In the past two days, Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz has been getting a lot of attention for his “scoop” about Dan Rather.

But the anecdote, published today in his book Reality Show, is old news.

In Mr. Kurtz’s book, he writes that former CBS anchor threatened to release a document to The New York Times if his now-widely-discredited National Guard story did not run on 60 Minutes.  read more »

These journalists are out of touch. They don't understand the seismic consequences of the Iraq war, which is slowly transforming our politics (beginning with the Congress). Journalists failed us in that war; Judy Miller disgraced the New York Times by carrying the water for Richard Cheney and thereby misleading a society, with the gravest consequences. In fact, you might say that Judy Miller's testimony is her most honest reporting yet about the way the Iraq war was engineered. Thank you, Judy and Scooter; now I know why the VP's tragic/literary chief of staff routinely took hours of out of his days to talk to reporters.

The professional bloodletting that is happening in the Libby trial, the destruction of all those promises journalists made to the White House—this can only serve journalism right now by restoring traditional virtues of the writing business: a sense of vocation that has nothing to do with corporate salary, a sense of citizenship that has nothing to do with Meritocratic Election, and a sense of detachment that wants nothing to do with imperialistic misadventures that are bound to cause untold suffering in another part of the world.

Barack Obama dispatched fund-raiser Jenny Yeager to raise money in New York.

Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel is having a fund-raiser for Obama.

A sneak peak at a poll of independent voters in New Hampshire indicates that John McCain's support "has collapsed."

Spitzer is expected to name Richard Daines as the state's health commissioner.

Critics wonder whether the mayor's proposed changes to the public school system are a sign of success or failure. Whatever it is, it's risky, says David Herszenhorn.

Errol Louis continues the fight against the N-word.

Tom Suozzi apologized for using lights and sirens to get to a meeting in Nassau.

TNR has a piece looking at whether Barack Obama can handle the rock-star treatment [subscription].

Alan Hevesi has been invited to testify before a grand jury considering criminal charges against him in Albany.

Sam Roberts looks at the history of the governor's mansion and how Eliot Spitzer may use it.

Fred Dicker reports that lawmakers will get a pay hike if they agree to Pataki's wish list.

And Errol Louis suggests a holiday gift if you want your 2-year-old to read.

Hillary Clinton is expanding her outreach.

Huffington Post thinks Obama's candidacy serves as a lesson for Hillary.

Mitt Romney hired a senior communication strategist.

The TWU is holding a mass membership meeting on December 9, their first since the strike.

Charles Barron is considering a run for Public Advocate, according to Rock Hackshaw.

Rudy Giuliani is having a fund-raiser.

Three weeks back on Howard Kurtz's show Reliable Sources, Ricks, who has just published a bestselling book about the Iraq fiasco called Fiasco, made a startling statement:

One of the things that is going on, according to some U.S. military analysts, is that Israel purposely has left pockets of Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon, because as long as they're being rocketed, they can continue to have a sort of moral equivalency in their operations in Lebanon.

KURTZ: Hold on, you're suggesting that Israel has deliberately allowed Hezbollah to retain some of it's fire power, essentially for PR purposes, because having Israeli civilians killed helps them in the public relations war here?

RICKS: Yes, that's what military analysts have told me.

KURTZ: That's an extraordinary testament to the notion that having people on your own side killed actually works to your benefit in.. terms of the battle of perceptions here.

RICKS: Exactly. It helps you with the moral high ground problem, because you know your operations in Lebanon are going to be killing civilians as well.

KURTZ: All right.

I have made clear to Tom Ricks that he should not have made those statements. Len Downie

That's too bad. Yes, Ricks's statement seems off the wall. But he stuck to it throughout the flap, telling The New York Sun "The comments were accurate: that I said I had been told this by people. I wish I hadn't said them, and I intend from now on to keep my mouth shut about it."

It's hard to imagine any of these guys getting so bent out of shape if, say, American military tactics were impeached. A point Ricks made to me when I asked him to talk about the flap. "No thanks, I have vowed to going back to covering only Iraq, where tempers seem to run calmer."