When former MSNBC anchor and media pussyhound Dan "Slim Shady" Abrams opened up shop on both his consulting firm Abrams Research and his blog network (Mediaite and PR Cop), not gonna lie, I didn't think they'd be getting to know Glenn Beck's vagina or Lady Gaga's penis so intimately. I may have finally turned the corner on them!

OR WOULD HAVE had Dan Abrams henchwoman and Mediaite's executive editor Rachel Sklar not tried to ruin my life's work.

What kind of person would do this? A cruel one? Maybe. But the Dan "The Down Donger" Abrams has an entire site devoted to "debunking"—or printing publicist reactions to—celebrity rumors, the majority of which most people don't even give a shit whether or not their true! So this is perfectly in line with their culture of harshing everyone's mellow. And I do mean harshing.

But I have another theory: Rachel, who's basically working nine days a week on Mediaite for Dan, is starting to go insane. The media economy is competitive, goddamnit! But is it too competitive? Observe, her lede:

RA RA RA NA NA NA NA RA NA NA…okay I am maybe a little obsessed with Lady Gaga and her latest single, "Bad Romance," and its crazy, fantastic video filled with crazy, fantastic costumes.

A...little? Sklar's up to 63 screengrabs on this new Lady Gaga video. 63. And you know there's a reason for all of this, don't you? Only an insane person would spend that much time debunking another insane person like me and my insane (BUT TRUE) theory/research on The Facinating Subject that is Lady Gaga's Dick. Her commentary on one of the grabs:

I am amazed that this shot made it past the censors, unusually lingering as it was…it gives you more than enough time to notice the see-through fabric on her black lacy thong…all the way through. Okay, FEK, I think we have pretty conclusive evidence here.

OH, NO YOU DIUNT. SHOTS FIRED, Sklar. And what does she offer up for evidence? This:

But come on. How closely did she look? We used the Gawker PSI (Penis Scene Investigations) Zoom Lens to get a closer look.

You say potato, and I say penis. Unfortunately, I think we may have to close the book on all Lady Gaga Penis Conspiracy talk here, before we go too far down the Gaga Hole. This is just going to have to be one of those things like Area 51, where you don't really find out the truth of the matter until the world needs saving, and this is one of those secrets essential to doing so (see: Independence Day, 1996, Dir. Roland Emmerich). Or this is one of those things you don't find out about until the world is actually ending (see: 2012, 2009, Dir. Roland Emmerich). Either way, here's hoping for the safety of the world and the crumbling sanity of Rachel Sklar that Lady Gaga whips out the truth sooner rather than later.

Brazilian newspaper O Globo: What is it even talking about? The paper says "It's war!" because the New Yorker published an article this week about Rio's hellacious favela violence—right when the city's trying to get the Olympics. Conspiracy, clearly! Hey O Globo, the whole "It's war!" thing is what they were talking about. Duh.


We missed this yesterday: Mediabistro millionairess Laurel Touby's exit interview. "Exit" meaning, "She's taking a grand worldwide vacation for a few months, whatever, she's already rich." Laurel sez, "People are constantly asking me for personal advice or one-on-one help, and I've thought for a long time that if I just write it in a book it will be very helpful for entrepreneurs." Just don't take advice about email from her.


Yesterday was the NYT's annual "State of the Times" thing where the big execs stand up and tell the staff what the hell's going on and answer some questions. We hear it was boring. No final decisions yet on how the paper will go forward with its inevitable paid online content move. But Pinch Sulzberger did, allegedly, get off one funny line. Yea, video or it didn't happen.



Rachel Sklar is all mad because stupid Capitol File magazine headlined a story about Diane Sawyer, "Woman on Top."
Women. Geez.

Donald Trump Roasts Joan Rivers, and Her Vagina - August 25, 2009

What's That About A Powerful Vagina? - September 23, 2009
Glenn Beck's Powerful Vagina - September 25th, 2009
UPDATE: That Top Shop Thing Is TOTALLY A Dentata Shirt - September 24th, 2009

Tags:

Vagina Shirts Are The New Black
Powerful Vaginas
Megan Fox Powerful Vaginas
Cervix Journalism
Nick Dentata

Yes, Rachel Sklar is doing this to attract attention from (A) people searching "glenn beck + vagina" on Google (B) people like me and (C) anybody who's ever been shocked by reading about a vagina in relation to something it has no bearing on (like Glenn Beck, who, for all we know, has never seen one). But I did LOLZ at "Cervix Journalism" as well as her investigation into vaginas with teeth ("vagina dentata"). Also, the figuring in of the word "dentata" into both of our respective employers names, because I'm 12. Then again, it's funny to think about shady Dan Abrams having a vagina with teeth (which would make him shadier!).

But I've got another theory: Maybe Rachel's trying to tell us something? The professional media gormandizer's love life was partly chronicled in a New York Observer profile of microfame expert Rex Sorgatz. Observe:

The rest of the room was dominated by attractive single women, including blogger Rachel Sklar, who had been Mr. Sorgatz's girlfriend up until a few days before. I cornered Mr. Sorgatz and put it to him straight: As a straight man, how can you justify hosting a Gossip Girl viewing party?

The 35-year-old, spikey-haired online consultant didn't flinch. "It's an awesome opportunity to invite girls over," he said.

If Rex Sorgatz can't make your vagina grow teeth, I don't know what can. This is what your vagina looks like with teeth:

Stephanie Pratt has had it with self-involved people who add nothing to the world other than fake drama. Pratt is the sister of fellow reality-TV person Spencer Pratt, but apparently was referring in this case to Perez Hilton.

