R.I.P. Michael Hastings

Journalist Michael Hastings, author of The Operators, died today in a car accident in Los Angeles.

Good News BoBos

From St. BoBo's epistle to the wingnuts:

 Correction: June 14, 2013

An earlier version of this column misattributed a passage from Corinthians that ends with the statement, “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” The letter to the Corinthians is by Paul, not Jesus.

In the draft, he attributed it to Ricardo Montalban.

Let me speculate that Bobo didn't work his way through the U. of C.  Or learn anything when he there.

Conflict of Interest Kurtz Strikes Again

The ash burns on Howie Kurtz's ass are getting more noticable by the minute.

Update: Erik Wemple keeps his speculation clean.

Libertarian Old Police Blotter: Joe Gone to Prison Edition

I can't find anything to tie Joe Francis to the Republican Party, although he shares many of the G.O.P.'s views on women.  So I'll make this a "Libertarian Old Police Blotter."

Anyway, here's the good news:

Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild fame has been accused of hitting girls in the past. But this time the charges stuck.

The L.A. City Attorney's office triumphantly stated that Francis was convicted by a jury today of "three counts of false imprisonment, one count of dissuading a witness from reporting, and one count of assault causing great bodily injury":

Prosecutors say the 40-year-old enticed three women into his limo outside Hollywood's Supperclub. Two of the women thought they were simply being driven to a parked car nearby. But no, the City Attorney's office says:

 Instead Francis took them to his place and got into a physical altercation with two of the women as he tried to separate them from their companion.

If there's any justice, Joe will spend the next five years in prison. Congratulations to the prosecutors for their outstanding work.

As One Hack Falls, One Hundred Hacks Rise Up to Take His Place

Coverage of Howard Kurtz's sacking by The Daily Beast pays tribute to Kurtz by being just as hacktacular as Kurtz himself. A choice nugget:

The question of Kurtz’s future, in terms of both reputation and relevance, now turns to CNN.

It took two people to write that.

It's all there in the PoliticHo article -- worthless anonymous quotes which insult but don't inform, "seems" and "it is unclear"s as hedges for ass-pulled speculation, Twitter reprints.  It's almost as if Kurtz wrote it himself.

Dylan Byers is either laboring under the misimpression that his crap is superior to Kurtz's, or he knows his crap is just as bad and that his employer doesn't care.

Howard Kurtz's Conflicts of Interest Reduced By Nine Percent

So what does a right-wing hack do after failing downward from a Washington Post Co. property and a virtual joke (NewsBeast)?

He can follow his fellow hack, Mickey Kaus, and write bitter anti-immigrant screeds at the Daily Choler. 

Don't worry, folks.  Howie has several other jobs he can do poorly.  I mean, what are the odds that CNN will wise up?

The Washington Post reports the story by defining irony down:

People familiar with both sides — media people ironically speaking anonymously about other media people — agree that there was mutual antagonism and tension for several months.

And then there's Maude:

Kurtz has expressed dissatisfaction with deep cutbacks and in his bureau site’s increased emphasis on liberal commentary, including the addition of two former Obama administration officials as columnists.

Yet not a peep out of him about the hiring of Megan McArdle or "The Royalist."

But I repeat myself. 

Fright or Flight

Eric Alterman makes a persuasive case for the worthlessness of Maureen Dowd.

Maureen Dowd herself makes the same case every time she is published:

"BARBARA BUSH is a word that rhymes with fright."

Blight?
Parasite?
Anti-semite?

My vote: Shite.