White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel will resign tomorrow according to MSNBC.

Savannah Guthrie spoke on Andrea Mitchel Reports today and will be confirmed on Friday during a press conference from Robert Gibbs. Of course, today Gibbs refused to speculate as to what the nature of the press conference will cover, but the writing has been on the wall all week.

Politico’s speculated on Rahm’s exit and what could happen next, namely that Pete Rouse could (i.e. will) assume the role

While the speculation can now officially run wild for the next 24 hours, we’ll wait for President Obama’s “personal remarks,” per Gibbs, tomorrow.

John Lichman DC, Media Strategy, Washington Chief of Staff, Peter Rouse, Rahm Emmanuel, Robert Gibbs, Savannah Guthrie, White House

Republicans in Congress are more upset that a comedian cracked jokes at a hearing than the fact they invited a comedian to crack jokes at a hearing. Just making sure that’s clear before we get into the oddity that is celebrity endorsements.

The AP takes a crack at explaining the true nature of these press ops as those “famous-for-DC” meet with bold face names that grace the supermarket check-out lines.

Colbert’s celebrity is a commodity that California Democrat Zoe Lofgren, who chaired the subcommittee hearing, and the other witnesses that day sought to leverage. Lofgren joked at one point that the last time the hearing room was so crammed with audience members and cameras was for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment hearings a dozen years ago.

Of course, Colbert’s appearance was a joke. He appeared the night prior on The Colbert Report explaining why he was qualified to speak, based on his time as a migrant worker. But the explanation that Congress is now against Colbert is so simple it’s been used in Hollywood for years: ratings and relevance.

At the kicker of the AP article, Carol Swain, a law professor who testified before Colbert, remarked “I have testified before” and credited that because of the high profile star following her, “people heard my testimony.” This is directly what Colbert and Jon Stewart bring to the political world that is mired in otherwise mundane events that just so happen to dictate our government.

Celebrity is intoxicating, but when you have informed satire hiding behind celebrity it becomes a problem for most glad-handing politicos. Even with the upcoming Rally To Restore Sanity now getting a free bus service from New York to DC thanks to Arianna Huffington (complete with Twitter) and even President Obama plugging the rally, according to MSNBC First Read, due to the event’s focus on not foaming at the mouth due to punditry.

Even if Congress bristles at being made fun of, it still secretly swoons over the fact it can say the Dr. Stephen T. Colbert made fun of them for a five-minute viral clip they can show their staffers.

John Lichman DC, Media Strategy, News Arianna Huffington, Congress, DC, Jon Stewart, Media, Right To Restore Reason Rally, Stephen Colbert

Wondering why certain Twitters are being suggested to follow over the people you know? Thank Twitter’s ingenious advertising plan.

All Things Digital’s Media Memo revealed yesterday that paid suggestions is just one of three advertising plans being put to use by Twitter:

The idea is a simple one, people familiar with the company’s plans tell me: Twitter will try to help corporations and brands increase their Twitter following by inserting them alongside other Twitter users it suggests in its “Who to Follow” feature.

Don’t fret, though. If you’re not a fan of say Greta Van Susteren or Jimmy Carter, you won’t be inundated with their profile pics forever locked in your Who To Follow. Twitter’s algorithm will ensure just because someone pays to promote their Twitter, they won’t spam people who aren’t relevant to your friends and followers.

The official announcement will come shortly. The adoption of this in campaign promotion and outreach will be the thundering noise to follow.

John Lichman News Media Advertising, SocNets, Twitter

Google and POLITICO host a 2010 Election Preview today at the Newseum.  Last night there was a lot of prep work done to prepare for a panel, interviews with David Axelrod and Ed Gillespie, and some of DC’s favorite journalists Politico’s Mike Allen and Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart who will host the event.

Check out more from Fishbowl DC’s post.

You can also watch LIVE at www.youtube.com/citizentube starting at 2:30 PM Eastern.

