"It is apparent Senator McCain has some disdain for Senator Obama," CNN's Wolf Blitzer said.

The attached video appears to show the snub, at least at first, but then McCain sticks out his hand — his left hand — like maybe he expects Obama to come back. Maybe he wants to exchange a special lefty shake with a fellow southpaw?? Watch the video above, then give your opinion of what happened in the poll below.

Alex, a student at NYU, plays drums in a band called the Mysterious Case of Jake Barnes with cousin Dave Golden (making it the unofficial Ochs-Sulzberger house band). He also flexes his editorial muscle on his Facebook page: “Alex Thinks Sarah Palin Can Suck A Dick And Leave Us All Alone.”

New York found other embarrassing online moments amidst the lives of Times heirs (emphasis added):

Ben Dolnick, the 26-year-old son of Lynn Dolnick, Michael Golden’s sister, is a successful fiction writer living in a brownstone secured by his grandmother, Ruth Holmberg. Victoria Dryfoos, daughter of Katie, lives in Martha’s Vineyard and has sought to “promote awareness of … and provide income for Huichol families,” a Native American group in Mexico.

Sarah Perpich, David’s 28-year-old sister and Sulzberger’s niece, is a fashion writer, stylist, and personal shopper. “For me, fashion is life, and life is art,” she writes on her blog.

Annie Sulzberger shows little interest in the Times, pursuing a career in art preservation while “aspiring to be a Daily Show correspondent,” according to her Friendster page (which also features a photo of her and her brother smoking a hookah while watching a Woody Allen film). A college friend from Brown, Dennis Kwan, says Annie was always circumspect about her identity as a Times heiress. “She tried to distance herself from it,” he says. She saw it as a “burden” because “people would talk about it.”

These lifestyles are funded by Times Company profits, via the stock dividend. But if the paper has been borrowing money to support those payouts, and now faces having its debt cut to junk status. Once the dividend is cut, as all financial logic indicates it must be, it's possible the fifth generation will try and force, at a minimum, professional non-family management.

Or it might turn to other leaders within the family:

Earlier this year, Michael Golden, the only other cousin in a position to run the company, returned to New York from Paris. While they maintain a cordial relationship, Golden is more conservative and mild-mannered than his prickly cousin, who sometimes criticizes Golden in front of surprised staffers, according to a person who has witnessed it. Golden still maintains the vice-chairman title and ostensibly oversees international operations but is, according to a person who knows him, “fishing for something to do” while he sits in an office down the hall from Sulzberger.

If he's looking for something to do, perhaps Golden could fashion some sort of advisory committee among the internet-savvy fifth generation of the extended Sulzberger clan. They might not be the most discreet lot, but they can, at the very least, prevent the company from another boneheaded new media decision like, say, passing on the chance to invest in Google pre-IPO.

"Question is, Do I get to choose the charity?" Finke writes.

Answer: Doubtful. Weinstein is also in the spotlight for allegedly paltry charitable contributions. In this case, it seems he wins by losing.

Except, of course, for the fact that the email confirms Finke's allegation that Weinstein harassed a dying Sidney Pollack to win leverage in a stupid Hollywood pissing match. It also lends further credibility to Finke's allegation that he also tried to use Pollack's death itsefl as leverage, stating, "'If I can't get a movie nominated that has Sydney's and [late co-producer] Anthony [Minghella]'s name on it this year, I should leave the business.' "

Classy.

UPDATE:

That is not my e-mail. The contents of it are categorically untrue. We had a dispute, we got through the dispute, and there is complete, lasting peace in the kingdom.

If Rudin is lying, he would hardly be the first to cave under pressure from Harvey Weinstein. Still, faking an email is trivial. Full headers are now called for!

UPDATE 2:

Finke has updated her item with this shocking admission from Rudin:

As for Scott Rudin, he confirmed to me Monday night that it is his email and claimed that Weinstein's people pestered him "to protect Harvey and deny the email and lie to Page Six" — so he said he did "in order to keep peace for the next weeks that the two of us still have to work together on The Reader."

