Another dispatch from the media meritocracy (via Dave Weigel):
The daughter of Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown has been named a special contributor to “The Early Show.”
Ayla Brown, who was a season five contestant on “American Idol,” filed her first report today on Jordan Romero’s quest to summit Mt. Everest.
I, for one, am looking forward to future epic blog wars between Liz Cole and Megan Hamsher.
Ned R.
Tunch would be a better commentator than any of them.
Anya
You meant to say Lily Cole, right?
Jim C
Jane’s naming a daughter after Megan McArdle?
General Egali Tarian Stuck
Our Barbie and Ken media at work for you murrica.
May the Sewer Trout spawn well this season.
asiangrrlMN
Damn, Anya beat me to it. But, I agree with Ned R. Tunch needs a blog of his own.
Osprey
You mean it wouldn’t be Megan Norquist? Hmm…
Loneoak
Everyone must read this speech by Richard Trumka at Harvard. I saw it linked over at Ezra’s place, and every lefty blog should be frontpage-ing it.
cleek
celebrity breeds celebrity.
or…
celebrity is congenital.
SGBurton
since when is summit a verb ?
someguy
Speaking of celebrities in the news, I see Big Ben R
apeoethlisberger got away with it. Way to go, Ben! Wonder how much that cost him…El Cid
The thing is that the rich work so much harder than the not-so-rich. Ask Bobo.
beltane
Did they fire Jenna Bush?
We should rejoice in this, because it is highly likely that Ayla Brown has worked harder and longer than anyone else in the history of the world and that her humongous paycheck is richly deserved. Suck on it, ye lowly peasants.
Keith
On the plus side, she probably didn’t show up to the first day of work with a hairdo shaped by a mouthful of spittle.
sstarr
Perhaps we could see Tunch debate Andrew Sullivan’s beagles?
Noonan
Bill Kristol tirade against affirmative action in 3… 2… 1…
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
@Loneoak: Trumka ’16 !!!! He gives speeches in the best Teddy Roosevelt tradition. All fired up. He’s someone people could get behind, seriously.
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
@sstarr: Put it on PPV? That would outdraw most heavyweight boxing matches.
Bob K
Right, and Bristol Palin is somehow qualified to run a PR firm. You Betchya!!!
licensed to kill time
I, for one, am sick of everybody and their fucking brother climbing Mt. Everest. Leave Mt. Everest alooooooooooooooone!
And clean up the dead bodies and garbage, fer chrissakes.
AxelFoley
The fuck?
SMH
kay
It was tough, but she beat Willow Palin, and got the job. Congrats all around.
kay
@beltane:
They hired her too? Jesus. That’s hysterical. The Palin girls are gonna be pissed.
Rosalita (Formerly GReynoldsCT00)
@sstarr:
or Tbogg’s bassetts…
Bob K
“It’s Erick Erickson’s world, we’re just living in it”
Remember the “Wife’s Shotgun” comment?
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/04/12/idaho-census/
So funny. Faux-Pravda trying to step back a little from the rabid badgers they’ve been poking with a stick this past year and a half. Sorry Rupert, lie down with jackals – blame your self if you wake up with fleas.
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/04/12/fox-news-vs-tea-parties/
Sentient Puddle
@beltane: That was the Today show. Near as I can determine, they still have her on.
jrosen
Note: according to the Boston Herald (Murdoch’s beachhead in Beantown), Scott Brown has declined an invitation to join the Palin in a rally on Boston Common, claiming that his Senate responsibilities conflict. I’ve just been over there (link at Washington Monthly campaign roundup) and the comments on the item are hilarious. About half of what I got through are for him, but the other half…foaming at the mouth Tea Baggers threatening doom, screaming betrayal, and some remembering that he voted for Romneycare (the model for Obamacare), and was pro-choice as a State Senator. There will not be enough popcorn in the world to suffice for the entertainment this will provide. As a former resident of Massachusetts I can hardly wait for the show to begin.
kc
I think Jenna Bush is with NBC, right? I was unlucky enough to catch some of her Olympics commentary.
So I guess now ABC can hire Megan McCain.
MikeJ
@kc: Too old. Yes, she’s stupid enough that you might think she’s had no life experience, but the big nets like the young stuff.
licensed to kill time
I like this: Medvedev appreciates a ‘thinker’ in the Oval Office
heh heh. He Who Shall Not Be Named, any guesses? ;-)
Martin
Edited for reality.
Warren Terra
@asiangrrlMN:
Well, someone could always set up a Twitter feed channeling Tunch. They could model it after the feed someone set up channeling Ghlaghghee, the cat (and, according to Wikipedia “brief internet sensation”) of blogger and sci-fi author John Scalzi.
Joshua
Hiring sons and daughters of the people you are pretending to cover? Is this the new “beat sweetener”?
asiangrrlMN
@Warren Terra: That would be pretty fricking cool! Tunch and Lily twitting!
Culture of Truth
Oh sure, I bet Obama brought his teleprompter with him.
