the full ginsburg

GOP’s 2010 Obama Agenda Survey

Eric — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:34:22 +0000

So, first off, I admit that I’m on the GOP mailing list for some reason. Probably to find out about stuff like this: “The 2010 Obama Agenda Survey.“ It’s a push poll, nothing new about that. The problem with it is that I can’t respect you push-polling when you don’t even do it right:

Yes. Both. Neither.

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Courtney Hazlett Interview Pt 3/3

Eric — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:02:17 +0000

In this part of the interview, Courtney undergoes the stress test of a barrage of pop culture trivia questions, and we all share in a love of Brian Williams. Does she get the trivia questions right? Yes. Yes she does.

Read along!

Transcript: The Full Ginsburg’s Zara Findlay-Shirras and Eric Cunningham interview MSNBC’s Courtney Hazlett at The Ginsby Awards at Comix on February 27, 2010.

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Courtney Hazlett Interview Pt 2/3

Eric — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:35:59 +0000

In this part of the interview, Courtney tells us about her schedule (including 4:30AM calls), more of that pint of wine, Harvey Levin, her favorite blogs, The Awl, Twitter freaks, her favorite Letterman writers, and uses the phrase “a sexy RSS feed.”

Read along!

Transcript: The Full Ginsburg’s Zara Findlay-Shirras and Eric Cunningham interview MSNBC’s Courtney Hazlett at The Ginsby Awards at Comix on February 27, 2010.

Eric: So basically you do The Scoop, you also comment on MSNBC and on the Today Show from time to time. What is your typical day like? What time to you get in? Do you get early calls? What does that even mean?

Courtney: What does it even mean? Yeah. Well, my phone is probably ringing right now. No, all kidding aside, it’s the kind of thing where I’m kind of the only person who does what I do at “The Place for Politics.” And so, when something happens, it’s neat. So the phone rings all the time, but it’s fantastic. Because I get mad if someone beats me.

Eric: Do you ever have to come in really early? Because you were on Morning Joe, and that tapes so early—

Courtney: If by ‘early’ you mean, ‘still drunk’, yes, it’s happened. No, I’m kidding, come on!

Eric: Is she?

Courtney: Right, “Is she? Pint of wine?” No, but really early, yeah. There are definitely early mornings I can count that begin with phone calls at 4:30 in the morning that keep going until I’m actually physically there at 5 or 6:30 in the morning and then they go on.

Eric: What story broke really early that you had to come in like that?

Courtney: Actually, Tiger Woods. Listen, if any of you become really famous like Tiger Woods, and you want to break a story, do it at like 4 in the morning, eastern time. And the thing is that not only do you miss the news cycle, you ruin everyone’s day. And they’re so mad and they’re so tired.

Eric: But then don’t you take it out on them?

Courtney: No, because you’re so fuckin’ tired, you’re just like, “OK, here’s what I know.” And people say to you, “Do you know anymore?” No, I just don’t! You’re like, “Hey, phone’s for me, and you’re out. It’s fun though. With stories like Tiger Woods and Michael Jackson, they’re what you dread and what you wish for. All kidding aside, they’re just fantastic. And thank you to horrible outlets like TMZ. Is Harvey Levin here?

Eric: We have a lot of celebs here tonight.

Courtney: Yeah, Harvey Levin in the back, folks. No, but thanks to some of the more horrible outlets. It’s awesome to be them. Like there are days when I’m like, “Joke is on me.” Because if I was like Harvey Levin, I could make shit up. And everyone would click on me and follow me and whatever. But what it does is keeps you on your toes, even when you’re tired. You know you have to chase something.

Eric: That’s actually one of the other things. Since you are on that 24 hour cycle, do you have games you play to keep things interesting, or like jokes on the other anchors, or what?

Courtney: Are you trying to get me fired?

Eric: Yeahhhh! Breaking story.

Courtney: Yeah! Breaking: Courtney Hazlett fired.

Eric: No, I just know some people always try to sneak in – like, “I’m gonna try to sneak in the word ‘Blueberry’.” Do you ever have those games? Does it ever get that boring?

Courtney: I’ve never had to sneak in the word ‘Blueberry,’ no. Truthfully it never gets that boring. It really just doesn’t anymore. Because there’s always something so completely outrageous that you’re asked to answer. And now there’s this great thing that’s happened where the internet and television have actually kind of become the same thing in some sense. Where if something is trending huge on the internet, it’s gonna come up on TV. And so suddenly you’re answering to things you would have answered to like three or four years ago. Just the most absurd stories in the world. Even you’re answer is “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard, Tamryn Hall, why are you asking me that?” that’s enough. That’s enough.

Zara: And because you blog yourself, do you have favorite blogs, favorite sources? Or where do you draw your news from?

