Recently in Media Category

Wow. Britney Spears can't even catnap without it becoming a national story.

Reports The Associated Press:

Britney Spears finally appears to be acting like a new mom. The pop princess, who recently made headlines for a rash of less-than-motherly hard partying, fell asleep in a Las Vegas nightclub early Monday shortly after leading the New Year's Eve countdown, her manager said.

"By about one o'clock, she was just done, so we took her out," Spears' manager, Larry Rudolph, told The Associated Press Monday. "She was not drunk. She was just tired and falling asleep."

Wonder if she was wearing underwear?

The Washington, DC Area Film Critics Association picked United 93 as their choice for best film of the year.

No, this is not a joke.

The Judith Miller debacle at The New York Times shows just how easily the Bush Administration manipulated the press in the buildup to the invasion of Iraq Her departure from what was once the nation's newspaper of record shows just how badly the whole affair hurt the paper's already damaged reputation.

Miller can keep spinning the story anyway she wants but she allowed herself to be used as a pawn of an administration that lied to the world about its reasons for invading a country that posed no threat to the United States. And the Times, already hurt by the Jayson Blair scandal, cannot escape responsibility for allowing a loose cannon like Miller to run amuck.

Sad day for journalism. Even sadder one for America.

Seems like the good old boys at Fox News Network just can't leave the girls alone.

First network loudmouth Bill O'Reilly got caught making dirty phone calls to a female producer. Now the network's VP of advertising and promotions, Joe Chillemi is under investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for a "pattern of subjected female employees to sexual harassment and a hostile work environment."

According to the EEOC complaint, Chillemi "routinely used gross obscenities and vulgarities when describing women or their body parts" and "routinely cursed at and otherwise denigrated women employees and treated them in a demeaning way." Three women have reported being harassed by Chillemi.

Like many others in the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, newspapers feel the effect of tragedy. In Biloxi, the Sun-Herald reports that 30 percent of its staff is still missing after Katrina devastated the city last week.

In New Orleans some wonder is the venerable Times-Picayune will continue publishing, prompting the publisher to issue a public letter saying the paper will survive, no matter what. Others are not so sure.

This message from New Orleans Times-Picayune Editor Peter Kovacs was published this morning on Romenesko's Media News.

The Times-Picayune has lost contact with Leslie Williams, a reporter who was to cover the hurricane on the Mississippi Coast. Because our phones failed in New Orleans, we were unable to communicate with Leslie and he may not know that we are in Baton Rouge at LSU. If anyone ran across Leslie, please contact me at 225-578-9880. My cellphone is 504-352-5550 but it is still balky. My email is kovacs70003@yahoo.com. Leslie is experienced at covering hurricanes and is a native of the Mississippi coast. His mother still lives there and he sometimes stays with her.

A cameraman for Reuters News Service, wounded more than 24 hours ago, is being held captive by U.S. forces in Iraq. Reuters, understandably, is demanding his release.

However, the military says it is "still investigating" and won't say where they are holding the Iraqi who works for Reuters.

"Reuters demands the immediate release of Haider Kadhem," Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger said. "We fail to understand what reason there can be for his continued detention more than a day after he was the innocent victim of an incident in which his colleague was killed."

Soundman Waleed Khaled was buried on Monday after he was hit several times in the head and chest while driving his car, an ordinary passenger vehicle, on the assignment in western Baghdad. Haider Kadhem was wounded in the back.

Yet another black eye for the American military forces in a conflict where FUBAR rules.