[WWD]

• Rodale, the publisher of Men's Health and other fitness-related mags, is laying off 111 employees—10% of its workforce. Most of the cuts will be in "operations, IT, customer service and some publishing departments," with no details given.
• The Seattle Times is laying off about 130 workers, 10% of its staff. No word on how many in the newsroom. The Seattle Times is a newspaper so, you know, this is just how it goes.
• Out Traveler, a gay travel mag, has just folded, according to Jossip.
• Finally, just how bad a shape is the Village Voice in? They've laid off so many people in the past year that I won't take the time to link to all of our layoff posts, but feel free to go back and search for yourself. Anyhow, a tipster tells us that the VV is—direct quote—"on the balls of its ass financially." That's bad! How bad? We hear that expense accounts are essentially a thing of the past. One VV reporter paid out of his own pocket to fly to Ohio and rent a car and a hotel room last week to do a story on the election. Normal after-work events, like a going-away party for an intern at a bar, are being paid out of the editors' own pockets. And, we hear, Voice reporters have been buying their own pens and notebooks because the paper has no extra office supplies. That's bad. If you know more about the finances of the VV or the New Times chain, email us.

Whew. [Pic via Martin Gee]

You have to remember that for a lot of reporters, today is the last gasp of glory. By the end of this week the campaign will be over, and there will be far fewer opportunities to go on TV and be "experts." There may also be far fewer opportunities to be, you know, reporters; some percentage of these people are bound to be laid off in the coming year. We already know that the LA Times will be laying off the bulk of its Washington bureau. And most ofl those plucky young embedded reporters from TV networks are preparing to be fired when this thing wraps up.

Everybody wants to make sure that you know that they were on the inside. Just because you, the consumer, didn't get all the colorful anecdotes in your morning paper doesn't mean that they didn't happen. Reporters have all types of fun memories from the campaign that they would like to share with you now that the campaign is over! Most of these fall into two categories: the "God these candidates are more morally bankrupt than I could ever say outright in the pages of my tepid publication," and the (more popular) "I made friends with important people!" Some key examples of each:

God these candidates are more morally bankrupt than I could ever say outright in the pages of my tepid publication

Michael Scherer from Time went to some Republican retreat in Michigan where politicians "came there to speak to state party activists, serving up stump pomp while waiters in white-tie tuxedos served drunk diners with pecan-coated ice cream balls." Then he finds a regular lady who says everyone in town is not like that. He rejoices.

HuffPo's Sam Stein was set upon by a gang of disgruntled Hillary supporters in a Washington bar. "And soon the denizens were letting me have a piece of their mind. 'HuffPost sucks! HuffPost sucks!' they chanted, as I bit into my now-arrived Reuben. 'Fox News, fair and balanced! Fox News, fair and balanced!'" Although he does not say so, he hates them.

Marc Ambinder from the Atlantic recalls watching Obama's little daughter Sasha talking to her daddy on stage at the Democratic convention; it "was very cute, but it also revealed how staged even Obama’s campaign had become." The thought of a little girl talking to her dad now makes him want to absolutely vomit. Politics has ruined him.

I made friends with important people!

Wacky old Dana Milbank from the Washington Post remembers Mike Huckabee "taking reporters hunting, taking them jogging, taking them to the barber for a face massage and shave." Dana Milbank would not object to being asked to appear on Mike Huckabee's teevee show, if Mike Huckabee so chose.

Ana Marie Cox from Time had fun singing karaoke with McCain campaign hacks Mark Salter and Steve Schmidt. Salter even sung Dylan tunes! Later they went back to figuring out how to oppress black people.

Adam Nagourney from the Times liked nothing better than sharing his Christmas dinner with failed Hillary flack Howard Wolfson: "We were quick to discover that there aren't a lot of restaurants open in Des Moines on Christmas night (or bars, but that's another story). But what was open was sure to warm the heart of two displaced Jews from New York: A Chinese restaurant." Aw! Then they made passionate love.

