• "And lastly, business (and life) isn’t an “academic exercise”. It’s real – not theory or concept… not a fictitious name posted on a blog, but instead something very real and measured. Real business – real life – real dollars and cents. There are many who can criticize and nitpick which is easy… but working hard every day and building is a hell of a lot harder."

  (Is that an apology for this? Probably not.)

• "What is it that a brand can do to create enough mystique that there are pre-orders? Clearly Steve Jobs seems to have figured this out… I had the question myself this past Saturday during my 7 AM morning jog, when I saw tens of people lined up outside my local UWS movie theatre waiting for Batman."
• "Clients who need global reach can and should indeed get it, but not as a cooker cutter, but instead on a case by case basis."
• "The cure-all for the inflation problem in the ‘70s was that women went to work to supplement family income.

  [A client] said that, today, with 80-90 percent of women working, we no longer have a solution as simple as the one 30 years ago. So now, how can the economy get better; by sending our children to work? Surely not!
  Hence, the crisis facing today’s families as the economy struggles"

• "Every day of the week, I tell employees go out, create and do. It’s ok to occasionally make mistakes. Be passionate, care and try. Don’t over think. Do."

And our bonus tip for success: Learn how to write.

[Counterpoint, from Ronn's blog: "With very, very few exceptions, to say that I vastly disagree would be an understatement."]

1. "Magical Binder"

If you ever tried to write on a three-ring binder in your lap, you know how annoying it is when it keeps folding up, and possibly falling between your legs. Chuck's idea: "I don't have all the plans drawn up, you will have to spend the half hour figuring out the best way to make this a reality, but someone should produce a three ring binder that locks open, creating a rigid plane of productivity."

2. "Sex Sells Stuff"

The energy drink market is crowded with competitors, and the big players like Coke seem to have it on lock. How to even the playing field for smaller energy drink companies? Chuck's idea: "Product placement in pornographic films."

3. "Deep Fried Gold."

Fried foods offer restaurants a healthy profit margin, because a lot of their bulk is just made up of grease and fry material. Chuck's idea: "A restaurant that only sells deep fried nuggets/bite sized morsels of food. The nuggets are sold by the pound, and everything is the same price per pound. The customer wants a pound of deep fried okra or a pound of deep fried chicken nuggets, it costs the same."

If anyone does invent any of these, give us a cut too, for directing you to his site.

[Ideas By Chuck, first spotted at Adrants]

The blog, TellZell.com, got a sympathy writeup in the NYT this weekend. And while it has some fire in it, it's ultimately a sad relic of the once-mighty newspaper industry. A recent post, for example, contains a bunch of farewell letters from Tribune staffers:

Perhaps I hid behind the smallness of my cog's place in the big machine here, or the fact that I worked in what is perhaps the best photo journalism department in the nation kept me from feeling too worried, but with the loss of talent over the last year or two and the seeming lack of any vision in regard to the future of true journalism (other then to hold to the cliff's edge for as long as possible), I feel that I need to say something, however insignificant it may be.

I'll add to the chorus of goodbyes with an adios y un dicho de mi abuelita: "No hay un mal que por un bien no viene."

The Times literally changed my life. I came here as a musician who occasionally wrote and I'm leaving as a guy looking for work as a writer (not that I, the son of a composer, could ever stop being a musician). I'm proud of having contributed to this paper.

SAD. It really is a quality blog, if you're into that sort of thing. Unfortunately its only chance of impacting Sam Zell is... well, there's no chance.

[TellZell.com]

Excerpted from a triumphant email from Krucoff to Gessen:

Now, to be honest, my original plan for the book was to burn it upon pick-up at Gawker HQ (preferably right there in the office using Denton's evil eye laser), then stuff the ashes in an urn, mark it with "pussy" and mail it to you.

Dramatic, huh?

Two things dissuaded me from that: 1) I was reminded of the ugly history of book burning and how Jew-on-Jew desecration wouldn't serve anyone's cause. 2) More importantly, I remembered that *I* am the pussy. There's no way I would actually go through with that. After studied consultation, I concluded you were right on all points in our previous exchange. If we were Facebook friends, I would send you a "You Win!" sticker if such a thing were available in their virtual marketplace.

