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Bill Murray really has guts. While a lot of celebrities will do some crazy things for attention, Murray isn’t generally one of them. Rarely do you see him falling out of Bungalow 8 with his panties around his ankles. Instead Murray goes for the more planned kind of attention – though albeit a bit more dangerous. He jumped out of an airplane at 13,500 feet this weekend for the Chicago Air and Water Show.
Bill Murray landed in Chicago on Friday like he never had before — by jumping from an airplane 13,500 feet up. The 57-year-old actor took several deep breaths before stepping out the open doors of a C-31 Fokker and dropping at about 120 mph to the city’s lakefront with members of the Army Golden Knights Parachute Team.
An exuberant Murray, whose jump kicked off the 50th Chicago Air and Water Show, landed safely on a beach. The actor pretended for a moment to stagger as if dizzy, then smiled broadly, waved to the crowd and shook hands with some of the Golden Knights. Friends asked Murray to participate in the show, which features demonstrations and performances in the air and on Lake Michigan, to support the Illinois United Service Organizations… “It seemed like a good idea at a time,” Murray said. “I’ve had second thoughts, believe me. I’ve been really nervous. All the jokes (from friends) involve death.”
At more than 2 miles above Chicago, the air temperature in the unpressurized plane dropped to 30 degrees. The roar of the plane’s engines and winds coming through the open doors was deafening. Up in the plane, Murray, a native of Wilmette, Ill., looked out the window and took short calming breaths from a yellow oxygen tank. A buzzer went off in the plane around 3 p.m. It was Murray’s time to jump. He and Jones, connected by ropes and harnesses, ambled down the aisle. After a countdown they stepped off, instantly disappearing into the skies below.
Once he landed, Murray said a Golden Knight jumper had tried to ease his nerves by telling him he would want to repeat the jump. “But right now,” Murray said, “I really feel like having a drink.”
[From the Daily News]
Here are photos of Bill’s awesome jump this weekend. Thanks to to PR Photos.
Oscar nominee Terrence Howard claims that Bill Cosby once blacklisted him. As a brash 19-year-old, Howard had a confrontation with the legendary Cosby, and says he didn’t work for four years after that. Terrence went on to star in Hustle & Flow, for which he was nominated for an Oscar.
Oscar-nominee Terrence Howard almost destroyed his promising acting career when he was axed from The Cosby Show. The Crash star landed his first acting part in the legendary comedy show in 1988 - but he was sacked before any of his scenes were aired.
He explains, “I was 19 and had just moved to New York from Cleveland, I got on The Cosby Show on my second audition ever.” Howard was so angry that his scenes were cut, he confronted the show’s star and producer Bill Cosby - who he claims subsequently blacklisted him in the entertainment business.
He explains, “I told him, ‘I’m a man just like you.’ He didn’t like it, and the casting agent never took my calls again.” Howard didn’t work for four years, but recovered to forge a successful acting career - landing an Academy Award in 2006 for his role in Hustle + Flow.
[From Contact Music]
Obviously it didn’t hurt Howard in the long run, since his film career is doing pretty well these days. The story doesn’t seem that surprising or outlandish to me. After Lisa Bonet - who played one of Cosby’s children on The Cosby Show – filmed a movie that almost got an X rating and then did a nude photo shoot for Rolling Stone, Cosby had her fired because he disapproved. She was given a spinoff show after she threatened legal action. But Cosby has long felt it okay to dictate right and wrong, especially to young people.
Cosby seems to take his role of the moral authority pretty seriously, so Howard’s claims sound legit. It’s pretty damn ironic, considering the claims against Cosby.
Here’s Terrence Howard at the BET Awards on June 24th. Header Los Angeles, California - 24.06.08. Header image of Bill Cosby outside the ‘Late Show With David Letterman’ in New York on January 28th. Images thanks to WENN.
Filed under: Prez Election 2008
TMZ.com: President Bill Clinton is always giving a helping hand to his fellow man -- or woman, as the case may be.While leaving a $200 - $500 a tix speaking engagement in Canada on Friday, the Edmonton Sun caught Slick Willie holding an unidentified younger... Read more
Bill Maher has quite the small following. As the newsman left the Newsroom Cafe in Beverly Hills after a long lunch with a friend, he got down and played a with a little dog that barked at his feet. This EXCLUSIVE set is really cute - we have a soft spot for dogs and we love to see celebs interact with them. Bill and his lunch buddy later ran off to Lisa Kline for Men to do a little shopping. Bill left the store with a bag. We hope it held a new pair of shoes.