One knowledgeable source told us: "Shareholders were calling up NBC and GE - a lot, maybe thousands. They were saying, 'What the [bleep] is wrong with these guys?' . . . Chris Matthews just got stuck in the middle of it all."

Supposedly GE chairman Jeff Immelt got involved, presumably in the decision to replace Olbermann and Matthews with David Gregory. NBC denies this, but Immelt personally decided to let go of shock jock/bigot Don Imus that last time Imus acted like a racist tool on NBC's dime, so maybe there's some truth in the idea.

There's an alternate theory: Olbermann and Matthews were pushed aside simply because their squabbling was an obvious mess, but NBC chief Jeff Zucker invented the story about shareholder pressure to link the name of Jeff Immelt — rather than his own — to the MSNBC mess.

The Post never comes out and says Matthews is on his way out at MSNBC, but one has to wonder about his future there, and about what his next move might be. CNN? ABC? Start an angry ex-anchors network with Dan Rather? Beg a slot on Ana Marie Cox's YouTube thing? Anything is possible!

Whatever happens, Fox will continue to obnoxiously gloat about all the liberals' misfortune, as the network did yesterday:

[Post]

An aging Sidney Falco in a rugby shirt, former gossip henchman—and one-time Press contributor—Doug Dechert took some time out from the low key affair to air some long simmering grievances against the NY gossip establishment. “If Chorey Sit-cha walks through that door,” he said, “I’m going to punch that little prick in his fucking face.”

“Choire Sicha?” I asked him just for the sake of clarity. He took a slug from his bottle of Amstel. “Yeah, whatever the fuck his name is, I hope the prick comes in here so I can hit him.”

Dechert was pissed off at what he perceived as Sicha’s bias when the latter was editing Gawker. Dechert had been mentioned on the site for his very public break up with 19-year-old “Bad Girl” writer Abigail Vona in 2004.

That would be this old item, apparently.

Choire told the Press, “Threatening violence is a particularly disgusting tactic. It's a shame he's taken a page from the book of that other sad New York City thug, Stanley Crouch.”

Needless to say, Doug: don't try it.

[NYPress]

The sudden death this summer of NBC News Washington bureau chief Tim Russert, who made frequent appearances on MSNBC, removed a political and temperamental rudder for the network. Mr. Griffin has tried to fill the power vacuum since, struggling to shepherd the network's big personalities through a period of transition.

"Struggling" is putting it mildly. The Democratic convention should be a crowning moment for the resurgent cable news network, which has otherwise been an also-ran since its founding 12 years ago. A little sparring would be one thing; conflict can goose ratings, even when it's wantonly self-indulgent.

But this is just a mess. Host Chris Matthews has oscillated wildly between cranky scolding of his coworkers and obsequious near-groveling to the Hillary Clinton supporters who detest him. Both of Joe Scarborough's high-profile rants were too long and tiresome to add spice. And half of what Olbermann says seems to end up on microphone accidentally. Now even shiny new anchor Rahel Maddow is being drawn into the muck (Jossip reports some staff demand she be more of an Olbermann partisan).

MSNBC needs more yelling (at misbehaving anchors) off the air and less yelling on it. Unless this fighting sends ratings through the roof. In that case, by all means, continue.

(Disclaimer: The man in the lower right corner of the graphic is NOT and should NOT be confused with an MSNBC anchor. He is instead House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and thus at a total loss to understand the horrific partisan bickering and vicious palace intrigue going on around him. Any suggestion that Rep. Hoyer is an MSNBC anchor or otherwise emotionally unstable or sociopathically antisocial is unintentional and accidental. In fact, Gawker apologizes, in advance, for not blurring his photo or something.)

Bill O'Reilly vs. Keith Olbermann
Summary: Possibly the most active ongoing feud in all of cabledom. Cartoon versions of "left" and "right" personified.
O'Reilly's Position: Olbermann is a lying left-wing jerk. The New York Post agrees!
Olbermann's Position: O'Reilly is really the Worst Person In the World. Really, he means it this time.
Winner: Push.

