Glynnis MacNicol

What's really wrong with the White House Correspondents' Dinner?:

It is, really, an occasion for the people in all quarters of Washington, so often at cross-purposes, to ditch the pretense that they don't know each other and have nothing to gain from each other. It's Washington on carnival time, a release valve from the pressure of doing the work those watchers in Spokane that Brokaw is so worried about expect of the city's political and media elites.

Bio: Glynnis MacNicol is the former Media Editor at Business Insider and a founding editor at Mediaite.com.

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What's really wrong with the White House Correspondents' Dinner?

whats-really-wrong-white-house-correspondents-dinner

It is, really, an occasion for the people in all quarters of Washington, so often at cross-purposes, to ditch the pretense that they don't know each other and have nothing to gain from each other. It's Washington on carnival time, a release valve from the pressure of doing the work those watchers in Spokane that Brokaw is so worried about expect of the city's political and media elites. More

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By Glynnis MacNicol

on April 30th, 2013 7:12am

 
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Nate Silver receives the adulation of New York's media demimonde in Nick Denton's Soho loft

nate-silver-receives-adulation-new-yorks-media-demimonde-nick-dentons-

Denton has continued to regularly have parties for media types at his apartment; it's just the excitement that feels like a throwback. One of the parties hosted here, after all, was for Tina Brown on the merger of Newsweek and The Daily Beast, a move regarded by most in the New York media world with severe skepticism. But tonight's honoree was Nate Silver, the New York Times blogger and poll-rider, the proprietor of FiveThirtyEight, and the media's' winner of the 2012 election cycle. More

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By Glynnis MacNicol

on November 15th, 2012 4:09pm

 
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After Sandy, a great and complex city reveals traumas new and old

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Now it's the aftermath—businesses without power, days without work, cars without fuel, homes without heat or light, shops without food, sick without medical care—that is taking its toll, and making new, often shocking, demands on the city and its citizens. More

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By Glynnis MacNicol

on November 10th, 2012 11:42am

 
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In Tampa, a ravenous media gobbles up the scenery

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For some years now, there have been two celebrity sets at these conventions, operating in parallel and only sometimes intersecting; and then, almost always, on the convention floor, where news goes to die. More

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By Glynnis MacNicol

on August 30th, 2012 3:19pm

 
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In Tampa, Arianna Huffington erects an 'oasis' of free food and massages, with no Diet Coke

Last week, digital-media guru Jeff Jarvis wrote a post challenging reporters to explain why they were attending the conventions. Here is one answer: Free lunch and massages. More

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By Glynnis MacNicol

on August 28th, 2012 1:59pm

 
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America can take a break from humoring Aaron Sorkin for a while now

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It's as though Sorkin worried we'd grow bored hating the show week in and week out unless he doubled down. More

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By Glynnis MacNicol

on August 27th, 2012 4:55pm

 
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Aaron Sorkin's misplaced media malaise

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Sorkin has said his show is not reality, but a fantasy in which one show handled the news, in this case the G.O.P. primary, differently, and made a difference in the outcome. But that's also the problem. Better or different television debate questions would have changed nothing. In fact, we did that primary better than Sorkin's "Newsroom" is doing it, not worse. More

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By Glynnis MacNicol

on August 20th, 2012 1:57pm

 
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If Maddow and Beck could ignore Casey Anthony, why can't Sorkin's 'Newsroom'?

if-maddow-and-beck-could-ignore-casey-anthony-why-cant-sorkins-newsr

Maddow did not mention Casey Anthony once during May or June, and only covered Weiner in passing. The idea that the cablers, political junkies all, would have to run to Anthony for ratings seems off; Anthony was morning-show fare for the middle of the country. More

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By Glynnis MacNicol

on August 13th, 2012 11:48am

 
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At last, a good episode of 'The Newsroom'

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This episode was so strong—in the best Sorkin way possible—it could have been a one-off special for HBO about the killing of bin Laden seen through the eyes of a cable news staff. If "The Newsroom" slinks back to its old ways, I'll wish that was all it had been. More

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By Glynnis MacNicol

on August 6th, 2012 12:03pm

 
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Aaron Sorkin, internet troll

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The fact that Aaron Sorkin recycles his own dialogue is not news. But that he should recycle a whole chunk of one main character from an earlier one is something else again. The two episodes end with the exact same line for goodness' sake ("Our time is up.") The first time, it seemed like an important message. Now, as with the "News Night" web commenters Will is so frustrated with, it just feels like a harangue. More

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By Glynnis MacNicol

on July 30th, 2012 11:47am