Rita Cosby, Clairvoyant Libel Defendant
Rita Cosby's bona fides include "an exclusive interview with Slobodan Milosevic while he was imprisoned at The Hague; an exclusive interview with Yasser Arafat when his compound was under siege"; "a rare, private meeting with Pope John Paul II" and interviews with "more than a dozen world leaders and four U.S. presidents."
That's according to the Amazon.com author bio for her book Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith's Death. Cognitive dissonance, anyone?
Now it turns out that the reporting behind the book was just as classy and sophisticated as its subject. Briefly, Cosby claims in the book that Larry Birkhead and Howard K. Stern, two of the players in the Smith saga, were lovers. Only -- whoops! -- she didn't bother to call them for comment. Her explanation: "I knew what the answer would be. I knew the answer would be something that I couldn't trust."
Birkhead says he's going to sue the pants of Cosby and her publisher, Grand Central. It sounds like he has a pretty good case. (NBC must have thought so, because it killed a Today segment on the book.)
By the way, Cosby interviewed a lot of those statesmen and presidents as an anchor for MSNBC. So while it may not be the Paris Hilton network, it has a fair claim to being the Anna Nicole Smith network.
- Late Breaks: Sibling Rivalry at News Corp., more
- Dec 2 2008 4:49PM EST
- Two Murdoch Parties, But Wendi Gets Her Way
- Dec 2 2008 4:10PM EST
- Why NBC News Should've Known Better
- Dec 2 2008 10:42AM EST
- MSNBC: The Fox News of the Left?
- Dec 2 2008 9:11AM EST
- Idle Chatter: Glenn Beck, Harvey Weinstein, more
- Dec 2 2008 8:48AM EST
- Late Breaks: Meet the New 'Meet the Press' Host
- Dec 1 2008 6:14PM EST
- Rather: 'Fear Rules Every Newsroom in the Country'
- Dec 1 2008 12:38PM EST
- Gap's NBC Embrace Is Serendipity, Not Synergy
- Dec 1 2008 11:38AM EST
- The Takeaway: Murdoch Biography Arrives
- Dec 1 2008 10:20AM EST
- Idle Chatter: Anchors Away; Outsourcing MoDo
- Dec 1 2008 8:26AM EST
- Late Breaks: Go Stuff Some Turkey
- Nov 26 2008 5:31PM EST
- Jeff Jarvis Declares the Death of the Interview
- Nov 26 2008 12:51PM EST
- Idle Chatter: Ashlee Simpson, Bane of Copy Editors
- Nov 26 2008 8:56AM EST
- Late Breaks: Hannity's Little Helper
- Nov 25 2008 4:43PM EST
- Nice Time-ing: Ann the Ax-Wielder Honored
- Nov 25 2008 12:47PM EST
Categories
Links
- Contact Me
- News After Newspapers
- Romenesko

- Gawker

- Ad Age

- WWD's Memo Pad

- Keith Kelly

- NYT Media

- Jon Fine

- TVNewser

- Magazine Death Pool

- HuffPo Media

- Radar

- Galleycat

- Book Standard

- News Hounds

- Newsbusters

- Jezebel

- CBS Public Eye

- Editor & Publisher

- Hollywood Wiretap

- The Media Pundit

- FAIR

- I Want Media

- Viral Video

- Nikki Finke

- MediaFile

- Silicon Alley Insider

- Paid Content

- Valleywag

- Channel '08 -- Campaign Ads

- Cover Awards

- Talking Biz News

- SI.com - Richard Deitsch

- Gapper Blog - Media

- Jon Friedman










