John Koblin puts a number on the Wall Street Journal's recently announced plans to move into New York City metro coverage: $15 million. "You could drive a truck through the space between the wonderfully titillating tabloids and the perceived self-seriousness of The Times," says one PR man in the NYO. It's a big enough budget to help fill that gap. Although Rupert would prefer to just drive that truck directly over the Times.

And that's his smallest ongoing fight! Much bigger, in the grand scheme of things, is Rupert's willingness to be the media mogul who shouts out loud the thing that all the other media moguls grumble under their breath: Google is stealing from us! Why just yesterday, Rupert said:

"There are those who think they have a right to take our news content and use it for their own purposes without contributing a penny to its production. Some rewrite — at times without attribution — the news stories of expensive and distinguished journalists who invested days, weeks, or even months on their stories — all under the tattered veil of fair use."

He has (some of) a point! And even more remarkably, Google knows it. The Googleplex announced that they're going to (somewhat) close the technological loophole that allowed you to use Google News to jump over pay walls and read stories for free. Instead of being able to go to Google News, type in a headline from, say, the WSJ, and read as many stories as you want without subscribing, now Google "will allow publishers to limit non-subscribers to five free articles a day."

Rupert gets results. The New York Times is probably offering him a free Weekender subscription right now, to try to soften him up. But don't get it twisted: He's just begun to fight. He likes this stuff!

The WSJ reports:

Men who didn't confront colleagues or bosses who treated them unfairly doubled their risk of heart attack, according to a study in Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

*WASHINGTON POST JOKE.*

[Pacquiao for Congress!]

Near-retiree Washington Post editor Henry Allen punched writer Manuel Roig-Franzia in the face after Roig-Franzia called him a "cocksucker." Hank Steuver, a WaPo colleague whose editor is Allen, thinks the man may have some issues:

What made Henry snap was that a writer called him a naughty word, an epithet that rhymes with "coughstucker" and is playfully or spitefully reserved as a way to insult a man, by implying he's gay.

Being an enthusiastic coughstucker myself, I would someday like to ask Henry if it was the insulting delivery of the word, or the subtext of gayness that the word implies that angered him most?...Was it about the person who said it? The way he said it? Or that it was said at all? If another person in Style called me a coughstucker, I'd just have to shrug and use the Popeye retort: I am what I am.

You're totally missing the point, Hank. Imagine how you would feel if someone called you a vagina sucker! It's a slur because it was meant to be a slur. Why not ask Manuel why in the world he would use "cocksucker" as anything less than a term of endearment? Outrageous! A slur is not rendered moot to the average testosterone-filled male simply because it's true. I may be ugly, but I don't want it pointed out to me.

[And be sure to watch that dramatic re-enactment video of the fight, performed by Washington City Paper employees. A+. It does make Henry Allen appear somewhat unstable though! Via Romenesko]

Erik Wemple reports that Allen and Roig-Franzia had been beefing for days before the incident, ever since Henry questioned one of Manuel's stories and Manuel called him a "dick." Then, last Friday, Manuel allegedly "reached across the table and grabbed Allen's notepad, tearing a page from it."

Cruising for a bruising, Manuel. Selling woof tickets. Your mouth is writing some pretty big checks. Can your ass cash those checks? Subsequent events indicate your ass cannot.

Fast forward to the battle in question later that day, when Manuel called Henry a "cocksucker" after he criticized another story:

At that, Allen leapt into action, shoving Roig-Franzia. He then popped him in the cheek [Ed. note: We hear there's still some question as to whether it landed on the cheek or the back of the head]. According to an eyewitness account, Roig-Franzia didn't try to match the 5-11, 200-pound Allen punch for punch, instead opting for more of a civil-rights-movementy kind of stance.

We think you get the picture. Allen was told never to return to the newsroom, the CP says, but guess what: he already took a buyout and was retiring this month anyhow. Haha.

Henry Allen wins. And incidentally—Allen reportedly told Roig-Franzia that the "charticle" that got him so mad in the first place was the second-worst story he'd seen in 43 years. The worst, according to the CP: "a mistake-ridden profile of Paul Robeson that never saw the printed page." Paul Robeson was also a badass.

Violence is wrong, etc.
[Self portrait by Henry Allen himself]

Your Fighters:

Henry Allen, Pulitzer Prize-winning veteran WaPo feature writer and editor who is "nearly 70" and an ex-Marine.


Manuel Roig-Franzia, much younger WaPo staff writer who knows how to "make a mean gumbo."

