David Carr

Felix Gillette braves the crowds outside NBC's Today Show to find Katie Couric's most loyal fans. "'Katie’s hot,' said Craig Bellew, who was visiting from Clarkesville, Ga. 'She should come right back here. I grew up watching her on Today. And it’s easier to say her name then—what’s the other girl’s name? Anyway. She’s hot.'

Speaking of Ms. Couric, John Koblin looks at how a whiff of a story (Katie Out at CBS?) becomes conventional wisdom in our Print 2.0 world. The New York Times. 'It used to be you came in the next day and your editor would say, "Well, we won today," or she’d say, "Looks like we got beat like a drum," and that would be the end of it. Now it’s this ongoing game of catching up and staying ahead.'"  read more »

In his Media Equation column this week, The New York Times' David Carr looks at a strange footnote in the ongoing Anthony Pellicano wiretap trial in Los Angeles: The overlapping employment of Wayne Reynolds, who worked for both Pellicano and Condé Nast Publications.

As Carr writes, "Mr. Reynolds was first questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the Los Angeles offices of Condé Nast early in 2003. Mr. Pellicano, who is serving as his own lawyer, asserted in his cross-examination that Mr. Reynolds had bragged about bugging his own supervisor — no name was mentioned — at Condé Nast and that Mr. Reynolds had provided him with a prepublication copy of a Vanity Fair article (widely assumed to be about the Hollywood 'superagent' Michael S. Ovitz)."  read more »

On a hot August night in the Astrodome 16 years ago, Pat Buchanan stood before the Republican National Convention and declared that America was in the throes of a religious and cultural war, with the opposition party pushing an “amoral” agenda of unregulated abortion, rampant homosexuality and unrestricted pornography.

In particular, he singled out the “lawyer-spouse” of the Democratic presidential nominee, gravely warning that Hillary Clinton “believes that 12-year-olds should have the right to sue their parents, and she has compared marriage as an institution to slavery and life on an Indian reservation.”

“Friends,” Buchanan continued, “this is radical feminism. The agenda Clinton and Clinton would impose on America—abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat—is change…but it’s not the kind of change we can tolerate in a nation that we still call God’s country.”  read more »

David Carr tackles the changing Wall Street Journal this morning and writes about the paper's sudden infactuation with politics. Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli concedes to Mr. Carr that there have been more political stories this year, but that's because it's such an extraordinary year (simple enough). But Mr. Brauchli also offered this interesting quote:  read more »

On Jan. 3, the night of the Iowa caucuses, ABC political reporter Jake Tapper appeared on “Nightline” from Des Moines, where he reported live on Mike Huckabee’s surprise victory.

Afterward, he caught an overnight flight on the Hucka-plane to New Hampshire, where, around dawn, he filed a story for “Good Morning America.”

That evening, he was back in front of the cameras yet again, this time from Henniker, N.H., reporting on Mr. Huckabee for “ABC World News with Charles Gibson.”

“It was pretty nuts,” said Mr. Tapper.  read more »

"There is a chance that historians will examine this period in American history and wonder if journalism left the field."

That's David Carr in today's New York Times, who considers the future of investigative reporting in the wake of last week's layoffs at the Chicago Reader and the Washington City Paper.

But, in looking for a silver lining, Mr. Carr offers this sort-of-unconvincing argument...  read more »

Al Gore's Oscar ceremony star-turn has prompted a fresh round of speculation about whether he'll get into the 2008 presidential race.

Here's what Gore told reporters yesterday after winning, according to David Carr:

"I do no have a plan to become a candidate for office again," he said in response to a question. "I am involved in a campaign of another kind."

Another questioner suggested that the former wonk had crossed over.

"William Hung was a rock star," Mr. Gore replied, referring to the engineer turned "American Idol" star. "I just have a slide show."

