• He's currently on trial for allegedly assaulting his wife last year—specifically, she told police at the time that he punched her and kicked her during an argument over their epileptic son's health care. That's no way to argue, sir.
• The New York Post has decided to go hard against him on this story. That's a problem. The paper's currently running with "allegations" against Carter by relatives who don't like him—namely, that he's beaten his wife for years, has a secret family on the side (there does not appear to be any proof of that one yet!), and called his wife a "dumb project bitch."
• On Dominic Carter's side, though: His wife! She now says that she lied to cops about him beating her up. Instead, she says, it was some day laborer who did it. Although she doesn't know his name or anything. She also denies the Post's allegations. Noted.
• So maybe with his wife's support, Dominic Carter can keep his job? No he cannot! He's now on an indefinite leave of absence from NY1.
• Well maybe with his wife's support, Dominic Carter can at least retain the respect of his peers and the politicos who haunt his show? No, probably not! Because whether or not he actually beat his wife, news reports are now making him appear to be a rather desperate, unseemly whiner, suckup, and name dropper. The Daily News says that in a court appearance last December, Carter tried to play the "Do you know who I am?" card, with a judge:

  "I've appeared on the cover of The New York Times and TV Guide...I covered the state attorney general and the chief judge of the court."
  The New York 1 political anchor also claimed he was friends with former chief judge Judith Kaye and Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. He punctuated his pleading by insisting over and over, "This is not fair."
  If "my political enemies" find out about the charges, Carter warned, "it will end up in the Daily News."

  Unseemly, Dominic Carter. Your prediction was correct, though.

• This summer, New York governor David Paterson basically called Carter a suckup Uncle Tom. That earned Carter a moment of solidarity with his defenders both in the media and in the political community. That is now gone. His career at NY1 may very well be over for good (his contract is reportedly almost up). Whether you feel bad for him or not depends on whether or not the charges against him are true. But you wouldn't want to be him, either way.

Somewhere in this great land of ours, there is a reporter who holds the single worst reporting job in America. Sure, the guy who has to constantly watch men be filled up with poison in a prison in Huntsville, Texas is a strong candidate. But we know there are many more. What about the reporter who has to cover long-haul truckers? Or the municipal waste beat? Or the St. Louis Rams?

We need you, the Gawker diaspora, to give us suggestions (in the comments, or to email me). You live out there. You have a local paper. You go to work and scoff at the heartbreakingly bland industry trade publication on the coffee table. You see the ridiculous crap that gets published. What's the worst of all? We will make a little list, and it will be enjoyable. Whoever sends in the winner gets a free t-shirt! Or, if you yourself are the journalist on the worst beat in America—sweet, sweet death.

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]

Andrews will be working on air Thursday night for the first time since the video became widespread news. She'll be the sideline reporter for ESPN's broadcast of South Carolina at North Carolina State.

Yes: She's coming back to do the Gamecocks game. Nice one, ESPN. You pervs.

• "Well judging from that picture, he'll fit right in!"
• "All those heroin-addicted hobo squatters make Williamsburg just like a war zone. He'll feel right at home!"
• "All those rusting hulks of empty buildings make Williamsburg just like a war zone. He'll feel right at home!"
• "We hope a puking pug dog on the L train doesn't trigger his PTSD!"
• "Ware once had a fling with Lara Logan but he better not let Lara Logan visit him in Williamsburg or a dirty hipster might steal Lara Logan away because she is sexy and probably likes dirty hipster sex!"
• "Eh."

Cops say he was not the most discreet pimp; the hotel knew what was going on.

(Click images to enlarge)

Cops set up a sting operation and rented the hotel room next door, heard sexy sounds, and then stopped the johns when they left. In this way they learned everything: a prostitution operation based online at sites like Craigslist and Cityvibe.com. They got two of the prostitutes to provide statements about how they got their jobs—the old-fashioned way.

So Provencher was getting $400 per day from just one of his (at least four) hookers. A second woman describes much the same "audition" process:

Kevin Provencher is innocent until proven guilty, but it's not looking so great for him right this minute.
[Full complaint, via Eagle-Tribune]

Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon sent a letter (first obtained by Fishbowl DC) to the Herald's editor saying that Carol Rosenberg (pictured) has a long history of offensive incidents towards him, his military colleagues at Guantanamo and Andrews AFB, and towards other members of the press. Juicy! How bad was it, Commander?