The Washingtonian has the stunning details of the journobrawl: Reportedly, Roig-Franzia and his colleague Monica Hesse filed a charticle about historic political ethics violations that enraged Allen, who called it "the second worst story I have seen in Style in 43 years." We can't wait to hear what happens next!

"Oh, Henry," [Roig-Franzia] supposedly said, "don't be such a cocks——-."

Allen lunged at Roig-Franzia, threw him to the newsroom floor, and started throwing punches. Roig-Franzia tried to fend him off. Brauchli and others pulled the two apart.

That would be WaPo editor Marcus Brauchli, who reportedly helped break up the fight himself! Then he reportedly pulled Allen into his office, maybe to fire him?!? Although one could argue that Roig-Franzia should possibly be fired as well on general principle if he did in fact lose a fistfight to a near-septuagenarian!

WaPo staffers, we know you have more details, and maybe sexxxy fight pixxx! Can this be accurately termed an "ass whupping," or was it just a "sucker punch," or was it more of an "embarrassing flailing about?" Email us at once.

UPDATE: FishbowlDC (which apparently broke this story, hey), has a source saying "it was a single punch and no one was on the ground."

We're thinking it was like this, but if Zimmer had ducked and then knocked Pedro Martinez out:

In the guy's defense, it appears the altercation was initiated by someone trying to defend the media member blocking his car.

Intrepid reporters be warned. If you want this story, you're going to have to get through this guy.

The neighbor, who has not been identified is seen arguing with Jon Bowman, a reporter for KDVR 31, the Denver-based FOX affiliate. He later chases Byron Stewart, a photojournalist for KDVR around the news van. It turns out the man in the yellow shirt who jumped the Heene neighbor from behind was another neighbor, and not someone affiliated with a news outlet. Hat tip for eagle eyed Gawker commenter Matthew for getting the details on the subjects in the video.

This is a New York Post exclusive from a prison snitch source—and that combo last wowed the world with the story about how Madoff has cancer, which turned out to be false. So regulate your credulousness accordingly!

Anyhow, the story goes that Madoff and another prisoner were arguing about the stock market, of all things, and the other dude shoved Bernie, and Bernie—to the surprise of all the hard rocks—shoved the dude back so hard that he fell down. Then the other dude took off like a punk! Madoff earned himself some "cred," according to the Post. It's practically a scene-by-scene reenactment of American Me up in there! And what horrific gang violence is coming now that Bernie set it off?

The next day, Madoff and his attacker, described by inmates as a white male over 60 years old, made up and were spotted hanging out together.

Outstanding. Until another paper gets its act together and starts bribing those prison snitches as well as the Post does, we'll have to take their word for it.

Please God let the Black Guerilla Family recruit Bernie Madoff.
[Pic: Getty]

Stanford came out of the jailhouse scrap last week with "a concussion, two black eyes and a broken nose." Which is a pretty serious whuppin by fight standards, let's be honest.

But look: for months, Allen's been complaining that there's no air conditioning in his crowded facility, and that the conditions are hellish. Now that he caught a bad one, he's finally getting transferred to another jail. Presumably with air conditioning? The fact that the awful jail food is withering away his once-thick frame to the point that he was seriously beaten in a fistfight is actually paying off for him, if you disregard the beating itself.

Also, the fact that more than two million of our fellow citizens are locked in cages where they must fight for their very lives as an unstated additional punishment for their crime is fucked up, even if we don't care for the person.
[Pic: AP]

As the votes proceeded, the assembly's police encircled the deputy speaker, while members of minority parties repeatedly tried to jump onto the dais to halt the proceedings. One woman lawmaker from the main opposition Democratic Party screamed loudly in front of the podium and fought with other women who tried to quiet her.

The Sarah Palin of South Korea, ladies and gentlemen. Absorb these action shots and reflect upon why American Congresspersons are such pussies:

"Media privatization is undemocratic, kind sir!"
"I would like to register my philosophical opposition to corporate control of media distribution channels, my friends!"
"South Korea must end its puritan coddling of mass media outlets, dear colleagues!"
"Our economy, already dominated by bottom-line-oriented conglomerates, will only become further homogenized if this misguided bill passes, my sweet love!"
"Bitch!"