You see, just about everyone on the campaign trail goes a little crazy. It's classic Stockholm syndrome; trapped on buses and planes for months on end, reporters come to regard their captors as friends. Just to get a fact-free look back at the election season to fill a hole in its Week in Review section yesterday, the NYT had to turn to Frank Bruni, who's spent the entire campaign eating brains at Manhattan's finest restaurant. But they needed an outsider who could say about this godforsaken campaign, presumably with a straight face, "that we have, if anything, undervalued and even lost sight of its significance at times." Had they put Adam Nagourney on that story, the editors would have had to spend hours rewriting his knowing asides about Howard Wolfson's bewitching cologne.

For the media, the campaign means life. It means purpose, and employment, and attention, and a sense of self-importance. It's an unparalleled opportunity to cast oneself as an expert with no qualifications whatsoever, and to profess to speak for millions of "real Americans" without any factual basis. In reality, campaign reporters have a far less objective view of the Presidential race than a fat, laid-off auto worker sitting on his ass playing XBox in the ugly part of Toledo.

It takes a rare breed to remain sane during the ordeal. And we should salute those who do. So Joshua Green of the Atlantic, we salute you; you alone have found a moment that appropriately embodies American democracy:

My most memorable moment on the trail was getting offered weed by a Ron Paul supporter during the Republican primary in Ames, Iowa. He had urgently wanted to discuss the gold standard and I wasn't having any part of that, so I guess the weed was intended as an enticement.

USA.

[Pic: HST]

Waxman's schadenfreude on our recent layoffs:

So, now Nick Denton is laying people off, just like those dinosaurs in mainstream media.

The difference is, mainstream newspapers fired real journalists.

OH SNAP.

What the Gawker empire represents is as transitory as the people he employs. Denton has indisputably proved that you can create a lucrative business model out of highly targeted blogs, fed by tightly managed staffs of journalists who've numbed themselves to nagging doubts that what they do every day is journalism.

Ha. I have no doubt that what I do here every day is not "journalism," per se. It's called "blogging," and it has elements of journalism. What an asinine argument. I expect far more accurate insults from an actual journalist, Sharon Waxman.

Denton is ripe for mocking, and he knows it... "Gawker Media is behaving like those big media companies that we mock so easily." (Used to? Does this mean they will no longer mock and smear and malign journalists at big media companies? Too late. Had I known, I might have stayed at The New York Times.)

We apologize for singlehandedly forcing you to quit your job at the New York Times in order to seduce venture capitalists into funding your upcoming "primary, multi-platform source for the best original and aggregated content, adapted for the digital age." Although, to be honest, we will continue to smear and malign journalists at big media companies, when necessary.

And while I'm at it,

Yes?

let me publicly lament the flight of talented colleagues, Jeff Leeds of the Times and Gabriel Snyder, once of Variety, to the world of celebrity infotainment, and the kingdom of snark, respectively. Leeds, one of the best music journalists working (or, rather, not working) has gone to Buzznet, where he will be the editor-in-chief. Snyder becomes managing editor at Gawker. Like other journalists, they have to eat, so one can hardly blame them.

And to think: they could have applied at The Wrap News.

[Waxword]

Guess what kids: four of Bill Keller's five recommended stories have appeared right here on Gawker. I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