Litlebritdifrnt
@asiangrrlMN:
I think it will be akin to the dog/cat diaries that abound on the internet Lily would be all:
Ooooh breakfast my favorite thing, oooooh a walk my favorite thing, oooooh a ball my favorite thing etc., etc.,
Tunch: day 546 of my captivity the pink thing has reduced my kibble intake yet again, no doubt in an effort to make me talk (or walk not sure which), etc., etc.,
jeffreyw
@asiangrrl: Buddy would def want to follow those tweets.
flukebucket
@licensed to kill time:
This is what makes me so very glad he won the last election. Finally a President who does not make you cringe every time you see him.
Can you imagine President McCain forgetting who he was and where he was and why he was there and who he was with?
{shudder}
Litlebritdifrnt
@licensed to kill time:
Oooooh I am so stealing that and posting it everywhere.
licensed to kill time
@Culture of Truth:
Why yes, I believe he did. As Ezra Klein said:
jeffreyw
@Litlebritdifrnt: Buddy’s tweets would be amusing, I’m sure:
Gotta pee, let me out.
Done peeing, let me in.
Hungry, when’s dinner?
Sleepy, I’ll be on the bed, if you need any barking done tell Jack to handle it.
Need to pee, let me out.
Maude
@Culture of Truth:
Well, at least he didn’t write on his hand.
Culture of Truth
Can you imagine President McCain forgetting who he was and where he was and why he was there and who he was with?
Yes, I can.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Culture of Truth: Is that COT of Bobblespeak?
burnspbesq
Brown’s daughter would arguably be qualified for a job as a sideline reporter for ESPN, as she played Division 1 college basketball. Other than that, not so much.
Bill E Pilgrim
@jeffreyw: Somehow that doesn’t strike me as all that different from what I’ve seen on Twitter so far. But I haven’t looked that much.
One thing I don’t get is why the 140 characters thing is such a big deal. Tolstoy wrote novels with 140 characters and that was in the 1800s.
Culture of Truth
@Bill E Pilgrim:
at your service
Bill E Pilgrim
@Culture of Truth: Nice. You’ve got some serious talent.
I started posting your thing here every week, thought it needed to be seen.
cintibud
@licensed to kill time: Whoa! A teleprompter in his brain? That is so unfair! No wonder the Repugs are so upset! That sound highly soc-sal-is-tic!
Loneoak
@licensed to kill time:
A teleprompter in his brain: The Obamunculus.
/philosophy humor
licensed to kill time
No one would ever have said Bush had a teleprompter in his brain. Maybe a Word Salad Shooter(tm), as someone here said about Palin (I loved that).
Yes, a Prez to be proud of :)
rootless-e
It’s an effin meritocracy
we don’t do quotas
on TV
you got to have
talent to burn
your place
is something you earn
you got to make it
on your own
unless your dad
knows
who to phone
rootless-e
@Bill E Pilgrim: groan
Culture of Truth
Thanks Billy!
Bill E Pilgrim
@rootless-e: I hope your father is big in poetry.
Tonal Crow
Wingnuts would Go Galt ™ if there weren’t Wingnut Welfare ™.
Tonal Crow
On the TV, no one knows that you have the cognitive abilities of a dog.
Felonious Wench
@Tonal Crow:
Don’t insult Lily, makes John cranky.
And to continue this digression, if the camera adds 10 pounds, Tunch on TV would look even more like a weeble-wobble.
slag
A word of advice, Ayla: “You blow it tonight, girl, and it’s keggers with kids all next year.”
Karen in GA
I never watched The Early Show. I guess I have to start watching it now so I can make a point of stopping.
asiangrrlMN
@jeffreyw: Aw, Buddy looks so happy. We should have a BJ animal twit club!
@Litlebritdifrnt: Hm. Very true. My boys would twit: If I stare at HER long enough, I will GET the smoked salmon!
SHE makes a good scratching post–especially her bewbies.
Fuck HER for moving and interrupting my eleven billiontieth nap of the day. Harumph.
Violet
That twit Ayla Brown gets a plum job just because her Daddy’s a Senator? Ugh. What about all the hard working kids whose Daddy’s aren’t Senators and whose Mommy’s aren’t TV anchors? Don’t they deserve a shot?
I remember her on “American Idol” and she had this insecure and entitled air about her that was incredibly off-putting. Her voice is okay, but her attitude bugged. I don’t expect anything to have changed.
Elizabelle
Pulitzer Prizes announced. Politico did not win one. Pro Publica did.
The Washington Post took home four, including one to Kathleen Parker for commentary.
NYTimes got three.
Hank Williams awarded a posthumous Pulitzer citation because he “expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life.”
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/washington-post-wins-four-pulitzers-new-york-times-gets-three/?hp
Well well about the Post. Surprising to me. (Anthony Shadid, Post international coverage winner, has moved to the NYT.) But still …
SiubhanDuinne
@SGBurton:
Since Ayla Brown, who was a season five contestant on “American Idol,” filed her first report.
SATSQ
Egypt Steve
I suppose this thread’s dead but I couldn’t help but point out: Ayla Brown seems to be named after the cave-woman heroine of the “Clan of the Cave Bear” novels. As far as I can remember, she invented sex in the missionary position, among other modern necessities. Insert Geico “so simple a cave-woman can do it” joke of your choice.
Katherine Hunter
i believe summit is used as a verb by mountain climbers but i dont have any direct quotes at hand. One “summits” Mt Everest, for example.