Journalism legend Charles Pierce makes a great god damn point in a new interview: the idea that a good writer will automatically make a good editor is a farce. The journalism job ladder is broken. What is to be done?

The debut novel by Kathryn Stockett (pictured), The Help, is the story of black domestic servants working in Mississippi during the 1960s. It was published last year to rave reviews, and has sold more than 2 million copies. But one person's not happy with it: Ablene Cooper, a 60 year-old maid for Stockett's brother,…

Last year, we caught Men's Health editor Dave Zinczenko reusing covers. Turns out that's not the only way Zinczenko recycles content: He's been ripping other writers' bylines off old Men's Health articles and passing them off as his own.

In 1958, future Gonzo journalism king Hunter S. Thompson was just a lowly 21-year-old magazine intern in Manhattan. (Like you!) He sent an unsolicited letter to the editor of the Vancouver Sun, asking for a job. Cocky little bastard.

Janette Turner Hospital is the author of Orpheus Lost and other books, and a professor at Columbia. She sent MFA students at her old school, the University of South Carolina, the following note about their inferiority. It is amazing.

Verlyn Klinkenborg writes for the New York Times editorial page and is absolutely unbearable. He writes twee musings about his farm. In the world's greatest newspaper. Two years ago, I asked him to stop. Instead, he's gotten worse than ever.

Today we looked at the case of Mitchell Heisman, the guy who shot himself in Harvard Yard and left a 1,900-page online suicide note. One commenter sees the signs of a common problem among aspiring writers.

Sigh. The waterlogged, coffee-swilling pests at The Stranger, the alt-weekly serving the flannel-skinned weirdos of Seattle, had the dumb audacity to do a cover story on stunt-novelist Tao Lin. Bad enough! Worse still? They let him write the damn story.

The Wall Street Journal takes a look inside TV writers rooms today, and learns important lessons about how TV writers are a vengeful lot, who will kill your character or turn a critic into a murderer as it pleases them.

The prolific British-American writer Christopher Hitchens was recently diagnosed with esophageal cancer, which is a very bad cancer. In a new Vanity Fair essay, Hitchens writes about his disease, including his miserable day leading up to a Daily Show taping.

Demand Media is the robotic online content mill that pays freelancers paltry sums to churn out stories based on "what's hot" search algorithms. Guess who's about to start "creating articles" for your local newspapers?

Attention media hopefuls, an ad that may be useful to you has been found on Craigslist! "Freelance Writer Desired." Sounds good so far! "M4W." That seems odd to include. And why is this writing gig in "Casual Encounters?"

Freelance journalist Alexander Zaitchik wrote several stories about Glenn Beck for Salon late last year. This February, the Daily Beast's book imprint published John Avlon's book, Wingnuts. Avlon's chapter on Glenn Beck borrows very liberally from Zaitchik's work. [UPDATED].

Just weeks before his latest show Treme debuts on HBO, TV writer and producer David Mills has died of a brain aneurysm in New Orleans at the age of 49.

Last week we told you that Regent/ Here Media, publisher of Out, The Advocate, and other gay titles, was ripping off freelancers. Oh, the tips that poured in! They are really deadbeats, apparently. New scathing complaints against the company, below.

Gerald Posner, the former Daily Beast reporter who's copped to a comically high number of plagiarism violations recently, gave a little speech in Miami Beach last night. One of the authors he's plagiarized was there! It did not go well.

ChatRoulette is, if you don't already know, a simple, supposedly revolutionary outlet for out-and-out internet voyeurism. It's a two-way looking glass allowing users to instantly video chat/see the dicks of complete strangers. And people can't. Stop. Doing it. Addicts!

In your foreboding Thursday media column: Jared Kushner has a bright idea, Howard Zinn's reputation impugned, David Letterman plays a funny joke, and Janice Min somehow survives being rich as fuck.