[WSJ. Pics: AP]

Fallon's flack talks to P6 today about how the woefully inadequate replacement for Conan O'Brien was kicked out of NYC pizza joint Posto, but totally leaves out any mention of what one tipster told us was a "nice little fistfight" afterwards:

"they could not have been any ruder. The hostess who asked him to leave was seemingly gleeful about it. Jimmy is never going back to Posto," Fallon's rep told Page Six

Blah blah blah. The fight man, what about the fight? Fallon's been quiet about it on Twitter so far. But! Another tipster spotted him after the incident and pronounced his face shiner-free:

I saw Jimmy Fallon with his wife at JFK this morning (Sunday) at 6am. We were both online at American's First Class Check in. Other than being really tired, like all of us having to be there at that hour, I didn't notice any injuries or evidence of fight. I'm sure his travel/airline etc is checkable. I wrote this note only b/c I was amused by the coincidence of seeing him this morning and now reading the post (I'm in SF at the moment) ….

Fallon is indeed on vacation this week. So come out with it, Jimmy: what happened out there? Twitter it or email us at once, or you're scared. Playground rules. [Previously]

Just had my dining experience at Posto enhanced by the sight of JIMMY FALLON getting kicked out on his skinny butt...a nice little fistfight ensued...better call the makeup dept in early on Monday!

But: it's nice to see that Jimmy is filling the NY Media Personality Pugilist void created by the death of Steve Dunleavy.

Bottoms up!

What sort of monster could punch Jimmy Fallon right in his smug, snickering face? The hardly-amusing talk show host's own, be-twitted explanation was rather more prosaic:

# actually asked to leave a pizza place today
about 13 hours ago from web

# Posto on 2nd (they also own Gruppo and Vezzo)
about 13 hours ago from web

# carb face carol rude to my 2 year old niece and an 11 month old (sleeping) because they heard i didnt like the pizza there.about 13 hours ago from web

# crazy.
about 13 hours ago from web

Blah blah blah, then he goes on and on about it. So was there really a fistfight, and if so, was Jimmy Fallon kicking some serious ass, or what? We must get to the bottom of this important issue. Just Twitter about it, Jimmy. You know you want to.

Limbaugh is the spiritual leader of a Republican party that has basically resigned itself to representing only aging white males. There are enough aging white males to make Rush still a very, very successful broadcast, but there are not enough of them to win the presidency. Michael Steele grasps this, sort of, but he is not smart enough to do anything about it besides make claims about "urban/suburban hip-hop settings" and then pick a fight with a man who is much brighter and more beloved by his party's base than he, Mr. Limbaugh.

Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in an interview with CNN that he, rather than Limbaugh, is "the de facto leader of the Republican Party."

And Steele described Limbaugh as a performer.

"Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh's whole thing is entertainment," Steele said. "Yes, it is incendiary. Yes, it is ugly."

And the obvious response came quickly:

"I'm not in charge of the Republican Party, and I don't want to be," Rush said. "I would be embarrassed to say that I'm in charge of the Republican Party in a sad-sack state that it's in. If I were chairman of the Republican Party, given the state that it's in, I would quit."
[...]
"So send those fundraising requests out," Rush said in a sneering tone, in an apparent reference to Steele, adding: "Make sure you say, `We want Obama to succeed.' So people understand your compassion."

"Republicans and conservatives are sick and tired of being talked down to, they're sick and tired of being lectured to," Rush continued. "And until you show some understanding and respect for who they are, you're gonna have a tough time rebuilding your party."

Yaaay! It's like Christmas! Now either this will escalate further (we're sure noted hip-hop aficionado Michael Steele is studying up on his Jay-Z and Nas) or Steele will be forced to grovel for forgiveness. And that's win-win. (Update: Steele went for Door No. 2: "There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership.")

Let's take it all in chronological order, because this is important. On the day before Christmas, Julia ran down just how lucky she felt to be surrounded by the two wonderful girls who, with her, make up the fake company Nonsociety—they "have become the sisters I always wanted."

My relationships with them have been the most precious gifts I have ever received, and I could not imagine my life without them....To watch something like this turn into reality? I can’t describe the joy I feel; it’s limitless.

Her friend sister Mary Rambin spent her Christmas vacation cruising around on a $476,000 per week rented yacht. And what did she do first thing in the new year? Ruin Julia's sense of zen, the bitch. And all Julia did was write some email about how stupid Mary's New Year resolution was:

From: Mary Rambin
Sent: Thursday, January 01, 2009 11:31 PM
To: Julia Allison
Subject: please

Don’t actively call for my resolutions when I already posted what mine
is along with the fact that I’m not blogging for another day.

Thanks for being a good blogger

Julia replies:

huh? That was your resolution? Stop snapping at people?

Mary replies:

I think I made it pretty clear I don’t like resolutions on any particular
day.