Courtney: I’ve actually had to discipline myself a little bit. You might not believe that by the pint of wine that I have. But I kind of just check them at 9AM, 12PM, 3PM, because it’s the sort of thing that you could be doing all the time. You could get completely wrapped up into. And blogs that blog about blogs that blog about blogs of blogs and now everybody that has an internet connection certainly has an opinion that’s slightly worthy. Which is a horrible thing. I mean forget about fixing health care, let’s fix that problem. That everybody with an internet connection is entitled to some sort of “reporting.” So it’s the kind of thing you could totally get wrapped up into. But you kind of have to scale it back some.

Eric: Which ones do you think are worthy? Which ones do you make sure to hit up?

Courtney: You know I always hit up Huffington Post, Gawker. There’s a great site called TheAwl that’s by one of the guys who started Gawker more or less, Choire Sicha. And then news sites. Like, actual real news sites. You know, for my beat that’s gonna be the L.A. Times, things like that, too.

Eric: Do you ever look for people commenting on your reporting?

Courtney: Oh god, don’t do that. I don’t want to pay my therapist that much money. I mean, the bottom line is that I told my mom early on, “Stop Googling me, I’m not going to Google me, don’t listen to—don’t ever go to the comments part of anything, never ever.” I mean, seriously, unless you’re in the mood to self-harm, do not listen to anything anyone has to say about you.

Zara: I don’t want to be in that mood ever.

Courtney: But in case you are…

Zara: I’m gonna keep an open mind.

Courtney: If you’re in the mood to self-harm, check out what commenters are saying. And thanks to Twitter, they feel very free to just say, “Your shoes are ugly and your dress sucks and why did your mother name you Courtney?” People are phenomenal. You just kind of have to, fffwhipp.

Eric: But you never answered me, why did she name you Courtney?

Courtney: I’ll have to get back to you on that.

Zara: So do you use Twitter as a source at all? I guess if it’s from a reputable—

Courtney: Twitter’s kind of a, for me, a sexy RSS feed. I follow all the news sites I need to follow. As far as the RSS thing, I was really into, the geek side of me. But it was just ugly. Aesthetically I just couldn’t get into it. So Twitter has solved that problem. And then there are some great people. Like the writers for Letterman are some of the most hilarious people you’ll ever find in the world. Eric Stangel and Justin Stangel are on Twitter, I follow them. I follow writers for a lot of my favorite television shows. And actually they’re great because they leak so much stuff you’re not supposed to. Like, “Oh, guess who’s just in the studio?” Oh, Mystery Guest, solved. So in that way, it’s really good for reporting.

Eric: That was a Follow Saturday for those two Stangel brothers. That was awesome.

Courtney: Follow Saturday.

Filed under: The Full Ginsburg

Courtney Hazlett Interview Pt 1/3

Eric — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:28:24 +0000

In this part of the interview, Courtney tells us the truth about The Oscars, her obsession with the Olympic torch, Leno v. Letterman, Conan’s twitter, Tiger Woods, John Mayer’s obsession with upper-middle-class wear, and TLC’s biggest stars.

Also, no, she’s never been accosted by Gary Busey. YET.

Stay away, Busey.

Read along!

Transcript: The Full Ginsburg’s Zara Findlay-Shirras and Eric Cunningham interview MSNBC’s Courtney Hazlett at The Ginsby Awards at Comix on February 27, 2010.

Eric: To conclude the show, we’re going to present tonight’s Lifetime Achievement Award which I have right here. Engraved and everything. You may know our Lifetime Award winner from MSNBC, the Today Show, The Scoop online: please give a warm welcome to Courtney Hazlett.

[MSNBC theme plays]

Eric: Yes, that was the MSNBC election theme.

Courtney: I feel like I’m at home.

Eric: For those of you who aren’t incredible addicts and downloaded it back in 2008.

Courtney: Outing yourself…

Zara: So thank you for joining us tonight. Courtney is from MSNBC and she also has a blog called The Scoop. And so we’re here, this is obviously about to be The Oscars, entertainment themed show, so what kind of Oscar buzz do you have for us?

[Pause]

Courtney: I can really sell it can’t I? I’ve got a pint of wine. Oscar buzz. It’s kind of like the most boring there is now because there’s about seventeen and a half other ones that come up before it, so its really just a matter of who’s not going to show up or not win.

Eric: So who do you think is not going to win?

Courtney: Precious is not going to win. You heard it here first. Maybe not Avatar, shocking.

Eric: Brendan is devastated, he’s crying in the background right now.

Courtney: Dry your eyes.

Eric: Poor Brendan. Well one of the other things that’s newsworthy right now is that the Olympics are wrapping up, have you been keeping up with the Olympics too much?