WHC Insider DC, Event Coverage, News Media, Washington Events David Axelrod, Ed Gillespie, Google, Jonathan Capehart, Mike Allen, Politico, YouTube

Jon Klein knew he was doomed on a Wednesday.

In his first interview since being taken out from CNN with New York Magazine’s Daily Intel, the former CNN/U.S. president reveals the meeting couldn’t have been more brief:

On Wednesday afternoon, CNN Worldwide president Jim Walton, who was in New York visiting from Atlanta, called a meeting with Klein, but ominously didn’t tell him what it was about. When Klein arrived, Walton cursorily told him he was being removed, to be replaced by HLN chief Ken Jautz. It was a brief conversation.

“People get shot in our business. I got shot,” Klein said in a phone interview.

Going further, Klein seems just as shocked that he was let go before his Piers Morgan-Spitzer gambit could even start:

“I’m a big proponent of accountability. But I thought a judgment would come on three levels: one, quality; two, ratings; three, profitability.”
As for now, Klein’s taking it in stride and, as Intel informs us, will take in the Yankees game since he’s got a whole lot of nothing to do.

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Jeff Zucker plans to step down from his position as CEO at NBC upon completion of the Comcast merger.

The New York Times’ Media Decoder reports Zucker informed employees via email this morning that he would leave once the takeover is finalized and that it was not exactly his choice.

“We had both gotten to the same place,” Mr. Zucker said. “He made it clear that they wanted to move on at the close of the deal and I was completely comfortable with that.”

Zucker has been a fixture at the company for literally his entire professional career. Regardless, this sure is an action-packed Friday if you’re an executive at a cable channel/news network.

John Lichman News Media Comcast, Jeff Zucker, Media, NBC

CNN/U.S. President Jon Klein is ousted according to Fishbowl DC and will be internally replaced by HLN’s Ken Jautz. As Fishbowl notes, the departure is extremely odd since Klein’s brainchild is the upcoming Parker/Spitzer program and Piers Morgan takeover of Larry King’s slot.

The memo, via Fishbowl, below.

Read more…

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Don’t forget, you can watch the UN Media Lounge’s events streaming live from 92nd Street Y in New York thanks to Mashable.

Read more…

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Fred Davis’ rise started with a giant rat named King Roy and continues today with Mourning in America. Not exactly the plot to a generic blockbuster but more about how ad-man Fred Davis, a GOP media consultant, grew his brand in grand part due to the Internet.

Read more…

John Lichman DC, Media Strategy, News Media Advertising, Fred Davis, Media, MSNBC, New Media, SocNets, Viral Video, YouTube

In a tale as old as time, beauty can’t beat the beast with 100 backs–especially when it comes to legislation.

That’s exactly what the Internet learned upon today’s 56-43 vote to not pass $726 billion in defense spending, according to the AP, which also included language to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, or DADT as the official Twitter hashtag.

Lady Gaga gained a bit more steam last week after tweeting a Senate vote should be scheduled against “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” which picked up further press when Harry Reid re-tweeted her to explain there was an upcoming vote according to Politico; Gaga was referencing her recent appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards where her dates were all gay servicemen and women.

Since Gaga has adopted DADT as her rallying point–quite literally yesterday in Maine, as MTV reports. Her rallying speech (video above) called for an end to the practice. But today’s block doesn’t bode well for the repeal anytime soon, as the Times claims:

Congress has approved the annual Pentagon authorization bill for 48 consecutive years, and it seems likely that the measure will be brought up again after the election in the relatively calmer — if somewhat unpredictable — atmosphere of a lame-duck session.  The House has already approved legislation allowing the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and the provision will likely be easier to pass in the Senate after Dec. 1 when a Pentagon study on the effects of ending the policy is due.

Still, the House has already passed legislation to repeal the act and December 1st is another day. Perhaps the Senate hasn’t heard the last from the Haus or Gaga.

John Lichman DC, News, News Media DC, Harry Reid, Lady Gaga, Media, Senate, Twitter

As Twitter continues to unroll its “New Twitter” functionality, a rather pornographic exploit came to light this morning.

