Good morning.
- CNN legend also plans to freeze himself
Life’s not been quite the same for workaholic, vain, celebrity-loving Larry King since CNN pulled the plug on the gabfest icon. He’s now 81, on his seventh marriage (this one’s gone for 18 years with just one brief hiatus after his fling with his much-younger wife’s sister) and clearly obsessed with his death. So Larry King live is mulling Larry King dead. “King would love to attend his own funeral. He would watch invisibly over the proceedings and laugh. ‘I would like the ceremony to begin, ‘Today we are honoring a 160-year-old man who was caught in bed by an irate husband,’” King said in a characteristically droll Mark Leibovich profile. ‘”And the funeral is late because it took six days to wipe the smile off his face.’”
He wanted Mario Cuomo to speak, but Cuomo’s gone. So now he wonders about Bill Clinton. ‘‘I bet he’d do it,” he says. He is, after all, Larry King, who also wants to freeze his entire body and then have it thawed when science finds the cure for whatever does him in. Imagine, a thawed Larry returning to interview Angie Dickinson, Barbara Walters, former Sen. Bob Dole, Snoop Dogg and O.J. Simpson. (The New York Times Magazine)
- Rupert Murdoch’s Iowa political analysis
Murdoch so wants to be a player and tweeting pundit. Sunday evening he offered the world his analysis of the latest Iowa polling by The Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics. (The Des Moines Register) “Iowa poll okay for Trump, if right, but terrific for Ben Carson, also topping favorability by very big margin.” (@rupertmurdoch)
- Video Music Awards and Miley Cyrus’ Wardrobes
“If the 2015 VMAs are remembered for anything—apart from Kanye West’s surprise announcement of his 2020 presidential candidacy—it will be for Miley Cyrus’s outfits. ‘Outfit’ actually seems like an inadequate word to describe the objects that adorned Cyrus’ body, and, more importantly, left large swaths uncovered.” Dutiful reporters counted 15 separate ensembles. (Slate) The New York Times, apparently seeking to be both the adult and the cultural historian in the room, reassures that the awards “were defined not by Ms. Cyrus’s stagy shock, but rather by eruptions of extreme sincerity, sometimes bursting out of situations that were clearly contrived, and sometimes not.” (The New York Times)
- Al Jazeera condemns verdict
It bashed an Egyptian court for sentencing three of its journalists to three years in prison after a retrial of a case that’s raised eyebrows among journalism and human rights groups. “Today’s verdict defies logic and common sense,” said Al Jazeera acting director general Mostefa Souag. “Our colleagues Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy will now have to return to prison, and Peter Greste is sentenced in absentia.” (Adweek) The verdict was similarly derided by Amal Clooney, attorney for one of the defendants and the wife of the actor. (New York Daily News)
- Finally, maybe a Jason Rezaian verdict?
Or was there one Sunday? Iran announced two verdicts for two individuals convicted of allegedly spying for the U.S. and Israel. But it didn’t name either. Was one of them the Washington Post reporter charged with “espionage” and put through a secretive trial? It didn’t appear so but, as one Iran expert put it to me late Sunday, “It’s Iran, who knows?” (Jerusalem Post)
- Katrina then and now
Scads of words have been written on the 10th anniversary. There have been excellent video essays, too. But here’s a look at front pages of newspapers then and now. (Poynter) And there’s a nice essay on all the coverage from a self-described “writer, music person” who offers, “Top 7 Reasons I Haven’t Jumped Out a Window From Katrina 10 Coverage.” (The Huffington Post) Was there some “mass media survivor’s guilt” for not having covered the state of New Orleans in odd years, she wonders?
- Univision’s Ramos doubles down on Trump
It was a variation on a rancorous theme of late but on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” the Univision anchor said, “I cover many issues in many countries, all around the planet, and this is the kind of thing that you see in dictatorships, but not in the United States of America.” (Mediaite)
- Data and digital, you know the difference, right?
“Apparently some people confuse the term ‘data’ with ‘digital.’ People in politics especially don’t get it, and neither do the very journalists who are supposed to be able to relay information about these concepts clearly to their readers.” That was one media ad executive opining in the Cook Political Report. (Ad Age)
- Larry Kudlow threatens to run for Senate
The CNBC pundit, who is an apostle for low or no taxes, now says he’d run for Senate in Connecticut against incumbent Democrat Richard Blumenthal if Blumenthal votes for the Iran nuke deal. (Mediaite) I assume he’d run as a Republican, not an independent on the Squawk Box party line.
- Wall Street Journal deletes very bad tweet
“A chink in his armor? Xi Jinping looks vulnerable for the first time.” Ah, yeah, a pretty bad tweet about China’s president late Sunday. Good that the paper quickly deleted it. (@chrisgeidner)
- Front page of the day, curated by Kristen Hare
Today’s front page of the day comes from The Times-Picayune on Saturday, which marked the 10-year-anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. You can see a collection of fronts related to the anniversary from Saturday and Sunday here. (Courtesy the Newseum)
- Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin
Sewell Chan will be international news editor for The New York Times. Previously, he was deputy op-ed editor. (Politico New York Playbook) | Mark Ginther is now vice president for news at KXAS in Dallas. Previously, he was executive news director for KING in Seattle. (Rick Gevers) | Ellen Wulfhorst is now Chief Americas Correspondent for the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Previously, she was a national correspondent covering U.S. general news for Reuters. (Email) | Job of the day: The Las Vegas Review-Journal is looking for a reporter. Get your resumes in! (Journalism Jobs) | Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.
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