Yes, Mediaite's Rachel Sklar misdirected her DM to all of Twitter. But the earnest Canadian blogger is genuinely curious how you're doing, entire world!

Actress Marlee Matlin would like Kanye West's lips to do some apologizing.

Someone lied to blog mogul Om Malik.

Larry King's southpaw tweet, a trademark non sequitur, could have used a "DEVELOPING..."

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets - or send us more Twitter usernames.

To summarize: Greenwald goes over the New York Times' revelation of a Charlie Rose-officiated summit between News Corp and GE chiefs that ended the battle between their respective professional blowhards, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. The battle embarrassed their corporate parents, and that's why the beef was squashed. He notes that the Times' Brian Stelter, who penned the piece, missed the big picture in all of this: that we now shamelessly live in an age where corporations can control their news divisions simply by getting a few guys in a room, and ordering them to stop fighting. Which is absolutely true, but we already knew that. He's right, however, in its absolute shamelessness. Even Charlie Rose, who brought the corporate titans together, is dirty. Even better, Greenwald pulls from an old interview of Charlie Rose's. In conversation with reporter and columnist Amy Goodman, Rose noted:

I promise you, CBS News and ABC News and NBC News are not influenced by the corporations that may own those companies. Since I know one of them very well and worked for one of them.

Which is great, coming from the guy who just moderated a meeting of two corporate giants who need to reign in their news networks.

But when not pointing out the long-kvetched, now manifest complaints of anarchists everywhere, he gets to something even more insidious: former Newsweek reporter Richard Wolffe's guest stint on MSNBC, filling in for Keith Olbermann. Wolffe is noted as a "political analyst" when he appears on MSNBC. Which is funny, because his day job is for a corporate strategies firm run by the former Bush White House Comm Director Dan Bartlett:

Wolffe left Newsweek last March in order to join "Public Strategies, Inc.," the corporate communications firm run by (Bartlett), its President and CEO...

...Having Richard Wolffe host an MSNBC program — or serving as an almost daily "political analyst" — is exactly tantamount to MSNBC's just turning over an hour every night to a corporate lobbyist

Hot damn. He also goes on to note those who've previously written about MSNBC and Wolffe's lack of disclosure over this (Ana Marie Cox), and links to Public Strategies' website. Want to know what one of their divisions is? This is neat:

Media Intelligence™

The Situation

A leading media company faced negative public perception and sagging stock prices resulting from a personal legal situation involving its CEO. Senior Management engaged Public Strategies to reposition the company as a trusted, respected, and innovative leader in its industry, and to help mitigate the crisis and restore confidence in the brand.

Public Strategies' solution

In addition to providing strategic counsel, Public Strategies immediately responded by enacting its Media Intelligence™ service providing the client with a 360-degree perspective of public opinion around the globe

A "360-degree perspective," and a four-dimensional one, too, like A CALL THAT COMES FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE. Furthermore: he points out how Wolffe has gone on the record to a Newsweek reporter after announcing his departure from the weekly as not giving a shit about the line between corporate interests and news. And get ready to walk away from your computer, because you might want to break something:

"The idea that journalists are somehow not engaged in corporate activities is not really in touch with what's going on. Every conversation with journalists is about business models and advertisers," he said, recalling that, on the day after the 2008 election, Newsweek sent him to Detroit to deliver a speech to advertisers. "You tell me where the line is between business and journalism," he said.

Jesus.

At least former MSNBC correspondent, the (potentially) conflict-of-interest-happy Dan Abrams, tries to run interference on the inherent conflicts between owning a media strategies firm Abrams Research and owning a media reporting website Mediaite (or at least: has henchpeople furiously sending emails, telling everyone writing about them to get their facts right).

The kicker, however, is when Greenwald points out Wolffe's bio on the Public Strategies website, where they actually tout him as a news source: "In addition, Wolffe is an NBC political analyst. He provides political commentary on several MSNBC programs, Meet The Press, and TODAY."

As in, in addition to being our employee, we can send him into the field to say whatever you want him to say! For a price, of course. There's clearly a very small difference in being able to pay to put something in someone's mouth, and being able to pay to get something out of someone's mouth in front of a bunch of other people. Richard Wolffe is about as dirty and shameless a media whore as you can get, taking money from corporations, going on the news with his pockets lined by said interests, and being framed in a context as an objective, righteous news commentator. Richard Wolffe, and by extension, MSNBC, are completely - and I guess, at this point - unexpectedly dirty, and pretty much nothing they claim to be and everything they don't.

Glenn Greenwald, on the other hand? You deserve something. I don't know. A steak dinner. A stiff drink. But mostly, lots of people to read your column. It's nice to see someone who's not answering to the interest of brass somewhere, which, apparently, is becoming more and more rare as we move forward in this great new era of news, or whatever we're eventually going to call it.

GE's silencing of Olbermann and MSNBC's sleazy use of Richard Wolffe [Salon]

Gawker hasn't exactly been shy about taking its shots at Mediaite in the time leading up to the launch, so we spoke to Editor-At-Large Rachel Sklar via email to give her an opportunity to talk about the site and counter some of the criticism we and others have had about Mediaite and Abrams Research.

Gawker: Okay, first off, you've been working on this launch for months. Now that the site is finally up and running, how do you feel?