Mashable explains that “The flaw uses a JavaScript function called onMouseOver which creates an event when the mouse is passed over a chunk of text. We’ve seen the flaw being abused to launch simple pop-up windows, redirect users elsewhere (including porn sites), and we’ve also seen it used in combination with blocks of color, covering the true “intention” of the tweet.”

The bug was fully patched as of 9:50 am according to Twitter’s Status Blog, luckily saving the day of all bloggers and media types desperate to tweet their relief.

(video via Gizmodo)

John Lichman News Media New Media, SocNets, Twitter

President Obama’s town hall discussion took on the economy and Ted Brassfield’s loaded question.

“What I found was I simply–there weren’t jobs out there right now. I took advantage of the loans you were just speaking about, but I can’t make the interest payments on those loans today let alone think about getting a mortgage, having a family having a marriage–it’s awfully expensive,” Brassfield, the 30-year old “recent” law school graduate, said.

“Let me just say, whatever the expense, it’s worth it,” Obama said.

But the ultimate question–”Is the American Dream dead for me?”–prompted this response, via the CNBC live blog, from the President:

“The American dream is not dead. I think there’s no country in the world that would trade places with us. The single most important thing we can do is to grow our economy.”

Like that, the hour long discussion featured a suited Obama taking on questions about the economy, his stimulus plan and how the last few months have brought us to a point where we are seeing a turn-around. But he acknowledges that people will continue to be angry:

“I know how frustrated people are. I know in some cases how desperate people are,” he said, later adding, “I am confident that if we stay on a course that gets us back to old-fashioned values of hard work and responsibility and looking out for one another, that America will thrive.”

Video from the event can be found here.

John Lichman DC, News, Washington, Washington Events CNBC, Economy, President Obama

Six weeks until the 2010 election and the Tea Party remains the big discussion point for wonks across the country. Here’s what’s been happening over the weekend:

• The Untied Nations Summit and Clinton Global Initiative begin today in New York City. [USA Today]
• CNBC’s John Harwood hosts a town hall event in Washington DC with President Obama today at noon. [CNBC]
• The New York Times cites Obama aides as prepping a united front against the Tea Party by tying them to the GOP…
• …yet Politico‘s own White House sources say the Times is “100 percent wrong.”
• And the Washington Post cites an AP poll claiming both Republicans and Democrats are disliked by voters, which always leaves a third-party option.

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The Women: Inspiration & Enterprise symposium on September 20th, hosted by the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, is designed to be a “dynamic new annual conference for women” alongside the Clinton Global Initiative and UN General Assembly.

Hosted by Sarah Brown, Donna Karan and Arianna Huffington, the symposium will focus on empowering women in a new media standpoint while being able to network with like-minded and powerful members of the global community. Much like the educating experience that the May 2010 Women Deliver event profiling filmmaker Christy Turlington Burns‘ documentary No Woman No Cry.

NO WOMAN, NO CRY Panel Discussion from whcinsider on Vimeo.

John Lichman DC Arianna Huffington, Donna Karan, No Woman No Cry, sarah brown, White Ribbon Alliance, WIE

The Daily Show and The Colbert Report will each march on Washington, DC on Saturday October 30th.

Both Jon Stewart and Stephe–sorry, Dr. Stephen T. Colbert announced their dueling rallies last night on each other’s programs (twice.) What reasoning could there be behind such events? Because it was the day before Halloween? Because it was 10/30/10 during an election year? Because there was a tornado in Brooklyn?

None of the above as Stewart sheepishly explained on last night’s show, “we were already filming there that week.”

The Daily Show’s Rally To Restore Sanity promises a venue “for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive, and terrible for your throat; who feel that the loudest voices shouldn’t be the only ones that get heard; and who believe that the only time it’s appropriate to draw a Hitler mustache on someone is when that person is actually Hitler. Or Charlie Chaplin in certain roles.”

Read more…

John Lichman DC, Late Night, News, Washington Events March To Keep Fear Alive, Rally To Restore Sanity, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show