• From Paul Malmont: "I was in a car with him on the way to Amityville, hearing great stories about his career. For example, he had once slit the tires on his own father's (also a reporter) car to keep him from beating Steve to a story. Another thing he was quite proud of was he claimed to have written the book that killed Elvis. Apparently it was rumored that a book Steve had written, Elvis - What Happened? had been pried from The King's cold dead fingers - he had been reading it on the toilet when he'd had a heart attack.
  After A Current Affair I went to work on the rookie season of Good Day New York - Fox's local morning show. My job was to get in early, get the coffee going and pull gossip stories from the wire. When I say early, I mean like 4AM early. On more than one occasion I would come in to find Steve and several author Aussie reporters and producers crashed out on office desks they had pushed together. Apparently they would drink hard at the Racing Club across the street and not bother going home."
• "When ever Steve was covering a mob trial that was being heard in Brooklyn, he would stop into my local watering hole which was a Thai restaurant with a bar in front that seated about ten. The crowd was always mixed, middle age Gays and Brooklyn Heights locals . Steve would come in and after two visits knew and remembered everybodys name. Over the course of an evening he would consume about 10 to 15 drinks and still appear coherent . He would then use the pay phone to phone his story in and uaually a drive came in to scoop him up and drive him home.
  The first time he came in I was wary of speaking to him knowing his politics and the Post’s. But the funny thing is he never pushed his politics at the bar Instead he would talk of mob trials old time Hollywood , New York , movies and whatnot. He was actually fun to talk, never condescending. He had a great memory. Never saw him drop dead drunk but I heard the stories and seeing him in action I can believe them."
• "A favorite Steve story told by reporters covering the Michael Jackson child molestation trial is how he would turn up in the middle of the day or later, already trademark soused. One day he was so drunk he came out of the courthouse men's room having forgotten to tuck himself back in, let alone do his fly up, and walked unsteadily away down the corridor, to the gapes of onlookers."

The term Fisking, or to Fisk, is blogosphere slang describing detailed point-by-point criticism that highlights perceived errors, disputes the analysis of presented facts, or highlights other problems in a statement, article, or essay.[1] Eric S. Raymond, in the Jargon File, defined the term as:

A point-by-point refutation of a blog entry or (especially) news story. A really stylish fisking is witty, logical, sarcastic and ruthlessly factual; flaming or handwaving is considered poor form.[2]

The term is named after Robert Fisk, a British journalist.

Ha, it's like what we do! Here we posit that Fisk has become bitter to the point of irrationality due to his mass of online detractors. Then we support it with a quote from him:

At one point, Mr Fisk retorted: “To hell with the web, it’s got no responsibility.”

Fisked.

[OJB]

• "The Star's rival, the National Enquirer, had "paid a ransom for the exclusive serial rights to the hottest book of the decade — Judith Exner's revelations about her affair with President Kennedy".
  Kerrison says: "The book was under lock and key, guarded tighter than Fort Knox. One day, I told Steve, 'We've got to get a copy of the book and beat the Enquirer to the punch'. Steve said, 'Boss, gimme some time and I'll get it'.
  "He disappeared. A few days later he turned up in my office, clutching a copy of the Exner book. I couldn't believe my eyes. 'My God,' I said to him, 'Where the hell did you get that?' Steve looked a bit sheepish and said, 'Boss, don't ask. You wouldn't want to know.'
• "It is said Dunleavy would f..k anyone or anything for a story, and that is true.
  He got a scoop for the News of the World when he wined, dined, seduced and ignobly reported the pillow-talk and tears of one of Teddy Kennedy's "boiler room" girls after the Chappaquiddick scandal. I visited him one evening in his New York apartment. He opened the door and greeted me, naked, before introducing me to a star witness in a police corruption investigation, also naked. They were engaged in an in-depth, probing interview of sorts — another scoop."
• And one from Gawker commenter Baroness: "My favorite Dunleavy moment was on TV. He was covering the Palm Beach Kennedy-Smith rape trial for A Current Affair I think. Some bigmouth girl who went to school with the victim was looking for her 15 min., blabbing personal details with any tabloid who'd listen, and presumably pay.
  Dunleavy took this chick for a long, very liquid lunch at a posh place, plied her with drinks and she sang like a canary. When she was well and truly sloshed and giddy, Dunleavy pulled out some dirty Polaroids of Blabbermouth with a big dick in her mouth, close-ups he had bought off one of her treacherous friends.
  The hilarity of her drunkenly trying to grab those pictures out of his hand, as he held them high in the air making her jump for them, was unforgettable, wicked, and very funny. He was gleeful as a kid on Christmas morning, loving life and his job at that moment."

How did he get that book? Theories? Have more Dunleavy stories to share? Email us.

