who are being trained to impose that normalcy and allow American troops to go home.
What happened to Mr. Woodruff and Mr. Vogt was one of those chilling television moments that mark a milestone. This conflict has shown all too clearly that soldiers, civilians, aid workers and journalists are all targets.
Normally facts reported elsewhere and repeated verbatim would be an opportunity for Stanely to slip up — but she's wow-ing us here. Wow-ow-ow-ing.
Soldiers, American and Iraqi, are wounded and killed by roadside bombs and ambushes every day in tragedies so common they float to the back pages. But until now, at least, network anchors always seemed to sail through hot spots with an inalienable aura of invulnerability, like senators or movie stars.
Mr. Woodruff's plight underscored at a whole new level that Americans there feel like sitting ducks, picked off by a faceless enemy.
We're a little wary here. "Every day?" Surely there was a 24 hour period when neither an American or Iraqi soldier was injured or killed. Well .. Hah! Who are we kidding? The way George Bush is running things over there, we're surprised when 60 minutes go by without incident. Way to go, Ales-es-es-es-es-sandra. Another gold star.
The attack, which led all the network evening newscasts, was obviously a blow for ABC, which only last month appointed Mr. Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas as a team to replace the late Peter Jennings, packaging the duo as pioneers of a new, more light-footed style of evening news show. Last night, Ms. Vargas did the anchor duties alone in a dark pinstriped jacket, gravely interviewing other ABC correspondents about the escalating danger of roadside bombs.
We'll give Stanley the benefit of the doubt here: Yes, we believe she watched Sunday night's broadcast, even if she did file her copy so shortly after it wrapped.
One reason networks, and ABC in particular, have been loath to appoint a single female anchor is that many news executives believe that in an emergency, viewers prefer a comforting fatherly presence. In this case, ABC's chosen authority figure was hurt in a crisis, and the distressing news was delivered by a female anchor chosen more for her on-air grace than her experience or gravitas.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Now that's what we were looking for: a reason for the Times to issue one of its many Alessandra Stanley Brand corrections.
Vargas was hired more for her grace than her "experience or gravitas?"
You know Tuesday's paper is going to carry the following: "An article on Monday that described ABC World News Tonight co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas' hiring misrepresented her qualifications. She was identified as having grace, while she was actually hired because, when sat next to dreamboat Bob Woodruff, viewers want to fuck the news."
Thanks for playing along at home!
A Bomb Detonates, and an Anchorman Tells a Story of the War by Becoming the Story [Alessandra Stanely, NYT]
Earlier: Forget Woodruff's health. What about ABC's ratings?
Earlier: Bob Woodruff & Doug Vogt 'stable' after Iraq assault
Related: All Bob Woodruff coverage
Glad to know we aren't the only ones considering how Bob Woodruff's life-threatening injuries might affect ABC's ratings. It took the New York Times' Richard Oppel and Jacques Steinberg just four graphs to get there.
For years now, "World News Tonight" has been lagging in the ratings, and ABC has much money and prestige riding on its new co-anchor format, which was intended to stand out from its competitors by having Mr. Woodruff and his partner, Elizabeth Vargas, take turns reporting from the field while the other stays in New York.
Shrapnel, schmrapnel.
ABC News Anchor Is Badly Injured by Bomb in Iraq [Richard Oppel & Jacques Steinberg, NYT]
Earlier: Bob Woodruff & Doug Vogt 'stable' after Iraq assault
Related: All Bob Woodruff coverage
By now, you've certainly heard the horrible news: Newly inducted World News Tonight anchor and long term ABC heavyweight Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt were severly injured when their military convoy was hit with an IED attack on Sunday just north of Baghdad.
First, the good news: they're alive. More so, it looks like the shrapnel that sliced through their body armor – and into their heads – did not pierce their brains. After the loss of Peter Jennings, the entire ABC family and everyone in the industry is doubly feeling this tragedy. Even us sarcastic and usually morally reprehensible folks at Jossip are saddened by the news.
While fellow news media have been feeding on the story, ABC president David Westin has been keeping his Disney-owned minions informed. Jossip has obtained the emails he's been sending out to staff since top brass first learned of Woddruff and Vogt's conditions.
The first email was sent First, when the attack first took place.
8:05 am
Bob Woodruff and his cameraman, Doug Vogt, were injured in an IED attack near Taji, Iraq today. They were embedded with the 4th Infantry Division, traveling with an Iraqi Army unit in an Iraqi mechanized vehicle. Bob and Doug are in serious condition and are being treated at a U.S. military hospital in Iraq. At this point, we don't know much more than this. We'll keep you posted as we learn more. I know that all of us will keep Bob, Doug, and their families in our thoughts and prayers.