Photo by Manuel Velasco/BuzzFoto.com
Related posts:
Filed under: Wacky & Weird, Prez Election 2008
TMZ.com: Bill Clinton showed off his oral talents when speaking at a rally in Orlando a few weeks ago. Geez - that poor microphone doesn't know what it's in for. Guess no matter how hard he tries, the C-Man just can't get the taste of Hillary out of his... Read more
Vanity Fair's new issue has an article suggesting Clinton has been seeing actress Gina Gershon over the years -- wa wa wa what?!
Why the hell is VF slamming Bill Clinton when Hillary's already down?! Graydon Carter's mag has a piece titled "Bubba Trouble: The Comback Id," in their current issue (on newsstands tomorrow). - Is that what Democrats need to be doing right now? Offering the country more evidence of the Clintons' alleged foibles?
Not to mention, Gina's peeps are all over this, calling it BS ... which it probably is.
Meanwhile, the new issue also features an interview with Angelina Jolie so that she can promote her new film Wanted.
Here's an excerpt:
"When I asked why she made Wanted, the big-budget action movie co-starring James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman, she said, “Because I had just done A Mighty Heart and was scheduled to do Changeling, which is about the kidnapping of a child. And I had lost my mom. And I knew I was in this odd, fuzzy state going from one loss and kidnapping to another loss and kidnapping. Then Wanted came along. It’s about being physical and jumping and running and being violent, and instinctively I knew I needed to do that.”Good thing they didn't challenge her by asking why a UN Goodwill Ambassador would do a film glamorizing unnecessary violence! Only political pieces should be serious ... the rest is just fluff, right?!

Bill Clinton had an affair with Gina Gershon
In their July issue, Vanity Fair hints that the former President Bill Clinton may have had an affair with actress Gina Gershon. An excerpt from the article:
Over the last few years, aides have winced at repeated tabloid reports about Clinton’s episodic friendship and occasional dinners out with Belinda Stronach, a twice-divorced billionaire auto-parts heiress and member of the Canadian Parliament 20 years his junior, or at more recent high-end Hollywood dinner-party gossip that Clinton has been seen visiting with the actress Gina Gershon in California. (Source)
With his penchant for oral sex, is anyone actually surprised that Bill Clinton would be linked to Gina Gershon? That chick’s mouth has cut down more wood than Paul Bunyan. The only thing that surprises me about this article is that it doesn’t mention the other famous mouths Clinton has lusted after — like Angelina Jolie’s, Scarlett Johansson’s, and Steven Tyler’s.
[Getty]
Filed under: Celebrity Justice, Prez Election 2008
TMZ.com: TMZ has obtained a copy of a demand letter from Gina Gershon to Vanity Fair. Make no mistake - she's pissssed.Vanity Fair just published a pretty scandalous story about Prez Bill Clinton. The demand letter claims the article "outrageously insinuates... Read more
Bill Murray’s wife of 10+ years, Jennifer, filed for divorce earlier this month in a Charleston County, South Carolina court. In the court filing, Murray’s wife accuses the actor of adultery, drug abuse, abandonment, physical abuse, and I’m pretty sure that’s all she could check. The Charleston Post and Courier (South Carolina’s #1 Source for HOT Hollywood gossip) says:
According to the complaint, Jennifer Murray moved into a Sullivan’s Island home in 2006 with the couple’s four children due to her husband’s “adultery, addiction to marijuana and alcohol, abusive behavior, physical abuse, sexual addictions and frequent abandonment.”
It was at the Sullivan’s Island home, according to the complaint, that Murray allegedly abused his wife in November 2007. The six-page court filing says Murray “hit his wife in the face and then told her she was ‘lucky he didn’t kill her.’ ”
The complaint alleges that Murray physically abused his wife on more than one occasion during the marriage. (Source)
I’d be surprised that a Saturday Night Live alum was into drugs, alcohol, and abusive behavior if the precedent hadn’t been set by Jim Belushi, Chris Farley, and Phil Hartman. With those three as role models, I’m surprised Bill Murray’s still breathing. But I guess if there’s anyone that shouldn’t be afraid of kicking the bucket, it’s him. It’s been said the Dalai Lama himself has assured Bill that on his deathbed, he’ll receive “total consciousness.” So he’s got that goin’ for him, which is nice.
