Birds Of A Feather

Rachel Sklar gets bloggers attention from all angles. Brian Stelter, a known new media expert from TVNewser, now NY Times contributor, shared his observations about Colbert wrist band campaign. Charlie Gibson didn't play along, so: "Some media observers interpreted his recalcitrance as a statement that real news shows are not to be conflated with parodies." The only fellow media expert he quoted to prove his point was a familiar face, Rachel Sklar: ”“It’s a test. If you play along, you’re funny and cool, and if you don’t, you’re stiff and boring. How people like Brian Williams and Katie Couric react to him are an indication of what they are really like — their instinctive reactions are measures of their good humor and authenticity and humanity.” Rachel sure knows media from inside. Wondering though the CNN building she looked around "the 7th floor studio and office space, where I had previously sussed out a Fishbowl poster literally around the corner from Anderson Cooper's office. I may have swooned".




A third MSM expert, Jeff Bercovici jumped on her for the email to Stelter. "maybe viewers want a stiff, boring guy who seems like he'd rather deliver the news than run for class president of Anchor High. And maybe that explains why he's been kicking Brian and Katie's butts for the past year. Just a thought." Anchors should deliver the news and be a blank slate. Sure, making their personal information public has nothing to do with it. If "Anchor high" shouldn't be viewers concern in Jeff's mind, anchor internships is a whole different story. But that's an old one. Now all the focus is on Sklar who doesn't get it and of course has nothing in common with him.

Rachel wasn't thrilled about Jeff's attack: "I will refrain from commenting on Gibson here, just as I did in the NYT (cough Jeff Bercovici cough). God forbid to get her mixed up with ""some media observers" cited who "interpreted [Gibson's] recalcitrance as a statement that real news shows are not to be conflated with parodies. That would have required way too much thinking about this.". Why would HuffPo media editor spend time thinking about the media? Rachel quoted "without further ado, my full, rambling email to Stelter, pruned and edited to within an inch of its life en route to the presses" in HuffPo, "because nothing says "Post That Writes Itself" than one that's already been written.": "Colbert is bringing this kind of comedy into the world of news, suddenly handling this well speaks to character, which is pretty important when deciding who you want to spend half an hour with every day - or who you instinctively turn to in moments of national crisis."

"What's interesting about "WristGate" (if I may) is that it took something that could have been a one-off joke and gave it a bit more weight. They told Colbert they'd wear the bracelet - did they keep their word? If they didn't, why not? Don't they support the troops?" We all know that anything that can be labeled a "gate" is highly important for Sklar. Did she coin the word "interngate" or is it simply too close to her heart? Anderloads must be proud. That is a sign of friendship, they get tips from Sklar to better leak CNN inside matters and Sklar gets ideas from Anderloads. A true romance.

NY Mag wrote about this whole blog media drama in "Rachel Sklar Available for All Your Quoting Needs":
"our question is why was blogger Rachel Sklar quoted as a TV news expert in the first place? Why not someone with experience in the biz who could lend more insight — or an insider? Because the article was written by young Brian Stelter, a.k.a. the wunderkind behind the blog TVNewser, that's why. Before he was recently hired by the Gray Lady, he was Sklar's co-worker and buddy at Mediabistro. Silly Stetler — you can't just quote your friends. This is the Times, not the Observer!"