Joe Scarborough vs. Rest of MSNBC
Summary: Repub placed on Dem network, odd couple antics ensue!
Scarborough's Position: Irresponsible liberals who shall remain nameless are giving this network a bad name. And I gets no respect around here!
Rest of MSNBC's Position: Joe Scarborough may be cute, but he's sitting in my chair.
Winner: Rest of MSNBC bound to triumph by sheer force of numbers.

Fox News vs. Jon Stewart
Summary: Fox stands for everything that Stewart opposes, but the target is so obvious that he must parcel out his vitriol with care.
Fox News' Position: Mainstream Americans don't care about Jon Stewart any more.
Jon Stewart's Position: Fox News is "the biggest 'fuck you' to people with brains that I've ever seen in my life."
Winner: Stewart, on the merits; Fox News, on overall influence.

Jon Stewart vs. Crossfire
Summary: The classic moment that put the cable world on notice: Jon Stewart will ass rape you on live TV.
Jon Stewart's Position: Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala are a pair of bullshit-spewing hacks who are a threat to our very republic. I will expound upon this as a guest on their show, to a brave and uncomfortable extent.
Crossfire's Position: Ha, you're just joking, right Jon? Jon?
Winner: Stewart. Duh.

Boulton is with his wife mainly because she is mother to his children. And as he himself recently pointed out, "I am a horrible catch, as I am more married to my work and my guitar than I would ever be to any man woman or child."

Perhaps Boulton will be ready to settle down eventually. But, in the meantime, he should conjure some more sympathy today — now — for gays who would like the option to get married sooner. Gays like Paul Colichman.

(Photo via Queerty)

While Garcia comes across as a natural fashionista descended from South American aristocracy, Slowey seems like an East Village hippie with no claim on the Miranda Priestly airs she apparently will put on in Stylista. She's described in "Birkenstocks and vintage frocks" and consulting "healers [and] alternative-medicine practitioners." She even hires an "energy cleaner" to get rid of negative energy after Garcia leaves.

Perhaps the clearest contrast between the two, the article notes, is revealed in comparing Elle.com videos touring each woman's closet. As you can see in excerpts from both videos above, that's true: Note the size and organization of Garcia's closet (presented first), in an apartment overlooking Central Park, to that of Slowey's in the East Village.

Garcia may now be known as "the evil one" or "the monster" around Elle, as Moe writes. But at least her show brings some redeeming value to the world of fashion, rather than indulging a contrived (for Elle and for Slowey, at least) and masochistic view of magazine employment.

[NY Mag]

Rambin, post 1:

Frangy, post 2:

Rambin:

Frangy:

Rambin:

Well, at least Rambin is learning to stand up for herself, I guess. Though the whole fight leaves me feeling like the third cat (off to the side) in this video from our tipster, Cajun.

To an im-

portant personage Russert asked one

or two faintly impertinent questions,

usually about a subject of little or

no concern to anybody outside the

rope lines around official Washing-

ton; sometimes he discovered a con-

tradiction between a recently issued

press release and one that was dis-

tributed by the same politician

some months or years previously.

No matter with which spoon Rus-

sert stirred the butter, the reply was

of no interest to him, not worth his

notice or further comment. He had

sprinkled his trademark salt, his

work was done. The important per-

sonage was free to choose from a

menu offering three forms of re-

sponse—silence, spin, rancid lie. If

silence, Russert moved on to anoth-

er topic; if spin, he nodded wisely; if

rancid lie, he swallowed it.

Worse, even, than Lapham's words is the overenthusiastic praise he presents from Russert's establishment friends.

Madeleine Albright, Clinton's Secretary of State: "As a public official, it was really, first of all, a treat to get on the show."

Cheney aide Mary Matalin: "He never treated [politicians] with the cynicism that attends some of these interviews. So they had a place to be loved."

Sam Donaldson, ABC: "He [Russert] understood as well as anyone, maybe better than

almost anyone, that the reason political reporters are there is not to speak truth to power... but to make those who say we have the truth — politicians — explain it."

It's easy to fall in love with Lapham's alternate view:

Long ago in the days before

journalists became celebrities, their

enterprise was reviled and poorly

paid, and it was understood by work-

ing newspapermen that the presence

of more than two people at their fu-

neral could be taken as a sign that

they had disgraced the profession.