Instead, Krucoff's current plan is to offer the priceless ($890) book as a door prize at this soup kitchen benefit next Wednesday. And Gessen agreed to do his part, saying:

Sure, I'd be glad to come. We should consult the Talmud—or, failing that, Jewcy.com—as to whether a book can be offered to charity twice, but otherwise I'll be happy to explain how I replaced the Crimson Sports Grille with the 4th Quarter Bar.

Although I think they should charge a lot more than $10 at the door.

Ha, YES WE DO TOO.

The outcome of our saga: An $890 donation to the New York Homeless Coaliton; The opportunity for even more charity, if Krucoff is able to convince the small, effete sliver of New York society that would actually desire to own this obscure volume to come out to a soup kitchen benefit next week; And, most importantly, an odd and short-lived sense of unity among fake enemies on the fake internet arguing about fake writing and stuff, which is how we sum up the culture war.

Never again say that Keith Gessen hasn't accomplished something good.

[Pictured, Krucoff enjoying his new prize on the Gawker office toilet. The backstory to all this is here. Andrew Krucoff's blog is here. Info on the soup kitchen even is here. The most important Tumblr of our time is here.]

[via Kanye's very own personal blog]

Deleted by 5WPR:

In July 2008, his firm 5WPR was proven to have impersonated critics of a client and to have made phony comments on a blog in other people's names. The firm at first denied the allegations, then blamed the phony comments on an intern it claimed was fired. It was soon proven that the phony comments were in fact made from the offices of 5WPR as well as from the home of a Senior Vice President for the firm named Juda Engelmayer. Engelmayer claimed that the alleged renegade intern operated from his home as well as the office without his knowledge. The coverup soon unraveled and Torossian issued a statement acknowledging his firm's unethical practices. At least one person who was impersonated by 5WPR has stated his intention to sue the firm. It remains to be seen whether any criminal charges can or will be brought against Engelmeyer, Torossian or anyone else at 5WPR. http://www.forward.com/articles/13759/

[via Failed Messiah]

[TVNewser]

Dear Joe,

Hope you are well! How will Brangelina tote around their new twins this August? It certainly won’t be in two separate carriages.

With the widespread use of fertility drugs and an increase in women having children later in life (average age is now 31), twins — and children born in quick succession — are born in greater quantity now more than ever. But how is the market responding to this trend? And what are the tools out there to help parents deal with two tykes … and deal with them in style?

In a recent People Magazine spread of J.Lo and her newborn twins, Jenny from the Block and husband Marc Anthony were photographed outside their NJ mansion, each pushing an old-fashioned pram. Are Jen and Marc really going to each push a huge stroller around town every time they want to take the kids out? Probably not. Several years ago, Phil & Ted’s, the premiere maker of juvenile products, introduced the first in-line stroller; and this year updated it to include a handbrake and sleeker, chicer look, which has become a favorite of Gwyneth Paltrow and Brooke Shields. Sales of in-line strollers have quadrupled in the last few years as parents have become fed up with the struggle to fit cumbersome double strollers through doors and in to elevators. (Look for the J.Lo prams on eBay).

Phil & Ted’s, which is the Apple of juvenile products launching 10 new products a year that ameliorate the quality of life for parents, also produces a Traveller, which is a playpen/sleep solution that sleeps two newborns; and -– in fact -– doctors recommend that newborn twins sleep together in the first few months. Smaller (and less expensive than a crib) the Traveller is lightweight and portable. In fact, Phil & Ted’s is the only fully diversified juvenile products manufacturer and boasts the highest profitability per square foot for retailers; and at just fourteen years old, Phil & Ted’s has an annual growth rate of about 120%, which is expected to treble in the next few years.

Children have become fashion accessories to parents who take them out and show them off not only in the park, but also in restaurants, chic resorts, and places that used to be the bastion of couples; which necessitates chic accoutrements to make them more mobile, like strollers, portable cribs and playpens. As our cultural trends change and evolve, it is interesting to examine how the market responds to the needs of new parents by producing innovative, new products that respond to every touch point in a parent’s day.

I look forward to speaking with you soon.

