Florida Gov. Rick Scott launches newspaper writing campaign for himself (St. Petersburg Times)

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Gov. Rick Scott, the rare statewide politician who doesn't read Florida news, is asking supporters to send a letter to their local newspaper editor praising his work as governor. The letter, of course, would be printed in a paper's editorial section. Scott has yet to sit for an interview with any editorial board in the state.


Scott includes a pre-written letter on his web site that refers to himself as "refreshing" and that he deserves "unwavering and enthusiastic support." A link to the letter was included in an e-mail Scott sent to supporters today boasting that Florida's unemployment rate declined for the fifth consecutive month.

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Rick Scott for president? It's possible (St. Petersburg Times)

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By Adam C. Smith
Times Political Editor
May 13, 2011

Rick Scott for president in 2012?

Absurd as it sounds, people who have talked to Florida's tea party governor about the Republican presidential field are convinced Scott has a bid lurking in the back of his mind.

"I'm not running for president,'' Scott declared the other day.

Probably he won't.

But let's say the field of Republican candidates still looks muddled and uninspiring come November. Let's say no one has managed to persuade Jeb Bush or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to get in the race. Let's say fed-up tea party activists still dominate the GOP primary electorate and show no enthusiasm for the "electable" Mitt Romneys, Tim Pawlentys and Jon Huntsmans of the world.

Enter Rick Scott, fresh off a year of slashing spending and regulation in Florida, and of infuriating moderate Republicans, independents, Democrats and newspaper editorial writers. By then a proven, uncompromising antigovernment crusader, he may be the best sell among Republican primary voters in these turbulent times.

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Barack Obama and Co. give up a few secrets to Newsweek's Jonathan Alter in 'The Promise': INTERVIEW

By BOB ANDELMAN

Here’s the opening of a conversation that would get me divorced:

“Honey, I’m going to spend the next 17 months researching and reporting about President Obama’s first year in office. Oh, and I’m going to keep my full-time job at the magazine and keep showing up as a talking head on TV, too.”

Of course, I’m not Jonathan Alter, national affairs columnist at Newsweek, frequent political analyst on MSNBC and author of a fascinating, new, behind the scenes book, The Promise, President Obama, Year One.

If your only previous exposure to Alter has been in small doses via his appearances on MSNBC and “Meet the Press,” you’ll be impressed at how well his approach to politics and journalism holds up over the course of an entire book. There is straight reporting, of course, but also the occasional zinger or observation that captures the point in a sharp-edged arrow—I mean sentence.

And it isn’t a mere bow to Barack Obama as “The Promised One.” Alter identifies mistakes in strategy, errors in judgment and more than a few of the new president’s character flaws.

As a teen, I found Joe McGinness’s The Selling of the Presidency 1968 oddly compelling. It, in turn, propelled me to read histories of most 20th century presidents. So, for me, The Promise is like a Charleston Chew. Its flavor lasts all day and leaves you wanting more.

Alter is joining us on Mr. Media today to promote his appearance on Tuesday, May 25 at Forum Truth in Sarasota, Florida. His talk starts at 7:30 p.m. and the cost of admission includes a copy of his book, The Promise. You can make reservations online @ www.forumtruth.org or by phone, 941-349-8350.

JONATHAN ALTER AUDIO EXCERPT: "My wife has a really busy job, too. She is a supervising producer for 'The Colbert Report.' Her job is to book the guests on that show. Stephen Colbert--and rightly so--has high standards for the guests they get... We do a lot of shop talk (in bed). A lot of it revolves around, who should she get for the show and who should I interview for the book?" 

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You can LISTEN to this interview with JONATHAN ALTER, Newsweek editor, MSNBC analyst and author of THE PROMISE: President Obama, Year One, by clicking the audio player above!

  Copyright 2010 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!

MORE POLITICAL INTERVIEWS FROM MR. MEDIA RADIO:
Barry Libert (Barack, Inc.)
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich
Bill Adair (Politifact.com; St. Petersburg Times)
Pete Von Sholly (Capitol Hell)
Jeremy Redleaf (Juneau)
David Andelman (A Shattered Peace)
Brian Michael Jenkins (Will Terrorists Go Nuclear?)
Marty Beckerman (Dumbocracy)
John Amato (CrooksandLiars.com)
Philip Shenon (The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation)
Katy Chevigny (Election Day,” “Deadline,” “Arctic Son)
Chuck Workman and Stephen J. Kern (In Search of Kennedy, Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol, The Source)
Alec Foege (Right of the Dial: The Rise of Clear Channel and the Fall of Commercial Radio)
Tom Leykis (The Tom Leykis Show)
John Amato (CrooksandLiars.com)
Paul Levine (Illegal, Solomon vs. Lord)
Kamran Pasha (Mother of the Believers)
Brian Michael Jenkins (Will Terrorists Go Nuclear?)
Marty Beckerman (Dumbocracy)
David Andelman (A Shattered Peace)
Philip Shenon (The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation)
Chris Matthews (Hardball)
Rob Kutner (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart)
Jim and Maureen Tusty (The Singing Revolution)

