Having missed the Sarah Palin-Charlie Gibson interview of last night, I awoke this morning eager to gobble up analysis of this much-anticipated event. In my morning reading, I found two sources with distinct spin on the news here are some key excerpts from an account in the Washington Post.

*”Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks…The idea that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a view once promoted by Bush administration officials, has since been rejected even by the president himself.”

*”In the interview…she was confronted with questions about the U.S. relationship with Russia and her fitness for office, and she appeared to struggle when asked to define the “Bush doctrine” on foreign policy.”

And herewith some excerpts from an account in the Washington Times:

*Headline: “Palin touts readiness in 1st interview”

*”Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Thursday she is ready to be vice president and warned the U.S. needs to be vigilant in the face of Russian aggression, including being ready for war if it means defending NATO allies.”

*”Mr. Gibson at one point implied Mrs. Palin was stumbling over the question, telling her he was getting ‘lost in a blizzard of words there’ when she was fumbling over how far the U.S. could go to pre-empt an attack.”

*”[S]he did stress that during her recent trip she also met with wounded U.S. troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany - something Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama failed to do during his recent overseas travels. And at another point, she noted she has been in touch with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.”

Which story does a better job of capturing the utter truth of Palin’s coming-out interview? Is the Times too nice, the Post too critical?

Years ago, a debate sprung from the editorial offices of the Washington City Paper. Here’s the backdrop: We were writing about a 40-something musician or artist who died when his car got T-boned in a terrible accident. A draft of the story called this event a “tragedy.” A since-departed editor said no, that’s not a tragedy. Do you know what a tragedy actually is?, he inveighed. He said that his English professor preached that a tragedy is when a great, great man dies an early death.

In addition to being a song by the Bee Gees, “Tragedy” is defined as a “calamity: an event resulting in great loss and misfortune….”

So perhaps news outlets should exercise a bit of caution in using the word. Particularly sports writers, who are always trying to amp up the drama in their copy, even stories that don’t involve the Olympics.

This past weekend, I was reading Mark Maske’s piece in the Washington Post about Green Bay Packers executive Mark Murphy. A former Redskin, Murphy was the guy who negotiated the team’s traumatic separation from Brett Favre. Here’s Maske’s bar for tragedy:

For Murphy, the Favre saga played out at a time of personal tragedy. His father Hugh died in mid-July in Clearwater, Fla., at 83, only about 3 1/2 months after having brain cancer diagnosed. Hugh Murphy had a long career in labor relations and had continued to work as a mediator in Florida until about a year before his death.

Is that really a tragedy, or is that just life?

Editor & Publisher reported yesterday on the end of Leonard Downie’s tenure as Washington Post editor, mentioning that he’ll start dedicating his energies to writing books. He already has one novel in the can—The Rules of the Game, to be published by Knopf in January—which he says is “not about The Washington Post.”

Reading Knopf’s description of the book on Amazon, it’s hard to see how he’ll pull it off without a few Postie stand-ins. And back in April, as the video below shows, he told Nathan’s owner Carol Joynt that the book came “largely from my own experience.” In the interview, he also discusses the responses he got from his agent and editor after filing his first draft of sex scenes. That’s at about 1:30 (via):

Here’s a note from Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth on the changes going on in the lobby of the Post building.

As everyone noticed this morning as they entered the 15th Street building, we’re in the process of making changes to the outer lobby and elevator lobby. I am sorry that we did not communicate earlier about this. It has been in the works for some time and was kicked off by the big guy upstairs in Corporate. The goal is simple: update our look while preserving our history.

Briefly, here’s what’s happening: several weeks ago we removed the photo kiosks in the outer lobby to create more space. The guard desk will move to the far end of the outer lobby. To the right as you enter the building, we will install three large high-resolution monitors to display washingtonpost.com, Newsweek.com and Slate. The websites will be visible from the street.

In the elevator lobby, we will install a large monitor that will display washingtonpost.com’s daily Photo Gallery. The surrounding wall will be “papered” in significant historic front pages.

Joe Elbert is creating a video of the historic photos that were in the elevator lobby; that video, which will include many more photos, will play in the Multi-Purpose Room on a new monitor.

Finally, Eugene Meyer’s Seven Principles will be displayed prominently on a column in the outer lobby.

We expect this project to be completed over several weeks, and hope you will enjoy the results.

Today is a big day at the Washington Post, with Marcus Brauchli taking over from longtime Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. But that’s not all, folks!