Courtney: How could I not? They basically pipe it into 30 Rock 24/7. I’ve got channels, it’s like, there’s this thing there’s this one feed we can get through our computers, through all of our televisions, and it’s the torch 24/7. It’s like our yule log right now. Everywhere you look it’s “Ohh, there’s the torch, nothing’s happening, still.” But hey, it’s great, it’s fantastic.

Eric: I would watch that.

Courtney: And actually, that’s the problem, I do watch that. I totally watch it.

Zara: I saw that you tweeted yesterday that you were gonna talk – “I saw your tweet!”

Courtney: It sounds so dirty for some reason. And I don’t know why. Now I’m sitting here thinking, “Oh god, what did I tweet?”

Zara: I believe it was yesterday you were gonna talk about Leno’s arrival to NBC and you were pre-empted by Toyota news. So what would you say about that? Do you have to toe the company line?

Courtney: Oh, Leno. Do I have to toe the company line? Um… Is anyone who works for NBC in the room?

Eric: Just about 40 ex-Pages, that’s all.

Courtney: 40 ex-Pages. And any publicists, people I work for, somebody’s not showing their face.

Eric: Brian Williams is here, also.

Courtney: Brian Williams everybody! No. Um, Leno is interesting. It’s gonna be interesting. All kidding aside, there’s a rule of thumb in television that when you change your time slot you lose 20% of your audience. So, just sayin’… Do some math…

Eric: So now he’s lost – So now if he started off at 100%, he went down to 80% when he went to 10PM and now it’s going to 60% when he comes back?

Courtney: Something like that. We’ll see, we’ll see. I hear he’s a fantastic guy…

[Big laugh]

Zara: Sincerity, here at The Full Ginsburg.

Courtney: I need some wine…

Eric: So what do you think of Letterman, how’s he doing?

Courtney: You know what, this is the best thing to have ever happened to David Letterman. I mean, do yall remember, he had a huge sex scandal? And we’ve all forgotten about this.

Eric: I don’t remember that.

Zara: No, me neither.

Courtney: I mean, interns getting mmph, this has been fantastic for Letterman, for his staff. Leno’s being eviscerated, like “Whoa, Jay Leno, back out of work for losing ratings, about to get Conan fired, oh wait, Conan got fired.”

Eric: Have you started following Conan on Twitter?

Courtney: How can you not?

Eric: Oh man, I’m waiting for the third tweet.

Courtney: I’m on the edge of my seat for the third tweet. Actually I think he did one this morning it was about hanging out in his Ford Taurus and he left his yogurt in the trunk or something. Crazy life, who hasn’t done that, come on.

Eric: Stars, they’re just like us.

Zara: Just like us, I love yogurt!

Courtney: Really?

Zara: YES!

Eric: Well I also know you got called in a lot to talk about Tiger Woods stuff.

Courtney: Oh, the gift that keeps on giving. I mean, really. I don’t even know where to begin. The weird part about it, is the more you know about it, the dirtier you feel. Even though this is not my world, let’s be clear, this is not my world I have no idea what he’s going through – but at the same time, it got so uncomfortable to even talk about it on air. I’m being forced to say things and I’m thinking, “God, is my mom watching?” I don’t want to say these words, I don’t want to read these text messages. I just want to pretend its not happening.

Eric: Well it’s weird, like him and Michael Jordan and Lance Armstrong, those are the guys who are untouchable, they’re the greatest guys in the world, and all of a sudden you can use Tiger Woods as a subsitute for –

Courtney: You totally can. But then again there are people like John Mayer.

Zara: That guy…

Courtney: There are people like John Mayer. And the most redeeming thing he has to say about himself is that “My heart is like Benneton.” And I’m like, “What do you mean, your heart is about to lose out to The Gap? Your heart is about to go out of business?” But we’re like, oh, wait a second, that’s OK because it makes absolutely no sense. And so there’s this massive double standard that we clearly have. Tiger Woods, loser; John Mayer, hey, pulled the Benneton card. Worked out just fine.

Eric: His twitter numbers are just—

Courtney: I think you’re a little jealous of his twitter numbers.

Eric: I know, it’s like in the millions…

Zara: Tweet-envy.

Eric: [Massive sigh]

Zara: Also sounds dirty.

Eric: There’s one more thing, its one of my favorite songs along with the American Beauty soundtrack and the –

Courtney: MSNBC theme?

Eric: And the MSNBC theme. And there’s one more song I couldn’t put on because we ran out of room on the CD, but when the election results come in? Jared knows what I’m talking about, I made him listen to it a thousand time. Anyway, another song that I love is “You’re so Vain” song, whose identity is kind of up in the air.

Courtney: Yeah, it’s kind of the Deepthroat of all music. Do we care?

Eric: I care so much!

Courtney: Clearly you care about it so much.

