Major Garrett, CBS News' chief White House correspondent, sure is mad at someone! This tweet flickered briefly across our screens this morning before Garrett noticed and deleted it; it was likely intended as a DM for some unfortunate soul—another reporter? A source? National Journal's Jim O'Sullivan, who tweeted this directly before Garrett flew off the handle:
• It's the end of the line for Miramax. The studio that Harvey and Bob Weinstein founded in 1979, sold to Disney in 1993, and departed in 2005, was officially shuttered today, and 80 people were let go. [Wrap, NYT, Guardian]
• Jay Leno went on Oprah today to try and redeem himself. He acted like a cry-baby and flat-out lied (and may have gotten away with it anyway). In related news, Conan's final week on the air turned out to be his biggest, not surprisingly. And there are some signs the late-night debacle may have Comcast's bosses thinking about showing NBC chief Jeff Zucker the door.
• 48 million people tuned in to the State of the Union address last night. [NYT]
• Only 35 people have signed up for a subscription to Newsday.com since the paper set up a pay wall a few months back. But it's all going according to plan and Newsday management couldn't be happier, the paper claims. [Crain's]
• This is a bit awkward: The Wall Street Journal is rolling out a local edition this spring that it hopes will compete with the New York Times. But it may actually need the Times' help printing the papers to make it happen. [NYT]
• A growing number of Time Inc. staffers are defecting to Bloomberg. [NYP]
• Samantha Harris is bidding goodbye to Dancing with the Stars. [People]
• Is Fox News reporter Major Garrett a fan of hookers? Maybe! [Gawker]
The problem with condensed Twitter URLs: You can't see where they go. White House correspondent Major Garrett tweeted a URL last night, and it went to a Vegas call girl website. Vegas, where some White House folks go next month.
• There may be other suitors for NBC in addition to Comcast. Like News Corp. And Liberty Media. And Time Warner. Or maybe not. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, for one, says he isn't interested. [THR, DHD, Gawker, AdAge]
• More on the sale of BusinessWeek: "Knowledgeable sources" say Bloomberg is paying $2-$5 million in cash for the mag. And another source reports the mag will be changing its name to Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Naturally. [BW, NYT]
• The war between the White House and Fox News goes on. [NYDN, ABC, CJR]
• If you notice TV commercials seem more upbeat than usual, it's because the advertising world has decided to be cheerful and optimistic again. [NYT]
• The Atlantic has determined that NBC CEO Jeff Zucker and New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. are "Brave Thinkers," for some reason. [NYO]
The president fielded questions tonight about his daughters, the attorney general of New York and a kooky Chinese plan for an international currency. Anything on the nitty-gritty of his trillion-dollar bank bailout? Nope.
Yesterday, Fox News reported, repeatedly, that former Democratic consultant and current CNN talking head Paul Begala was going to join the Hillary Clinton campaign. He wasn't going to do this thing, but they reported it anyway. Begala emailed his "friend" Major "Square-Jawed" Garrett to correct the story. Garrett promised to take Begala's denial "under advisement." Then continued reporting it, only with a few extra made-up details. Then Hillary won the election and everyone forgot about it except Paul Begala, who angrily wrote a "blog" about it at the HuffPo. Their email exchange, below. [HuffPo]