There are cataclysmic changes going on in the building’s lobby, and they’ve caught the attention of Postie Paul Duggan, who sent this note to his colleagues:

fyi, I’m told the lobby collage of Post front pages from the long-ago previous century and the iconic photo of Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee circa-Pentagon Papers is to be replaced with a flat-screen-TV slide show of photos from each day’s paper and the rest of the wall be simply paint. … Only one coat up there now, so it’s not all gone yet, just faded behind a cloud of beige. … Nice metaphor.

The Washington Post is ready with the latest in Bob Woodward’s probe of of the full eight years of the Bush administration. Haven’t read the book, just the first excerpt in the Post. Verdict: Not a lot of red meat for a Sunday excerpt. Best little tidbit was a top White House aide telling the prez about Iraq:

“It’s hell, Mr. President,” said deputy national security adviser Meghan O’Sullivan.

This took place around 2006, pre-surge, when things in Iraq were looking, well, like hell.

But outside of that rare glimpse into Bush administration truth-telling, Woodward’s working with a lot of bureaucratic goop in this bad boy. Sure, he clues us into a spat between Condi and a top military official, but the key revelation in this first installment is that Bush was seeking a strategic re-evaluation of the situation in Iraq during this 2006 time frame. Good spade work, Bob, but hardly memorable stuff.

*Who woulda thunk that Roger Federer would’ve made it to the U.S. Open final, given his struggles this summer? And who would’ve thunk that his opponent wouldn’t be Rafael Nadal?

*WashTimes on Palin’s post-convention coming-out.

*This is the guy you want to listen to when it comes to analysis of the Fannie-Freddie takeover.

*And let me just say this about Favre’s debut with the Jets. Indeed, green machine fans, you are 1 and Oh after barely squeaking out a vick over the Dolphins. It happened in part on account of the heroics of your new QB, who threw a vintage heave for a TD in the first half of this tilt. Don’t, however, get giddy. This is a guy who, I’ll predict right now, will toss at least five more INTs than TDs before the year is over or he’s benched, whichever comes first, in car-maintenance parlance. Just wait till he starts to feel a bit comfortable with the system, because that’s when he starts improvising, starts calling his own little plays in the huddle, sandlotting it. And that’s precisely when the defense swoops in, grabbing duck after duck after Favrean duck. I suppose you could look upon this year as Favre’s best chance to pad that NFL-record pick total.

DENVER—LL is currently sitting at Denver International Airport, yawning and enjoying the free WiFi, mostly to ogle Sarah Palin. As his time at the Democratic National Convention comes to a close, though, he is reminded of an informal blog-off discussed late last week between himself and the Washington Post’s David Nakamura and DCist’s Sommer Mathis.

You decide the winner in the comments! Here’s my posts, Mathis’ posts, and Nakamura’s posts.

Now before you cast your vote, ask yourself this: What other blogger has brought you poorly lit video of Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. doin’ “Da Butt”:

LL shot that at a poolside party Tuesday night thrown by Pepco, where guests were greeted by a thoroughly seersuckered Vincent B. Orange Sr., the former Ward 5 councilmember turned Pepco lobbyist, and treated to a carving station and raw bar.

Prior to Thomas’ move-busting, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton had been getting down with about a dozen others in a “Booty Call” line dance. That prompted noted jock Thomas, standing on the sideline, to protest to LL that “he got the athletics gene but not the dancing gene.” He pointed to his mother, delegate delegation member Romaine Thomas, who was dancing with Norton and said, “She’s the dancer in the family.” He then informed a surprised LL that he had attended cotillion as a youngster.

Then the DJ spun E.U.’s go-go crossover classic, and it was off to the races. LL, meanwhile, had to explain go-go to a pair of befuddled New Mexico delegates who had wandered in.

To paraphrase All the President’s Men, that’s a good, solid piece of American journalism the Washington Post doesn’t have.

Vote away!

Gotta credit Eli Saslow and the political team at the Post for the presentation on page A1 of today’s edition. Saslow came in with an insta-story on the Hillary delegates who are “still bitter” about their candidate’s standing in the presidential race.

Obvious story? Maybe, but look at it this way: As soon as Hillary finished her speech, just around 11 pm last night, I hit the sack.

When I got up, there on my stoop was a fully realized, extensively reported, on-the-spot piece on a major issue in the Democratic Party. At lunchtime, I opened the New York Times and found nothing so pressing, so of the moment. There was some stuff about race and how convention speakers weren’t playing up Obama’s as well as some news analysis and something about Ted Kennedy.