Sklar: Months - actually it's been quite a quick turnaround. Someone did the math here and it's more like ten weeks. So how do I feel? Hm, tired. I still have a bunch of stuff to do tonight. But, happy! I love the site and had a blast with the team putting it together. If you don't give me an opportunity to kvell about our interns later on in this Q&A, permit me to do so now. They are off-the-charts fantastic.

Next!

Gawker: Well, it probably just seems as though you've been talking about it for months, so forgive me.

Now, there's been plenty of criticism launched in the direction of your boss, Dan Abrams, for what many, Gawker included, see as a conflict of interest in having a media advisory firm attached to a media website. Obviously, you feel differently. How have Gawker and other critics of Abrams Research/Mediaite been wrong about this?

Sklar: It seems like YOU'VE been talking about it for months, you mean! We didn't even launch a Twitter until May: http://myfirsttweet.com/1st/mediaite

It's not attached. They are separate businesses. Check out Dan's blog post.

(Ed. note—Here is what Abram's said in his inaugural blog post addressing these concerns:

While I have certainly helped create the tone and direction of Mediaite, now that the site is live, I will take on the role of Publisher. I will continue to help guide and manage the business side of the site, but the editorial decisions will be left entirely to the editorial staff.

Why would I give up the opportunity to edit my own site? There are a number of reasons. Most important, however, I want this site to be viewed as objective – tough and opinionated – but not the Dan Abrams Post. I have strong feelings about many in media and will write opinion columns for the site but the editorial team will determine the editorial content. When you think about the team we have assembled, it's easy to understand why I feel so comfortable - Managing Editor Colby Hall, Editor-at-Large Rachel Sklar (former Huffington Post media editor) , Senior Editor Glynnis MacNicol (former FishbowlNY editor), and TV Editor Steve Krakauer (former TV Newser editor) (among others) - are top of class.)

Gawker: So Abrams essentially says in his blog post that he won't use Mediaite to protect and promote the interests of his clients at Abrams Research. But wouldn't you guys at Mediate cry foul if someone like Nick Denton did the same thing? Do you not understand the skepticism that the "just trust me" line of defense inspires?

Sklar: Someone could make the same argument about advertisers (insert Bloodcopy joke here!).
But hey! We've got this great new site! Check it out!

It was at this point that I got an email from Sklar saying that she was on her way home and that we'd resume the interview, but I never heard back from her. Oh well. In her defense it was four in the morning at this point and she may have walked through the door of her apartment and just collapsed into the fetal position. I can't say that I'd blame her if that was the case.

But just because we've had trouble viewing the site doesn't mean that others haven't seen it! Here's what the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz said:

With separate pages for TV, print and online, the site aggregates plenty of content, like other media-focused portals, while also offering opinionated takes on scandal coverage, journalistic feuds, ethical questions and sundry embarrassments. There is a "Confront the Critics" feature — an artist gets to talk back to a negative reviewer — and a "Sex Watch," as in, who's exploiting titillating images for page views?

Some headlines, from an exclusive peek at last week's trial run: "Where Will Sanford Sell His 'Love Story' on TV?" "CBS and CNN and Michael Jackson Coverage — Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough." "Which MSNBC Colleagues Did Joe Scarborough Call Out This Morning?" "Vibe Folds: Death Knell for All Music Mags?"

ASSME's Drew Grant also got a look at it before it went down and naturally went straight to the "Jobs" section.

Plus there's a Job section, which as of yet doesn't seem to rival (Laurel) Touby's in quantity or quality…in fact, searching in their "Jobs for Media Professionals" section results in 0 items. Probably just a bug that will get fixed in time, but I prefer to think of it as gallows humor.

So what are you waiting for? As of right now (4:19am Eastern) the site is back up again. Go check out Mediaite now while it's still up.

UPDATE: At about 5am, I noticed an email had come in from Sklar while I was out for coffee answering an earlier question I'd posed about her role in the day to day operations of Mediaite. Here's what she said:

A bit of everything - write, obviously; do some video stuff that we're working on; help develop the features we've planned for the site. We're small so we all do a lot of everything. I've also been recruiting contributors, which I did a great deal of at HuffPo - that's been fun. I love the people we've got so far. I might need to kvell a bit here, too: Jim Impoco has a great column about Portfolio's emerging legacy; my old pal Jeffrey Feldman has the definitive take on the Pitney-Milbank dustup; and then there's Rob Spence, who's, oh, a CYBORG. Wooo, the singularity is coming! (I sort of know what that means.)

But I have to say the column I'm most excited by is by Bill Rappleye. Bill is 85, has been working in journalism for over sixty years. He's writing a column for us called "Old Guard" all about what's happening in media, from the perspective of someone who has seen it evolve through decades of technological advancement. He's like a walking institutional memory bank. We're lucky to have him.

So there you go.

Just the Messenger [Howard Kurtz/Washington Post]
The Mediaite is the Message: We Overloaded the Power Grids! [ASSME]
Screengrab via Mediaite

To recap: Sklar sent New York's media set abuzz after going wide with an email soliciting writers for a new "Drudge Meets Huffington Post" media blog she's running called Mediaite, which will be funded by former MSNBC journalist Dan Abrams. Abrams also owns a much kvetched-over corporate consulting company, Abrams Research, that aims to employ journalists and bloggers in advising Abrams clients how the media will react to issues clients are involved in. In case you didn't notice, that premise could be perceived as more than a little conflict-of-interest-y and scandalous.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Sklar's email was a request for submissions with a 12-point list of somewhat patronizing and legalese-heavy guidelines. One of the email's more interesting points was that payment and "compensation issues are still being hammered out." She sent out the email at about 4PM on Thursday. By 6:06 PM, Jarvis had a full-scale retort to Sklar's email posted to his blog. Some of the juicer parts:

