DC Direct, Part 2 – Purple Hayes

About 30 of my fellow Fellows crowded into a conference room at WJLA TV in Washington, which is also the home office of Politico. It’s a fun, interesting group and I spent a bit of time metaphorically kicking myself for not attending more Phillips Foundation events in recent years.

Michael Goldfarb, editor at the Weekly Standard was there and endured some good-natured ribbing from colleagues with aplomb – or maybe it was with a plum – I can’t remember. We had Matt Continetti at the gathering, proudly showing off his upcoming book “The Persecution of Sarah Palin”. Scanning the tome, I hereby declare it to be very well researched and written. I’ll be buying a copy, and I urge all Threedonians to check it out too.

Tim Carney, who turned his fellowship into a marvey book, “The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money”, was there too. At the time it came out, a lot of people pooh-poohed Carney’s thesis that some big businesses love big government, because it makes them both more money. After all that’s happened this year, Carney might have to change his name to Carnac.

And there were a lot more talented, accomplished and promising journalists in the room. Some are young, just getting started, bubbling with ideas and ideals. Others are a tad older, reflecting the fact that the Phillips Foundation has been around since 1990, but none quite so ancient as yours truly.

Stephen Hayes, fellow Fellow (although a tad more accomplished than yours truly), Fox News commentator and Number One of the list of “TV Dudes Who Make Wanks Go Weak At The Knees” is featured speaker number one. He is engaging, personable and truly modest. He has good stories and knows how to tell them, but – sadly – I can relate little more about those tales than that, since we were operating off the record. Suffice it to say that Hayes has earned what he has accomplished and then some and he is most definitely not one of those TV types who are full of themselves.

Bowing to Wanks’ wishes (that is to say, being a sucker whenever a woman gives me the puppy dog eyes and pouty lower lip) I accosted Hayes after our discussion, explained this here bloggy-thingy and how Wanks would really, really like to bear his progeny, but will settle – reluctantly – for an autograph (or words to that effect). The result, displayed below, will be mailed to Wanks as soon as she e-mails me with her snail-mail address, which I seem to have misplaced.

What makes this autograph especially precious – as in LTR precious – is that the flip side is the front of my business card. Trzupek and Hayes, together again for the first time! That’s known in the industry as a two-fer.

I will pause as you write that down.

A very interesting discussion with Caroline Little and Jim Brady, both formerly with the Washington Post, moderated by fellow Fellow David Donadio followed. The trio looked at how the “general interest” model in print journalism is dying and how traditional newspapers have to get leaner and more specialized if they are going to survive.

The rules are changing as well. This here internets thing means people can, and certainly do, break stories without any confirmation, counting on the web response to confirm or deny their tale. That model infuriates some old-school, “I need three sources”, print journalists, but old-school print journalism gave us plenty of errors too – just swathed in cloaks of righteousness – so I rather like the new rules.

Nia-Makila Henderson of Politico told us what it’s like to cover the White House and to have covered the Obama campaign. She related (and she’s not the first reporter to say this, so I don’t think I’m talking out of school here) how little access reporters had to candidate Obama on the campaign trail, reinforcing my personal opinion that this President may be the most closely managed Chief Executive since Warren G. Harding.

Henderson – shoot, everybody in the room – was left scratching their heads about the administration declaring war on Fox. It makes no sense, from the administration’s perspective that is, but too many people in the White House are involved for this to be anything but a planned, coordinated effort. Fox is loving it, of course, but one would hope that Obama and his advisors will do a damned site better devising a strategy for Afghanistan (and we know that he won’t be rushed, dammit!) than they’ve done formulating a plan to take on the media.

We got a tour of Politico and WJLA-TV (the local ABC affiliate), we had a grand dinner and much fellowship (pun intended) was to found. It’s a great group. Many thanks to Tom Phillips, a great gentleman who makes this all possible, and John Farley, the genial Irishman (and fellow dinosaur)  who runs the day to day show for the foundation.

And, if I may make a plug – although I’m sure that the FTC will come down on me for blogging without a license or something – take a gander at the Phillips Foundation’s website when you have a chance. Everyone who is a regular here at Threedonia has complained about the sorry state of an overwhelmingly biased mainstream media. The Phillips Foundation actually does something about it, seeking out, supporting and encouraging journalists – not based on their political views per se – but rather based on a person’s ability to think critically and report what he or she discovers with integrity and insight. It’s a great group and, when you consider which charitable causes you will support, I would ask you to consider helping us out.

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