When asked how he keeps up "with the latest tech news when there are so many blogs," Times editor David Gallagher immediately cited TechMeme, a direct competitor of Blogrunner, as "one of my favorite sites." Although the Times serves Blogrunner results from the front of Gallagher's own section, the editor didn't plug the site in his three-paragraph answer. It wasn't the first time the Times forgot about its 2005 acquisition; reporter Saul Hansell says he considered pushing the newspaper to develop something similar before discovering "we actually owned a company that did that" (see video).

It's great that Gallagher knows about TechMeme, a very useful aggregator. But, if he's going to help turn around the Times, he needs to help make Blogrunner more competitive. That means borrowing a key idea from the world of software startups: Eating your own dogfood; i.e. using your own product. And talking about it, when you have the chance.

(We sent Gallagher a couple of emails seeking comment but have yet to hear back; we'll update this post if we do.)

Others in Obama's inner circle said the president-elect believed Clinton needed to demonstrate that she was a team player and to shape her own career and legacy. "There are plenty who don't trust her and think she still harbors something," said another senior adviser. "It's still potentially problematic down the road. Barack's thinking on this is that it's not in her interests to mess with us. She can't win that fight internally and she's smart enough that she won't want that fight publicly."

That is from the upcoming book Renegade: How Barack Obama Put an End to Hillary's Runnin' And She's So Far From Her Home, by the British guy who is on Olbermann a lot. And to be fair, it is an observation from before the inauguration. Since then everyone's been too busy to continue the hilarious campaign infighting.

The paper's "Health Journal" column examined the lives of two former reporters and one former flack. The conclusion? Learn to let go of your job and live a balanced life where you take comfort in things other than your career. Make friends with normal people outside your profession.

That's sensible advice, particularly for journalists, who increasingly are losing hope of holding on to their jobs anyway. One investigative journalist went to work in community affairs at the Federal Reserve. The big-shot bank PR guy took a job at a low-profile firm. OK.

Then there's this Michael Precker, former Dallas Morning News editor and foreign correspondent:

Mr. Precker took a buyout in 2006 and now manages a high-end strip club. "I really wondered how it would feel to sever that link — Michael Precker of the Dallas Morning News," he says. "But it has been easier than I thought. I feel lucky."

Well, that's one way to follow therapists' advice to, in the Journal's words, take "pride in characteristics that can't be stripped away — virtue, integrity, honesty, generosity." Emphasis on "stripped."

Actually, we're just jealous, that sounds kind of fun. But only because the establishment is "high end." Classy.

Bosses were "infuriated," the Post reports this morning, and O'Brien is now out.

Speculation will inevitably turn to whether O'Brien was drunk when he wrote the email, but a coworker already told the Post it sprang from his "insecurity and jealousy." Which are the sort of emotional problems that tend to come vividly to the fore when one is no longer blunting them with drugs or alcohol.

[Post]

"Hi, folks, I just spent a couple of days in Iowa - I'm a little bit of a favorite son there - and I spoke with maybe a thousand people and was very hands-on. Even Joe Biden said, 'You should be running (for president)!' But what I came away with was, these people can't afford gas, books, food or schools or movies!

"I was approached a hundred times by people asking, 'Can you help us?' I tried to tell them we care, but they didn't buy it. They wanted to, but watching Anya and Lara [Spencer] pick out accessories makes the viewers want to vomit. I'll get killed for this, but I'm actually the one not afraid for my job. I want people to be happy."

"Lara" is apparently Pat's successor on the show. Alrighty.

[P6]

First, it must be acknowledged that Clooney is a smart man. He's not a grown-up version of Ashton Kutcher, an airheaded frat boy pulling practical jokes that a team of writers dreamed up. Clooney may be a frat boy type and a practical joker, but he knows exactly what he's doing. He has a very solid reason for every career-related move that he makes; look at the crafty, political way he chooses his movies. Except that new one about the old-timey football thing—who knows what that's all about.

The point is, Clooney sees the big picture. Recall his response to the original unveiling of the "Gawker Stalker" map. While lots of celebrities moaned about the intrusion into their privacy and imagined ridiculous implications for their personal safety, Clooney actually had a plan: he told a bunch of entertainment publicists to flood the site with false tips, thereby rendering it useless. It turned out that the Stalker maps are hardly a threat to anyone, and the flood of outrageous fake tips that Clooney inspired eventually disappeared. But he did prove that he was thinking about how to fight back against the celebrity-industrial complex, and even came up with an effective strategy—more than you can say for Brad Pitt, whose decision to fire his publicist will (prediction!) fail to magically allow him to disappear from the eyes of the media.

The problem is that Clooney is a CORNERSTONE of that very same complex. A man who ambitiously rose from a bit part of "The Facts Of Life" to a place in the pantheon of outrageously famous movie stars is hardly a credible spokesman for the cause of anti-publicity. On top of that, the press that Clooney gets is, by celebrity standards, pretty positive. It's impossible to argue that the very same paparazzi and tabloid media that he deplores have not, on balance, been a boon to his career.

And look at it from the poor, poor entertainment reporter's perspective: without some effort at critical coverage, they are bound to feel like nothing more than tools of the equally powerful movie marketing machine. Sure, staking out every nightclub, restaurant, and dwelling place of a celebrity is not really hard-hitting, or even socially redeeming, reporting. But Clooney, whose father was himself a newsman, should understand that it's all part of the package of being a star—a deal that he surely enjoys.

The actor would doubtless say that he supports real journalism, which is all well and good. So do we! But Americans have an unfortunate taste for the minutiae of the lives of their big screen heroes. So perhaps some sort of bargain can be struck. The tabloids can promise to take Clooney's earnest projects seriously, and in return, he can throw them a bone by accepting that his social life will always appear in the gossip pages and on the blogs, until he chooses to retire into obscurity. Besides, even if he were to enlist each and every one of his celebrity friends in his cause of punking the media, it would never work—that story in and of itself would be covered to death, resulting in a level of scrutiny that's equal to the one that the Hollywood types already receive.

So let's all just get along, in the words of famous celebrity Rodney King. Except, of course, for those pranks on the paparazzi. Go right ahead with that. Nobody can stand those guys, anyhow.

[Redacted], thank you for completing this task, you win two extra days off.

The rest of you have until Monday at 10 am SHARP. For each agency profile

missing, the designated writer will be given another chance to make

deadline by receiving three new agency profile assignments that will be due

on Friday.

[Redacted], please go into the TOP50 file at 10 am and compile a list of what

is in there. I have the list of unassigned agency profiles that we will be

doling out Monday at 11.

Thank you,

Alison