Good to see that the Post’s flood-the-zone approach to convention coverage might be yielding a dividend or two.

Today’s Washington Post features the latest skirmish in the 100 Years Kerfuffle between the paper’s Redskins beat writer/blogger, Jason La Canfora, and the team’s Mr. Everything, Vinny Cerrato.

La Canfora softened up Cerrato early in the piece with several glowing references to the de facto GM’s competence and all sorts of feints about the mythical Sean Taylor.

And with Cerrato off balance from all La Canfora’s niceties — there’s not a single mention of when Taylor made Williams look doucheish by lying to the coach about his guilt in the Tampa Bay Spitting Massacre of 2006, their most momentous chapter together on the national stage — the writer landed his now-traditional haymaker:

“Cerrato declined to comment for this story.™”

Bam! There it is! Again!

Standing eight, at the very least. Overall, I scored it as 10-8 round in favor of the media guy.

Vinny?

Talk at the Washington Post all year long has centered on cuts. A wave of buyouts shrunk the staff; the publisher wrote a memo raising the possibility of layoffs; a planned digital-print merger will reduce staff redundancy.

Yet all the parsimony is taking a late-August vacation in deference to convention coverage. The head count for Posties in Denver is in the mid-50s, a contingent replete with tons of reporters, editors, and dot-com people. The traveling team certainly appears deep enough to continue with the overkill coverage that the paper has cranked out over the past couple of days.

Logistical challenges attach to such a large journalistic platoon: The Post’s administrators apparently had trouble putting everyone up at the same hotel. Instead, they spread the staffers among several spots, including the Cherry Creek Hotel, the Denver Marriott Tech Center, and the Hampton Inn & Suites.

Check that: They spread the foot soldiers to those three hotels–that is, editorial board writers, national editors and reporters, Style people, etc.

For Publisher and Washington Post Media Chief Executive Officer Katharine Weymouth, Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., and Managing Editor Phil Bennett, swankier digs were reserved: Hotel Monaco, an “eclectic luxury hotel experience” with only the finest robes, great attention to decor, and room prices topping out around $500. Here’s what one online reviewer had to say about the Monaco experience:

Too bad the hotel didn’t send us anything while we were chillin in the jacuzzi with no goodies! As far as the hotel is concerned, everything was clean and beautiful. The bed was really comfortable, and the decor is extremely unique. The wine gathering was fun, and the complimentary chair massages were AWESOME!

Possible complimentary chair massage recipient Downie said he played no part in picking his accommodations: “I stay where assigned.” And possible complimentary chair massage recipient Weymouth played up the same deus ex machina notion when asked about her reservation: “As for the hotel, to be completely honest, I didn’t know it was plush. Completely delegated the hotel arrangements to the newsroom and happy to stay anywhere,” noted Weymouth, who wrote via e-mail that her agenda in Denver is to “tag along” with reporters and editors.

Though the top dogs were happy to discuss their arrangements, others in the Post get upset when hotel information leaks. One administrator sent this note out to colleagues: “It has come to my attention that our convention housing information was passed on to the City Paper.
My messages are for planning purposes only and I would appreciate it if it was kept that way from now on.”

And National Editor Rajiv Chandrasekaran reached out to Washington City Paper, warning that its journalistic reputation was on the line with this little blog post. “I think it’s irresponsible for the City Paper to print the names of hotels where Washington Post staff members are staying connected to those staff members,” Chandrasekaran fumed.

When asked why, Chandrasekaran said this: “Reasonable people can conclude the reasons why it’s not responsible to print details like that in the newspaper.”

Then Chandrasekaran–a Marriott guy–will want to have a word or two with Metro reporter David Nakamura, who in a recent blog post revealed the following details:

*D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty is staying at the Westin.
*The D.C. delegation is staying at the Crowne Plaza.
*Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine is staying at the Crowne Plaza, along with his son. So is Mark Warner. So is the Virginia delegation.

Irresponsible!

A word of advice to businesses around town: If you want a fluff piece from the Washington Post, throw an anniversary party for yourself.

For proof, just look at Ben’s Chili Bowl, that mainstay/institution/staple of Washington, D.C., on the historic U Street corridor.

The popular greasy spoon was founded in 1958. Which means that in 2003, Ben’s had been around for 45 years. Cause for celebration: The biz threw a party, and the Post responded with a showcase piece on all the fanfare.

Five years later, of course, Ben’s hit its 50th anniversary. The biz is throwing a party, and the Post responded with a showcase piece on all the fanfare.

