In your fed-up Wednesday media column: Bill Keller must be stopped, a new Encyclopedia of News, the LAT's long-awaited vindication, Katie Couric considered, and Gwyneth declines to launch a magazine, thank god.

  • Bill Keller has proven himself to be a fairly competent editor of the New York Times, and a trite, awful columnist for the New York Times Magazine. He clearly doesn't read enough current media writing to know that every argument he's made so far in his ill-advised column was expressed by a more pithy writer years ago, when the argument may still have been plausible. Today's entry in his cranky-old-man act: Twitter is distracting, it has great potential to make us sound dumb, and it's not as good as "real conversation."

    Thank you, kindergarten man-child. The real problem with Keller's columns is not just that they're wrong (as they often are), but that they are so obvious. Bill! This conversation has already happened. It's happened so much that I can barely even bring myself to engage in the argument any more, because I've heard every variation on it dozens or hundreds of times already. And I agree with you! But Jesus Christ, Bill, you're hogging a valuable media platform that could be used to say something, you know, interesting. Step away from the publicity buffet, already. You're fat enough as it is.

    Hugo Lindgren, you're the editor of the New York Times Magazine. Do what you know is right: fire this guy at once. Bill Keller is quite literally the weakest link in the entire NYT Magazine staff. Besides, he already has a job. They need him over there, at the paper. Probably. Just send him off with a pat on the back. Give him the gift of free time. I think all the time he's been spending on the internet is making him dumber. Can him, Hugo. Now that would be masculine, dude.
  • Nieman Journalism Lab has launched "Encyclo," a new thing on the internet that is called, by them, "an encyclopedia of the future of news." Let's see what they have to say about us: "... instrumental in...quality... experience." We find this site, "Encyclo," to be accurate.
  • Romenesko flashback! "Remember when Schwarzenegger supporters canceled LAT subscriptions over groping stories?" Ha, boy do they look stupid now. Except the LAT is not such a great paper any more, so maybe they were just being polite? The point is, California is doomed.
  • James Rainey wonders: Why wasn't Katie Couric successful as CBS' news anchor? His answer: viewers were "less interested in a marquee star than in a stolid news brand." The real answer: not enough smiling.
  • Gwyneth Paltrow won't be starting a food magazine. And Mario Batali won't be starring in a rom-com. So I guess everything is pretty much normal.

[Photo: Getty]