Best
Amanda

[Executive Suite]

The WSJ speaks to Costas about his HBO show today, and the entire first half of the article is Costas' obligatory rehash of Bissinger's tirade. I'm sure he will never tire of discussing it! And he has obviously perfected his equivocation on the issue by now:

"The truth," says Mr. Costas, "is that this issue was a powder keg waiting to explode somewhere, and ours just happened to be the match that set it off. I think Buzz realizes he did a disservice to the journalistic standards he was claiming to uphold by jumping on Will that way. At the same time, it's easy for many of those in the blogosphere to dismiss Buzz's outburst as representative of the objections the mainstream sports media has to the excesses of the Internet.

Interesting. Any further "on the one hand, on the other hand" formulaic statements of diplomacy you'd like to make, Bob?

"Put it this way: Though I would have preferred more light and less heat on the subject, I think we did a service by putting the issue out there to be discussed. And it won't be the last time that we'll be discussing it. Next time we'll be better prepared. For now, I'll leave it at this — though Buzz is a friend, those who suggest that he was expressing my views on sports blogs are wrong." His own feelings about the Internet, say Mr. Costas, echoing Alan Ladd's gunfighter in "Shane" on the subject of his weapon, is that "it's just a tool. No better or worse than the person using it."

Then he describes his next show, which sounds incredibly boring in comparison.

[WSJ]

Back when Calacanis' Weblogs Inc was competing for traffic and attention with Gawker Media, Jason basically led to the creation of Gawker Comments. Our publisher, Nick Denton, never cared for comments. Too much noise. Too many amateurs. Spam. But Calacanis' Engadget had comments, and they helped that site's traffic. "A blog is not a blog without comments," Jason used to say. Now, though?

Why should we all build our homes and give residence to the trolls under them? Comments on blogs inevitably implode, and we all accept it under the belief that "open is better!" Open is not better. Running a blog is like letting a virtuoso play for 90 minutes are Carnegie Hall, and then seconds after their performance you run to the back Alley and grab the most inebriated homeless person drag them on stage and ask them what they think of the performance they overheard in the Alley. They then take a piss on the stage and say "F-you" to the people who just had a wonderful experience for 90 or 92 minutes. That's openness for you... my how far we've come! We've put the wisdom of the deranged on the same level as the wisdom of the wise.

Hah. An about-face! Look what YOU ANIMALS did to him! Jason Calacanis is gone off the net, like so many others before him, because commenters are mean. And also homeless and drunk. From the wisdom of crowds to, as Jason later says: "For the record, crowds are really frackin' stupid and to put your stock in crowds is about as bright as putting your faith in a dictator." Harsh! But definitely in tune with the current internet zeitgeist.

Because he's not the only one! Emily Gould shut off comments! Most Tumblrs are comment-free!

But the personal blog comment-retreat comes too late, as most professional outlets, like print magazines and newspapers, now allow comments everywhere. And they're nearly all terrible! Even when they're heavily moderated, as they are at the New York Times, the signal-to-noise ratio seems to get worse every day. What the hell is to be done? Some Gawker Media editors semi-regularly express their barely hidden desire to BAN EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU and go back to the glorious olde days of undemocratic blogging-as-broadcasting, not as conversation. We're sure that sentiment exists at every media outlet that currently hosts the unhinged rantings of conspiracists and cranks.

But the genie's out of the bottle. Commenters are here. And the internet does seem, these days, to belong to them. Treat her kindly. We'll just keep posting funny pictures for you to riff on.

By claiming he had an intern at his Lower East Side apartment at 10 pm on a Tuesday night, apparently. Said JTA:

A person identifying himself as the intern in question called JTA Thursday, but refused to provide a full name. The caller said that he posted the fraudulent comment to the JTA site using a computer at Engelmayer’s apartment during a get-together there Tuesday night, but without Engelmayer’s knowledge.

