The Cable Gamer was a big fan of Michael Calderone when he was the media-beat correspondent for Politico, the buzz-heavy DC publication. He consistently broke stories, but, in addition, he displayed a sense of fairness about the media industry, which, of course, mostly leans left.
But then Calderone left Politico to go to Yahoo, and it seems like one doesn't hear much from him anymore. But when TCG went looking in on Calderone, to see what he was up to, she was disappointed to see this item, headlined, "Limbaugh biographer claims he's bumped from Fox because of Limbaugh-O'Reilly feud." It seems that author Zev Chafets, author of a low-buzz-value book on Rush Limbaugh, is upset that he isn't being booked on Fox News, never mind the fact that Chafets' book adds little about Limbaugh that wasn't in his 2008 story in The New York Times Magazine. But try telling that to Chafets, who is feeling mightily aggrieved that his own poor reporting has made his book a dud. So Chafetz took his complaint to Calderone, who speculated, based entirely on Chafets' word for it, that Fox is mad at Chafets because he printed a couple criticisms of Bill O'Reilly in the book.
But as Mediate's Colby Hall reported later today, that's baloney:
A Fox News insider referred to Chafets’ account of getting bumped from Fox News as result of an alleged feud as nothing more than “wishful thinking that reeks of desperation” and said, “We tend to have authors on whose books actually make news and have buzz – Zev’s book has neither.”
Skeptics may see this item as a publicity stunt designed to sell a book that is sill trying to move past its current ranking of 90th on Amazon’s bestsellers, and 1,288th on Barnes and Noble’s list.
It is hard to blame producers of these shows for not booking the author of a biography of the provocative Limbaugh, particularly when it’s been such a busy month of remarkable news stories that include the BP oil spill, Arizona’s controversial immigration law, the economy, and the primary season. It seems more than plausible that this is nothing more than an instance of producers not being interested in a book that has so far achieved relatively little buzz.
Chafetz is entitled to think whatever he wants to think, and so is Calderone. But as a reporter, Calderone is required to be guided by facts. And the fact is that there's plenty going on in the world, and Chafets' book is a turkey. That's what Calderone should have printed. Fortunately, we have a new Cable Game fave, Hall, to keep the record straight.
Perhaps Calderone is missing Politico, and maybe he wants to go back. But he won't get anywhere if he writes sensationalist hearsay.