Eric: I’ve been thinking about it for so long.

Courtney: Alright, that and who’s Tiger’s mistress number fourteen is what I’m thinking about.

Eric: These are the things I care about.

Courtney: OK, I’ll float that upstream.

Zara: It’s Mick Jagger.

Eric: I thought it was supposed to be Warren Beatty, but apparently someone let out that –

Courtney: I think it’s you.

Eric: Could be! I am pretty vain.

Zara: So before working at MSNBC you worked at People, you worked at The Smoking Gun, and OK! Magazine. So what is your weirdest celebrity interaction you’ve had so far?

Courtney: Wow that’s really hard. How do you define weird?

Zara: Where you were uncomfortable.

Courtney: [laughs] How do you define uncomfortable?

Zara: Physically and emotionally uncomfortable.

Courtney: Wow, you’re still not narrowing it down that much. I’m starting to twitch.

Zara: Flashbacks.

Courtney: Ah, yeah. You know, I think it’s a little strange. I think any moment with a publicist is a little bit difficult. One of the more recent uncomfortable ones I had was with The Little Couple.

Eric: From TLC? Oh yes, another thing that I love.

Courtney: Here we go, here we go. Does anybody here watch TLC? Admit it, come on, I know you do.

Zara: Everybody watches TLC.

Courtney: Who watches The Little Couple? They’re both under four feet tall, this is a novelty. So basically I came out and said, “Are you jealous of Jon and Kate?” And they should be and I’m not talking about because of their height, I’m talking about because they get like, free nose jobs, hair plugs, houses, what have you, and this poor little couple, they’re just trying to get kids.

Eric: Jon Gosselin’s here, too.

Courtney: Oh, Jon Gosselin’s here? Bah, I can take him. But no, it was one of those awkward moments with a publicist where she called me out on it, she’s like, “What are you trying to do, compare the two?” Yeah. But it was like awkward silence the problem though is the situations that should be really awkward, like the sexual harassment, the things like that, you just expect it. Its when somebody actually calls you out on your shit and says, “You know what, you should not be asking that question, it’s totally innappropriate and not germane to the argument,” that’s what’s awkward. And it’s sad that that’s the thing that happens the least often.

Eric: So that’s like an awkward thing… is there an awkward thing that someone else did?

Courtney: What do you mean by that?

Eric: Did you ever meet Gary Busey is what I’m saying.

Courtney: My therapist will get back to you on that one.

Filed under: The Full Ginsburg

TFG + Courtney Hazlett = A Packed Basement Full of Comedy

Claudia — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:22:01 +0000

Many thanks to all of our fans (we call our friends fans) who came out to the show on Saturday night. Comix actually had to TURN PEOPLE AWAY. We almost violated fire code, people! Another BIG thank you to Comix/Ochi’s Lounge and of course MSNBC’s Courtney Hazlett who was a great sport!

Didn’t get to make the show? Be sure to check back soon on this site for clips!

(pictured L-R: Marc Georges, Zara Findlay-Shirras, Eric Cunningham, Courtney Hazlett, Brendan Collins, Jared Bloom, and Mike Winton. photo credit: Claudia Castillo)

Filed under: Media, Pop Culture, TFG Originals

Tonight – The Ginsbys ft. Courtney Hazlett

Eric — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:21:50 +0000

Final reservation numbers have arrived: it’s gonna be big. Bigger-than-Huckabee big.

7PM. Saturday. Comix.

Let’s. Do. This.

Filed under: The Full Ginsburg

REMINDER! The Ginsbys are Tomorrow!

Claudia — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:10:12 +0000

Don’t forget, The Ginsbys are fast approaching and we have tons of fun stuff in store for you! All the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, the prestige of politics, and the (sometimes) integrity of the news! Not to mention our special guest, MSNBC’s Courtney Hazlett.

The Full Ginsburg presents The Ginsbys
Saturday, February 27th @ Ochi’s Lounge (basement of Comix), 7pm
NE corner of 14th St and 9th Ave

So if you haven’t e-mailed us your RSVP, do so now!

Filed under: The Full Ginsburg

Political Carnival & Donklephant

Eric — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 06:41:12 +0000

Well hello! The big guns over at The Political Carnival and Donklephant like the Health Care Bobsled! I mean, by “like” I mean, “Are depressed by.” But that’s what we were going for?

You had us at, “If you like your health care debates…”

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The Ginsbys: Honey Shot

Eric — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:05:14 +0000

“Don’t miss The Full Ginsburg” says The Apiary. And they are right.

Filed under: The Full Ginsburg

Health Care Bobsled

The Full Ginsburg — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:47:59 +0000

You’d think the Democrats could just ride it to the finish line but… nope.

Filed under: The Full Ginsburg