"Her behavior has been so atrocious over the years," Gordon said in an interview. "I've been abused worse than the detainees have been abused."

Well that's quite an unfortunate quote. But the charges do make Rosenberg sound like an awful, petty, childish jerk. We present them to you, without factual judgment!

Additionally, Gordon charges that Rosenberg called military people and members of the press "'bitches,' 'stupid,' 'lazy,' 'incompetent,' 'Nazis,' 'Saddam Hussein-like,' etc." Sounds routine! Other reporters who worked the Guantanamo beat with Rosenberg have mixed reactions; some say she was tough but fair, others say her behavior may indeed have been over the line. We're not sure whether she's heroic or terrible. If you've worked with Rosenberg or have any further insight to share, email us.

[Full complaint at Fishbowl DC. Pic: PBS]

This statement just went out from Star:

Star Reporter Resigns Over Jon Gosselin

Star Senior Reporter Kate Major resigned this morning, Thursday, July 23, citing a conflict of interest between her reporting duties for the magazine and her relationship with Jon Gosselin.

Since Star was so happy about this in the first place, it seems impossible that they asked her to resign for (heh) ethical reasons. And since Major made sure to get herself photographed with Octo-dad in the first place, it seems impossible she didn't plan this advance. The only remaining possibilities:

1. Kate Major and Star decided that she can more effectively pump Jon Gosselin for scoops if he thinks she's really his girlfriend.

2. Jon Gosselin told Kate he wouldn't go out with her as long as she was a scumbag celeb reporter. She talked to Star and agreed that it would be worth "resigning" in order to stay with him, and pump him for scoops. See theory #1.

3. Kate's quote from press release: "I didn't mean it to happen, it just did. I went to do a story on Jon and ended up falling for him." Could this be...love? We refuse to believe it.

[Pic: INF]

Page Six says that Star reporter Kate Major is Gosselin's "latest fling," which apparently means she was seen eating dinner with him, and then a bunch of her fake friends talked a lot of shit to P6.

"She's a crackerjack reporter, very talented, very good-looking," said one of her bosses. "Sure, she uses her charms to get stories. Don't we all?" Major has previously been able to get close to people like Britney Spears' ex J.R. Rotem and Lindsay Lohan.

This could mean anything. Most likely possibilities:

1. She is flirting with him to get stories.
2. She is sleeping with him to get stories.
3. She went out to dinner with him, which means nothing.
4. She has fallen hard for Jon Gosselin's charms and he is using her to manipulate the celebrity-industrial complex to his own advantage.
5. Kate Major totally had a foursome with Jon Gosselin, J.R. Rotem, and Lindsay Lohan.

The one sure thing is that Kate Major's "friend" who told P6 she just got out of rehab is a "jerk." If this relationship were real, it would mean that Jon Gosselin is cheating on that girl he got with after leaving his ex-wife and Kate Major is cheating on journalism, so it would be perfect. Kudos to Star, for ruthlessness in love and gossip.
[P6. Pic: INF]

Dave Itzkoff interviewed Jones (for a *blog*) before seeing the segment, but he tried to cover and preempt all possible criticisms. Jones, in turn, just stuck to self-deprecation, knowing his report would crush the paper very soon. For example:

When you do your on-camera interviews, you have producers on hand who help feed you questions and one-liners. Is it fair that our editors don't have the same support?
Are you suggesting I use writers for my material that looks like I just made it up on the spot? You guys have got a research department, we don't have that. You could have done your research on me, knowing how underhanded I would be in interviews. I suppose it's a fair fight. You've also got brains. I don't have those.

He ends by calling all NYT reporters pussies except for David Carr, who's a "badass," which may be the most factually accurate moment in this entire meta-story. Update: And as Kurt Anderson points out, before anyone gives the Times too much credit for having a sense of humor, they're still too timid to use the word fart. In an exchange about Keller's journalism pedigree:

You understand, he covered the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of apartheid in South Africa?
Yes, but I can make [flatulence] noises.