[Mark Day via Tabloid Baby]

Lou Dobbs


Anderson Cooper


Rachel Maddow


[more here]

The stairs squeaked as we went up. It was a narrow staircase, winding, just wide enough for your body. A nautilus, maybe 100 feet high. Not very stable. Dark, too, but for the holes shot by the tank. I slowed my step. The shot was loud inside the staircase, and I couldn’t see much, because the second marine was falling backward, falling onto Ashley, who fell onto me. Warm liquid spattered on my face. The three of us tumbled backward out the doorway. The second marine, although bloodied, was not hit...

After a long bombardment, the Marines are eventually able to go in and fetch Miller, who had been shot:

Miller was out. Two marines had pulled him from the tower, Goggin one of them, choking and coughing. Black lung, they called it later. Miller was on his back; he had come out head first. His face was opened in a large V, split like meat, fish maybe, with the two sides jiggling.

“Please tell me he’s not dead,” Ash said. “Please tell me.”

“He’s dead, Ash,” I said.

I felt it then. Darting, out of reach. You go into these places, and you think they’re overrated, they are not nearly as dangerous as people say. Keep your head; keep the gunfire in front of you. You get close and come out unscathed every time, your face as youthful and as untroubled as before. The life of the reporter: always someone else’s pain. A woman in an Iraqi hospital cradles her son newly blinded, and a single tear rolls down her cheek. The cheek is so dry, and the tear moves so slowly that you focus on it for a while, the tear traveling across the wide desert plain. You need a corpse for the newspaper, so you take a bunch of marines to get one. Then suddenly it’s there, the warm liquid on your face, the death you have always avoided, smiling back at you as if it knew all along. Your fault.

[NYT Magazine. Pic via NYM]

[Complex Blog]

[PRWeek, my old employer]

6. The smaller the newspaper, the longer its life span in print (four exceptions: the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, Washington Post and USA Today).

Note the one major paper not included in that list: the LAT. He goes on to lay out exactly why Sam Zell and Co. are rather annoying and misguided managers, and includes this suggestion that is worth looking into for any mid-sized metro paper:

36. I’d take the very talented journalists I had and develop a SERIES of websites that provided the best information for that beat/subject matter. The Web is all about niches. The Times, for instance, could have the premiere sites for every professional and college sports team in Southern California. It could be THE place to turn to for news on City Hall, Los Angeles Unified School District, and Los Angeles Police Department. Not to mention Southern California environmental issues, LAX and the coast.
37. These could run under the banner: Another Los Angeles Times website/blog.

Somebody hire that man!

[Read it all at Lobdell's OC; pic via Flickr]

* Managers and professional employees should dress for business daily; never jeans or tennis shoes. If unsure, recall how you dressed when you interviewed for your position.
* Casual Friday is an option. Business casual always presents a good appearance, never jeans, running shoes, T-shirts, flip-flops or beachwear.
* Business casual is a good choice for evening work in all departments outside of production.
* Clothing should be clean, unwrinkled and in good repair.
* Denim including designer jeans is never appropriate for the workplace.

[via LA Observed]

The back of the same press pass:

This just goes to show what a solid guy McCain really is, in Howard Fineman's mind.

[CBS]

Shankman tells me he heard from a source that ProfNet is so concerned salespeople have been issued talking points against him. With 14,000 "professional communicators" in its roster, ProfNet has a significant cash flow at stake, especially when your competition gives away its product for free.

Shankman says he'll never charge for his service and would never sell his mailing list — the hour and a half per day that he spends on his mailing list results in great publicity for himself — better than he could ever buy. Though, he does make some coin selling ads at "way over $100 CPMs" to advertisers like American Apparel.

Shankman's little service has been building slowly for a long time. By all outward appearances (not counting his service to American Apparel), he's giving away a valuable service for free, out of the goodness of his heart. Which is why I've always been so god damn skeptical of the whole thing.

What's your angle, Shankman? What's your angle? What's your angle? I fully expect this to turn into some sort of cult, or be revealed as a CIA plot to infiltrate the media. Until then, we're withholding judgment.