[Getty]
Bill Murray may be a legend of comedy - but after hearing his wife's reasons for filing for divorce, we're starting to think that being married to him is no joke!
The Charlston Post and Courier reports that the actor is being sued for divorce by Jennifer Butler Murray, his wife of ten years. You can expect this divorce to get nasty in a hurry, too - she's alleging that life with Murray meant a decade of drugs, cheating, and physical abuse!
In the court filing, Jennifer claims that she moved into a Sullivan's Island beach house in 2006 with their four children as a result of what she describes as Bill's "adultery, addiction to marijuana and alcohol, abusive behavior, physical abuse, sexual addictions and frequent abandonment."
She then goes on to describe an incident from November of 2007 where Murray "hit his wife in the face and then told her she was 'lucky he didn't kill her'". Furthermore, according to Jennifer's complaint, this wasn't the only time Murray physically abused her, either!
As a result, Jennifer is also seeking a restraining order barring Bill from the Sullivan's Island home. She's also looking to have their pre-nup - which specifies that if either Bill or Jennifer were to file for divorce, both parties would keep all of their separate property - reviewed to see if it's valid and enforceable. Of course, even if the agreement is deemed to be valid, Jennifer still stands to collect $7 million from Murray.
Murray's lawyer declined to comment on the story.
We'll be keeping track of this sad story for as long as it takes - after all, domestic violence is no laughing matter!
How sad...

Photos: Getty Images
Jennifer Butler Murray, Bill Murray's wife, has decided to end their almost 11 year marriage, citing claims of physical abuse, adultery, and drug addiction on the part of her husband. Jennifer has filed for divorce on May 12 in Charleston, SC, where the couple owns a home.
In the documents, the former costume designer said that as a result of Bill's adultery, addiction to marijuana and alcohol, abusive behavior, physical abuse, sexual addictions and frequent abandonment," she and her four sons with Bill moved out their shared home in 2006. More than once, she alleges, was she "hit in the face."
Additionally, Bill's soon-to-be ex-wife has requested a restraining order against her husband and is making sure the couple's $7 million pre-nuptial agreement is solid. If it is, then she can expect a handsome pay-out.
But they look so happy in this photo.
Bill Murray and his wife of 10+ years, Jennifer Butler Murray, are divorcing and it looks like it is going to get nasty, folks.
Jennifer is alleging that she was physically abused on more than one occasion and also accuses the funnyman of “adultery, addiction to marijuana and alcohol, abusive behavior, physical abuse, sexual addictions and frequent abandonment.”
She is requesting a restraining order against Murray, barring him from her Sullivan’s Island home (which she moved into in 2006 due to the issues she is citing). She states in court documents that her husband punched her in the face and told her she was ‘lucky he didn’t kill her.’
They also have a prenup..
It stipulates that if either spouse files for divorce, both parties retain all of their separate property, waive any right to alimony or support and maintain responsibilities for their children.If the marriage is dissolved and the 23-page premarital agreement is made a part of the order, Bill Murray agrees to pay Jennifer Murray $7 million, according to a copy of the agreement accompanying the complaint.
The couple have 4 children, all under the age of 18.
Design blog Signal vs. Noise today reminded everyone of the 1997 Times infographic reproduced above. Nicholas Kristof, whose article on world disease featured the chart, declared in an old-but-recently-surfaced email that "no graphic in human history has saved so many lives in Africa and Asia." Apparently it persuaded billionaire Bill Gates to start donating his money to disease prevention instead of global internet access. Kristof said the Microsoft founder was too lazy to read the full, 3,500-world article:
in september i traveled with bill gates to africa to look at his work fighting aids there. while setting the trip up, it emerged that his initial interest in giving pots of money to fight disease had arisen after he and melinda read a two-part series of articles i did on third world disease in January 1997. until then, their plan had been to give money mainly to get countries wired and full of computers.
bill and melinda recently reread those pieces, and said that it was the second piece in the series, about bad water and diarrhea killing millions of kids a year, that really got them thinking of public health. Great! I was really proud of this impact that my worldwide reporting and 3,500-word article had had. But then bill confessed that actually it wasn’t the article itself that had grabbed him so much—it was the graphic. It was just a two column, inside graphic, very simple, listing third world health problems and how many people they kill. but he remembered it after all those years and said that it was the single thing that got him redirected toward public health.