Now would be a good time to recap the various levels of incompetence in this whole 5WPR scheme:

• After being hired for its internet PR expertise, 5WPR attempts to plant fake comments from both supporters and (most deviously) critics of the kosher slaughterhouse on various websites.
• This scheme unravels because the company doesn't bother to leave its office or mask its IP address when posting.
• This scheme also unravels because the company misspells the name of a rabbi when signing a comment in that rabbi's name.
• CEO Ronn [sic] Torossian claims an "investigation" is under way to find out which of his employees spun a laughably incompetent Web of amoral deception in the service of flackery. This time.
• VP Engelmayer, assigned the slaughterhouse account, blames an unnamed, unpaid "intern" for the fraud. Says this "intern" has been fired.
• This story starts to unravel because, as blog Failed Messiah notes, the first two impersonation posts appeared in February, "well before any summer interns were working at 5W." Ahem.
• The story unravels further when two fraudulent Web comments are traced to Engelmayer's apartment.
• "Intern" calls to say he was hanging with Engelmayer at his apartment Tuesday night and slipped, undetected, onto Engelmayer's computer to do some impromptu character assassination, so don't blame Engelmayer because Engelmayer did not do it.
• Probably next: Caller comes forward as a paid shill. Engelmayer said he hired him on behalf of the intern, who is deathly afraid of the press, because that's the sort of person who takes an unpaid PR internship.

[JTA, Failed Messiah]

Two of the postings in question were made in the name of Rabbi Morris Allen, a prominent critic of Agriprocessors and the founder of the Conservative movement’s Hekhsher Tzedek initiative, which is attempting to create ethical standards for the production of kosher food. The first of the comments purporting to come from Allen appeared with his name misspelled. The second, which was made midday on July 9, came at the same time that Allen was presiding over the funeral of his aunt in Omaha, Neb.

Grade-A flackery, that.

Allen told the Forward that the postings left him concerned for his safety and for the reputation of Hekhsher Tzedek.

“I’m increasingly concerned about my own safety because if you begin to engage in this kind of behavior, I just wonder where it ends,” he said.

Now they plan to sue 5W! And the blogger who originally uncovered the trolls spoke to a 5W VP who blamed the entire thing on a foolish intern. We've emailed him also, but haven't heard back yet. We did hear back from Ronn late yesterday though, who said:

I am in mexico with my family. Just saw your note but as you have already posted, clearly my reply doesnt interest you. You seem to be obsessed with my firm.

Noted!

[Failed Messiah, The Forward]

FailedMessiah.com did a little poking around on the internets and found that—surprise!—a bunch of its stupid comments were coming from the same IP address. A 5WPR IP address.

Not only did 5W impersonate Rabbi Allen – a federal crime, by the way – it also impersonated JVNA officer John Diamond and frequent FailedMessiah commenter Yochanan Lavie – also federal crimes.

5W also left multiple comments on this blog using many different aliases. The comments were often left on the same post and used to support each other and Agriprocessors. But all comments originated from 5W Public Relations, Agriprocessors PR firm, even though the commenter(s) presented himself as a non-affilliated observer.

Here's an example of one of the comments, which certainly has that 5W flair:

You can look over the mounds of evidence of 5W's guilt here. If we hear from Ronn, we'll let you know. In the meantime, why not amuse yourself by looking back at the comments on our posts about Ronn and 5WPR and picking out the 5W trolls? I guarantee they're in there!

[FailedMessiah.com]

For years, bloggers and other assorted morons have assumed "allegedly" is some sort of magical "get out of libel free" card, when in fact it is just an annoying affection (except when we use it, then it's a funny joke). But if "I think" is now the magical line between defamation and simple innocent speculation, well, consider us hypothetically back on the accused bandwagon!

This is the second lawsuit Condit's lost against Dunne, and Dunne just keeps accusing the never-charged man of "knowing" things about this murder, repeatedly implying that the former congressmen is—as pretty much everyone in America suspects—personally responsible.

Now we can accuse the mildly famous of anything as long as we couch it in tentativeness. We thought we heard that maybe John Mayer supports Robert Mugabe? Oh, and Paul Janka, accused rapist, can't wait to meet all of you guys!

Dominick Dunne Clear of Insinuating Gary Condit is a Creepy Maybe-Murderer [Jossip]
Condit Suit Against Dunne Tossed [Radar]
Judge Dismisses Condit Lawsuit Against Author [ModBee]

It appears that Violet Blue's works were systematically removed from Boing Boing's archives. This was no mistake. So while BB would seem to be a great symbol of the blog revolution—that dreamy ideal of everyone in the world freely expressing themselves to all, with no corporate filter—they're also just another in an endless line of quirky media startups that found success, and then started acting just like the big establishment players to which they were once opposed. It's only natural. Like growing up and deciding that you'd rather work a nine-to-five than be a dirty Phish-following hippie, media outlets take on the trappings and responsibilities of success and find themselves writing rules and editing severely where once they would congratulate themselves on being outrageous.

