In his passing, Ober broke a great internet boundary, turning the traditional internet paradigm on its head and becoming the first subject of a false death rumor, wherein the rumor of its falsehood was what turned out to be fake, and the death itself was sadly real. While the false death rumor is a venerable online genre, having prematurely claimed the passings of Jeff Goldblum and Patrick Swayze among others, the false rumor of a false death rumor has been until today, an unexplored frontier of the internet.

Ober was best known for his work hosting MTV's trivia show from 1987 - 1990. He went on to host several other game shows including Make Me Laugh and Smush before fading from the airwaves. Recently he worked off-camera as a writer/producer on shows such as The New Adventures of Old Christine and Mind of Mencia.

Enjoy the clip below for a taste of the wry, mop-topped, sardonic host in his prime.

Fuchs was reportedly at a party early Sunday morning when the elevator he was in stalled. Newsday reports:

As Fuchs attempted to jump out of the elevator and onto an adjacent floor, the hood of his sweatshirt got caught on a piece of the elevator, causing him to fall five stories to the bottom of the elevator shaft, according to the police report.

Fuchs—who was once in a band with Businessweek media reporter Jon Fine—was a beloved guy in the Williamsburg music scene, and has already inspired eulogies everywhere from Chunklet to the L Magazine to the New York Times.

Besides Williamsburg musicians, the following people in New York wear hoodies: Everybody. Stay safe, everyone.

[Pics: Myspace]

Describing his world view as one of "serene pessimism," he viewed humans as having no privileged status in the universe and said they would become extinct without leaving significant traces of their existence.

A safe prediction.
[Bloomberg. Pic via]

HOLY GRAIL ALERT: Computer nerds at Northwestern University have created a computer program that, all you do is plug in the stats from a baseball game and it will write an entire news story about that baseball game, and the news story is not even bad. The computer program's name: Jay Mariotti.


A tipster tells us that in addition to the previously reported layoffs at Vanity Fair last Friday, W Magazine also laid off 8-10 employees that day. ALSO: Another tipster tells us there were at least four layoffs at Lucky today, including a few editors.
If you know more about the endless magazine layoffs, email us.


Who says the media business is grim? A TV station in Saginaw, Michigan "is generating revenue by running on-air and online obituary ads after three of the region's four daily newspapers reduced publication to three days a week." This works especially well in Saginaw, Michigan, where everyone would rather be dead.


HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman has figured out how to save the book publishing industry: Hire cheap, out-of-work editors to repackage old classics into E-books. Uh, hooray?

Robertson's book, The Girls in the Balcony, centered on a workplace discrimination suit filed against the NYT in 1974 by several female employees. We knew the paper was bad, but it's always bracing to hear just how bad it was, not so long ago:

In 1955, Ms. Robertson joined The Times, where she was assigned, as women often were then, to the women's news department. Her early articles for the paper - hundreds of them - were about fashion, shopping and interior decorating...
In 1963, Ms. Robertson began a decade as a reporter in the Washington bureau of The Times, where, as she said in an interview many years later, her de facto job description was to cover the "first lady, her children and their dogs." Her years in Washington would furnish her with the title for "The Girls in the Balcony," a reference to the cramped second-story space in the National Press Club to which female journalists were then relegated.

Crazy! Robertson also wrote a book about recovering from alcoholism via AA, and won a Pulitzer for her writing on her own experience with Toxic Shock syndrome, which almost killed her. You can pick up her book at Amazon, for a pittance.
[Pic via]

The story just broke, and the cause of death is unconfirmed thus far. But Wasserstein's health has been a subject of speculation for years; he shed a significant amount of weight a few years ago, sparking rumors of ill health then.

Wasserstein built a career as a consummate dealmaker. But his last piece of work in the media was a deal he didn't make; he withdrew from the bidding on BusinessWeek last month, after considering trying to land the magazine for his portfolio.

Born to a wealthy family in Brooklyn, Wasserstein came out of Harvard and became one of the premier M&A men on Wall Street. He advised on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of deals over the course of more than 20 years. He formed his own investment bank, sold it off for more than $1 billion, and then joined Lazard, where he continued his work.

He divorced his wife last year, and early this year married a much younger woman, who now finds herself a widow.

The effect of Wasserstein's death on New York and on his financial business are still unknown; but the fallout will surely be felt. Soon.

UPDATE: Daily Intel has this statement from the bosses at New York magazine:

New York Media editor-in-chief Adam Moss and publisher Larry Burstein released the following statement: "We're shocked and saddened by the loss of Bruce Wasserstein. We extend our deepest sympathy to his family and friends and share in their grief."