The WSJ also interviewed Jones (for a *blog*), and they seemed to have a better sense of humor about their prime competitor being mocked:

What, in your opinion, are the job prospects for journalists in the future?

I would gladly enjoy being served by a journalist who has now become a barista as opposed to some high school dropout who's a barista, because that's an informed coffee pour.

[NYT, WSJ]

The truly surreal moment is when a woman, presumably the kid's mother, hoists her kid up and lets him dunk the ball, and she yells at Tomasulo "In yo' face!" That moment almost made us think that the whole thing was faked, but Tomasulo Twittered about it back in May, and Twitter is always to be trusted.

So, enjoy. A little boy weeps and a vaguely prickish reporter spouts some Rousseauian educational theory.

Woodward says that not only does he lack politics – "You know, over 40 years, you see so many hopes dashed" – he doesn't even vote. The last time he cast a vote, he says, was for Richard Nixon in 1968.

If at first you don't succeed, try try again, Bob Woodward! We always found the idea of political reporters not voting kind of laughable—you have formed no opinion after all that insidery reporting, really? Ha, no. It is a meaningless fictional gesture. But that was only the second-most ridiculous thing Woodward said in this interview:

"In my last conversation with Bush last year, I said to him, ‘I spent all my life trying to preserve my outsider status' . . . You [have] to stay on the outside . . . I had to remind him that I preserve, and fought to preserve' my status as an outsider; some people call me an insider and that's laughable."

Something there is laughable, yes.
[FT. That non-voting bit is news as far as we could tell, but if you find an earlier citation, please send!]

Villaraigosa's new girlfriend is Lu Parker. Who? "Lu Parker is a multi-faceted talent. She is a journalist, actress, author, former Miss USA, and a former teacher. As an Emmy Award winning journalist, you can find her anchoring and reporting the news in Los Angeles, California on KTLA." Yes that Lu Parker. You can watch her below in the swimsuit competition in the 1994 Miss USA pageant, which she won. Her work in the "newsroom," ha, will not be affected by the fact that she is fucking the mayor of the city upon which she reports, according to her boss:

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

Even if Parker didn't cover politics per se, she could still encounter any number of stories — school reform, the performance of the police department, expansion of the airport — in which Villaraigosa has a stake.

"The mayor doesn't work in our newsroom," Ball said. "There will be no conflict."

That nonsensical response is good enough for me! Villaraigosa broke up his last marriage by having an affair with a Telemundo reporter, which got her suspended for a while. So, progress! Now it's perfectly cool. Expect LA TV stations to start throwing attractive reporters at the mayor, because, imagine the access they could get. Here's how you train for a career in the media, ladies. Enjoy the prospect.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

[LAT]

As we previously reported, nobody's really given a shit (or said anything) about Ling and Lee's detention for "hostile acts against the state" and "illegal entry." Not even the Al Gore-backed Current TV, whose employ they're under - the first item that's been tagged in regards to her imprisonment is here: it was user-submitted, and it's probably going to be removed in due course, either because they don't want to get involved or they were told by the Department of State to GTFO of this one.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Not wanting to aggravate the (notoriously touchy) North Korean government, Lisa Ling's laid low until now. But she's run out of options, with Pyongyang being virtually unresponsive other than allowing a Swedish diplomat limited access to both women. They're going on Today and Larry King Live, and they'll be meeting with Anderson Cooper, whatever that does. The statement Ling and Lee's families released together:

"We have been holding our breath everyday as we've watched the political situation on the Korean Peninsula grow increasingly tense. Our loved ones sit in the midst of it. We desperately urge the governments of the United States and North Korea to keep our issue separate from the larger geopolitical stand-off. We hope that our two countries can come together to secure the expeditious release of Laura and Euna on humanitarian grounds. Euna Lee is the mother of a four-year old daughter. And Laura was being treated for an ulcer prior to her departure, and in our limited communication with her we fear it has become more serious since her detainment and requires immediate medical attention."