Night night

Julia replies:

wow. mary, you’re on the most beautiful, amazing vacation I’ve ever seen, and you still manage to be a cranky bitch. Truly impressive, my dear.

It makes me especially mad, because I just wrote you a really sweet Christmas card.

Happy New Years to you, too.

BFF! L.Y.L.A.S.! Is Julia going through a serious emotional roller coaster ride? Or is this just one more sign that perhaps it's not wise to write and publish every nonsensical thought that pops into one's head? Either way, I think the transparently vapid nature of these women's public dialogue is ample assurance we won't be hearing any more about them this year.

You may remember that last week ol' Madge was in New York, and said cryptically at her concert: "In exactly 29 moves, the Queen will dump the King." She had 29 tour dates left at that point, and I guess she was hoping to keep the gargantuanly expensive divorce (like lots of millions of dollars, or about six pounds) under wraps until her tour ended. But, I guess she was just too giddy about the exciting, shitty news so she made sly and self-important references to it in beloved old Boston and I guess we'll eat it up. A messy public divorce would be just the right thing to take Maddy from her too-comfortable role as fitness-crazed London mommy to bitter, song-spewing, 50-year-old chick from Detroit with scores to settle. Madonna's been way too nice for the past few years. Let's hope that her Beantown outburst means that the bitch is back. [Daily Mail]

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 Democratic convention is such a news-bereft wasteland that Stewart was apparently giving a press conference, consisting of him riffing to a roomful of eager reporters. During the course of this, he said that Fox News' "Fair and Balanced" slogan is "the biggest 'fuck you' to people with brains that I've ever seen in my life" and that Chris Wallace is the network's only legit anchor, and that Fox is biased against Obama.

Stop the fucking presses, right? But Howie Kurtz, trooper that he is, put in a call to Fox, and came back with this paragraph for his story:

A Fox News spokesman replied that "Jon's clearly out of touch," citing a Pew study showing the network has the most balanced audience in cable news, 39 percent Repubicans and 33 percent Democrats. "But being out of touch with mainstream America is nothing new to Jon as evidenced by the crash and burn ratings of this year's Oscars telecast."

And we must say, this is completely fair play by Fox! Stewart attacked them professionally; they responded by attacking him professionally; both parties get their say, and the affair doesn't get too dirty. Stewart is perfectly willing and able to respond to Fox's slams, unlike the beat reporters they've gone after in the past. And for connoisseurs of Fox PR's historic public attacks on various media characters, the statement is a beauty—it follows the trademark Fox formula, sliding in an attack on the messenger with a smile.

The asshole here is Kurtz himself, who, as Romenesko pointed out, ran an anonymous attack quote from Fox, in direct violation of the Post's own rules on anonymous quotes.

Funny, though: Stewart actually complimented Fox. Perhaps when they responded, they didn't get this full quote?

"I think Fox does the best job because probably because they have an idea what they're doing. Because they have an editorial perspective, they're able to focus it more. So it's more cohesive and it makes more sense you understand what they're doing. They're putting it through a filter."

Everyone is fighting with each other! The idea that the media is able to stand apart from a larger group called the "audience" and do its job is collapsing. Fox is a media outlet, Stewart is a media guy, and both are sniping at each other—becoming the story themselves—rather than speaking to their own audiences directly (not that we mind, in this case). Even worse, the audience of regular people who are supposed to be the media's consumers have now decided that they are the media itself. As David Carr writes from the convention:

Each time there was a reporting stop — at a small McCain counterdemonstration, a Hillary counterdemonstration, or in the bloggers’ tent — the people formerly known as the audience refused to behave like one. They brandished video cams, iPhones and recorders, doing their own documentation of what was under way.

Somebody has to be the audience. Soon, like slam poetry night at a cafe full of nothing but slam poets, we'll all stop listening because we're too busy waiting our turn to talk.

First, Bol airs his objections to "the fact that mofos are walking around wearing purses and tight-ass pants showing off their nuts." Well let's be honest, who wants to see the nuts of others, unsolicited? Then he critiques this story in the Voice about a Brooklyn rap crew and its anti-tight clothes anthem:

Of course, with it being the gay-ass Village Voice, these guys are painted as virulent homophobes and failed no-talents trying to capitalize off a gimmick.

Well sure. His proposed savior of hip hop? This guy below, whose video is an ode to smashing tight-be-pantsed rap kids with bats. I find hipster hop as annoying as anyone, but this is really not the solution. Where's the love here, Bol? NO HOMO: