1)     POLITICO Playbook by Mike Allen.  If you want to know what DC insiders are doing and thinking about, start your day with this tipsheet. 

2)     Google News.  With apologies to my Bing friends, a customized Google News page is the best way to track topics of particular interest to you. Coupled with Google News Alerts, you’ll have real time intelligence on any subject.

3)     Twitter.  Yes, Twitter is a news channel.  It’s what I check every morning before I read other news. I’ve created a Twitter list of nearly 200 reporters from Washington, DC, Iowa (my home state and a hotbed of presidential politics) and the state of Washington. I’ve also thrown in a few tech reporters for good measure.  These reporters break news via Twitter and their postings give a very clear picture about what will be on the evening news that night and the front pages tomorrow.   http://twitter.com/#!/scottstanzel/reporters

4)     POLITICO.  Their skilled reporters continue to break political news stories like no other outlet. They are equal opportunity critics of both parties.

5)     Fox News. My favorite shows are Your World with Neil Cavuto and Special Report with Bret Baier.  Neil puts politics into the perspective of what it means to business.  Bret’s straightforward news show covers DC in deeper fashion than any other evening news program and the panel provides thoughtful insights (thanks to my favorites Charles Krauthammer and Stephen Hayes) that can’t be found elsewhere.

6)     The Seattle Times.  It still guides broadcast reporting in the Evergreen State, as local TV and radio reporters use it to shape their reporting.

7)     ABC News.  The team at ABC does the best and most balanced reporting of the three networks.  Their DC reporting flows out through all of their television, radio and Internet properties.

8)     Drudge Report.  Still serves as the shadow assignment editor for reporters around the country.

9)     The Washington Post.  Though the quality of work has slipped in recent years, this paper still does the most thorough policy reporting of the DC-focused daily publications and shapes the coverage of the Beltway broadcast reporters.

10)  The Wall Street Journal.  The editorial writing of the newspaper with the largest circulation in the United States should not be missed.  It has influence in New York, DC and everywhere else across the country (see: “The Gates of Confiscation,” which reshaped the Washington State income tax fight.)

Begrudging Bonus Suggestion:  The New York Times – Know your enemy.  The editorial page often reads like the rants of a DNC intern and is nearly as reliably/predictably liberal.

UPDATE:  After posting the list, an Iowa friend noted RealClearPolitics to me.  It’s a must for information on polling and links to great commentary.  It should’ve been on my list.

*I say “mildly successful” because I had my fastest time in a half distance, but struggled in the race. This year’s Boise 70.3 race provided some really tough weather conditions – 60 degree water, 21 to 26 mph winds on the bike (with about 75% of the course feeling like headwind or severe crosswind) and a warmer than I’m used to temp of 81 degrees on the run. Craig Alexander, last year’s Boise champ and the current Ironman World Champ (Kona winner in 2008 and 2009) had a tough day in Boise, too. He won the race, but his time was 11 minutes slower than his winning time last year – when it rained and hailed throughout the race. After hearing that, I didn’t feel so bad about going slower than planned. Click on the picture below for my results (Note: 1153 total triathletes finished the race and 1229 started. There were 175 finishers in my division – M35-39.) -

Ironman Boise Results - Scott Stanzel

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Today, ABC World News did a story about it. Diane Sawyer said it had been watched 1.3 million times. That was when World News was recorded on the east coast. When I saw it on pacific time, it had been watched 2.1 million times.

As of this posting, the video had now been seen nearly 3.8 million times. Amazing. Check it out.

One of the best parts of the video is the look on the faces of the girls behind him. Also, his two other videos (songs which he wrote) had been viewed just several thousand times yesterday. Today, they were both nearing a half million views.

Somewhere about 5.5 miles in the air above Hamilton, Canada - There’s no special subject for this blog post, other than I have wi-fi on my Delta flight (739 from JFK to SEA). It makes this middle seat a bit more bearable. The dude behind me loudly talking about caligraphy and wedding invites is making everything less bearable. This gogo inflight service isn’t cheap – $12.95 for the flight. When I suggested the per flight cost was a little pricy to the Delta folks at the gate peddling the service, they said I could buy a monthly pass for $34. But, that doesn’t make much sense, as you can’t tell when you are booking your ticket if the plane you’ll be on has been outfitted with the service. I have seven flights on Delta this month, but this one may be the only one with wi-fi. You don’t know until you get on the plane, so spending $34 could be a big waste.

Something for the Delta suggestion box: Make it easy to find out via Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Kayak, or the Delta website which planes will have the wi-fi service. You’ll probably see an uptick in purchases.

UPDATE: I’m pleased to report the jury in the mancard revocation hearing for the dude in 23b delivered switft justice. By a vote of jury tweeps @ericearling, @jennburgess95 and @RErakovich, 23b’s mancard was permanently revoked for crimes against dudedom. Thanks to baliff @deltalina for escorting Mr. 23b from the plane. His loud discussion of nanny services and the wedding gift registry did not help his cause and left him without chances for parole.

First, here’s a story from Mashable’s Christina Warren about how public relations professionals are using social media. It provides some good insights and useful tips for PR pros seeking to enhance existing campaigns.

Mark Silva reports in the Chicago Tribune that many people are longing for the days when President Bush was in office. His story – “Miss him yet? Apparently, many do”

A New York Times piece over the weekend caught my eye. It takes a look at how social media is impacting television programming. Check out David Carr’s piece – “Talking Back to Your TV, Incessantly”

This blog post is making me think I need to have my Twitter widget for WordPress create an automatic weekly post of my tweets…

Finally, I thought I’d install this widget from the POLITICO Arena to see how it worked.

Here’s the top of the story and my quote. You can read the full story here.

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W.H. messaging in 140 characters
By: Michael Calderone
February 15, 2010 07:07 PM EST

The White House has started using a new weapon for correcting news reports, pushing back against a negative story, or shaping the press corps narrative of the day: Twitter.

On Monday, deputy press secretary Bill Burton told his more than four thousand followers — which includes much of the White House press corps — that a Washington Post report that morning was wrong. The Obamas, he noted, went to Chicago for Valentine’s Day in 2009, not this past Sunday, as was reported in the Post’s Style section.

It was a small correction, but indicative of how the White House press shop can now more actively engage with the press and public through the popular micro-blogging platform that allows users to post 140 characters at a time, and follow any number of friends, celebrities, reporters and a variety of media outlets, large and small.

While there’s long been a White House Twitter feed, only in the last few weeks have members of the administration started using individual accounts in an official capacity. Burton, who’s had an account since August, just started posting regularly in January, gaining attention among reporters with a little push-back against a CNN report.
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While Gibbs and Burton are the first press secretary and deputy to officially use Twitter, the first White House press shop official to embrace the platform was Scott Stanzel, President George W. Bush’s deputy press secretary from just after the 2006 midterm elections until Obama’s inauguration.

“It’s a very efficient way to share information and nearly all White House reporters are active in some fashion on Twitter,” said Stanzel, who now runs his own public relations firm, Stanzel Communications.

Many people at the TED conference were impressed, including Robert Scoble (@scobleizer, with 114,000 followers) who tweeted this -

Microsoft just blew our minds by putting live video and Worldwide telescope together on maps. Wow.