[The Industry Standard]

David Blum at the NY Press uncovers a disturbing pattern of ongoing metaphor abuse that makes Carr appear to be a man at the end of his rope. We can only hope that this moment of clarity serves as a wake up call to him and all those who enable his root vegetable comparison habit. Here are Blum's findings, all taken from Carr's own work—starting with his current book and stretching back four long years:

Describing himself:

“Far from clinically handsome, I have a face that looks like it could have been carved out of mashed potatoes, and my idea of exercise was running the length of my body.”

“….with a face made out of potatoes, the Photoshopped picture will have to go a long way to make me any uglier than I actually am.”

“With a face that looks as if it were crafted out of mashed potatoes and a voice that sounds like a trash compactor that needs oil, I’m not a natural for television…”

About Tim Russert:

“He had a face that seemed to be carved out of potatoes, but he worked on television by working harder than your average talking head…”

Describing actors:

“To the Bagger’s eye, [Daniel Craig] has a face made out of potatoes—although the rest of him seems to be made out of titanium…”

“Directors tend to focus on [Steve] Buscemi’s visage, shooting his face so it looks something like what might happen to a bowl of mashed potatoes if it were sculptured [sic] by an ax.”

“And Detective Sipowicz [Dennis Franz], with a face that looks as if it were carved out of potatoes and the body style of a greeter at Home Depot, was an unlikely hero.”

About author Joe McGinniss:

“[McGinniss] had an old cap set against the Sunday morning sun, a handsome Irish face that could have been carved out of potatoes, and a glint of tragedy in his eyes.”

SEEK HELP.

[NY Press; pic via NY Mag]

Salkin is the Times style reporter who is seemingly responsible for chronicling every (fake) microtrend making the rounds of a certain NYC subculture. He's written about women who eat red meat on the first date, Paul Sevigny's quest to turn Atlantic City into a chic nightlife destination, and how nobody takes vacations any more. Savvy readers will also remember that it was Salkin who in January explored the question, "Has Gawker Jumped The Snark?" (GET IT?)—just as the site was hiring some of the top 20 most mind-blowingly awesome staff members in its history.

With his finger on the pulse of culture, it's natural that Salkin has a wide, hungry fan base. So he has a Yahoo group called "Salkin Stories" that sends out a newsletter so you can keep up with all his important doings! Daily Intel has his latest message (which they note "goes out to a lot of people, many who don't actually know Salkin"), and there are some things you won't want to miss:

1/ Olympics. Due to job and family responsibilities, the folks who were to join me in Beijing for the Olympics can not come. What this means is I have face-value tickets to numerous events and a FREE PLACE TO STAY for a few people. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. All you have to do is get yourself to Beijing. This will be my 7th Olympics and I have done all the hard work of ordering tickets nearly two years in advance and securing a place to stay. I did an apartment swap for my place in New York, so I have a place for free in Beijing.

Say no more, Allen! I am so there.

Closer to home, it’s time to continue the tour of NYC BBQ joints, this time with a trip to the much lauded Fette Sau in Williamsburg. Deal is there are outdoor picnic tables which fill up tres fast, so we need to get there early. I will be arriving around 6pm and would like you there not long after that (but if you want to come and maybe have to sit elsewhere, can come til 7). Let me know asap if you can come, so I can get a head count. We had about 15 people last time (at RUB) and it was great (although Hill Country’s Q was much better, meat-taste-wise).

I sincerely hope that with the help of Gawker readers you can beat that record this time, Allen!

He goes on to fill us in about an article he wrote in HEEB, all his stories in the Times, another story his friend is working on, and throws in an urgent request for any ukulele players to contact him. Okay!

And he has his own website, where he gives a brief rundown of the wild life led by a man named Allen Salkin:

Allen Salkin cast industrial films in Hong Kong, wholesaled rubber duckies in Las Vegas, picked oranges in Crete, peddled oil paintings door-to-door in Western Australia, penned stories for New York Magazine, Details, Heeb, Yoga Journal, The Village Voice and other venues, taught Journalism at NYU and MediaBistro.com, and wrote the book "Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us." He is a staff reporter at The New York Times.

