Joe Scarborough on the New York Times, Obama and McCain

This morning, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski hosted me on their WABC radio program to talk about my New York Magazine piece on the Times‘ Obama-inauguration party. As Michael Calderone blogged at Politico, Joe raised an interesting question when he suggested that former John McCain aide Vin Weber (who worked for Mitt Romney’s exploratory committee) may have been the Times‘ source for their now infamous A1 piece that reported on worries within McCain’s inner circle that the Senator and the lobbyist Vicki Iseman were romantically involved.

Listen to the program HERE:

New York Times Parties for Obama

I have a New York Magazine piece out on the Times‘ inauguration party held last night at the New Museum, in Soho. From the piece:

Though the  Times hasn’t taken a pronounced pro-Obama line (the paper endorsed Hillary, after all), it certainly has found many synergies with the new administration. For one, Obama is a Niebuhr-quoting intellectual who provides the most powerful possible endorsement for the paper’s cerebral sensibilities. The return of an ardent reader and a published author to the White House reaffirms what the Times stands for — as a Columbia grad, he’s steeped in the values of the Upper West Side.

But there are also economic benefits to an Obama presidency. The Times — like most media outlets that saw traffic spike during this campaign — stands to gain, at least financially, from an Obama presidency. His celebrity, and power to inspire the audience, is even a profit center — selling papers ($29.95 for the “Inauguration and Election Newspaper Set”) and photographs ($1,129 for a 20-by-24 Damon Winter image) — at a moment when the paper must find new ways to market itself and make money. (For readers who want their Obama first thing in the morning, there’s a $24.95 set of Obama “Victory Mugs,” part of a extensive collection of Obama memorabilia available at the paper’s online store.)
Hence the party.

Read the full piece HERE

TNY: My Holocaust Memoir

This week’s New Yorker has a Ben Greenman Shouts and Murmurs piece titled “My Holocaust Memoir.” The piece imagines a writer’s pitch letter to Oprah about a Holocaust memoir that bares a striking resemblance to Herman Rosenblat’s love story, Angel at the Fence. Herman’s story might not be true, but he’s now inspired satire.