"'Police chiefs shouldn't get involved in everybody else's business or their personal lives. It's inappropriate,' Lohan told the photographers as she made her way through Los Angeles International Airport."

"Ronson, 30, said in an update on her Facebook page that Bratton should 'talk less and do more.'

"At a news conference on Thursday, Bratton dismissed a reporter's question that his remark about Lohan was inappropriate. 'No one is more supportive of gay rights than I am,' he said." [Reuters]

Nice save there, Bratty!

I've been dealing with the truth that i have at times been a bad example and/or glorified self destructive behavior...

Regardless of varied judgments as to my cultural relevance, i am thankfully alive and exercising my joy in creating...

i've realized and accepted that if people decide to dislike me, they're going to find reasons to justify disliking me. there's nothing i can do about that. that said, it still does pain me to be accused of fictional crimes against innocents or to be implicated in romantic gossip involving the possibly reality-challenged—however unreliable the source or outlandish the accusations. in the end, however, i know that i have never done or even meant anyone any harm.

anyway, the lives of public figures are so much more boring than anyone can imagine. honestly.

Oh Courtney. You did know, didn't you, that handing your Amex to a cute young rocker boy for a period of weeks would, someday, end with heated demands on your part and with him then basically saying, "I'm sorry you feel I owe you money, there's nothing I can do about that, life sure is crazy?!?"

Next time: limits. You know you could! We wish you would!

[Ryan Adams]

As soon as Omarosa came out, she was offended (no idea why). Then Wendy Williams tried to take Omarosa's book to show the audience, and Omarosa snatched it back (no idea why). Then, despite the best efforts of Wendy to be reasonable, the sniping continued throughout the interview, like so:

W: And you are rich. That is what you said on the BET red carpet.

O: And I represent my community well. I give back more to my community than anyone that I know. So if that’s being ABW, you are reinforcing stereotypes. That’s important for you not to do. Cause you don’t know. You really don’t.

W: Listen, you’re not my type Omarosa, and let me tell you…

O: Trust me.

W: Twenty two years I’ve been doing what I’m doing…

O: But don’t be fake. Because what happens is you have guests on your show and then you go on your radio show and talk smack instead of doing it when they are sitting on the couch.

W: I’m doing it right here.

O: I don’t have to be your type, but let me be clear. Been there, done that.

Here's the video, which is fairly entertaining. If Williams can just get Dick Cheney and some sort of convicted killer to come on next, her reputation will be restored!

They saw an opportunity years ago to create an ideological channel. And they did. I give them total credit. I tip my hat to them. They scored. But it was ideological and opportunistic. It was a business plan.

"We didn't do that. We go out and hire the best people that we can and give them freedom. Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann were arguing in point-of-view programs against the war when the war was popular. This wasn't a business decision. .... We're not tied to ideology the way they are. We're still NBC News, best newsgathering organization in the world, we have a couple of point-of-view people, but we have a variety of opinions you don't see elsewhere.

"But we're more fun. We're more interesting. We're smarter. We don't talk down to the audience...

I don't care if Obama wins or McCain wins, because I know we're in such a strong position we're going to continue to have success with whatever administration goes in there in 2009. I think they care."

So, in summary, MSNBC is different from Fox News because, while it has opinionated shows, there is no one opinion that pervades the network. Also, MSNBC is smarter and more fun, and also way hotter in a bikini, and more popular with the cool kids. Also, more mature. Better dresser.

But what's this about Fox deploying opinion as part of a "business plan?" So MSNBC is the one cable news network that acts independent of the ratings? The fact that Olbermann's "special comments" spiked viewership had nothing to do with that they got more frequent, and longer? Right.

In any case, something tells me a certain person is going to start appearing in Page Six a lot more often. And MSNBC may get a lot more interesting!