This is the same Dan Abrams - lawyer, thus the legalese, and failed MSNBC host and executive - who is starting a PR company - oh, excuse me, media strategy firm - to advise companies on media while promising access to media people - the same media people, one imagines, he is getting to write about media for his media site. Gawd, it's positive hermaphroditic: A bunch of worms who can't figure out who's fucking whom how. I think I'll stay away. Don't want any of that on me...I don't need any lawyers-turned-flacks-turned-media-commentators-turned-publishers. I can publish on my own...If [Dan Abrams] had just started a blog or a group blog about media, cool. But announcing that he's also starting a PR company offering access to media people makes it stink. And then trying to throw on the cloak of legalese does nothing to relieve the stench.

Burn. The rest of it's mostly crunchy media arguing. But Sklar - an notoriously cheeky, ubiquitous New York media character - had been laid into on a very public forum by someone she counted as a friend. So she emailed Jarvis her retort, and then posted the email to her blog after Jarvis provoked her again. And now, folks, we've got a ballgame.

First, Sklar asks why her friend Jarvis didn't just email her with his issues before going live with them:

You know exactly who sent you that email - me, not Dan - and you know how easy it is to get it touch with me.

Then she goes on her toes to defend her credentials:

...don't call me a "fellow lawyer turned media person" like it's a pejorative (I'm going to ignore the imprecise "lawyers-turned-flacks-turned-media-commentators-turned-publishers"). I graduated in the top 5% of the top law school in Canada, was Valedictorian, and got the top public service award. When I bring my legal training to bear on my work it is to be precise and nuanced and detailed and meticulously fair.

After which she gets in the shotgun formation to attack Jarvis as a writer, noting that she wouldn't pay nothin' for his work:

I wouldn't recommend paying you for your contributions to HuffPo over the past year - for example, this one was over 1700 words - I definitely would have sent it back to you with a deep edit. This one was a repurpose from your blog, which is fine, but I [sic] there are a few holes...In this one, I would have pointed out that "Craigslist" needs to be capitalized...The one berating newspaper-people for losing their jobs was maybe a tad unkind; at the very least, I would have asked you to move your semi-mea-culpa up a bit...

She makes a spirited - if somewhat insubstantial - defense of her employer...

I couldn't help but notice that you totally don't seem to get the difference between Abrams Research and Mediate, and you didn't really care to check, either. "But announcing that he's also starting a PR company offering access to media people…" - um, Abrams Research launched in November. Mediaite is a separate site, and Dan won't have any editorial role. They are two separate concerns.

And closes it out with a solid kicker, like any good journalist blogger media consultant would:

You can write what you want - you're Jeff Jarvis! Who cares if it's not your best work - or even if it's not the best work it could be? That's fine for those sites, it's part of the process. Mediaite has a different process: we want to address the stuff above before we publish. (And also it shouldn't be racist of sexist or homophobic! I know, how inconvenient!) But anyway, all of the above - all of it! - is beside the point: That blog post was easily one of the biggest dick moves I've ever seen.

Best,
Rachel

As crunchy, old, and kvetchy as Jarvis comes off, we're going to have to award this round to him. Sklar stooped to his level, took this thing personally (which, maybe she should have, but still!), and also, made a weak, roundabout argument regarding Abrams' conflict-of-interest issues without actually addressing them, though if Sklar does count old media fogey Jarvis as a friend, she's right: he was being kind of a dick. But hopefully, like two other friends-turned-foes, neither party in this "violent" "battle" of "epic" proportions won't turn to violence.

Meanwhile, while Mediaite clearly still has yet to launch, their Twitter is up and running, and one of the crew decided to launch a little fire Jarvis's way:

Except they forgot to disclose within that 140-character limit that they're as "independent" in so much as Mediaite and Abrams Research ("AR") are owned by the same guy. They're gonna have this problem a lot, aren't they?

No Thanks [Buzz Machine]
Bloggers Do It In Public [Chartini]

*Full Abrams Research-esque disclosure: I know Sklar socially/personally - like everyone in New York media - and have emailed with her over her responsibilities at Abrams Research. "Dan Abrams' Henchwoman" is not her official title.

Yesterday an email was sent out by former Huffington Post media blogger Rachel Sklar, who is helping the former MSNBC executive/host launch the site, explaining what they're looking for:

We want Mediaite to be a platform for great, smart takes on media, and are establishing a community of columnists and contributors to that end. We're looking to to develop a number of great, regular paid columns and intend to have a number of paid contributors on the masthead as we grow. We are still in start-up mode so compensation issues are still being hammered out, but our goal is to develop smart column/feature ideas with our contributors. We believe in strong, smart ideas executed well — and we plan to pitch those ideas to advertisers accordingly.

What does this mean for you? Well, our goal is to develop these ideas, and eventually to pay certain top contributors a revenue share and/or stipend. This will probably be at least a few months down the road, but we want to make our intentions clear from the outset. We think this will be a win-win on both sides: we provide the platform, editorial support and ad sales efforts; you provide the smart and innovative content. We are still in the very early stages, but we are fairly confident that some great, highly clickable features will come from this, and we think this is a terrific way to provide incentive beyond visibility, working with great editors and being part of an awesome new start-up site.

Yeehaw! Sounds great, right? Well, all except the part about the "compensation issues" to be hammered out, you know, whenever. You'll get a "stipend" a few months down the road. Maybe. For now you'll work for free and like it because Mediaite is so awesome y'all! After all, who needs money these days anyway?

Sklar then goes on to lay out the somewhat patronizing and legalese-heavy "columnist contributor guidelines." Here are some of the highlights:

3. Feel free to express any opinion, however unpopular; however, you must be able to support your arguments with linkable facts and/or original, verifiable reporting. We need to give the reader enough information to intelligently disagree with you; you need to be able to demonstrate to your critics why you are totally right and they are idiots.

6. Please send us the post WITH HTML already in place. If you don't know what HTML is - that's the code allowing for hyperlinks and style elements like italicizing etc. We recommend opening up an account at Blogger.com or Tumblr.com to figure it out. (It's no harder than Microsoft Word. The first post will get you up the learning curve in no time.)

7. It goes without saying that the work should be your own. Still, we're saying it because it's easy to accidentally copy and paste. For video submissions, please refresh yourselves on fair-use guidelines if using copyrighted images. Upshot: Be extra-sure to attribute all the words and/or images that are not yours. ("Hat-tips" to where you heard of something are good form, too. Links are the currency of the Internet.)

9. NB: #3 effectively precludes racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic or otherwise unsupportable/repugnant views. Provable arguments mean rational, sane thought. Since you are all sane, rational people we're not that worried, but it must be said.

13. You retain all the rights to your work. In the event that we enter into a revenue-share or some other financial deal, we reserve the right to negotiate the terms on a case-by-case basis.

So yeah, support your argument with, you know, logic and facts and stuff, put your own Goddamn links in there lazy-ass, don't pull a Maureen Dowd, don't piss anybody off (especially the Abrams Research clients we'll have you shill for occasionally), your work belongs to you, unless we decide that it doesn't, and we'll decide how little we're going to pay you when we feel like getting around to it.

Sounds awesome!

First, here's more than you could possibly want to know about how qualified Zuckerberg is for this gig, courtesy of Abrams cohort/ Mediaite editor-at-large Rachel Sklar:

Her sister forwarded a listing from someone at Yale, presumably from the Yale Journalism List (we sent it to several university lists). Randi knew me and suggested Arielle apply. She did, and knocked Andrew's socks off in their phone interview (Andrew Cedotal coordinated the intern recruitment, and did a fantastic job because our interns RULE. I remember he was psyched because he made a "Dune" joke and she got it.) But more importantly, she's a genius - computer science major, knows Java and is an SEO whiz - interned at the NYTimes social media dept. last summer. She knows blogs inside and out and is just incredibly savvy, smart and is fantastic to work with. She's super smart and we value her immensely. I do want to emphasis that our interns with non-Valleywag-featured surnames are also amazing - we seriously can't believe how lucky we got.

Thanks, Rachel. And now, the big reveal of what you can expect when Mediatie Mediadate Mediaite launches soon. Thanks, The Google.

Sklar - who's doing freelance work for The Daily Beast when she's not working as "media consultant" Dan Abrams' prime henchwoman - sits down here with Times media reporter David Carr (a famously reformed alcoholic) at a bar for a drink. The results are weird and beautiful and utterly fantastic, in that, I can just pull quotes from it and it's wonderful:

Carr's weirdness starts out: "Today was horrific." Horrific? Fun. Flamboyant! He continues, showing his media reporter card/hand: "The thing is, if you write something about the New York Times, a lot of people feel compelled to write in and say what would save the New York Times. And we've thought about most those things."

Who's we? And, wait: we have? "And Number one, we're not really in need of saving. And then there's a lot of people who think the paper's going to go away, somehow." What? No! Yes? I'm so confused!

Then Carr talks about how excited he is to be a media reporter, and Sklar - who appears to be eating a mango, maybe? - nods downward at the words "media reporter," or so the video's been edited! Conspiracy! But Carr is scared. "But I'm scared," he explains to Sklar. Her response? David Carr, Inc. can live without the Times, because he has a brand. And Carr cuts her off: "I'd never make what I'm making now." Well, that's why you hire Abrams Research! Duh!

Then Carr gets a "fry cut" - maybe that mango was a french fry? - and there's a bunch of nonsensical trivia about whether or not Carr prefers Star Trek over Star Wars. Carr begins to give Sklar the crazy eyes and she begins to look scared. And then, before we know it, the cinéma vérité masterpiece that is SklarCarr has come to an abrupt stop.

So, final count:

- Rachel Sklar looks down when Carr calls her a media reporter.
- Rachel Sklar looks terrified of Carr.
- Carr - the New York Times media reporter - doesn't think the now perpetually beleaguered paper needs saving.
- Carr will not abandon the mothership, because he's making too goddamn much.
- Carr thinks Star Trek is action-packed and the like and Star Wars is for nerds. What?

When future humans come back to earth to excavate our microparticles in order to learn about the civilizations that came before them and the silly instruments that provided the decline and ultimate demise of our culture, our means of communicating, and this whole "journalism" concept - print, electronic, telekinetic, whatever - in like, fifteen years, this video's going to be studied endlessly. I've watched it four times and it's still strangely, incredibly hypnotizing. I feel like I'm watching some acid-dropped deleted scene from Citizen Kane. It's that awesome.

Rachel Sklar attacked NBC News' Pete Williams for interviewing de Nugent (what is it with right-wing extremists and their foppish names?) for the Nightly News last night because de Nugent claims to have spoken with the accused killer just two weeks ago. Williams wasn't alone—as Sklar notes, de Nugent has turned up on ABC News, CBS News, Fox News Channel, the Washington Post, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Bloomberg, the Associated Press, and the BBC to offer his insights into von Brunn and the vicious right-wing extremist views that the two men share.