This effect is more exaggerated in the media world than elsewhere. There are very few media outlets that will happily and openly stand up for the same scrutiny they routinely apply to others. That's because intense public scrutiny is a pain in the ass! Duh. It's also because people who go into the media tend to have an elevated level of narcissism, combined with a thin skin. We all want to be loved and adored, and fear rejection. Love me! Only me! I'm special!

I was a low-level "media reporter" for a couple years after covering several other beats, and I invariably found that, as a group, media people are the most insanely sensitive sources to deal with. Politicians love to talk—they're equally narcissistic, but with far thicker skins. Corporate people tend to have a cold, well-honed, and practical approach to being covered. But many reporters, editors, and media executives are guarded in interviews, reluctant to answer basic questions, and prone to relentless "follow-ups" with you to make absolutely sure they're quoted the way they want to be.

My theory was always that media people assume the rest of the media are like them. If they're a lazy hack, they're terrified of placing their reputation in the hands of another reporter, who they assume is also a lazy hack. If they're unscrupulous, they assume you are too. And if they're used to bending the rules—well, they better check on those quotes with you one more time.

Maybe a third of media people fall into this group. The rest are fine. And you know who the best of all are, as sources? Media reporters! They feel your pain. And hey, at least we're not in England, where newspaper editors routinely sue each other for libel. Christ.

Before you know it, Boing Boing will have lawyers, offices, corporate policies, a softball team, and everything. Just like Gawker Media and other evil corporations! In Autumn of the Moguls, Michael Wolff summed this whole phenomenon up pretty accurately:

From IHateHaters.blogspot.com

Saturday, October 30, 2004
Yeah, a 1st
Yo , so this is a first
i got so goddamn bored i created a feeling sharing webpage
well guess wat
im very bored
but if u think im worth talking to ...
then send three supreme pizzas to 6000 Pensylvania Avenue , Washington D.C
nah jks

so...yea watevr

And from ImagineThat.blogspot.com

Friday, November 17, 2000
Stupid Floridiots!!! i think someone should just like bomb that f****in' state or something!! foreal!! geez...anyway Al Gore for President. Oh man i have a headache! and it sucks some major big fat dick!! UGH!! yeah its the weekend, and overslept, i was supposed to go to the movies w/my friends, but i forgot all about it, oh well i was tired anyway....i'm so sick of Christina Aglyrerai cant stand that anorexic ugly bitch, she aint even pretty w/out all that makeup she wears...but why should i care...back to some important shit, man i felll down the stairs today at school that was sorta embarrasing!! .......well i'mma 'bout tah go take a shit, so i'll blab later...
Peace
posted by Clear at 8:17 PM

The full collection with screen shots here.

I understand if people don't like me because I like me or if people think tight clothes look gay or people say I run my mouth to much, But this Bonnaroo thing is the worst insult I've ever had in my life. This is the most offended I've ever been... this is the maddest I ever will be. I'm typing so fucking hard I might break my fucking Mac book Air!!!!!!!!

This is worse than Hurricane Katrina! So what happened out there, Kanye?

THEY TRIED 2 GIVE ME A TIME SLOT WERE IT WAS STILL LIGHT OUTSIDE ... I HAVE A FUCKING LIGHT SHOW DUMB ASS, IT'S NOT CALLED GLOW IN THE DARK FOR NO REASON SQUID BRAINS!...

PEARL JAM ENDED ONE HOUR
LATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AT THAT POINT WE'RE RACING AGAINST THE SUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Those. Motherfuckers.

