Martin Eisenstadt, principal of the Eisenstadt Group and Senior Fellow at The Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy is on a the mind of a lot of bloggers and cable news talent bookers lately. Apparently Mr. Eisenstadt, as an adviser to Senator John McCain, leaked the story that former G.O.P. Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin didn't know that Africa is a continent and not a single country. That bit of news was picked up by many, many media sources including Fox News, whose Carl Cameron's on-air telling of the anecdote Media Mob saw fit to include in a round-up of post-election bashing of Governor Palin. He also spread the rumor that Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher was spotted "canoodling" with Saturday Night Live's Kristen Wiig and that he might appear on The Bachelor. That little story made it to Politico's Shenanigans blog, written by Anne Schroeder Mullins, and then the New York Post on Nov. 4, in a "Campaign Morsels" sidebar that is not online, but was recounted in New York magazine's Daily Intel blog.

And who can forget back in August when Mr. Eisenstadt revealed that Paris Hilton's family was offended with the McCain campaign for an ad that compared Senator Obama to Ms. Hilton and Britney Spears.

This election year, Mr. Eisenstadt has been full of great scoops. He's also been completely full of it.  read more »

One of Sam Zell's big theories for newspapers is to get more and more local.

While Newsday was still under Mr. Zell's grasp, he managed to dismantle its national desk, and dispense with nearly every non-Long Island beat.

Even though it's finally out of his control and into the, uh, gentle hands of the Dolans, the new owners have shown no interest is straying from that philosophy. Now we're starting to learn the cost.  read more »

Politico's Michael Calderone reports that Richard Wolffe, who covered the presidential election for Newsweek, will write a book called Renegade: The Education of Barack Obama for the Crown imprint of Random House.

Sound familiar?

That's because just yesterday the Media Mob reported that Anne Kornblut of The Washington Post had signed with Crown to do a book called Rejection: Why America Isn't Ready for A Woman President.

Ms. Kornblut and Mr. Wolffe, who told The Observer in early October that he had plans for an election book but no contract, will both be edited by Crown's Sean Desmond.

According to Politico, Mr. Wolffe's book is scheduled to come out in June 2009, and will include material from Mr. Wolffe's campaign reporting and interviews with President-elect Obama and members of his inner circle.

"We have no doubt that traffic will dip—how much, we don't know—following the election," wrote Politico editors Jim VandeHei and John Harris in a memo to staff today.

In part, the memo is an explanation of how Politico will try to make the transition from 2008 to 2009, a year when news Web sites are expecting a large drop in traffic. But the memo also functions as a self-congratulatory backslap for the Web site's big year.

"This election has also been, in more modest but important ways, defined by Politico," they write. But how does Politico retain its readership when there's less outside-the-beltway enthusiasm?

They write:

For all our optimism and bullishness, we want to make clear that we understand—and everyone at Politico should understand—the sobering nature of these times.

 read more »

This morning, Matt Drudge reported that Barack Obama's campaign had barred critical reporters from the senator's plane. According to Mr. Drudge, reporters from the New York Post, The Washington Times, and The Dallas Morning News (all papers whose editorial pages endorsed Senator Obama's rivals, John McCain and Sarah Palin) were told that:

Despite pleas from top editors of the three newspapers that have covered the campaign for months at extraordinary cost, the Obama campaign says their reporters—and possibly others —will have to vacate their coveted seats so more power players can document the final days of Sen. Barack Obama's historic campaign to become the first black American president.  read more »

Today, Michael Calderone of Politico writes about Brit Hume's swan song at Fox News. After the election, Mr. Hume, who joined the cable news network during its fledgling days back in 1996, will be significantly cutting back his duties, which currently include anchoring Special Report at 6 p.m., anchoring big political night coverage, and serving as the managing editor of the news division.

One fun moment from the piece: ABC News' Sam Donaldson, who is 74, questions why Mr. Hume, who is 65, would be winding things down.

From the article:

'What are these young kids like Brit Hume stepping down for?' asked veteran anchor Sam Donaldson, a former colleague at ABC (and nine years his senior). 'I think Brit's at the height of his power.'

Politico's Michael Calderone is reporting that Glenn Beck is jumping from CNN Headline News to Fox News.

Mr. Beck has hosted a daily show on the network since 2006. For Fox, he will be anchoring a 5 P.M. weekday show and a weekend program.

Mr. Calderone quotes a CNN spokesperson as saying, "Glenn has been a terrific employee and colleague to many of us at CNN... We wish him well."

New York Times executive editor Bill Keller defended last weekend's front-page story on radical William Ayers and his connection to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. Mr. Keller writes an e-mail to Politico.com's Michael Calderone:

"We've reported the Ayers relationship before, and we had it on our ‘to do’ list for a while to take a more comprehensive look... When the McCain campaign began to make it a major focal point of ads and stump speeches, we decided the time was right.”

“It didn't take any prodding... When the conversation on something controversial reaches a certain level, curious readers look to The Times to help them sort the facts from the fictions and figure out what to make of it. That's what we did.”

After months of sitting on the sideline, the mainstream media let loose over the past three days with coverage of former Senator John Edwards' admission that he had had an affair with filmmaker Rielle Hunter.

Some highlights from the coverage:

On ABC's web site, "The Blotter," Brian Ross and company posted a story today entitled "Is John Edwards Still Lying," which includes an exclusive interview with a friend of Ms. Hunter's named (apparently) Pidgeon, who suggests that he is, in fact, still lying.

In Broadcasting & Cable, Marisa Guthrie writes that according to multiple sources "Edwards was apoplectic that ABC News broke the story on its website and began promoting it early on Friday, giving the rest of the media a chance to play catch-up and cite ABC News' report.  read more »

According to Politico's Jonathan Martin and Chris Frates, syndicated columnist Robert Novak hit a pedestrian with his car this morning in Washington, D.C.

"I didn't know I hit him," Mr. Novak told reporters. "I feel terrible." As terrible as Mr. Novak feels, Media Mob is sure that the man he hit with his black Corvette feels worse. In a video on the site, Mr. Novak comes off as cagey and nervous as he exits a police car and is grilled by reporters. "He's not dead, that's the main thing," Mr. Novak said.