Feeling like it's been too long since you last heard outraged self-justifications from Miss Once Ran Amok? We certainly feel that way. And so we've been wondering how she possibly let a whole week or so pass without a disastrous appearance on a television of radio show.
• Bob Woodward, Judy Miller, Mitch Albom, and Newsweek had the worst media years this year, says Jon Friedman. We can't help but think that's not quite fair to Newsweek. Or, really, to Albom. Or even, ultimately, to Woodward. But Judy? Yeah, her year sucked. [MW]
• Time's Viveca Novak tells her Plame tale. Are we the only ones a little amazed at how long she kept her bosses in the dark? Weird. [Time]
• Hollywood gives the press a bad name, says David Carr. We'd argue the press doesn't help, either. [NYT]
• Time's Viveca Novak testifies to Plame grand jury, and — eschewing Judy Miller's wait-a-few-weeks model — she'll write about it in next week's Time. [NYT]
• MPA figures out what'll save magazines: This crazy new thing called the Internet! [Mediaweek]
• Actress won't get naked for VF, and fires publicist who set up the shoot. We're a little bit in love now, to be honest. [Radar]
• Salon.com "wants to be known for more than polemics." Who knew. [MW]
• In Touch runs "Exclusive: Jessica's Breakup Diary." Which is great — except, of course, that Jessica had nothing to do with it. [WWD]
• The latest magland roman a clef is by Jane Pratt's former assistant. But this time this boss is the heroine — and her boss is the bad guy. What an interesting twist. [NYP]
• Maureen Dowd says the Times is over the Judy Miller fiasco and now "everything's fantastic." She also says the Iraq insurgency is in its last throes, and that U.S. forces have turned the corner there. [Texas Monthly]
• It's not just Maxim; Housewife Nicollette Sheridan will appear on any magazine that'll have her. [Folio: (second item)]
• Blogger book deals continue apace: Dan Radosh's Rapture Ready! TK in 2008. (Yeah, we know he does a lot more than only blog, but why let facts get in the way of a good generalization?) [Radosh.net]
• Hey, maybe newspaper readership isn't actually declining, if you count all those people who read papers on the web. Which would seem to make sense. [E&P]
• Syd Schanberg points out that old media will have to stick around in some form, because someone has to do the original reporting. To which we say: Duh. [VV]
• Jack Shafer says Daily Newser Lloyd Grove was right to piss on Time Warner's allegedly off-the-record Scalia event. Just like we said yesterday afternoon. [Slate]
• Judith Miller might put Lewis Libby in jail, but Time's Viveca Novak is key to keeping Karl Rove out, apparently. [WP]
• Tom Friedman sued for copyright infringement over World Is Flat cover art. By someone right here in the United States, no less. [E&P
After reading and re-reading reality television star Nicole Richie's debut novel The Truth About Diamonds five or six times (yes, it's THAT fanfuckingtastic, and the National Book Award Foundation totally blew it this year), we're increasingly convinced that there was no way on earth Richie herself wrote the book. Not only do we suspect she lacks the necessary writing skill, but everyone knows hungry people can't think straight enough to focus on large projects.
• As the news business reels — layoffs, papers for sale, Google Base, Judy Miller — j-students become even more characteristically naive and optimistic. [USAT]
• Jon Friedman thinks Adam Moss's New York can be one of the legendarily great magazines, like Gurley Brown's Cosmo, Ross and Shawn's New Yorkers, or Felker's New York. Moss's staffers, meantime, are all afraid they're going to be fired. [MW]
• This just in: Howie Kurtz has conflicting roles, covering media for both WP and CNN. As he has for years. [NYT]
• Times public editor Barney Calame's latest earth-shattering announcement: "Anonymous sourcing can be both a blessing and a curse for journalism." [NYT]
• Miller got axed and Woodward won't because Woodward's one of the cool kids and Miller isn't. Or something like that. [BG]
• On CNN, Maureen Dowd — did you know she wrote a book? — calls for more female columnists. [E&P]
It's the $64,000 question: How much severance did Judy Miller get from the Times? Today's Page Six carries the first published speculation on the matter, saying "guesses range as high as $3 million." The specifics:
• Bob Woodward's in truh-ble. [NYT]
• WP's Walter Pincus set to go the way of Judith Miller in the Wen Ho Lee case. Except without the everyone-hates-him-at-the-end part. [WP]
• Need your dose of softcore porn more frequently than once a month? It's looking like Keith Blanchard's prototype for a weekly lad book might see life at Bauer. And thank God for that. [WWD]
• William T. Vollman, Joan Didion win National Book Awards. [USAT]
• Hotshot founders of Penguin's Riverhead imprint bolt for Random's Doubleday Broadway group and a new, yet-to-be-named imprint. [NYP]
• The lucky winner of that fundraising lunch with Rupert Murdoch? Learning Annex chief Bill Zanker. Be you're even happier now that you overpaid for that mediocre lecture. [Guardian]
• HBO still confident it owns Sunday night, Lisa Kudrow's dreadful Comeback notwithstanding. [NYT]
• Speaking at the University of Texas, Maureen Dowd — who, apparently, has a new book out — speculates that Judy Miller will end up with a Fox News talkshow. [Daily Texan]
• Bad things often happen to Time Persons of the Year. [The Media Mob/NYO]
Just to prove that we never exaggerated intelligence reports regarding our yellowcake, here's the Billy's Bakery confection that was delivered to our Millerpalooza Sweepstakes winner Sunday afternoon.
• American Press Institute launches $2 million project to figure out the future of newspapers. By all current evidence: Death. [E&P]
• How will Nightline survive post-Koppel? Standards, dammit, says Koppel. [USAT]
• Bob Woodward grew up and turned in his father, metaphorically speaking. [VV]
• Bill Keller has a "serious case of Judy Miller fatigue." Just like everyone else. [Daily Princetonian]
• Media transparency is busting out all over. Yay! [LAT]
• Liberals don't listen to the radio or watch much TV, says NBC chief. And it's for genetic reasons. [B&C]
• Aaron Brown is the king of lunch. Also, he'd take the ABC or CBS jobs, if they were offered. We would, too. [Phil. Inquirer]
• The Judy World Tour continues, last night at George Washington University. [FishbowlDC]
• Peacock to Martha: You're fired! [WP]
• Is Judy Miller now a right-wing hero? Wait, what was she before the war, then? [NYM]
• Andrew Sullivan to move his blog to Time.com. Sellout! MSM! All those other things we're supposed to say! Yada yada yada. [NYP]
• Bob Schieffer to stay longer as CBS Evening News anchor. [NYT]
• Times to launch quarterly sports mag. [NYP]
• Esquire likes undulating apartments. [NYT]
• Google considers offering book rentals, sort of. [Reuters via Yahoo]
• Ruth Reichl reads The Bruni Digest. Bruni doesn't. Or so he says. [AP via Yahoo]
Judy Miller has been the biggest medialand story of the last several weeks, and it all came to a head last week. It cost the woman her job and the Times yet more of its esteem, it raised questions about erstwhile savior Bill Keller's executive editorship, and it embarrassed the dauphin publisher to the point where there are now whispers about whether his family should try to replace him. Everyone who covers media has been talking about it incessantly — the Observer's Gabriel Sherman, seemingly, has been following Miller from Sag Harbor to Balthazar to wherever she might next alight, like a particularly devoted and unusually inquisitive puppy dog — including dueling Larry King and Charlie Rose hours Thursday night.
The race was a nail-biter, but we're pleased to see — and Judy Miller herself is no doubt relieved — that you've chosen as her most likely next step one that follows in the footprints of the last prominently disgraced career Timesperson. Howell Raines, the hard-charging, Jayson-enabling executive editor, stepped down in June 2003, and the only significant thing we've heard from him since was his 20,000-word angry, self-righteous, self-pitying Atlantic cover essay, published the next June.
Dueling self-justifications on TV last night.
We missed Judith Miller on Morning Edition this morning, because, well, we never listen to NPR. (Every now and again, we like to play against demographic type.) Thankfully, though, several of you have filled us in on what we missed:
She just couldn't handle all that love being sent her way.
• Happy birthday to former CNN anchor Aaron Brown! May your 57th year be full of, um, employment! [Wikipedia]
• Staying in tonight? Be sure to catch Judy Miller seduce Larry King with her bangs. [CNN]
• In a week where the fluff news is dominated by the story of two cheerleaders getting it on in the ladies' room (and then subsequently punching a witness), let's take a moment to remember all the great moments in pop cultural history that have gone down in public restrooms. [Black Table]
• Master the Paris Hilton pose, and you too can downplay your lazy eye! [Just Jared]
• Get Rich or Die Tryin to See the Flick. No, seriously. Stereotypes, people — need we keep perpetuating them? [PC]
• Dozing on the LIRR? You might want to rethink that, considering someone's devoting their blog to pictures of you drooling. [Essays & Effluvia]
• Sarah Silverman: "I don't care if you think I'm racist. I just want you to think I'm thin." At least we're not the only ones who think like that. [Slate]
The terms of the contest were simple: Give us your prediction of when news would break that Judy Miller was leaving the Times, and you'd win. There were all sorts of rules and regulations surrounding that basic challenge — closest without going over, time to be determined by the timestamp on the first Romenesko post, tie to be broken by participant with most other correct details — but the challenge itself was straightforward. And so, as it turns out, was picking the winner.
