Some wacky stuff happened in our media world over the past several days, and we’re still trying to sort it all out. A friend suggested that writing our thoughts down in a list form might help. After pondering the top stories at Digg (”ten pen tricks to do when you’re not jacking off” and “five ways to make your chest bigger” ), we figured everybody likes lists anyways, so why the hell not:

1) Why did MSNBC bail on reporter David Shuster for asking Rep. Marsha Blackburn a simple question?

The net’s soon-to-be former General Manager Dan Abrams made Shuster issue an apology to Blackburn on-air after he asked the congresswoman to name the last soldier to die from her district. When Blackburn didn’t know the answer, Shuster said that Jeremy Bohannon was that person — which soon became a source of controversy, with some conservatives saying that Bohannon was not from Blackburn’s district. Before that important detail could be sorted out, Abrams made an unhappy Shuster apologize because he thought Shuster had gotten it wrong. In the end, it turned out that Bohannon was from Blackburn’s district.

Hopefully Abrams made it up to Shuster in private — not that he has much incentive to do so, since he’s in the process of leaving his management job to become the permanent host of the network’s 9 p.m. hour, which was vacated by Joe Scarborough earlier this year.

Media Madness Ranking:  (3) Patrick Gavins  Read more…

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Is it just us, or is Stephanie Miller grateful that Don Imus said “nappy headed ho’s”?

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A Washington Post insider has leaked an internal memo regarding the Don Imus controversy to BigHead DC. We think the memo, penned by executive editor Len Downie, should make for an interesting read here at BigHead DC.

To: All Washington Post Staffers
From: Leonard Downie, Jr.
Re: The Recent Don Imus Racial Flap

Here at the Washington Post we pride ourselves on sensitivity – sensitivity about issues and the people that make those issues pertinent and relevant. We Post staffers also know that sensitivity of the utmost importance when dealing with members of the various minority communities we cover.

Back in 1998, we instituted an in-print rule that stated reporters could not use the word “black” and must use the words “African-American” when referring to a person of such persuasion. As a response to Imus’ gross insensitivity, I’d like to expand that rule even further. From here on in, any reference to the word “black” must be replaced by “African-American.” This rule will apply to both print and everyday conversations.

So, for example, when we write about the company Black & Decker, we must now refer to it as “African-American & Decker.” The Rolling Stones’ “Paint It, Black” will from here on in be known as “Paint It, African-American.” And the stock market crashed on “African-American Friday.”

When we speak to our co-workers, the blackboard in the newsroom is now the “African-American board” and the parking lot is filled with “African-American top.” The vending machine people have been notified, and will soon be serving “African-American cherry soda.” Care for some lunch? Well perhaps you’d enjoy the “Cajun-African-Americaned chicken.” If you feel faint and hit the ground, you’ve “African-Americaned out.”

Several staffers have already told me that this proposal “makes no sense” to them. Well, do you know what? Slavery and oppression make no sense to me, so I guess this is the right rule for the right situation at the right time. A rule such as this is but a mere raindrop in the ocean of sensitivity we must extend when it come to racial issues.

In closing, I’d like to say we at the Post hope this new rule will continue our tradition of excellence and make us just like The New York Times – a paper whose irrelevancy is matched only by its plummeting stock market numbers.

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The esteemed PBS journalist today recalls another race-based incident involving the radio host who’s in hot water for using the phrase “nappy headed ho’s”:

I was covering the White House for this newspaper in 1993, when Mr. Imus’s producer began calling to invite me on his radio program. I didn’t return his calls. I had my hands plenty full covering Bill Clinton.

Soon enough, the phone calls stopped. Then quizzical colleagues began asking me why Don Imus seemed to have a problem with me. I had no idea what they were talking about because I never listened to the program.

It was not until five years later, when Mr. Imus and I were both working under the NBC News umbrella — his show was being simulcast on MSNBC; I was a Capitol Hill correspondent for the network — that I discovered why people were asking those questions. It took Lars-Erik Nelson, a columnist for The New York Daily News, to finally explain what no one else had wanted to repeat.

“Isn’t The Times wonderful,” Mr. Nelson quoted Mr. Imus as saying on the radio. “It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House.”

I was taken aback but not outraged. I’d certainly been called worse and indeed jumped at the chance to use the old insult to explain to my NBC bosses why I did not want to appear on the Imus show.

I haven’t talked about this much. I’m a big girl. I have a platform. I have a voice. I’ve been working in journalism long enough that there is little danger that a radio D.J.’s juvenile slap will define or scar me. Yesterday, he began telling people he never actually called me a cleaning lady. Whatever. This is not about me…

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The Democratic political consultant (and Georgetown instructor) was on Don Imus this morning and they, of course, got to talking about Coulter’s new book, in which she criticizes 9/11 widows.

We had to chuckle a little when Imus and Begala, the cowboys that they are, took to comparing Coulter to a mare (that’s a female horse) in Lonesome Dove, called Hellbitch.

The only difference between Coulter and Hellbitch, quipped Begala, is that a man would actually ride Hellbitch.

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