The articles bear some things in common: They were both splashed huge on the front of the Metro section; they both ran on August 21; and they both spread the common wisdom about Ben’s (historic eatery, great food, loyal clientele, famous people go there, slice of real D.C., community, blah).

At this point, any self-respecting alt-weekly blog writer would spout off about how pathetic this all is, how all the fuss over Ben’s just highlights how starved D.C. is for authenticity on all levels, how lame the Post is for not checking its own archives, and so on.

But let’s not take that route in this instance. It’s Olympics time, after all, and all that matters at this point is who’s better. And so, let’s vote on which version of the Ben’s Chili Bowl anniversary story was the better one. Instead of forcing City Desk readers to slog through both pieces, though, we’ll abridge them for you, category by predictable category.

The race for the gold starts after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

If Barry Svrlugla’s reward for covering the Nats last season was to be the lead reporter on all things Michael Phelps, Chico Harlan deserves a front-row seat at the Second Coming. Since taking over from Svrluga earlier this season, Harlan has ably covered a team that is now re-threatening 121 losses.* Moreover, Harlan has reveled in the kind of gallows humor that comes only with covering a cellar-dwelling, quadruple-A-ish squad. Witness his brutal assessment of reliever Luis Ayala, back when the team’s 10-game losing streak was merely a three-game skid: “A reliable setup man in Montreal’s and Washington’s bullpen since 2003, Ayala this year has become a 6-foot-1 white flag. He appears, the game ends.” And Tampa Bay Rays reporters don’t get clubhouse-interview gems like this:

Asked after his most recent start — his fourth consecutive game with at least four earned runs — to describe his last month, [Tim] Redding settled on a precise assessment:

“Horse[expletive],” he said.

Redding might want to take some interview tips from Teddy, a member of the Nats organization who also loses a lot. In an interview with KidsPost today, he found a way to be more positive than Manny Acta:

Are you ever going to win a race?

[Gives a thumbs up.]

* Update 5:03 p.m.: Using a little something called “basic arithmetic,” I realized that the Nats are mathematically eliminated from losing 121 games this season. It’s totally on the table for ‘09, though.

Photo by Flickr user Scott Ableman

With just one week to go before the back-to-back major-party conventions, a lot of journalists are catching up on their vacationing. I offer up this proof:

*The New York Times is fronting the news that the Kremlin is going to withdraw from Georgia, but is a bit worried about getting hung up in that terrible Atlanta traffic. Otherwise, check out the vid about how John McCain’s politics were “forged in a prison cell.”

*The Washington Post has published the winners of its travel photo contest.

*Los Angeles Times goes big with its feature “Secret Spots of the West,” a kind of “Escapes” for Angelenos.

*The Washington Times just talks more about Michael Phelps.

*And DCist is talking about what’s going on in other cities, just to complete the travel-theme.

Yes, way too much, as a matter of fact.

The offense comes from Post Staff Writer Debbie Cenziper, who has a nice bit of breaking news on the paper’s Web site right now. The story’s about how the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) has just canned seven construction inspectors as part of an effort to upgrade its watchdogging of city rental properties. It’s a significant development—one that’s consistent with the Fenty administration’s scorched-earth approach to reform and that’ll doubtless kick up a bit of litigation for employment attorneys.

The only problem with the piece comes toward the end, where the Post just can’t resist plugging its own coverage:

For months, city leaders have pushed to overhaul DCRA and better protect tenants following a Washington Post investigation that found landlords, under the city’s watch, were driving families from rent-controlled apartments to reap millions converting to condominiums.

OK, OK, so you guys did a series on condo conversions. Yes, we read the stories.

But the effort by city leaders to overhaul DCRA and better protect tenants–well that effort started long before this earth-shaking Post series. As this paper pointed out in early 2006, the campaign to prevent condo conversions from happening willy-nilly predates the Post’s serial interest in the matter by a fair spell.

The Washington Post’s Nikita Stewart posted a hot bit of news at the D.C. Wire a few minutes ago: that Harold Brazil, former at-large councilmember trounced four years ago by Kwame R. Brown, donated to Brown’s re-election campaign.

LL will only point out that his loyal readers knew this back in February. And LL even stuck with the story, getting a quote from Brazil after he refused to return LL’s calls: “I’ll give him some more. I think he’s doing a good job,” Brazil said.

And, Stewart’s reporting reveals, he did give him some more!

Tune in tomorrow for LL’s complete campaign finance rundown.