Facts, schmacts? Not while Politifact and This Week's Jake Tapper are watching! (Mr. Media)

Image via Wikipedia

By BOB ANDELMAN

If you’re going to get called on the carpet for something you did right, might as well be by Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central’s whirlwind of truthiness, “The Colbert Report.”

That’s what happened about a week ago to Bill Adair, Pulitzer Prize winning editor of Politifact.com, the online fact-checking operation spawned by the St. Petersburg Times.

In case you missed this story, Jake Tapper, interim host of ABC’s Sunday morning political chat fest, “This Week,” announced his guests’ most questionable claims would be subject to fact checking by Politifact.

Meanwhile, over at NBC’s venerable “Meet The Press,” host David Gregory dismissed the need for fact-checking his guests. I understand his point; does anyone fact-check the wrestlers’ claims on "WWE Smackdown"? Of course not. It’s pure, scripted entertainment. Not something anyone takes seriously.

Colbert even invited Tapper and Adair on his show to discuss their work.

Politifact uses a series of truth-o-meters to declare politicians’ boldest statements either true, untrue, half-true or “pants-on-fire” lies. It won a Pulitzer Prize for its work in 2009, which was the first time Bill Adair was on Mr. Media. Now that he’s been discovered by Colbert, he’s a tougher guest to book, but we’re always delighted to have him.

BILL ADAIR AUDIO EXCERPT: "The result is some good fact checking that wouldn't have been done before." 

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You can LISTEN to this interview with BILL ADAIR, editor of POLITIFACT.com, by clicking the audio player above!

Copyright 2010 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!

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Clay Bennett, CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS editorial cartoonist: Mr. Media Interview

Of the nine books I’ve written, it just occurred to me that the first and last have Pulitzer Prize connections—not for my work, unfortunately, but still…

The last was Will Eisner: A Spirited Life, a biography of the American master artist and writer, which featured an introduction by Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Michael Chabon.

And my first book, Stadium For Rent, features dozens of editorial cartoons drawn by future Pulitzer Prize winning artist Clay Bennett.

Back then, Bennett was poking fun at local issues and political figures for the St. Petersburg Times. I’ve always regarded his style as sneaky—the clean lines and bold images let him club you over the head with his message while you’re still chuckling.

Bennett left the Times for the Christian Science Monitor, where he ultimately won his Pulitzer. Today, he’s with the Chattanooga Times Free Press, of all places, and we’ll certainly talk about that, I’m sure.

You can LISTEN to this Mr. Media interview with editorial cartoonist CLAY BENNETT of the CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!

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Copyright 2008 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!

Bill Adair, POLITIFACT.com, ST. PETERSBURG TIMES editor: Mr. Media Audio Interview

Image of Bill AdairIf you wanted to pick a good presidential campaign upon which to launch a political web site devoted to truth, justice, and the American Way – and those are my words, not theirs – this would be the one.

You’ve got a man running as the candidate of one party who was in Vietnamese prisoner of war camps for five years, plus the first woman and African-American man to ever challenge for a major party’s nomination – and one of them will win it, one of these days.

And before we reached this point, there were so many candidates on both sides that we needed scorecards to keep track.

If you haven’t visited it before, take a minute and surf over to www.PolitiFact.com while you listen to this podcast.

The site is an online extension of the St. Petersburg Times daily newspaper and Congressional Quarterly and it is just what an election of this magnitude and complexity needs: a lie detector!

Literally!

Joining me today is the editor of Politifact.com – and Washington bureau chief for the St. Petersburg Times – Bill Adair. (And in the interest of full disclosure, let me say that my wife is a long-time editor at the Times.)
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Eric Deggans, media reporter for the St. Petersburg Times and author of its"The Feed" blog, says that Florida's Black newspapers are angry with the state's Democratic Party.

Read all about it HERE!