Starting in 1983, Mr. Magic hosted "Rap Attack" with Marley Marl on WBLS radio in NYC—which was the first all-hip hop radio show, anywhere. For a long time, he was the man when it came to breaking new rappers on the East Coast. He got name-dropped a lot, as you would imagine. "Every Saturday, Rap Attack, Mr. Magic, Marley Marl," said Biggie Smalls. "I gots to have it/ I miss Mr. Magic," said Nas. Miss Info [via Gametagradio.com] posted a letter from DJ Premier this morning remembering the man's accomplishments:

HE PAVED THE WAY FOR ALL RADIO STATIONS THAT EVER DID MIXSHOWS AND ALSO SPARKED THE CAREER OF BOOGIE DOWN PRODUCTIONS DUE TO THE DISS HE SHOWED WHEN THEY CAME TO SHOP THEIR DEMO TO HIM AND WAS TURNED AWAY WHICH THEN SPARKED "SOUTH BRONX" AND "THE BRIDGE IS OVER"…….

And a late pass from us: RIP to Roc Raida, another hip hop legend and a crazy skilled scratch DJ with the X-Men who died about a week and a half ago after a martial arts accident. Life's short.

Carroll's writing career started when he was attending Catholic prep school in the 1960s; he chronicled his rapid descent into heroin addiction—and the lengths he went to get it, like prostituting himself for money to buy it—in his journals, which were turned into The Basketball Diaries. After gaining popularity in the 70s, the book surged to popularity again in the 80s when it was repackaged and republished, and again in the 90s, when they were adapted into a film with Leonardo DiCaprio playing Carroll.

Carroll quickly rose to fame as a downtown fixture on New York's punk scene after the publication of Diaries; he gained the accolades of and influence over Patti Smith, Harmony Korine, Keith Richards, Lou Reed, Pearl Jam, Rancid, and others over the years.

Carroll and his mentor, Ted Berrigan, once took a trip to see Carroll's idol, Jack Kerouac. When they got there, Kerouac supposedly said: "At thirteen years of age, Jim Carroll writes better prose than 89 percent of the novelists working today."

Writers, magazines, actors, rock stars continued to want to be a part of Carroll's ongoing narrative; if the CBGB of yore had a poet laureate, it would've been unanimously voted as him. At one point, he actually hit the stage of CBGB as a musician sometime after Patti Smith infamously made him get on stage with her to read. Shortly thereafter, he secured a three-record deal with Atlantic Records.

Carroll's personal life remained spotty. He moved from New York to San Francisco in lieu of escaping drugs, but since moved back. He married Rosemary Klemfuss in 1978., but they later divorced. Carroll, however, kept clean, continued to write, perform spoken word, and record music, prolifically so.

Caroll loved writers, and loved the act of writing as much as the art of it. Carroll's survived by his brother Tom. He will be missed. Here he is, talking about Frank O'Hara:

Jim Carroll, Poet and Punk Rocker, Is Dead at 60 [NYT]

David Frum is an asshole who crafted the beautiful speeches of hero president GW Bush, our nation's most eloquent leader. Has Frum's website NewMajority.com taken the world by storm? No it has not, probably because of its comically unfortunate name, and cause people are tired of assholes like David Frum. Nevertheless, the Politico reports: "Despite setbacks, David Frum beats on." No idea.


Two years ago, the supercharged public broadcasting station in Boston moved into a super fancy new $85 million headquarters. But now times are tough and they're slashing their budget and laying people off! Hey, don't feel bad, the New York Times did the same thing.


The government has a responsibility to protect kids from "gratuitous sex and violence" on TV, said Sen. Jay Rockefeller. As long as they don't mess with awesome sex and violence, fine with me.


Ken Dyball, a graphics designer for C-Span, died last week after an extended illness. Guys like that don't usually get much recognition. But think of how many graphics Ken Dyball probably designed that you saw while flipping channels, or that your dad saw, for hours, while actually watching C-Span. Ken Dyball's work was probably more widely read than David Frum's. R.I.P, Mr. Dyball.

One of nine siblings born to the legendary Joe Kennedy Sr., Ted grew up in the limelight, a light that only grew brighter when his brother, John F. Kennedy, became president in 1960. Two years later, Ted would join his brother in Washington as a Massachusetts Senator, a position he held until today, the day he died. Like his brothers John and Bobby, both of whom were assassinated, Senator Kennedy's life was full of tabloid-grabbing drama. There was a 1964 plane crash, in which one of his aides was killed; and then there was a car accident in 1969, when the Senator, after a party, was driving with Mary Jo Kopechne and went off a bridge. Kopechne died at the scene, which Ted fled. He was later found guilty of leaving the scene of an accident and sentenced to two months in prison, but that sentencing was suspended. Even that, however, couldn't hold down Mr. Kennedy, who went on to become one of the most revered politicians in Washington and earned the moniker "liberal lion."

