White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

Jon Meacham Joins Random House

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Jon Meacham

Jon Meacham

The collective shout of joy from political reporters around the Beltway is well deserved: Jon Meacham’s an editor once again.

The ex-Newsweek editor joins Random House as Executive Vice President and Executive Editor according to a press release published today via the AP. Mike Allen fleshed it out a bit more in his Playbook citing the new role will start in 2011. More important?

Washington now has a powerful new friend in New York publishing. Meacham will have a big checkbook and a huge appetite for great political books, but with high standard (will only take on three or so books a year, which means lots of retail attention to the authors he chooses to work with). A longtime observer of the New York/Washington literary world, when he heard the announcement: “Meacham just became arguably the most influential nonfiction editor in American letters.”

Meacham’s own catalog at Random House includes American Lion on the life of President Andrew Jackson, which also took the Pulitzer Prize.

Kurtz Says Goodbye, Then Says Hello

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Yesterday marked the end of Howard Kurtz’ tenure at the Washington Post and his The Daily Beast debut.

At the end of his final Media Notes, Kurtz writes, “I confess that I enjoyed David Carr’s New York Times line about my job switch prompting the most gasps since Dylan went electric in 1965. But that ain’t me, babe. While I would not have made such a leap even two years ago, it is an evolutionary move, not a revolutionary one, as we all grasp for ways to sustain and reinvent journalism.”
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Daily Show Rally Continues The Meta-Media

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The Rally To Restore Sanity/March To Keep Fear Alive has turned the 24 hour newscycle into its…well, special friend. The Wrap rounds up the latest details of the October 30th event that will take place on the Mall. Fox News has confirmed it’s coverage with a single camera crew after Jon Stewart announced earlier in the week that Comedy Central will broadcast the event live online and its channel.

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Howard Kurtz Joins The Daily Beast

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Howard Kurtz sheds the print skin at the Washington Post and joins up with Tina Brown’s The Daily Beast.

According to TV Newser, the long-time media columnist for the Post will become the Washingotn bureau chief for the online magazine built by the house of Brown and Barry Diller’s IAC. Kurtz will keep his show on CNN.

Kurtz has been the media reporter for the Post since 1990. He also famously updates on Facebook.

The 48-Hour Fall of Rick Sanchez

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The clock started clicking the minute Rick Sanchez said “I think Jon Stewart’s a bigot.”

During the remainder of his September 30th interview on Stand Up! with Pete Dominick went downhill. From there the accusations became how Jon Stewart’s targets (“Everybody else who’s not like him”) represent bigotry to the control of Jews running major media organizations like CNN.

[TheWrap provides a full transcript here.]

By Friday night, Sanchez was let go from the company with the briefest response possible:

Rick Sanchez is no longer with the company. We thank Rick for his years of service and we wish him well.

No apology or word of the interview remained on Sanchez’ Twitter, which now is likely abandoned as the 145+ thousand followers will forget they ever followed the anchor who made new media his entire shtick. In fact, CNN’s only discussion of the event came during Howard Kurtz’ Reliable Sources yesterday according to TVNewser.

Of course far be it from Kurtz to not dig the knife in deeper by leading into his segment first with The Daily Show’s Sanchez reel and then asking whether Sanchez should’ve been “suspended…or tazed?”

Smooth, Howie. Smooth.

But now it’s Monday, no word about what will happen to Rick’s Twitter, which commands 140+ thousand followers who don’t seem to be dropping off–even after Friday’s announcement. So what happens when an influential Twitter personality just stops? Does it make a sound?

Campaign 2010 Prep Storms D.C.

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It may feel like a balmy day in the District, but vacation is about to drop out for a storm the likes of which the Beltway has rarely seen–at least every two or so years.

The big news comes from the New York Times with Politico’s unveiling of two weekly opinion columns from Joe Scarborough and Michael Kinsley; the buried lede, however, is Kinsley will depart The Atlantic to do this. As Jeremy Peters notes, “[Kinsley’s] departure will be a blow to the Atlantic Media Company, which has been establishing a stable of journalistic talent in an effort to broaden its reach in Washington.”

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Debating the Off-the-record Lunch

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While Robert Gibbs may be becoming the August cable poster boy, the President has been meeting the press.

Last Thursday, eleven White House reporters sat down with President Obama for an off-the-record lunch. The President has talked off-the-record recently with commentators like MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson, so what makes it so newsworthy this time?

Is it because it took some digging to find out who the Lunching 11 were? The Upshot outed them last week (Associated Press, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, Politico, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and USA Today). Or is it because the New York Times has been so outspoken about refusing the White House invite?

Times reporter Peter Baker tells Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post these off-the-record sessions are “to be avoided if possible. It can too easily turn into a substitute for on-the-record….”

“We’re not trying to be haughty,” he adds, but “White House reporters get relatively few opportunities to talk to the president on the record.”

AP's Ben Feller Moves Up Front

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Mid-week announcements are the best when it concerns White House Press Pools.

So without further ado, as Fishbowl DC informs us, Ben Feller is the AP’s new White House Correspondent. Feller covered education for the news organization from 2003 to 2006, switching to the White House since then.

This comes after the AP was awarded Helen Thomas’ seat last week. The official memo is below:

The Memo from Fishbowl after the jump

Ed Henry Wins WHCA Presidency

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Ed Henry, 2009 Gridiron Dinner. Haddad Media

The 2012-13 White House Correspondents Association election results are in–and so is President-Elect Ed Henry of CNN.

FishbowlDC shares the other incoming elects: Politico’s Carol Lee takes the At-Large Chair, Time’s Michael Scherer the Magazine Chair and Henry also won the TV Chair.

While congratulating Lee, Mike Allen shares the WHCA voting tally, proving the At-Large vote was the closest of the four races. Under the President write-ins, however, it’s hard not to notice one sarcastic vote for Helen Thomas.

Now that a new board has been selected, the eerily-quiet anticipation for who’ll inherit the abandoned front row seat may continue.