They could be sentenced up to five years in a North Korean labor camp - the prospect of which only seems incredibly fucking terrifying - and the few commentators that were around for this when it started (incidentally, People, primarily among them) noted that North Korea had nothing to gain by keeping them around for more than a few weeks when they were first detained in March. Which was before North Korea got all nuke-horny and starting performing successful test launches. So: shit's about to get real. Prayers, fingers crossed, whatever for both Ling and Lee. Here's hoping for their safe return.

Saberi says she's still not sure why she was arrested; her captors made her tell her family that her crime was buying alcohol, but that was a lie. The government pressured her into a false confession; "The first few days, I was interrogated for several hours, from morning until evening, blindfolded, facing a wall, by up to four men, and threatened, as I said, that I would be put in prison for 10 to 20 years or more or even face execution." Later, she recanted it, and that pissed off her captors further:

The prosecutor got upset with me for recanting my confession and sent my case to trial instead of freeing me, and that's when I was sentenced to eight years in prison. I knew this was going to happen when I recanted my confession, but I told myself, I would rather tell the truth and stay in prison instead of telling lies to be free.

She went on a hunger strike—only water, for two weeks. She stopped only when her mom threatened to go on her own hunger strike. In all, she spent 100 days in jail. Saberi says the Iranian government had probably been monitoring her phone calls and emails for as long as two years.

Scary shit. Roxana Saberi is clearly far braver than, say, us. Now she's back in America, and writing a book. We should all buy it.
[NPR. Pic: Getty]

Entertainment Reporter Julie Chang spent this week in Los Angeles covering the "American Idol" finale for FOX 5 and the FOX staff working behind-the-scenes picked up on something odd. Whenever she would want to say "thank you" to a staffer, instead of saying that she would say, "I want to rub my crotch against you." Repeatedly.
Uh, what?
She also didn't wear underwear.

Now Julie we would not hold this against you one bit, if it were true. Not that it's true. Uh, email us, either way.

There seems to be a wall of silence around A.G. within the Times building, in the sense that nobody has told us if he has a girlfriend yet. Which causes us to speculate that he does! We don't know for sure. But somebody does. Do you? If so, email us. This is purely a public service for the women of Manhattan.

[A.G., if it's easier you can just email us yourself. We hear you are a nice guy and so are we! Original pic: NYO]

On Monday evening, May 4, I went back to the Cox office to pack the rest of my boxes and clean out my cubicle. And there it was, on my desk, a coffee stain in the image of the Virgin Mary.I was a little surprised. Why me? I'm Jewish.

But his wife's uncle was a Catholic Bishop. This proves that Jesus hates blogs.
[Romenesko]

Roubini was out on the town earlier this week and struck up a convo with a New York magazine reporter, and explained his charm:

So, what makes his parties so great? we asked.

"Fun people and beautiful girls," Roubini said, grinning. "I look for ten girls to one guy." His friend Bill Clinton, he added, is a fan of this ratio.

BUT: we hear that Roubini has been so traumatized by the digital explorations of Nick Denton that he now hates all reporters, and refuses to invite them to his freaky deaky parties! Is it worth leaving the profession in order to get into one of these things? Anybody know? Julia?

From: Julie Scelfo
To: 'Julie Scelfo'
Sent: Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:39 am
Subject: request from Julie for your out-of-town friends

Friends,

I'm looking for someone to interview outside of New York and really need your help.

According to US Census data, the high number of layoffs and unfavorable economic conditions have forced many
grown adults to move back home with their parents, and some parents to move home with their adult children. For a story about the ups and downs of this living arrangement, do you know anyone who fits the bill? Or more specifically, do you know someone outside of New York who might know someone who fits the bill? I ask because it's been really hard for me to find people in this situation, mainly because living quarters in NY are typically tight so this doesn't occur as often in the Big Apple as it does elsewhere.

Thank you for forwarding this to anyone who might know someone-either whose kids have moved back home with
them, or whose parents have come to live with them. I'm not looking for young adults who move home after college because they haven't yet found a job. Rather, the people I'm looking for are full-fledged adults who previously established their own households, but had to give that up due to economic circumstances.

I am reachable at the below email and phone.

Thanks so much for your help!

Regards,

Julie

Julie Scelfo, Reporter

The New York Times