REMEMBER LAST SUMMER WHEN I CANCELED SOME TV APPEARANCES. IT WAS BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO PERFORM STRONGER IN THE DAYTIME. ANYONE WHO CAME TO THE GLOW TOUR CAN UNDERSTAND WHY I WANTED PEOPLE TO SEE IT PROPERLY. IT BROKE MY HEART THAT I COULDN'T GIVE THESE FANS STRONGER IN IT'S GREATEST FORM... BY THE TIME I GOT TO STRONGER IT WAS DAYTIME AND IT BROKE MY HEART. I'M SORRY TO EVERYONE THAT I DIDN'T HAVE THE ABILITY 2 GIVE THE PERFORMANCE I WANTED TO. I'M SORRY... SOMETIMES I GO 2, 3 DAYS W/O SLEEP WORKING ON MY PERFORMANCE... I HAVE TO ICE MY KNEES AFTER EVERY SHOW AND THEY HURT WHEN I WALK THROUGH THE AIRPORT... HAVING AN EXPENSIVE STAGE CUTS MY PAYDAY IN HALF... CALL ME WHAT YOU WANT BUT NEVER SAY I DIDN'T GIVE MY ALL!!!

Never forget.

[Kanye's Blog via Idolator]

The Big Lead, one of the foremost sports bloggers cited in the LAT piece (and by us, sometimes!), points out:

It might make Buzz Bissinger's head explode, but the Sun-Times had a weighty piece on its site this weekend asking who had hotter fans, the Cubs or the White Sox. How very bloggy of them! Bloggers love rumors? As do mainstream media outlets, who routinely print anonymously-sourced articles or go on TV and discuss rumored free agent movement, coach movement, and so on, most of which never comes to fruition.

Yes: if you read newspaper sports pages, you'll find just as much vaguely-sourced speculation as you will scouring the blogosphere! Have you looked at the NY Post lately? Christ. And outside of random crazies, most bloggers aren't foolish enough to post knowingly false information.

"We're trying to make money on this," said A.J. Daulerio, a senior writer for Deadspin. "Without going completely porn, the best way to do that is to add a more journalistic element."

Although going completely porn can work, too.

[LAT/ The Big Lead via Romenesko]

The association obtained credentials for some bloggers to attend the Scooter Libby trial. Founder Robert Cox claims the group "makes available" pro-bono legal services. There is some sort of partnership with Newsweek. Rabble-rousing blogger Jeff Jarvis is a member. But the association is a self-appointed representative of a hugely diverse group, and its legitimacy appears entirely self-assigned. Gawker Media, for one, is not aligned with the association, I am reliably informed.

The AP's decision to emphasize its meetings with this lone, opaque organization only makes its copyright crusade seem all the more surreal.

[AP]

In some nations, like China, there are restrictions on blogging in general. Burma has arrested hundreds of people who may be bloggers. Sometimes no one knows if someone has been arrested or not. Also the report doesn't even mention Sheila!

We've covered blogger-arrests (despite the total lack of interest from American blog-readers!) rather extensively recently. Be careful where you tumble log, people.

On Friday, The A.P. issued a statement defending its action, saying it was going to challenge blog postings containing excerpts of A.P. articles “when we feel the use is more reproduction than reference, or when others are encouraged to cut and paste.” An A.P. spokesman declined Friday to further explain the association’s position.

Now they're not setting these standards yet, and they say they won't go around suing bloggers, but that has not stopped outraged internet people from announcing their intention to give the AP exactly what they want. It's boycott time! Jeff Jarvis will fuck you up.

* Remember, AP, you declared war on the bloggers. Remember that.

* I don’t really give a damn what your guidelines are. I have my own guidelines. I stated them below. The point of fair use and fair comment is that there can be no set guidelines. That’s just ridiculous.
[...]
* One last bit of advice for the AP before I get on my plane: Back off.

The moral here is that no one understands fair use, at all. Not the copyright holders, or the bloggers. Or the courts?

Will Gawker join the boycott? Yes. From now on the only wire service we'll link to is UPI, because their reports have that hint of nutty Moonie-owned desperate madness that we love.

"Nowhere on May December (melissacmorris.com) will a reader find salacious gossip or compromising party photos. Instead, in posts written with all the propriety of a thank-you note on Mrs. John L. Strong stationery, she shares a recipe for beef stroganoff and snapshots from a family wedding in Nashville, and seeks help in settling a friendly dispute with her husband.

"In a post titled, 'A Tale of Two Dishwashers,' she wrote, 'When we renovated part of our kitchen we added a butler’s pantry (don’t get too excited, there’s just me and no butler in sight, so technically this room should be renamed Mel’s pantry).'