See you all at Fette Sau.

[Daily Intel; pic via January Magazine]

"I think it’s important for the public to hear the other side of the truth." [From Us' letter]

Translation: We already have the other side of the story. So speak now, or don't complain when you see a one-sided slam piece. (The trick: the truth actually only has one side!)

"There’s nobody who can provide that information better than you." [From Us' letter]

Translation: We think you're special. Really! We are simply dying to hear what you have to say. Hopefully, you are narcissistic and believe that we want to talk to you because we admire your intelligence. In reality, random fate has cast you as a player in a story, due to no merit of your own. Either way, let's talk now, okay?

"[We] would be honored to provide an outlet for you to share your account of the situation." [From Us' letter]

Translation: We're on your side. Our competitors, though—there's no telling how those shady fuckers might screw you.

"We could speak on or off the record — it’s completely up to you." [From Us' letter]

Translation: We know you feel safe speaking "off the record," so let's do that. First. After that, we will harangue you to go on the record, or, alternately, use the information you gave us on background. (Only applies when dealing with civilians. Savvy media operators can usually make "off the record" stick).

"I'm on deadline, so please let me know as soon as possible."

Translation: I'm on deadline. I may just wrap this story up at any moment. I may just cut you out completely. I may just make assumptions about what your side of the story is and include that. I may just let your sworn enemy speak for you. This may happen any minute now. Hurry up and talk!

"My editor feels that [x], but I [y]."

Translation: I'm a nice guy. But my editor? Heartless prick. Doesn't give a shit about you, your reputation, or anything else. He just wants to wrap this up and shove it out the door. I'm your friend here. You don't want my editor to have the last word on this, for god's sake. (Addendum: Reporters blame editors. Editors blame reporters. This keeps everyone guilt-free).

"There are many rumors floating around that I'm sure you'd like to clear up."

Translation: So many rumors. What are they about? I'll leave that to your imagination. But you know how rumors have a crazy way of sneaking into print, when certain people don't talk to reporters.

"We've always had a good relationship in the past."

Translation: But not in the future, if you don't give me some quotes. You bastard.

On Monday—knowing that Carr's column was running—the network apparently gave the scoop about its hiring of ex-Hillary flack Howard Wolfson to Jim Rutenberg, a Times political reporter.

Today, with Carr's missive still hanging in the air, Fox News gave Times reporter Brian Stelter what appears to be the only interview with Fox News executive vice president Kevin Magee regarding Fox Business' hiring of WSJ columnist Walt Mossberg as a contributor. Magee was quoted in the press release announcing the deal, which would presumably make him the guy that every reporter on the story wanted to talk to.

The network is—at the very least—going out of its way to be helpful to the Times this week. But we haven't seen or heard any indications of a Fox News apology (public or otherwise) to Times reporter Jacques Steinberg, who was grossly caricatured on air last week for writing a factual story that the network didn't care for.

The straightforward interpretation of this is that FNC has decided to play nice this week in order to prove Carr's characterization wrong, or at least to indicate that they can rise above direct retaliation against the paper. The sinister interpretation is that Fox News PR has decided to pursue a divide-and-conquer strategy with the Times, being helpful to reporters it favors while freezing out others—like Steinberg—that it does not. The classic carrot and stick approach.

Because we're talking about Fox News PR, we lean towards the sinister interpretation. So the Times had better be careful to show some solidarity in the coming weeks. Hang together or hang separately!

When the Post went to get their preferred domain name, PostPolitics.com, they found out that it was already owned—by Politico. So the Post had to pay Politico $20,000 to get the name back.

That moment was probably the closest that John Harris has ever come to exclaiming "Boo-ya, bitches."

