David Remnick v. Graydon Carter; Eliot Spitzer v. Himself
Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter and New Yorker editor David Remnick hustled to beat each other on profiles of Eliot Spitzer, notes the Observer; technically Graydon won with publishing online first, but Remnick won with extended access. Yeah, yeah. Apart from that silliness, we hear that Spitzer's press minder who was handling the reporters is kind of an idiot! After Nick Paumgarten's New Yorker profile was already in edits, Spitzer's guy was asking him, "What's going to be in the piece?" That's just sad. Real political operations—see Team Clinton—don't have to ask, because they already know.