"She compared the merits of a new appliance in the pantry with the older model still in the kitchen, and said she and her husband disagreed about which one was better. 'So, blog readers, what say you,' she wrote, 'dishwasher with the silverware rack up top or dishwasher with the silverware basket?' (In a follow-up post, she said she preferred the basket.)

She could be any housewife — her preferred descriptor — except her homes are on the Upper East Side and in New Canaan, Conn. (where the Mieles in question are). Her husband is Alfred Hennen Morris, 58, known as Chappy, whose ancestors settled New York and helped draft the United States Constitution. And included among friends in those wedding candids is 'Senator Bill,' as in Bill Frist, the former Senate majority leader.

"The juxtaposition of the mundane and the glamorous, provided by a woman who wears her glasses to charity galas and prefers preppy togs to high fashion, nets May December 40,000 hits a month. 'There’s nothing too deep about her life, but it’s kind of neat to keep up with her,' said Nina Theiss, a Minneapolis stock trader and reader. [NYT]

"MSNBC has been running nothing but a 5 hour (and presumably it will go until 11 pm or beyond) marathon of Russert remembrance. CNN has done their due diligence, and Fox news has spent at least the last half hour talking non-stop about him.But let’s get something straight- what I am watching right now on the cable news shows is indicative of the problem- no clearer demonstration of the fact that they consider themselves to be players and the insiders and, well, part of the village, is needed. This is precisely the problem. They have walked the corridors of power so long that they honestly think they are the story. It is creepy and sick and the reason politicians get away with all the crap they get away with these days.

"Tim Russert was a newsman. He was not the Pope. This is not the JFK assassination, or Reagan’s death, or the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. A newsman died. We know you miss him, but please shut up and get back to work."

Meanwhile, the LA Times is speculating about Russert's replacement and Media Bistro is reporting that, although "the moderator's chair will be empty" tomorrow's Meet the Press will be hosted by Tom Brokaw with guests Mike Barnicle, James Carville and Mary Matalin, Meet the Press EP Betsy Fischer, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Gwen Ifill and Maria Shriver.

More coverage: The NY Times' obituary, Salon, Slate, George Bush, a Chicago Tribune photo gallery, autopsy results from People, the Times' TVdecoder, video of Senator Amy Klobuchar calling Russert a national treasure, AP's video tribute, and a batch of other Russert links here.

"But I digress from the point of this post, which is this: I’ll be back next week with how I spent the money. Enjoy your weekend!" See the post here to read all the new comments and check out the adorable gymnastics trophy Chelsea has awarded herself.

The closest the internet can come to coughing up a reference to a "terrorist fist-jab" that doesn't involve Hill is one comment on political blog Human Events Online. The comment was deleted. And also it was insane.

Michelle is not as “refined” as Obama at hiding her TRUE feelings about America—etc. Her “Hezbollah” style fist-jabbing—mouth-twisted anti-American speeches is STRAIGHT from ISLAM!

See? Don't you feel bad for Ms. Hill now? All she did was alter and repeat, without citation or context, a ridiculous deleted comment from some anonymous nutjob and present it as but one reasonable interpretation of a goddamn fist-bump. Looks like we all owe E.D. Hill a little apology!

The Golden Rule

Media outlets can only steal outright from other media outlets that are not their direct competitors, and do not fall in their same class. First-class outlets: National TV news networks (including the big three on cable), the top five national newspapers, top-level weekly news magazines, and a select few websites like Drudge. Second-class outlets: Niche TV networks, local TV news affiliates, smaller metro papers, smaller but still well-respected news magazines, well-known internet news operations that don't fall in the top handful. Third-class outlets: Trade magazines, niche magazines, smaller local papers, niche internet news sites. Fourth-class outlets: Others.
When stealing from one's own class, it must be acknowledged that you are doing so, and that you have been scooped.

Explanation

The Times' mistake was stealing from the WSJ, another major paper in its same class. Had they stolen their story from, say, a trade magazine, it would have been perfectly acceptable. Likewise, a trade magazine can steal from the Times, and a tacit acknowledgment or small link is fine. If a trade magazine were to steal from a directly competing trade magazine, it would be a shameful theft.