No graphic in human history has saved so many lives in africa and asia.
Indeed. There really should be prizes for this sort of thing. For runner-up, I nominate Entertainment Weekly's 21 Bad Movie Hairdos, which, through extensive distribution in American salons, has prevented untold suffering from happening in the first place.
Rupert Murdoch's handmaidens over at the New York Post this morning jumped into a feud between their Fox News shouting head Bill O'Reilly and MSNBC ranter Keith Olbermann. The tabloid's gossip page ran an item dredging up various minor controversies involving Olbermann dating back to his ESPN days, up through an alleged spat between Olbermann and fellow MSNBC personality David Gregory last Tuesday over camera time. It then insinuated Olbermann might soon explode and leave his network. The warmed-over gossip was clearly meant as cover fire on behalf of O'Reilly, a fellow News Corp. soldier, whose feud with Olbermann is detailed in the Washington Post today. In a nutshell:
Olbermann has been criticizing O'Reilly on his show for four years, including naming him the "worst person in the world" and saying his kids have a home life as difficult as that faced by the forthcoming child of a pregnant, transgendered man.
Instead of taking what he dishes out nightly, O'Reilly allowed News Corp. chairman Murdoch and Fox News chief Roger Ailes to complain to NBC executives on his behalf, asking that Olbermann be reined in. NBC refused, and O'Reilly launched a campaign on his show against NBC corporate parent General Electric and its CEO Jeffrey Immelt, saying that GE's business with Iran — "mostly... sales of oil, gas and energy and health-care equipment," according to the Washington Post — endangered American troops in Iraq.
News Corp. then offered to end the attacks in exchange for Olbermann backing off O'Reilly, according to NBC.
The Washington Post said Ailes threatened to deploy the New York Post against Olbermann, but an Ailes spokesman denied this, saying, "Roger doesn't control the editorial policy of the New York Post."
Within a few hours of that denial going online, the New York Post published its initial attack on Olbermann on its website.
That Murdoch properties do one another's dirty work and then lie about their actions is hardly surprising; but one would hope thinned-skinned rageaholic O'Reilly would learn to fight his own battles at some point instead of complaining to his bosses and permitting a sucker punch from Page Six, as though he doesn't have enough media firepower at his disposal on the O'Reilly Factor.
Once upon a time, a wacky new talk show called Late Night With David Letterman premiered on NBC. And on that very first episode in 1982 was an up-and-coming comic actor by the name of Bill Murray.
So what caused Bill O'Reilly's now-infamous Inside Edition meltdown? This new video featuring his abusive producer provides some answers. Okay, it really doesn't, but it's funny.
[via CollegeHumor]
Today hosted a very meta discussion this morning about Sue Simmons' WNBC f-bomb and Bill O'Reilly's old Inside Edition eruption, and anchpr Kathie Lee Gifford is extremely sympathetic toward both of the old TV hands and their embarassments. She told co-host Hoda Kotb there's always a chance she'll have her own "FUCK IT! DO IT NOW!" breakdown: "We're having fun, because tomorrow it could be you and I." Or maybe she was thinking of a more mild "what the FUCK are you doing" outburst. After the jump, listen to Gifford talk about how you can barely cuss anyone out in a TV studio any more because of all the satellites and bloggers and so forth.
newVideoPlayer("Simmons_Today.flv", 506, 423,"");

Given that Stephen Colbert's act on Comedy Central consists mainly of imitating Bill O'Reilly, it was pretty much inevitable that he would mock the Fox News shouting head's recently resurfaced Inside Edition meltdown. Colbert's recreation of the cuss out, set on his own supposed TV show in the 70s, is at least as funny as expected — Colbert nails O'Reilly's freakout down to the silent, jacket-throwing temper tantrum at the very end — and includes a clever twist involving NBC's Brian Williams. Watch as Colbert cements "do it live" as a catchphrase, after the jump.