[Washington CP via The Slog]

• Have news: When you sit down to write a press release, ask yourself, "Is this really news?" If the answer is no, get up from the table without writing the press release.
• 5WPR: Ha, that's a little play on words on our part. It means that PR people should put the five W's into their press release right up top: "Who, what, when, where, and why." It also will help you remember not to act like the actual Ronn [sic] Torossian-led agency called 5WPR, in which the five W's stand for "What? Whoa. Wow. Who would" ever hire this incompetent PR firm?
• Do nothing until we call you: Here's what most reporters (who aren't total hacks) do with a press release: skim it for the five W's (SEE ABOVE), then look at the bottom to find the contact number for the flack. You think we want to pull the robotic quotes that you wrote for your CEO right out of that wretched press release and put them in our stories as if he actually said them? Fuck you! We want to call you and harass you and ask you a long series of questions until you cough up a quote suitable for being read by human beings. And we want it now! Night shift, day shift, wire reporters—everybody is on deadline for right now, meaning that you, the flack, must be available to talk about it right now. Do not go pee. Sit by the phone and await our call! (Of course if you actually do have big news, all the reporters will patiently wait our turn like the bootlickers that we are).
• Make sure all the shit in it is right: If we pull something directly out of a press release and put it in a story, and it then turns out to be wrong, we will cry and cry. Then blacklist you. The belief that reporters double-check basic facts in press releases is a myth.
• No free stuff: This one is counterintuitive. In fact, plenty of companies send freebies ranging from t-shirts to tickets to liquor with their press kits, and it works beautifully. I guarantee it will increase your pickup. I also guarantee that it will slowly, almost imperceptibly, contribute to the erosion of a strong and independent news media, able to stand apart from the corporations it covers and deliver a judgment with only the public interest in mind. Of course, flacks don't really want a media like that, so you will continue to send free swag, and reporters will continue to eat it up. But think of THE PEOPLE, and refrain. It's the right thing to do.

After Follieri defrauded investors out of millions, what did he do with the money?

Private doctors! $30,000 housecalls! Vacations are nice, too.

How did he pull it off? Payoffs, and a little help from a crooked reporter.

[via TSG]

[via WSJ]

The Clinton campaign ordered 70 boxes of Domino's pizza for the press corps, and set up a cash bar for its fundraisers, or "honored guests." The honored guests were not in a partying mood, however. One older woman pointed at a reporter accusingly and said: "He is the one who destroyed our heroine!"

Oh man. We have to guess that the reporter accused of DESTROYING OUR HEROINE was probably Milbank himself.

Also on hand for some heroine-destruction was the Observer's Choire Sicha!

Outside, a crowd gathered to watch her motorcade leave, at the corner of Third Avenue and 23rd Street.

Two Obama supporters were there with signs. One read "Unite For A Change." The other read "Drop Out Now."

"What do you think man, you feeling it?" one of the white Obama supporters asked a black man who was considering their proposal.

The man didn't answer for a while. Then: "All of a sudden you're all right?" he asked. "You're pulling my nuts out all year."

"Politics are dirty," said the Obama supporter.

"You rob me and treat me to lunch—that make you all right?" said the black man. He was in a panama hat and salmon-colored summer pants and shirt. "Fuck that," he said. "Get the fuck out of here."

Indeed. Radar's Neel Shah noted the important details:

($4 got you a Coors Light; for $5 you had your choice of Heineken, Corona, Amstel Light, or a plastic cup full of Merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, or Cabernet Sauvignon. Said the bartender: "The Cab has been our best-seller.")

Elitists! Don't they know that to be true to the Real American blue-collar roots of their candidate they should've all had $2 boilermakers? Or just chugged some Kentucky Gentleman straight from the bottle?

- To make an example of a member, Goto will beat that person in front of peers, or force the person's peers to dole out the punishment...

-They do not hesitate to take extreme measures or take into account the other people involved when it comes to planning an attack/ reprisal. They will act in the presence of women and/ or children, forcing them to watch gruesome, violent acts so that afterwards they will not file criminal complaints, etc.

Sucks.

[Source]

The four surgeries were done between 2000 and 2004 at a time of pronounced organ scarcity. In each of those years, more than 100 patients died awaiting liver transplants in the Greater Los Angeles region...