Everyone understands these rules. Big papers, because of their sheer resources, provide most of our news, period. Everybody else follows their lead when dealing with major news. Lower-level outlets are expected to give their own take on the news of the day. Papers like the Times set the agenda; everybody else feeds off of it. This is fine. A local paper can put a local angle on a story that originated in a national newspaper; a trade magazine can put an industry-specific angle on the same story. Neither need feel guilty. If the Times picks up a story from a small paper, they will likely put so much re-reporting into it that their version is far deeper than the original. To the extent that you steal original material from direct scoops, though, you must give acknowledgment to the original scooper.

Television news operations are less likely to give credit to print outlets that break stories; of course, TV news produces visual packages for their stories, which they can argue constitute a completely new story. Again, the most stringent need for acknowledgment comes with direct competitors. If one news network steals an original story from another, it must explicitly credit it. Inter-platform theft is a looser matter.

Examples Of How To Steal Properly

Newspapers
Direct competitor: "In a story first reported by the LA Times, scientists have confirmed that Scott McClellan is an android."
Other: "Scott McClellan is an android, scientists confirmed today."

Magazines
Direct competitor: "Is your kid drinking Lysol to get 'high?' It's a phenomenon that's been reported by Time and others, but...."
Others: "Your child may be drinking Lysol right this minute. To get high!"

Blogs
Direct competitor: "Hipsters eat magic fruit, then eat each other. [Curbed]"
Others: "Crazy Williamsburg hipsters are berry-munching madmen—with a taste for flesh!"

Television
Direct competitor: "CBS News has reported that Hillary Clinton is dropping out and joining a nunnery."
Others: "Rumors have emerged that Hillary Clinton may be dropping out to join a nunnery."

See how simple?

The Penalties

Those who foolishly flout this rule by stealing the work of other reporters in their same class with no credit can expect to be ostracized at media parties; have vicious gossip about them leaked to Gawker; and, one day down the road, to be the subject of a gratuitous backhanded smear in the outlet that they stole from (this goes double if you're dealing with tabloids).
Reporters are small people, and we never forget an insult. Play smart.

[pic via Corbis]

[Gothamist]

"To attract reader comments that will be so overwhelmingly negative that they will close after less than 24 hours? The chance for Gould to settle a score and for the NYT to play catch-up to Page Six magazine, which had the 'he-said' version of this story back in February? To shine a light on the strange and mysterious world of blogging? (If so, mission not accomplished: NYO writer (and former Gawker editor himself) Matt Haber notes that the piece is 'light in sociology or cultural grasping,' and New York's Daily Intel notes acidly that 'Some bloggers are able to write about things other than themselves. Seriously.')

"You don't need to have heard of Emily Gould previously to judge her harshly (Wonders NYT commenter Mark Kasen of St. Louis, MO: 'Don't you have important things to do? Don't you have real issues to write about that might affect your generation and the country generally?'), but it helps — it provides the context of having heard the story before, of knowing by the second page that you've hit the sentence that pretty much sums it all up:

'I walked down the hall of my high school passing out copies of a comic-book zine I drew, featuring a mock superhero called SuperEmily, who battled thinly veiled versions of my grade's reigning mean girls. In college, I sent out an all-student e-mail message revealing that an ex-boyfriend shaved his chest hair.'

"But for those unfamiliar with the saga of Emily Gould (which, I should note, was never so much an internet pastime than something that occurred as a result of reading Gawker and starting to notice her posts becoming more and more self-referential, her barbs more careless, herself in a metallic-toned bathing suit (two, if you saw her Facebook page). There was the time she summarily 'executed' a number of Gawker commenters for criticizing her, castigating male commenters for mocking her looks even as she dissed four other women in the process ('Gawker is a safe space for women. Any by 'women,' of course, I mostly mean 'me'). That was around the time she did something similar on her personal blog, striking back at mean commenters by publishing their email addresses.

"What else? The sudden cultivation of friendship with Julia Allison, with whom she seemed all too happy to appear in photographs (though she certainly doesn't treat her like a friend in this piece); the public commentary on Gawker about former beau and current co-worker Josh Stein; the New York magazine cover story last fall in which she expressed angst about her job, yet still managed to reveal more details of her love life; the revelations in Stein's Page Six piece — all combine to provide the backstory to Gould's newly-minted version, which may be one of the reasons it has so far been received with cynicism." [HuffPo]