newVideoPlayer("Colbert_Oops.flv", 506, 442,"");

newVideoPlayer("sunshine_reporters.flv", 475, 376,"");
It's already been an exciting week for accidental on-air cursing, with New York broadcast institution Sue Simmons interrupting last night's Medium to ask what the FUCK New York is doing, but Sue and Bill O'Reilly just left us wanting more. So video guru Richard Blakeley (who's explored reportorial bloopers before) collected ten of our very favorite meltdowns by people whose job it is to not curse on TV. Some of these went out live, some were stolen from satellite feeds, but they're all golden. From Jim Ryan telling Dick Oliver that he'll explain how to be a reporter later to broadcast legend Bill Plante throwing a tantrum at the White House to vintage Sam Donaldson and Leslie Stahl, it's a cavalcade of rage and frustration. Like life. Click to watch!
Billionaire sex-perv Jeffrey Epstein enjoys sex with underage girls, that much we know. But before we all knew this, he was a very popular financier with many important and famous friends. He went to a lot of parties! He flew Bill Clinton, Kevin Spacey, and Chris Tucker to Africa for some reason! We can only imagine what the on-flight entertainment was. Now he's apparently getting ready to plea guilty to all sorts of things involving prostitution, and some ladies are suing him for making them his sex slaves when they were underage, so he doesn't quite go out on the town that much. Except sometimes he does! And, to answer our own question, it's because uber-publicist Peggy Siegal is still happy to stand by her 14-year-old raping friend Jeffrey.
New York found Epstein at a Siegal event. She's quoted talking about him more-or-less glowingly in New York's December feature on the disgraced financier. And today Page Six reports on a public sighting that would've really been too terrible to conceive:
May 8, 2008 — JEFFREY Epstein, who made a trip to Israel last month, thought about staying there, as Roman Polanski did in France, rather than face trial and possibly jail on charges of soliciting sex from prostitutes. But the money manager came home. "Would you want to live in Israel?" he asked Vanity Fair's Vicky Ward yesterday. At the screening the night before of HBO's documentary about Polanski, the crowd - including Harvey Weinstein, Jeff Bewkes, Dustin Hoffman, Emmy Rossum , Alec Baldwin and filmmaker Michael Mailer - was buzzing that Epstein had absconded. In fact, he was in his Upper East Side mansion. Ward wrote yesterday on the VF Web site, "He'd even thought about going to the Polanski screening until various friends e-mailed him to say, in so many words, 'Are you in- sane?' "
We'd guess "various friends" means "Peggy Siegal." Or, hell, Howard Rubenstein, Epstein's flack, who also reps the Post, as you may remember. Still, it's a good sign that they're finally advising him not to go out, especially to see movies about famous people who run away to foreign countries to avoid jail time for sex crimes.
Ugh.
"Some of the most celebrity-centric, entertainment-obsessed news media outlets have added a heavy dose of political news to their lineups, taking space normally devoted to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie ... The gossip-magazine editors appear to hold the cards most of the time. When President Bill Clinton submitted an essay for publication in Us, it did not pass muster with [Us editor Janice] Min. 'It was the magazine equivalent of watching C-Span,' she recalled, a slight shudder in her voice. 'I was a little mortified to do it, but we kicked it back to the president for a revise.'" [Times]
newVideoPlayer("Clinton_on_OReilly.flv", 463, 387,"");
Hillary Clinton sat down with Bill O'Reilly yesterday because she apparently feels no compunction about encouraging him. The result was a reasonably reasonable interview, especially for Bill—which is not entirely surprising, as he usually saves his bullying for people who are easily bullied. He called her a socialist, yes, and then he called Teddy Roosevelt a socialist as well. At the end of the interview (which continues today) O'Reilly tried to goad Hillary into trashing NBC news. It might've worked! Bill hates MSNBC because their Keith Olbermann subjects him to the sort of personal abuse that Bill specializes in. Hillary hates MSNBC because their Chris Matthews compulsively says terrible sexist things about her. Sadly, Clinton backed down from the fight. Later today, they're gonna talk waterboarding!
