White House Correspondents Insider

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

Obama to Meet Virtually Every Football Team Ever

By

President Obama will meet with the winner of Super Bowl XLV as early as next month. Sounds weird, right? But it’s actually true, since a pixelized president is in the latest edition of the Madden NFL 11 video game franchise released on August 10th.

Once you complete the season and your team wins the Super Bowl, the ending of the game involves President Obama’s jerky game avatar meeting with other bits of code and holding up a jersey.

Game Informer notes how weird the cameo looks in context with a game for die-hard sports fans. The complete video can be found on IGN. Of course this isn’t the first off-kilter cameo for President Obama: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen presents Obama as a pacifist who eventually submits to the Decepticons referenced in an off-hand news clip and the third season premiere of The Boondocks which involved a Germany documentary filmmaker (voiced by actual filmmaker Werner Herzog) breaking down the hype of Obama’s 2008 campaign according to this Washington Post review.

It’s a shame though that an 8-bit Bill Clinton or George H.W. Bush never got to do this on the Nintendo, Genesis or Playstation.

Photo via Game Informer/IGN.

The Helen Thomas Dark Horse Is…NPR!

By

[picappgallerysingle id=”9053845″]

After a few jokes about who an “unexpected third party” could be, it’s almost unexpected that NPR would emerge as the dark horse for Helen Thomas’ coveted seat.

But that’s exactly what happened, according to The Upshot, when the news organization that recently dropped the “Radio” from its’ name submitted a formal letter to the White House Press Association.

NPR’s reasoning? Its audience size, scope of programming and the subtle burn that they’ve been in the White House Press Room since the 1970s compared to Bloomberg and Fox News. Once again, August 2nd will be a very exciting day.
Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

Good Griefing

By

[picappgallerysingle id=”8127154″]

The best advertising can also be the most unfortunate, especially when it comes to Photoshop or domain registers.

Cases in point: Lawrence Bender, producer of Inglorious Basterds and Kill Bill, was in D.C. to promote his newest feature, the nuclear arms doc Countdown to Zero and addressed how a few Tea Party folks re-purposed the poster art from Bill.

He told Politico:

“It’s slightly humorous what they’re doing,” he said. “They’re ripping everything they can to make their point.”

On the front-end of the media spectrum, KeithOlberman.com now takes you to The Daily Caller, which is just as Tucker Carlson hopes it would. He owns the domain after all.

The moral of this? Good grief can always be avoided.

Photo: Lawrence Bender, Fame Pictures, Inc

Fingers Crossed for This Week and This Fall on TV

By

[picappgallerysingle id=”4987232″ align=”center”]The Beltway’s TV presence is going wider–if not global–in the coming weeks

TVNewser confirms August 1st as the start date for Christiane Amanpour’s premiere at This Week, which sadly ousts Jake Tapper from the temporary position. Meanwhile, Rick Sanchez is being bumped up to 8 pm on July 22nd until the Fall premiere of the Untitled Eliot Spitzer/Kathleen Parker Show.

[Read more…]

Will The iPad be the 2010 Crackberry?

By

The Official iPad of WHC Insider

Who knew the iPad would become the unsung hero of Capitol Hill?

Politico reports that the gigantic iPhone–which is also making a steady increase around the Beltway–is becoming the go-to device for congressmen. Representitive Jason Chaffetz (R) neatly sums up the why: “It’s light; it’s portable. It’s accessible information. I love it.”

The iPad love is being supported among both parties, including Darrell Issa and Cliff Stearns, especially if it means an end to the backbreaking binders and committees swarmed by paper. Even better? It may kill the Blackberry addiction that has held D.C. in a vice grip for years.

DCist provides a round up of links to state the case that Apple is slowly encroaching on the nation’s capital. One day, it may even take the spot that Blackberries hold in the Beltway’s heart–presumably after the fears of leaked customer information that Valleywag reported earlier this month are taken care of. But like that matters if you’ve already sold 3 million of them, according to Mashable.

The iPad remains the ultimate staffer dream: a lighter, somewhat more portable crackberry that means an end to endless binders, show bibles and 50-lb drafts of legislation. Not to mention more people to play Words With Friends!

She Said, She Said: Both Sides Now Debuts

By

The D.C. political machine has a reputation for being a boys club rather than a gentleman’s establishment; but it takes a woman’s touch to actually discuss it.

Well, women to be more accurate.

Both Sides Now, which had a soft release as a podcast, will have its formal launch this Monday in New York according to The Daily Politics. The weekly radio show comes from The Huffington Post’s Editor-in-Chief Ariana Huffington and power pundit Mary Matalin and is hosted/created by Mark Green according to FishbowlDC.

We’re a fan of the tagline (“We Debate…You Decide”) and the Facebook page too. So what’s the premise? Huffington, Matalin and Green taking on the topics in Washington without having to wake up before 10 a.m. on a Sunday?

Sold.

One Chair To Rule Them All

By

[picappgallerysingle id=”9053853″ align=”center”]

Reliable Sources brings word that Fox News’ spot in the White House press room is being challenged once again–this time by Bloomberg News’ Managing Editor, Al Hunt.

Bloomberg (via Hunt) claims–in shades of CNN’s previous reasoning–they’ve been around longer, are more established and “[w]e write about matters financial and non-financial.” Fox News’ Vice President of News and Washington Managing Editor Bill Sammon’s plan relies on a 2007 I.O.U. from the last press room restructuring and the assumption that Bloomberg still covers just finances. The Huffington Post has the full letters here.

There’s no buzz on whether this late Bloomberg bid will work, but at least we have a Fishbowl DC poll. And in case you forget the prime real estate in question, check out WHC Insider’s press room seating chart.