Seth Mnookin: Page Six story entirely false

Seth Mnookin: Page Six story entirely false

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Let’s combine separately-owned media outlets for one big Seth Mnookin Holiday Clusterfuck! The ex-Newsweek journo was peddling his new book, Hard News, on CNN’s Reliable Sources yesterday, when Page Six alleges he engaged in some pre-tape chatter via satellite with Newsweek‘s Michael Isikoff. While hooked into the earpieces (including host Howard Kurtz, fellow WaPo columnist Andrea Peyser and producers), the Sixers claim he began hitting up Isikoff about rejoining the news weekly. When instructed to take his campaign to editor Mark Whitaker, Mnookin says he did,to which Kurtz replied, “Guess you got caught in the spam filter.”

But writing in to Jim Romensko, Mnookin says the whole story was made up.

[The Page Six story is] flat-out wrong. I know I pissed off Andrea Peyser when I cracked that the Bernard Kerik story was the first time the New York Post ever showed any kind of restraint when dealing with the private lives of public figures. Even so, it didn’t ever occur to me she’d completely invent a story about some light-hearted, off-camera banter before the taping of last week’s Reliable Sources. For the record: I loved working at Newsweek, but I’ve moved on and I’m certainly not lobbying for a job there. I do, however, appreciate Andrea’s efforts on my behalf.

We’d advise Mnookin not to quit his day job, but he doesn’t really have one.

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