The Mohammad cartoons, the purposefully extra-offensive South Park episodes, and Bill Maher: not funny. Also, if you ignore them, they can't hurt you! SO WHY DON'T PEOPLE EVER IGNORE THEM? Bill Maher said something OUTRAGEOUS about the Pope, and the Catholic church. The outrageous thing he said is argurably true, if inelegantly put. Specifically, he called the Pope a Nazi, which he very briefly was when he was a little boy, and he called the Catholic Church a "child-abusing cult," which, if you have a broad-enough definition of cult, is basically what they are. Anyway—the American Life League has launched a website calling for Maher to be fired from his little HBO show. Ok guys! Jesus, you're getting all worked up about Bill Maher? There is a rich history of virulent anti-Catholicism in this great nation, but it pretty much ended once we all decided the Irish were allowed to be White. Attacking the Pope is no more "hate speech" than calling George W. Bush a war criminal. But: confidential to Bill M: you're taking on the Pope? You got nothing better to do with your time? He's not that bad! Seriously, as Popes go, he's one of the least damaging ever.
Jon Stewart had one line the other night about how the Popes have gotten so much nicer since the Catholic church no longer has an actual army. And it's true! There's plenty to criticize, what with the anti-reproductive rights thing, but they're not killing infidels or holding inquisitions anymore! No one's drinking the liquor of succession or raping their own nieces!
Seriously, crusades now are carried on by supposedly secular governments, the worst offenses by religion against the greater good are perpetrated by extremist Islamist clerics and evangelical huckster preachers and even the Jews have more dangerous terrorists than the Catholics these days.
So Bill, it's fun to mock the Pope for looking like Emperor Palpatine, but at least he doesn't have enough power anymore to act like Emperor Palpatine.
And Catholics, please, make like the rest of the nation and stop paying attention to Bill Maher.
Not being well tuned in to the Catholic outrage circuit, we missed the big controversy this week over Bill Maher calling the Pope the head of a "child-abusing religious cult," and saying "he used to be a Nazi and he wears funny hats." That sounds fairly accurate, no? Not to Catholic League president and perpetually outraged man Bill Donohue, who demanded an apology on behalf of all Catholics worldwide who care about trivial things. And now Donohue says that he's been assured that Maher plans to apologize tonight for "falsely accusing the pope of once being a Nazi." Because in fact the Pope was just "conscripted into a German Youth organization (from which he fled as soon as he could)." Is Bill Maher now expected to be nuanced when it comes to the objects of his hate? Doesn't really sound like him. If you're reading this, Mr. Maher, and I know you are: just shout "Jesus loved whores!" at the end of your apology, to maintain your cred. The clip of his original Pope rant, after the jump.
The NYT's news section under current editor Bill Keller, who has been in charge for 53 months, has only won six Pulitzers. In just 21 months under former editor Howell Raines, the news section won seven Pulitzers. The Times has been shut out of Pulitzers for its Iraq war coverage under Keller thus far. All of this adds up to one simple conclusion: Bill Keller is a more attractive man than Howell Raines. [NYO]
So—the years of tax returns the Clintons just released? They'll be feeding crazy news stories throughout the weekend. (Friday afternoon news dump! Good work, Clintons!) We'll try to limit ourselves to this: Bill Clinton has made millions of dollars just for being friends with Ron Burkle. Back in 2001, Burkle, the supermarket magnate who secretly owns Radar, asked his good friend Bill to do some nonsense advisory work for Burkle's private equity firm, Yucaipa Companies. How has that worked out? Well! Bill reported $12,674,668 in income from Yucaipa between 2001 and 2006. All for flying around on Burkle's private jet with cute girls. Anyway this could be a bit of trouble for Bill because of the sleazy rumors and whatnot.
Did you know that NYT executive editor Bill Keller has a new book out? That's OK, neither did anyone else! It's called Tree Shaker: The Story of Nelson Mandela, and it's sold 926 copies, according to BookScan. It's a biography for children from ages 9 to 12. As Portfolio points out, it didn't really get any press. Except, of course, for two mentions in the Times. [Portfolio Mixed Media]
Dear Silda Wall Spitzer,
So. Today was awkward, huh? Your husband of 20 years cheated on you with a prostitute. A high class prostitute, sure, but still someone he paid money to for sex. And for a woman like you, a Harvard trained lawyer who never wanted to be a political wife anyway, standing silently by while your husband sort of apologized for cheating must have taken everything you had. We want you to know, it's okay to be mad.
In this age when everyone, or at least half of everyone, is divorced, we accept that marriages are complex institutions that no one knows how to operate. We're used to political marriages falling apart. But what we're sick of is political wives pretending everything is okay.