We know why NBC News and the rest gave de Nugent a platform: They wanted to report his claim that von Brunn didn't mention Barack Obama in their last converation, and that he was complaining about his Social Security benefit being slashed in half and having trouble making ends meet.

We also know why de Nugent wanted that platform. He wrote about it on his blog:

Dear comrades,

I am sure you are aware of the James von Brunn situation. At least I was able to turn some bad PR lemons into lemonade last night and yesterday, and I got to 1) explain how understandable white anger is, and 2) how Obama needs to assuage heightened white fears about gun and speech control or he will, by everything he does, provoke even more incidents.

I was interviewed at length by ABC Good Morning America, ABC Nightly News, the CBS Early Show, Fox News (Sheppard Smith Report), NBC Nightly News, the Washington Post, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Bloomberg, and Associated Press.

I talked to all the electronic and print media about "White Heritage Safety Zones" in every interview - and the cameramen at least were all enthralled!

What gratified me was that major news reporters were interviewing me in-depth on my own racial project as well as the Von Brunn tragedy, and although they used on live TV only the direct Von Brunn information I gave them - none of it hostile, but just explanatory – they seemed quite impressed with my Solutrean vision as well. After scheduling me for ten minutes, they often let the cameras roll for 30 minutes (even using up a whole 30-minute-block of satellite time).

And I am happy to say that I 1) put the onus on Obama and liberals for white rage, and I helped the truth win out that 2) James von Brunn was indeed acting alone, and thus there was no reason to have any mass government round-up of WN leaders or followers.

So there you have it. A right-wing extremist neo-Nazi says he spoke to von Brunn two weeks ago and that von Brunn seemed totally normal and just under financial strain and therefore acted alone so move along folks, nothing to see here. While you're at it, though, do you mind if I tell you about my interesting ideas on race? Or, barring that, at least let me look respectable in a coat and tie on your air?

There's nothing wrong with gathering information from someone claiming to be one of the last people to have spoken to von Brunn before the attack. But did Williams and everybody else have to put him on the air to do that? Or report his claims without mentioning that they are likely lies coming from a damaged mind and designed to support his agenda of dissociating his "white nationalist" movement from the utterly predictable actions of one of its members?

De Nugent is reveling in his media moment. He even made sure that his interlocutors described him according to his own deranged taxonomy, as opposed to the truth:

I am also happy to say that most media more or less correctly called me a "white separatist" and NOT a "white supremacist" after I made that point crystal-clear.

As you can see from the image above, NBC News happily obliged.

P.S. Along with being a right-wing extremist, it also appears that von Brunn was a Republican.

Held on a rainy Friday under an enclosed rooftop a stone's throw from Lincoln Center, The Webutante Ball was the sordid brainchild of URLesque blogger Jessica Amason and Gawker Media video maven Richard Blakeley, the two of whom are the co-authors of forthcoming blog-to-book-deal staple This Is Why You're Fat and an egregiously, irritatingly cute capitalist couple. It was, for all intents and purposes, a prom for internet, tech, and media dorks. There was a ballot, and there were nominees. There were winners! And there was a rope, with a line.

I braved the entire thing with my hot date/cover fire, Gawker Party Crash photog Mo Pitz, who was incidentally - and, at least to her, incredulously - a balloted nominee. "I have absolutely no idea how I ended up on that ballot. I'm decidedly not internet-famous." Oh, honey. You are now. Also on the ballot, former Gawker Mascot Andrew Krucoff, who declined to show for the festivities: "I'm celebrating shabbat," Krucoff noted. "Also, fuck that noise," he added. Onward: to the gallery we go!

Former and still-sometimes HuffPo writer, Dan Abrams Kool-Aid Drinker, and author of her upcoming and hotly anticipated book-deal book Jew-ish, Rachel Sklar, gets "man"-handled by her date, the VP of some telecommunicating tech thing called LifeLinks, Ash Kalb. This was staged.

Former Flavorpill editor and Double-X contributor, Anna Balkrishna with New York Post writer Justin Rocket Silverman. I asked Rocket - yes, Rocket - about his recent story for the Post in which he covered the meditative art of fingerbanging. Silverman instructed Balkrishna and I on proper performance, which is apparently akin to the "REDRUM" finger painting from The Shining.

Webutante Ball co-founder Jessica Amason is the "Yearbook Girl" of this entire enterprise. "Also, make sure you don't credit me as 'Blakeley's girlfriend,' goddamnit." She then grabbed me and hung me over the roof of the Empire in a Suge-Knight esque manner to ensure I understood what she was saying. Point taken.

Roger Wu, the founder and president of Klickable.TV, gives us his best entrepreneurial smile. He just gave a bunch of Vimeo kids a curbside beating and left them for dead on the third floor of the Empire.

Nerve and ASSME writer Drew Grant conspires with Yalie and Dan Abrams henchman (yes, that is what a Dan Abrams henchman looks like) Andrew Cedotal to feed me information regarding the sexual workings of fired media elites, which they will then use for profit when taken to corporations who could give a shit about the bold line between journalism, market research, and publicity. They are the future.

Julia Allison showed up in an Escalade, wearing a crown, and walked around the party as such. I have nothing to add here. She didn't win anything, luckily, and went home the same person she arrived as. Also, she came with an unnamed foot solider.

