BREAKING: Man Plans to Keep JobAny presidential critics under the illusion he would voluntarily hang it up after one term should wake up and smell the bitter coffee of Trump 2020.
Barack Is the New Brangelina!MEDIA
• Turns out Barack Obama’s underwear is more interesting to Us Weekly readers than Britney Spears’s custody battles. A Q&A with the Chicago senator in which he refused to answer the boxers-or-briefs question generated the some of the highest-ever traffic for a single article on the site, second only to news of Heath Ledger’s death [WWD]
• The Sam Zell bloodbath continues: The Tribune Co. owner axes 120 Newsday jobs. [NYP]
•Is Matt Drudge the world’s most powerful journalist? [Telegraph]
• The FBI isn’t happy with a recent Rolling Stone article on the Joint Terrorism Task Forces. [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
in other news
Matt Drudge Declares London Center of All Media It’s just like that scary kid in The Ring. He doesn’t sleep. Matt Drudge never sleeps. “I took a break,” he tells Anna Botting, of London’s Sky News, dodging her question about whether he brings his laptop to bed. “Sometimes I find myself updating hundreds of times a day,” he says. “Hundreds of times a day. You need to be completely live, almost as if you’re animated. With text.” Animated with text! Our mind itches all of a sudden. So does Botting’s, apparently. “Does it make you twitchy?” she asks Drudge. “I’ve learned how to pace myself,” he says. “I’ve been doing this for thirteen years.” Yeah, yeah, we know. And he’s still kind of coasting on Monica. “I had to break it because other people wouldn’t.” Yeah, yeah. Where’s Drudge been, anyway? This is his first interview in four years. And why is he doing it London? “One of the reasons I’m in London is that the media here is unparalleled. It surpasses New York, it surpasses all the cities of the world. This is the media town.”
Matt Drudge Speaks to Sky [Sky]
Related: Watching Matt Drudge [NYM]
company town
Is Kate Beckinsale Too Hot to Play Judy Miller?MEDIA
• Matt Drudge cracked open The New Republic’s Iraq fabulist controversy once again. Did the mag’s Baghdad diarist really make up details about mass graves and troops ridiculing a disfigured female soldier? Franklin Foer complains that Drudge’s docs could only have come from the Army. [Slate, NYO]
• Chris Jones, the managing editor of Portfolio.com, announced his departure from the mag after giving notice over a month ago. High-level rumors also indicate Joanne Lipman may soon be relieved from command — but only for the Website. [WWD]
• The Judith Miller movie is now filming in Memphis, and let’s just say that Kate Beckinsale is way too hot to be a reporter. On the other hand, the Valerie Plame CIA character, played by Vera Farmiga, looks just about right. [WP]
in other news
WABC Thinks Imus Was Punished Too SeverelyThat crazy Matt Drudge is saying that Don Imus will return to radio soon. “We’ll have him on a standard 40-second delay,” said a studio source at WABC, where Drudge claims Imus will begun jockeying once again. “Don is rested, humbled, and ready for war!” Wow, whose idea was that? We’re betting Citadel Broadcasting CEO Farid Suleman was the brains behind it. “I think if Don was available, we would be very happy to see what we could do,” Suleman told New York’s Robert Kolker way back in August. “What he did was wrong. But the consequences of what he did seemed out of proportion.” Well! This is sure to offend some people. What will he say next? We’re sure pretty much everyone will be listening with glee, just waiting for his next gaffe. Which is, you know, exactly what Suleman wants.
The Resurrection of Imus: Returns on Nation’s Top Talk Station [Drudge Report]
Related: The Resurrection of Don Imus [NYM]
in other news
Matt Drudge, Why Are You Leaving Us Now?Hey guys — did you hear? Internet superstar Matt Drudge is giving up his radio show! And some crazy cats are saying it’s because of the New York profile on him a couple of weeks ago. Thanks for the flattery, friends, but that seems like a bit of a stretch, especially since Matt himself claims he gave notice to his radio bosses in July. Still, we too are scratching our heads over why he may have dumped the show. Friends say that he loves the doing it, and he himself once told listeners that “no one would know” what he really thinks if he didn’t have it. Why ditch the program now? Since he’s such a private person, maybe he’s gotten tired of letting people inside his head? That seems to make sense. In any event, he commented on Jeff Bercovici’s Portfolio blog, saying, “The NY Mag story was a riot! I thoroughly enjoyed it.” Oh, Matt! Are you flirting? We knew waiting outside of your house all those times was worth it.
Off the Air [NYP]
Did Drudge’s Words Come Back to Haunt Him? [Mixed Media]
Drudge May or May Not Quit Radio After Last Week of September [Drudge Blog]
Related: Watching Matt Drudge