Remember how Dina McGreevey seemed not to mind that her husband was a philanderer fag at the first press conference? That strategy didn't really work, because it turns out, she really did care quite a bit. And back in the Gennifer Flowers era, Hillary Clinton also did the stand-by-your man routine, and defended Bill on 60 Minutes. It was the first of many lies the Clintons would tell us about their marriage. Suzanne Thompson, Larry Craig's wife, is still playing make-believe, but we know the tell-all book will be out by the time Larry Craig leaves the Senate. The thing is, holding your husband's hand and embracing him after the press conference is sort of like popping a pimple. It might give off short term satisfaction, but ultimately, it will create a scar.
In our own way, we're sort of pissed at Eliot Spitzer, too. We thought he was better than the rest of New York politicians. Like, you, we may be able to forgive him over time. But for our sake, don't act like everything is all right, because between you and him, and the State of New York and him, it's just not.
XOXO,
Gawker
The New Republic's story-of-the-story of the New York Times' story of how John McCain might've fucked lobbyist Vicki Iseman is up, and, as could probably be predicted, it's the story of Bill Keller being a total pussy and not letting his reporters go with all the awesome juicy stuff they were totally sure they had nailed down, provable or not. It's also the story of how now, basically, the standard for publication at the Times has slipped measurably closer to, say, ours.
Anyone familiar with Times Kremlinology could probably have guessed at that basic narrative by reading the front-page story: respected investigative journo Jim Rutenberg got the tip, four star reporters followed it, and they never quite ended up with solid documentation to satisfy Keller, who was under pressure from the McCain camp and their new (criminal!) lawyer Bob Bennett. Then it hit Drudge and suddenly they had to do something with it, 'cause if they didn't, someone else would.
Also it was a major battle between the Washington bureau (who wanted to run it!) and the New York bureau (stodgy and old and wanted to kill it!), with Keller, in New York, eventually making them reshape the piece into a history of vague ethical malfeasance and not OMG INAPPROPRIATE RELATIONSHIP. This hedging led to the story being even fuzzier and more open to the criticism it's received than it would've been if they'd stuck to the "anonymous former aides insinuate this" angle, probably.
But, after continuing to pretend they didn't know anything about the story or when it would run up until the night the final draft arrived on Keller and managing editor Jill Abramson's desks, they had to do something with it, before everyone else did their pieces on how they didn't do anything with it. And there you have it. The New York Times is just a fancy blog.
We also extend our congrats to TNR for being, as far as we know, the first major publican to headline their story on this scandal with a Top Gun joke.
The Long Run-Up [TNR]
Kudos to the AP for turning this traditional "odd news" staple story of a couple receiving a crude message on their restaurant bill into a trenchant bit of political commentary (with a dash of cigar-joke), thanks to the hilariously crude algorithms that apparently decide which contextual news videos to cycle through. Click to figure out what the hell we're actually talking about.
Say what you want about New York Times executive editor Bill Keller, who announced yesterday (left) the newspaper would be cutting 100 newsroom positions this year. But the guy gives a damn good bad-news speech. "We—all of us—have taken a badly wounded, publicly humiliated newsroom and restored it, largely by dint of great journalism, to a position of international esteem," Keller told his audience. "And we have done all of this while avoiding the cutting of muscle that has so badly weakened many of our competitors. Smugness, in our business, is death." Good line! "You pour your talent into this great miracle, and I am proud to be part of it." Aww. Feel inspired? Want to go change the world? Yeah! If you still have a job next month, you should totally go for it! After the jump, some key points from the in-house transcript of Keller's speech, which follows in full.
"A third challenge of the year is the promise of intensified competition, especially from the Wall Street Journal. It's always a mistake to underestimate your rivals—especially rivals who don't care if their newspapers lose money. But it's equally foolish to overestimate your rivals. My own view, from having participated in a couple of newspaper wars in my career, is that, first, they can be exhilarating, and, second, you win them by playing offense—not by attempting to copy your rivals, not by hunkering down in a defensive posture...If somebody thinks they can compete with the NYT by building a replica of the New York Times—I suspect they will find it's not so easy. If they think they can compete with us by building a stripped-down version—New York Times Lite—I believe they will find our readers are not so easily fooled."Full (and by full, we mean long as hell) transcript of Bill Keller's speech from his annual "Throw Stuff At Bill" event yesterday at the New York Times:
"Welcome. Thanks for coming.So, here we are on Valentine's Day. This is a holiday with ambiguous cultural echoes, conjuring as it does both Cupid and Al Capone. When we get to the throw-stuff stage, you're welcome to throw flowers and heart-shaped candies, but I've got my Kevlar vest on just in case.