Regular Party Crash contributor Melissa Gira Grant, with former Valleywag editor, the dangerously ginger Nick Douglas. "I'm off the fucking job, get away," Gira delicately noted. Douglas smiled politely and retreated to his iPhone where he used his Pot 'O Gold app to make sure nobody had taken his treasure in the last two minutes.

Guess what party these people aren't with. No, really, guess.

On the left, Former Gawker Intern Mary Pilon, with Web Personae and Webutante nominee Anthony DeRosa on the right. Mary went from being a Gawker Intern to working for the Wall Street Journal! Anthony does something with tech something or other and blogs about the Mets. Neither would take a picture without me in it, so I happily obliged. Suckers.

Jake Hurwitz of College Humor, kissing sweet nothings into the face of College Humor's Ben Joseph. They take a bunch of these kisses and make laughs out of them! Whee! Barry Diller actually encourages this kind of thing.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.The winner! College Humor's Amir Blumenfeld is the King of the Webutante Ball, because he fixed the vote! As if having his own MTV show and web series weren't enough, he and the College Humor people had to come and win this shit, too. His queen, ridiculous Jewess Cutie and fellow College Humor startlet, Sarah Schneider, poses with him here. Barry Diller doesn't just encourage, but mandates this kind of thing. Well done, kids. Pictured with him here: an unnamed friend.

Richard Blakeley takes Boyfriend Duty incredibly seriously.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.MediaBistro reporter Hunter Walker tries to scoop something out of Random Night Out photographer Nick McGlynn. McGlynn's doing some startup with socialite creature thing Adrien Field, and Hunter, intrepid reporter that he is, probably wanted to know what planet Field is from.

They don't care about the Young Folks; they're here to sap them of their youth and enter one of their heads through a portal, like the end of Being John Malkovich, except the low-rent version.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Brah! My thoughts exactly.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Cnet reporter Caroline McCarthy is shocked - shocked! - that there are people here taking pictures. This is also the face she makes before she turns into Golum, takes the camera and my notes, leaps off the roof and into her batmobile, where she goes home and tirelessly reports the comings and goings of the rest of these people for a living. Princeton grad. Princeton. Grad.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Foursquare Mayor of Kensington, Brooklyn, New York Press and ASSME writer Matt "Slim Thug" Harvey is being properly identified in this picture.

Gawker Media business something-or-other Scott Kidder wants to know what's in his teeth, and if you could get it out, please, so he could then latch his fangs on to you and suck your will to invoice him for services rendered out through your neck. This is why Denton pays him the big bucks, insert Bloodcopy joke here.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Blogger and Media Maven Brian Van wants to know why everyone wants his picture. It's because he's the one guy wearing sunglasses inside. That being said, this was probably the place to do it, as it was maybe the least egregious display of jocular self-seriousness in the house.

Esquire's matrimonial expert Matt Shepatin was just given some BHG. It's like GHB, but instead of knocking you the fuck out, it makes you all too aware of your surroundings, which can leads to blackouts and unconscious episodes that eventually render you both useless and clinging to the floor of a J-Train, talking to a cat-strewn BagLady about the future of digital media.

Richard Blakeley's Delta Force of terrifying interns. They sit around all day and pick out video clips like monkeys pick coffee beans from trees in far away countries, and then bring them back down to Blakeley. Some coffee-picking monkeys eat the beans and then shit them out for their coffee-harvesting masters; luckily, Blakeley doesn't ask them to do that for him. Yet.

The Founding Couple of The Webutante Ball, together. I asked them, in all seriousness, why they were doing this. Blakeley kept his mouth shut, while Jessica kinda explained. Was it for money, to generate book sales buzz? "Eh, kinda." Why, then? "These people probably didn't go to prom, or never had a chance at being elected king or queen. Now they do. Also, this scene's more or less exactly like high school, no matter what level you're on. It makes perfect sense." But WHY? "Because we're sick of the same parties. We wanted to make people dress up for a change. We needed to class it up." Despite her attempts, these people - myself included - are all circlejerky, pompous, and declasse. But they got drunk on a rooftop bar uptown, which was actually a nice change from Tom and Jerry's. Sigh. All's fair in love and social media.

Party Crash photog and Webutante nominee Mo Pitz is drinking away the sorrow of losing. Ha! Just kidding! She's drinking away the sorrow of being my date.

Cindi Leive, Glamour editor-in-chief, denied she could be one of the book's funhouse mirrored versions of Manhattan media fixtures. It was Leive who playing host at Da Silvano's wine bar to a mix of unnervingly relaxed gossips, writers, and flacks, which meant she invited guests to pet her fur purse — "No, I don't even know what kind of animal it is, but you don't really want to know, do you?"

Froelich, in fishnets, advised that really, "If you can eat it, wear it." She had her own arm-candy: a bouquet of tiny violet roses, compliments of (former?) gossip and one-time Gawker editor, Alex Balk.

Also in the gallery, shot by the unstoppable Nikola Tamindzic: Erica Jong, George Gurley, Sloane Crosley, David Carr, Rachel Sklar, Elizabeth Spiers, Kate Lee, and Neel Shah's hat.

Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), Page Six's gossip columnist and Mercury in Retrograde author Paula Froelich

Cindi Leive (editor-in-chief, Glamour), author Erica Jong

Elliot Furman, former Defamer writer Molly Friedman

Glamour's Cindi Leive, Rachel Sklar of Abrams Research

Neel Shah (gossip writer for Page Six, and former Radar), Chris Wilson ("the Neel Shah of the late 90's" he explains), Steve Garbarino (the survivorman of the magazine world, now working with Playboy)

Classing it up, old-school publicist Bobby Zarem

The next generation: omg omg omg

Sloane Crosley (book publicist, author of I Was Told There'd Be Cake), Cindy Eagan (head of teen lit imprint Poppy) Caroline Waxler (writer)

Mediaite Rachel Sklar with Ron Perelman's spokeswoman Christine Taylor

Neel Shah shortly before hatting Sloane Crosley

Alex Balk (The Awl, former Radar executive editor) shows his face with Paula Froelich

A barely debauched George Gurley (New York Observer, Vanity Fair)

La Froelich's fishnets

Paula Froelich, with snappy flack Marvette Brito

Morgan Spurlock

ICM agent Kate Lee with client and Gawker founding editor Elizabeth Spiers

David Carr (star Twitterer and media columnist, New York Times)

Sara Bernstein, of HBO's documentary operation, and Jesse Angelo, New York Post managing editor, who claims to have only ever drunk-bought one domain: yourwifeisonmyblog.com

Sloane Crosley, Neel Shah's hat

Paula Froelich just wants you to go home now

[Why not check out these stunning images using our handy-dandy new gallery?]

As many as three or four of these mist-braving guests will be sharing a house with a half-dozen others just like them, or maybe their parents, any weekend now. Haute smut photographer Nikola Tamindzic escorted me, my margarita, and my West Coast indifference to "summering" through Hruska's scene.

Rachelle Hruska curses the dark skies with her bright, bright future.

Media lady Rachel Sklar basking in the death of print and all the tight t-shirts it brings.

Lonnie, left, is a stylist. Ryan B, right, is a make-up artist. For this they are permitted matchy glasses and one pocket square.

Dennis Crowley, co-founder of mobile social app Foursquare, loved at least a few of Rachelle's jalapeno-laced margaritas.

Caroline McCarthy of CNET News left chilly and early and so blogged before all of us, thanking Rachelle for getting puffy fingers the size of mittens after slicing peppers all night.

Rachelle with ex-boy and Olympic rower Cameron Winklevoss. Now he's lending a hand around Guest of a Guest, doing "a little bit of everything," like help with the computers and investing and stuff!

A turn-away from Friday night's 90's vs 90's panel at the nearby New Museum conveniently had an excuse to repurpose his outfit.

He's not made of cardboard, but was kept on hand for posing.

Peter Feld weighed his options and also liquor.

One thing Winklevoss is not helping with: meat. Rachelle's current manfriend was on skewers for the day.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.To keep in theme, all guests were issued metallic dock shoes.

Reformed fameballer Rex Sorgatz kept the hellhounds of gossip at bay.

The end of a vampire weekend.

On this roof, there is no irony in anchors.

The internet, they drink just like us.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Andrew Cedotal, from Abrams Research, in twee.

The drinks were sugar-free and served in plastic: no artificial sweeteners and no hard edges to hurt our soft little mouths on.

As near as we can tell, an extension of the Winklevoss crew. At least as of the night before. Visors know no social class.

Hey it's a Journey mashup let's rock.

Rex Sorgatz cares about your internet.

A whiter shade of lime.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.The look in a nutshell: aspirational summer whites cloaked in winter's broke-ass misery.

What is it that changed, exactly? It is still a crappy party in a terrible town that glorifies unprofessional friendships between journalists and sources and attracts really questionable celebs. What could possibly have changed this year? Oh, right, that dumb white guy is gone.

In May of 2006, Chris Lehmann wrote a truly wonderful, inspiring piece in the New York Observer that was all about just how much he hated the entire event, top to bottom, brunch to afterparty to following brunch.

High-toned D.C. gatherings such as this one are unfailingly unctuous, one of the many coyly winking moments in political life when every partisan, satrap and commentator on hand is asked to lighten up and affirm the ultimate shared agenda, of merely gaming the system to one's own best short-term advantage.

This year, Lehmann raved about how much fun he had, for The Awl. He has a heart-warming story about Andrew Sullivan's husband! He is amused rather than disgusted by the presence of famous people like Ed Westwick! It is a new day for America!

Could it be that, in the age of Obama the DC-Hollywood glitzeratti –described by Ann Curry, without a note of irony, in a fundraising appeal at the Tammy Haddad brunch that kicks off the weekend's frenetic networking, as "the most powerful people on the planet"-just aren't taking themselves all that seriously? That they're having actual, you know, fun?

Yes, this year it was fine for everyone to just have fun. After Colbert died at the dais in 2006, Rich Little appeared from his cave to bomb in '07, and 2008's Craig Ferguson dinner just seemed to disappear along with the Bush administration and everyone's hatred for the Bush administration, this year's event was basically just a Good Time.

Rachel Sklar had a blast and even defends the "partying with sources" aspect of the evening! And the "charity" part of it, because the dinner is actually a fundraiser to send kids to journalism school, because apparently the White House Correspondents' Association hates kids.

Instead of lengthy screed against DC and everyone in it, this year's Observer recap just makes the night sound like the sort of goofy, nerdy, good time it should be, if you don't have too much invested in it. And: the Bloomberg/Vanity Fair joint party maybe actually sounds like it was, for once, worth it?

Katty Kay grudgingly enjoyed herself! And Jim Newell apparently died!

So, yes, Prom Weekend was the lame, overhyped marathon session of unglamorous people in unglamorous settings that it always is, but this year everyone just realized that you can't complain too much about 48 hours of nonstop open bars.

[Photo: Getty]