The most prominent transplant recipient, Tadamasa Goto, had been barred from entering the U.S. because of his criminal history, several current and former law enforcement officials said. Goto leads a gang called the Goto-gumi, which experts describe as vindictive and at times brutal.

The FBI helped Goto obtain a visa to enter the United States in 2001 in exchange for leads on potentially illegal activity in this country by Japanese criminal gangs, said Jim Stern, retired chief of the FBI's Asian criminal enterprise unit in Washington.

Goto got his liver, Stern said, but provided the bureau with little useful information on Japanese gangs.

In other words, Goto scammed his way into the US, promising information; got his precious liver, while dozens of others died waiting; then gave no good information! Coincidentally, the gangster's trip here for the transplant is the exact story that Adelstein had that got him targeted in the first place.

It's a thorny ethical issue: on one hand, there's the UCLA transplant surgeon, who said "it's not my role to pass moral judgment on the patients who seek my care." On the other hand, there's a very persuasive argument to be made that patients like Goto should be shot with a gun so that bullets pass through them. Jake Adelstein must be so morally conflicted!

[LAT]

"As the gas prices sky rocket and the housing market cools down to

a standstill companies are looking for ways to hold on to customers

while the economy recovers. How do businesses operate inside of a

volatile market and keep hold of their customers? Long Island based

car shop, Unique Auto Sports has mastered that formula and retains

its long list of celebrity clientele along with its normal

customers through is 10 year track record of impeccable customer

service."

5WPR.

First, Grainge Googles Bruni and is blown away by her photos. He offers to walk her around his neighborhood! For journalistic purposes.

"Modelling is using the body and only the body."

Which is my opportunity to say: "And you have a beautiful one, I might add."

"Thank you," she stutters, laughing. I'm clearly a sleazebag. Professionalism is dwindling. She then compares making music to the process of attraction.

"When you're attracted to someone, it's hard to explain, you can say you're attracted to this girl 'cause she is pretty, intelligent and charming..."

"You have all those qualities, Carla," I interrupt to gush. "Thank you, I'm liking this interview very much," she says. "You're almost like an Italian man."

Yes, a sleazy Italian man. The interview is cut short, and Bruni calls back 15 minutes later.

I dive straight in. "Your album cover is you sitting on a cushion reading a book in a frock. Were you wearing any knickers at the time?"

Way to get to the bottom of the situation, haha! Or should I say, way to get to the vagina of the situation, haha. Grainge's entire story reads like a buddy telling you how much that stripper really liked him at the strip club last night. At the end, Bruni gives him her number, but somehow, a romance never flourishes:

Unfortunately, Carla never did call. And when I texted her she didn't reply. The next thing I heard she was going out with the President of France.

"It has never been proven that Christopher Wallace was not in Las Vegas on the night Tupac was shot," Philips wrote in response to a reader's question. "Bad Boy produced some computer-generated documents purporting to place him in a recording studio in New York, but they were not time-stamped. Bad Boy said it was going to produce video of Biggie there. They never did that. I have since learned that federal officials conducted interviews in Las Vegas to determine whether Wallace was present. My sources were there and say he and other East Coast figures were in Las Vegas on the night the Southside Crips killed Tupac."

[via MTV.com]

I'm not inclined to press charges. While my assailant's actions were frightening, they resulted in part from what he interpreted as provocation: that is, my taking pictures after he had explicitly warned me not to. He did not take my wallet, cash or briefcase; something he could easily have done while I was on the ground. Nor do I recall him using much more force than was needed to wrest the camera from me. He didn't kick me gratuitously when I was down. He did what he threatened to do, but no more.

In the greater scheme of things, my quarrel isn't with him, anyway. It's with the suits who made the decision in the first place to undertake an illegal marketing campaign.

Dunlap's conviction that he had stumbled on a grand story by discovering the Street Marketing industry is comical; but his reporting instincts are admirable. Overall he sounds like an incredibly nice man. You must read his entire account of the situation, which is just priceless. David Dunlap, we got your back!

[pic via City Room]

In the original post by the journalism prof—who is Chris Daley, of Boston University&