Though the incident prevented him from running for president in 1972, Kennedy did unsuccessfully throw his hat in the 1980 ring, but lost the nomination to Jimmy Carter. Undeterred, Kennedy used his time to fight for women's rights and AIDS funding. Yes, health has always been one of Kennedy's passions, as it was in 1997, when he joined then-First Lady Hillary Clinton in a health care battle with Republicans

Kennedy's cancer took center stage this year, after he suffered a seizure at an inauguration luncheon for President Obama. Since then, the Senator has been throwing his weight behind health care reform. Just last month he wrote to Newsweek and implored the nation to hear his roar:

For four decades I have carried this cause-from the floor of the United States Senate to every part of this country. It has never been merely a question of policy; it goes to the heart of my belief in a just society. Now the issue has more meaning for me-and more urgency-than ever before.

Kennedy's obviously been well aware that his days are numbered, for his asked Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick last week to amend the states' successor laws and name a Senator to replace him when the curtain went down. Now, with him dead, it's unclear what will happen in the Bay State.

One thing's for sure: Kennedy's death closes a chapter on one of America's great — and endlessly fascinating — political dynasties. And, we hope, will help galvanize the health care debate toward a reasonable conclusion. He would want it that way.

Hewitt worked at CBS News for more than 60 years. In 1948, he "directed the first network television newscast." He went on to direct CBS news anchors there from Murrow to Cronkite to Rather. He founded 60 Minutes—and the entire TV news magazine format—in 1968. He presided over the famous Nixon-Kennedy TV debate, in which an absence of makeup supposedly scared the nation away from Nixon. And he had his hardcore moments—these were his instructions to Dan Rather after JFK was assassinated, and rumors surfaced that a guy named Zapruder had a tape of the whole thing:

"Dan. Go to his house. Tell him you wanna see the tape. After he shows it to ya, sock him. Take it. Take it back to our station and let them put it on tape. We'll have it. Then take it back and give it to him. Now they can only get you for assault. They can't get you for robbery because you just gave it back, and let the CBS lawyers argue about who it belongs to."

Hewitt stepped down from 60 Minutes in 2004 to serve as executive producer of CBS News. He was hospitalized with pancreatic cancer last March, and now it's killed him.

The biggest stain on Hewitt's career was the Jeffrey Wigand case—later made into the movie The Insider—in which Hewitt caved to CBS management's demands to censor a 60 Minutes spot about dirty business by tobacco executives. The company feared a lawsuit so big it would kill them, and Hewitt complied with their wishes, pissing off more journalistically inclined colleagues. He later admitted he wasn't proud of himself. Oh well. We all make mistakes. He was a giant and CBS will miss him. Here's Al Pacino's grand speech, from the movie, decrying the BUSINESSMEN posing as NEWSMEN. Journalism lives, we hope.

Paul essentially invented the solid-body electric guitar in 1939, and the Gibson guitar that bears his name and design influences came to define rock and made perfect noises in the right hands—Jimmy Page, Paul Westerberg, Neil Young, Mick Jones, and on and on. He was also the first person to ever release a music recording using multi-tracking—recording an instrument and then playing it back while recording another audio track in concert with it—in 1947. Multi-tracking is recording—without that innovation, there would have been no White Album, no Radiohead, no nothing.

Paul was also a virtuoso guitar player and recorded 11 No. 1 hits with his wife, Mary Ford, including "Vaya Con Dios."

Paul was 94. In high school, your blogger saved up $600 from a summer job delivering chlorine to pools, and decided to buy a guitar. I picked out a Les Paul Studio—a huge, solid, heavy maroon thing with a bunch of phase switches and dials that I didn't understand and a neck like a baseball bat. I thought it looked cool. It did look cool. It turned out to have been a special model designed for recording that couldn't play loud or overdrive an amp—which was all I wanted to do—and I was sorely disappointed.

Years later, I saw Paul play at the Iridium, a Manhattan jazz club he played weekly up until the end. When I saw that Paul, the guy who built the edifice upon which rock grew, played a Les Paul Studio, I regretted all the years I spend not playing that guitar, and realized how cool I would have looked doing it. Paul's hands were arthritic and knotty, but he played beautifully. He'd retaught himself, in his 80s, how to play without bending his fingers.

Some of Viner's greatest hits:

• Rod Blagojevich's post-scandal book.
• OJ Simpson-related books from Faye Resnick and a juror.
• Jayson Blair's memoir.
• A book by Gene Simmons.
• The Price: My Rise and Fall as Natalia, New York's #1 Escort.