Maybe it's because I'm nearing the end of my fifth year in this job, but lately I've found myself in a stock-taking mood. I've been thinking about what we have accomplished over the past few years, while so much of the newspaper industry was in a sad state of retreat.
We—all of us—have taken a badly wounded, publicly humiliated newsroom and restored it, largely by dint of great journalism, to a position of international esteem.
We have spoken up and stood up for high standards of journalistic independence and integrity—in the newsroom, in the public arena, even, on one occasion, in the Oval Office. We have installed the most rigorous and intelligent management discipline the newsroom has ever known.
We have created an integrated print/digital newsgathering operation—invented in the newsroom, and led by the newsroom—that editors from around the world come to study and admire, and which is now our most credible foundation for the future of this company.
We have coined new products, in print and on line, that have enriched our readers AND the bottom line. We have made the newsroom more diverse—with more women in positions of leadership, with journalists of color on some of our most high-profile beats. We have built for the future, hiring choice talent, grooming and training excellent managers.We have been constructive participants in planning for the future of the company.
And we have done all of this while avoiding the cutting of muscle that has so badly weakened many of our competitors.
The "we" in this litany of accomplishment includes all of you who pour your energy and creativity and intelligence and heart into building and reinventing what is, more than ever, the world's finest news organization.
I do not offer this up as cause for self-satisfaction. Smugness, in our business, is death. There is always room for improvement. But it's important, as we head into a very difficult year, that we move forward with confidence—and the record of the past few years inspires confidence.
Before I continue that thought, meaning the "difficult year" thought, let me say a few things about the reason we're all here, the journalism.
This is the time of year when we submit our entries in various journalism contests and meet with department heads to discuss major projects for the year ahead. You can all recite the usual caveat: Prizes are an inadequate measure of quality journalism. But there's something invigorating about looking back over a year of work and remembering what a difference we made.
For starters, we've been deeply committed to the presidential campaign for most of a year. It started early, and so did we—offering serial biographies of the candidates, in-depth pieces on their positions, investigations of their financial and personal entanglements, and clear-eyed reporting on the race itself. This is the first presidential election where news organizations will be judged as much for their coverage on the Web as for what we put in the newspaper. From the beginning, we deployed a unified team of reporters and editors, serving the print and web editions seamlessly—and if you spend any time at our website you know the results have been pretty phenomenal. The Caucus blog is the busiest blog on our website, and a must-read for politics junkies. Our candidate topics pages are essentially one-stop, easily navigated archives on the people who aspire to be the next president. We give readers tools to browse through databases of the candidate's financial backers and political records.
Mostly, we give our readers great political reporting. I imagine Johnny Apple looking down from the veranda of some celestial chateau, raising a glass of expense-account champagne to Adam Nagourney, and telling the angelic hosts: "Great kid. I taught him everything he knows."
The Baghdad bureau is another source of pride. I never tire of repeating this mind-boggling statistic: When Saddam Hussein was overthrown, more than 1,000 Western reporters were roaming Iraq. Today there are about 50. It's dangerous, expensive, complicated work—two of our Iraqi employees have been murdered—but our reporters are on the streets and on the battlefields every day. Frankly it's hard to imagine how the country would know what's going on there without the NYT.
Our business reporters were early to identify the underlying dangers in the home-lending market—ahead of certain other publications that pride themselves on their business coverage. That's just one example of how we make ourselves indispensable both to general-interest readers and a hard-core business audience: we're outnumbered, but we're smart and nimble and aggressive.
We have outpaced everyone else in the news business in recognizing and exploring the impact of immigration on our world and our national temper. This past year, in addition to covering the demographics and politics, we took our readers inside a Pentacostal church in a moving series by David Gonzalez—which has won an ASNE Distinguished Writing Award, by the way—and we shone a bright light on global migration through work by Jason DeParle. And we gave it all a human face—to cite one memorable example, in Warren St. John's heart-lifting story about a kid