-- Azi Paybarah

Two years ago, somewhat suddenly, Tom Sykes was not drunk and was very much out of work.  read more »

Deadly Intent: Ann Coulter, Word Warrior, by David Carr, June 12, 2006. Eve Ensler, the Original 'Vagina Warrior,' Organizes Arts Festival, by Felicia R. Lee, June 12, 2006.  read more »

Just asking: What new entry in the crowded and antagonistic celebrity-glossy field is making rivals  read more »

It starts with the ragtag pioneers, moving in with their funky friends and their bohemian pursuits, seeking life on the cheap in some desolate space. Then comes the progression: artists give way to creative professionals, lofts give way to loft-style co-ops, expensive cheese stores give way to more expensive cheese stores. The neighborhood has arrived; there it goes.

So it was when the armchair pundits, teenage diarists, freelance writers, and other non-professionalized writers found a new place to live, a sketchy industrial zone previously occupied by hardcore geeks and tech workers. Some of them came there to get away from the ink-and-paper mainstream media neighborhoods; some came because they couldn't get into the ink-and-paper world; some came because they weren't thinking about ink or paper at all.

But after a period of trepidation--is it safe around there? Can those people be trusted?--the ink-and-paper folks themselves started to notice the vibrancy of the street life, the raw immediacy of the neighborhood culture. They saw the appeal. The New Republic sent some of its younger kids to live there. The Washington Post annexed Kausfiles. Vanity Fair set James Wolcott up in a groovy bachelor pad.

The boom is on. Time Warner has launched Entertainment Weekly's Popwatch. Conde Nast is offering Beyond the Beyond, by Wired's Bruce Sterling. The New York Times' David Carr is backing up his media observations about podcasts with a podcast

Oh, and the Observer is launching the Daily Observer, with its Media Mob column.  read more »

The results aren't necessarily real Web logs, any more than a dive-y bar is a dive bar. But they are constantly updated, commentary-laced outlets for papers that can't always wait for paper anymore. Even if the paper is a lovely shade of salmon.

--Matt Haber

Recently, The Transom received this letter from a young fashion reporter who is frequently, as they say, "on the scene":

...[N]ot sure how to convey this to your staff, but every time I'm at a party with an Observer reporter, I KNOW they're an Observer reporter. Your staff is brilliant, but SO nerdy, and they dress/ act like it! They walk around with glasses and little notepads. Nobody is going to open up to people like that!

Case in point: Last month at the REDACTED DESIGNER fashion show. REPORTER NAME REDACTED showed up in a mousy black pant suit and glasses. They wouldn't let her in. I'm convinced if she'd dressed and acted like she belonged, she would have breezed through the door. Similarly at the REDACTED event, REPORTER NAME REDACTED looked terrified and clearly out of place.

Jesse Oxfeld recently told me that reporters should be as inconspicuous as possible and that meant dressing down. I disagree; to see and hear what the insiders see and hear, you must dress and act like them. THAT'S inconspicuous, at least in the fashion world (see: REDACTED NAME OF CUTE YOUNG FASHION REPORTER).

I don't know why I'm so passionate about this; maybe because I think the Observer is one of the few print papers that can really reflect an accurate and complex picture of the fashion scene in New York. And I hope I don't sound like a total snob, being like, "your reporters have yucky clothes." But I do think a makeover is in order, or at least a new staffer to show them how it's done.

Or, you know, you could bring back Candace B. :)

The Transom has thought often, if not much, of this email. (Particularly about bringing back Ms. Bushnell! Now there's a New York Observer reporter with a body—and a budget!—for fashion.)

But as The Transom gazes across the office, all that can be seen are reporters with fashion interests not much different from those of New York Times media reporter David Carr. (Those who have seen the brilliant Mr. Carr with a cigarette clenched between his teeth, scratching at his ragged notepad, shirt tails all aflap, will know what we mean.)  read more »

It is 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 6th. The Transom has just realized that the Observer's foxy redheaded senior editor Suzy Hansen wears the same ratty t-shirt to work every single Tuesday. It is a grubby bit of Napoleon Dynamite swag which arrived via U.S.P.S. some months ago. "I've never even seen the movie," said Ms. Hansen. --Choire Sicha

Since Sept.  read more »