[Kansas City Star]

Ryan Adams you fucking weasel. deal with it.858,00$
Current mood: determined

Listen this is another open letter
this to a beyond mediocre piece of shite- maybe its just my moment to fucking get the knives out of my back,
but in any case between 00 and 04 before ....well a dark pit of shit and fake names and insanity follows with lots and lots of people counting on Kookoo cherry not being able to prove things- and thats for another day- those people have not played chess with me.
But i was sitting with some people going thru the 29 american express cards that i didnt know existed that were connected to a few HUNDRED bank accounts,and there were all the bills for Ryan Adams worst record and one of the worst records i can think of in rock and roll history ironically called"Riock and Roll " and it was paid for by ME and mostly by my child.
and when i met Ryan we had a mild little flirtation, why not? but i made the deathly stupid decision to instead of just have very safe sex with him ( hes pretty dirty and man ive been around but im the virgin mary comparitevly) or make friends. no i fucking pimped my useless , ridiculaously terrible loser "Boyfriend" ( who ironically Edward Norton hates no one any more than this fuck and for good reason , yet Edwards OWN business manager put Barber up on West XXth street kitty corner from Edward, Barber could see into Edwards Apartment, and then he had his own Dean and Deluca account and an ABC Carpetand Home account and spent about 250,000 on furniture and another 600,000 dollars on travel, this loser who hasnt had a job since 98 - while Frances didnt have hardly enough to eat and i sure as hell didnt) i pimped Barber onto Ryan,"oooh hes a great producer"- maybe it wasbnt honourable0 i just wanted Barber gone, so maybe i used Ryan to get him gone,
yeah you listen to this shit im listening to my i tunes on right now who names a record "Rock n Roll" what assholes do that?

Got it? Me neither. Maybe Courtney can clear it up.

with these trebled up guitars my bandmate said sounded like "really horrific rem on steroids" all treble and compresssion and shit wirtten songs - but so what?
well on my amex atthat time the 858 but also from bank accounts....theres 200,000 thousnad dollar checks written to Barber for "comissions" ididnt even know where the fuck he was ! but here on Amex 28 is the entire invoice for Ryan- your ENTIRE album and meals and drugs and Hotels and outboard gear and wasted fabullous guitars STRAIGHT OUT OF FRANCES"S TRUST FUND
So you little shit, maybe you had NO IDEA right? is that why you used a hysterical voice mail of a very terrified and flipped out me- for your worst reviewed record and well deserved too, this record is shite totally one of the worst recordings ive ever heard yet Ryan you YOU spent 858,000 dolllars on this record of MY DAUGHTERS MONEY. so whats your paying me back plan? illbe in New York next week , you can start by working out your payment plan, because i will litiagate your thieving ass from here til eternity, your a thief and i used to think you had some subtsance to you then i find out your being managed or your money is by Victoria Blake? is that POSSIBLE? whata great PAL that lizard like cretin is t o you and i hope you had fun that week in :Jamaica" whilst more of my kids money was being shoved offshore- but thats not the point- Billy may have made my kid cry but i wasn't in the room - he's family and he always will be- he just laid his Billy trip on a person a little too young for it- I'm over it. but YOU RYAN, OWE FRANCES 858<000 dollars , so should isend the amex copies to Blake and he "staff"? because i would enjoy that very much,what a really good friend to leave you with someone whose been diagnosed as an "utter psychotic" by a professional foresnic psychiatrist.
This record sucks i mean WOW!
is this what youd like me to tell my kid a fraction of her money was stolen for this shite "Rock N Roll " cd shall i post the outboard gear and 4 seasons billls and fancy Nobu dinners, ahh so thats why you released two records at once where you getting paid a salary to let Gollum "produce" you cos we both know what a reall fucking genius that guy is, and this isnt about Gollum- hes inthe hands of the professionals, i walk away now knowing everything, all of it , its disgusting and its a fucking nuclear explosion of greed i dont think american history has ever seen but no other artist was ever involved in this scandalous vile behaviour ......but you were and i note to self; you suck on this record with your bile towards me, ande its gutless and cowardly and shit, and you know it,
Pay me back Ryan, Pay Frances back. an dtake my fucking voice off that piece of shit.

You can read the rest of the missive here, but I'd be remiss if I didn't include Courtney's sign off to Ryan: "still shooting smack? hows that going for you?"

Olbermann called Snow "optimistic, funny and courageous," adding, "While we could not have disagreed more on policy, we were in frequent contact, even during his days as Press Secretary."

The temerity!

