Defenders of print media against the onslaught of blogs frequently make this point: There would be no political or opinion-based blogs were it not for newspapers.  Blogs would have nothing to write about if they couldn’t get news or targets from newspapers.

Today’s Washington Post shows that the opposite might actually be true.

Check out these stories in Saturday’s Post:

• Editorial headline: “You’re Outta Here!  The NCAA expels a blogger from a baseball game”
• Sports headline: “Getting Blogged Down in the Details”
• Style story on Angelina Jolie in the new Daniel Pearl movie: “In the blogosphere, photos and video clips of Jolie as Pearl serve as a sort of racial Rorschach test”

Little doubt left where reporters are getting stories ideas and story content.

Fetching for fun Fedeal Friday follies?  Then stop by the thrilling and hilarious conclusion of the 2007 Funniest Fed Competition, tonight at the Arlington Cinema Drafthouse.  Extreme Mortman is a judge.  The taxpayers are the winners.

Click here for the hysterical details

A whirlwind 24 hours here at the Ledo Pizza glass-enclosed nerve center of Extreme Mortman.  Our Politico piece on Michael Savage versus C-SPAN and Brian Lamb got picked up by Drudge, elicited praise from Hugh Hewitt (”The Brilliant Brian Lamb,”), and sparked this note from our old boss Ken Tomlinson, himself a veteran of balance battles from his public broadcasting days: “C-SPAN is a model for fairness in its presentation of insightful news and current affairs that we should all aspire to meet.”

But the greatest moment came from Dr. Michael Savage himself, whose website refers to yours truly as an “unknown blogger.”  That’s an important steppingstone toward our career goal of becoming an “unknown comic.”

An alert Extreme Mortman reader sends this note:

In last Thursday’s WashPost’s “Notice of Real Property Tax Sale” section, the annual DC govt-issued listing of all deliquent property tax holders of property, is one listing for ‘William Jefferson/Andrea Jefferson” at 1350 F Street, NE on Capitol Hill.   Check out page G3, left column, below-the fold and about 1/3rd down.  The Jeffersons owe $1,183.94 in unpaid property taxes to the DC government.  And since Jefferson’s assets have been frozen….. Does he lose his townhouse then?  The annual DC-run auction is in July.

Hmmmm … good question.  Anyone have any answers?

We learn from Aaron Barnhart’s great TV Barn blog the following:

“Family Ties” fans: Mom AND Dad both turn 60 today: That would be Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross.

Thanks to those talented Hollywood plastic surgeons, here’s how they look today.

That’s the Politico headline.  Want the latest in Brian Lamb versus Michael Savage?  Click here.

First, last week’s trivia answer — the military connection between “Top Gun” and “Broadcast News” — and the winning question from rcgeist:

What is the F-14 Tomcat.

In Top Gun, Tom Cruise’s Maverick flew an F-14 throughout the film and made use of the venerable dogfighter to make three kills of MiG-28 (actually F-5 Freedom Fighters painted black) at the end of the film.

In Broadcast News, William Hurt’s anchorman character interviewed a Navy aviator about flying a F-14 in combat in response to a Libyan attack on an American air base in the Mediterrean while offscreen, Albert Brooks coaches Hurt’s character via phone thru the producer played by Holly Hunter.

Now, this week’s Extreme Trivia answer: “I will not run as either a Democrat or Republican, because I will not sell out to anybody, but to the American people, and I will sell out to them.”   What’s the question?

From the Washington Post’s coverage of President Bush naming Jim Nussle as new OMB Director:

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) was notably cool in his comments about Nussle when asked about the nomination yesterday. While lavishly praising Portman, all he would say of Bush’s nominee to be the new OMB director is that “Mr. Nussle is a Dane.” Both Hoyer and Nussle are of Danish ancestry.

Hoyer could have been nicer with more things to say.  For instance, he could have borrowed Kennedy’s pastry phrasing: “Ich Bin Ein Danish.”

Or at least, have a great Dane!

Who was the first to get the breaking news to the Extreme Mortman newsroom that Hillary Clinton is using a Sopranos spoof to announce Celine Dion’s “You and I” as her campaign’s official song?

The L.A. Times’ great new political blog Top Of The Ticket — featuring Andrew Malcolm at the helm.

Watching the video, we understand why the Clinton campaign would adopt the Sopranos ending of going black at the end, leaving the future in doubt. Perhaps they were remembering this November 24, 2003 Advertising Age headline: “Inside Chrysler’s Celine Dion Advertising Disaster.” Or what Adrants called “the Celine Dion campaign disaster.”

We noted yesterday that Tony Snow said this in his press briefing:

I think what the President did early on was make it clear that we’re not going to deal with terrorists. Yasser Arafat, as you know, was in power. He had been the most frequent visitor to this White House in the previous administration. And President Clinton I think had expressed considerable exasperation about the lack of returns for it.

Talk about lack of returns.  Check out this Hillary Clinton gaffe from November 1999 recounted in the fascinating new book “Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton” by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr.:

On a trip to Israel, she attended an event as First Lady with Suha Arafat, the wife of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.  After Suha Arafat’s remarks, in which she suggested that Israel had used poison gas against Palestinians, Hillary went to the podium to speak and lightly kissed Mrs. Arafat on the cheek.  The Jewish community in New York was outratged.  Hillary claimed later that Mrs. Arafat’s “hateful words” had not been properly translated from Arabic to English in her earphones, and she denounced Mrs. Arafat’s allegation.