Then two hours later, came a short update:
10:03am
Our best information as of now is that Bob and Doug are in surgery at Balad Air Force Base north of Baghdad. We will let you know as we get more information concerning their status.
Westin popped in again, in the afternoon:
13:08
We have learned from the U.S. military and from our producer on the scene that Bob and Doug are out of surgery and are both in stable condition. We take this as good news, but the next few days will be critical. The military plans to evacuate them to their medical facilities in Landstuhl, probably overnight tonight.
It's been standard procedure for journalists injured in Iraq to be immediately treated at a U.S. military medical facility before being transferred to Landstuhl, Germany, once the victim is stable enough for transport. And that's exactly what's happening with Woodruff and Vogt — while Woodruff's newly minted co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas was wrapping Sunday night's program.
Certainly, our main concern is with the health of Woodruff and Vogt. But the media world, and those couple million people still tuning into World News Tonight (but not enough to ump it out of fourth place), want to know: What's David Westin going to do about World News Tonight?
The heavily touted dual anchor format that was supposed to buoy ABC's news program out of last place suddenly looks as fragile as ever. Will Charlie Gibson – who refused to join the multi-anchor format because he wanted a 3-year, not a 2-year, deal – be asked to fill in for the interim? Will Vargas assume sole responsibilities, becoming the single female-only anchored network news program on the air? If Woodruff is out of commission for the foreseeable future, will his future as co-anchor be jeopardized if the "Vargas only" format proves to be a ratings winner? And, uh, were the cameras rolling when this went down?
We'll let you know what secrets continue to pour out of David Westin's email outbox. In the meantime, catch him and (a very exhausted) Vargas on this morning's Good Morning America.
Maybe something more ridiculous will come along, but until then, here's today's Drudge Report report.
Soldiers dying in Iraq and fat puppies top the news. Actually, a huge Star of David tops the news, but fat puppies are right after that.
The American Military's motto of "you can die for our country, but you don't have freedom of speech," is likely sending Jon Stewart into hysterics as we speak.
Not only did we just recently learn about law blogs, but now we learn that there are military blogs (a.k.a "milblogs") out there, too? Guess we were too busy stalking Jake Gyllenhaal and contemplating Lindsay Lohan's diet tips of bulimia and cocaine to notice.
But the military noticed — you betcha'. And they are less than pleased about milbloggers giving up government secrets. They sent around a "loose lips sink ships" warning, that is simply priceless and extremely frightening:
Throughout last year, the Army, Marines, Air Force and Navy tightened control on bloggers by requiring them to register through the chain of command and by creating special security squads to monitor milblogs…
…The Pentagon in November sent out an advisory titled "Loose blogs may blow up BCTs." A BCT is a brigade combat team.
We're scared far too shitless to actually look up one of these blogs, but this sort of reminds us of that "if soliders are old enough to die, they are old to vote," concept. Well, as long as we know what we're fighting for over there in Iraq. Freedom. Not oil. Not cold, hard cash. Not world domination. Freedom.
U.S. curbs soldiers' blogs [Joseph Mallia, Newsday]
• Need a good laugh? Take a look at Howard Kurtz's explanation of journalism, and why it sometimes requires reading. [Romenesko]
• Courtney Love is selling her real house…and buying a crack house. [Curbed]
• Monday nights are about to get a lot more interesting. You can watch Heather Graham's fake Sex and the City Show then catch "Roller Girls" crash the shit into each other. Or, you can just watch Boogie Nights. [Slate, ABC]
• Note to the Guardian: celebs may not be supporting our troops, but fake celebs are. [MSNBC]
• Truly breaking news of the day: Tom Brokaw and Harrison Ford are old. [Rush & Molloy]
Journalism school can make kids do the darndest things. Like, say, run away from their parents and go to Baghdad to "witness Iraq's struggle for democracy first hand." So, we guess nobody told this kid that what Fox perceives as "Iraq's struggle" is actually President Bush's struggle to take over the world?
Apparently, kids don't ditch class just to pick up slurpees and smoke weed anymore. Farris Hassan hopped a flight to Lebenon, and then traveled the Middle East for two weeks, before stumbling upon the war zone offices of the Associated Press in Baghdad. He is now back home in Florida, where his parents will be closing his bank account and canceling their New York Times subscription.
Hassan isn't yet speaking to the press, but if David Amsden acts quickly enough, he could probably snag the exclusive interview for New York magazine, get it optioned for a movie, and retire by age 30.
Fla. Teen Resting After Iraq Trip, Mom Says [AP, NYT]
Farris Hassan's Day Off: Student Visits Iraq [Stephen M. Silverman, People]