...a true friend of Snow's says Olbermann had "no relationship with Tony, at all." In fact, Olbermann named Snow his "Worst Person in the World" on Jan. 9, 2007, accusing him of lying about President Bush's 2003 "mission accomplished" speech. Olbermann hissed, "You're just baldfaced lying. You were hired to lie . . . We're not all third-graders out here."

Clearly, Olbermann's parting words for Snow should have focused on their bitterest moments of disagreement rather than on what Olbermann admired about Snow. In fact, Olbermann should have included in his eulogy the phrase "worst person in the world," if only for the sake of consistency.

[Post]

You make way too much money to have teeth like that. Seriously dude hire a dentist...

Turbans are for terrorist. Yeah I said it. (Let the hate mail commence.)...

You’re a blimp... Double breasted suits are for thin people, not people with double breasts.

(Emphasis added.)

Conley wrote in the comments, under her own name, that "this is really pushing the limits."

Later, an anonymous commenter asked, "what do you actually do?... does anyone actually give a shit who you are?"

WHAT? DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM???! Or, as Saynt put it,

We are one of the most successful fashion blogs on the planet. More people read us than all the international Vogue’s [sic] combined. Number two, I’ve recently been on the Tyra Banks Show, MTV, and The Travel Chanel bestowing on others my genius. Also, Time Out New York listed us as one of the top blogs of New York City, just under the Satorialist.

...Does anyone give a shit about me? Try over 500,000 readers per month and an industry that has already marked me as one of the top upcoming influencers in fashion... Don’t be jealous, just accept.

Then another anonymous commenter called into question Saynt's traffic claims.

When Saynt went to check the IP addresses on at least one of these anonymous comments, he became convinced he was being heckled by Conley and Frederickson. Further evidence for this came when Conley sent an email dropping Saynt from Coutorture's blog network just a few minutes after he replied to one of the anonymous posts.

Having made bigoted and nasty comments about Talley, and having tussled with critics of these comments, Saynt went on to further establish himself as the Fox News of this confrontation by writing a new post that called Conley fat ("Sarah herself is not a svelte fashionista, so I could see why saying Andre Leon Tally was 'too fat for fashion' might offend someone like herself) and ran pictures of Conley looking "really shitty," like this one:

OK actually, maybe this spat will never outdo the Fox-Times brawl — except by the standards of middle school, which in the world of fashion is pretty much the metric of choice. As style blog the Pipeline noted, "this is as mad a skirmish as we've ever seen... In fashion, this is the equivalent of a nuclear strike."

[via the Pipeline]

(Top photos via Mediabistro and Flickr, lower photo via Flickr)

Dimon, you see, was on Charlie Rose's TV show last night, where he said the following about the fall of investment bank Bear Stearns:

Where there is smoke, there's fire... I think the Securities and Exchange Commission should investigate it, okay? I think if someone knowingly starts a rumor or passes on a rumor, they should go to jail.

Set aside, for the moment, the absurd notion of financial markets functioning without the free flow of all kinds of information, rumor included.

Consider, instead, how Dimon's proposed censorship would impact his onetime fan Kneale in light of how Vanity Fair described Kneale's own role in the spreading gossip about Stearns:

By noon, when CNBC anchor Bill Griffeth opened Power Lunch, Bear’s stock was down more than $7, to $63. “There are rumors out there that some unnamed Wall Street firm might be having liquidity problems,” Griffeth noted. A correspondent on the show, Dennis Kneale, a veteran of The Wall Street Journal, said, “The speculation at this point is that it’s Bear Stearns. They’re down the most in the market today. Supposedly, a couple of weeks ago, they started looking at a way to try to shop their clearing operations [They] couldn’t find a buyer. At least that’s what one guy says.”

Does Kneale think it's something other than rumormongering to pass on the "supposed" information that comes from "what one guy says?"

More likely, he is just slower on the uptake than his rival Gasparino, who was also depicted by Vanity Fair spreading unvetted information and thus another likely victim of Dimon's prison policy. Perhaps if Dimon has his way, Kneale will have the chance at an extended tutorial of some sort from Gasparino, in their cell.

[Dealbreaker, Vanity Fair]