In your cloudy Friday media column: a journalist murdered in Brazil, the latest Matt Taibbi uproar, Timesmen are momentarily glamorous, Gay Talese's reading material is so Gay, Newsweek's big positive news, and an illustrated NYT paywall hack.

  • Jesus Christ: Ednaldo Figueira, a blogger, newspaper owner, and politician in the town of Serra do Mel, Brazil, was shot by three men on a motorcycle and killed on June 15. Reporters Without Borders says that Figueira had received death threats connected to his newspaper's reporting on the local government, and that "the way Figueira was murdered had the hallmarks of a contract killing." Journalism in some places is scary.
  • Matt Taibbi journalism controversy alert! In Taibbi's latest Rolling Stone story, about Michelle Bachmann, borrowed information liberally from a 2006 Minneapolis City Pages story, without citing it. This is probably an indication more of the haughtiness of big national magazines than of any real purposeful journalist malfeasance, but still. Don't do that.
  • New York Times media editor Bruce Headlam was on The Daily Show last night, thanks to his appearance in the new Page One documentary. He did fine. You did fine, Bruce. Side note, isn't it funny that having stories in the world's most powerful newspaper every day of the week for years won't get you on The Daily Show, but appearing in a documentary—which is not even like a real movie with attractive people in it—will? I guess it's true what they say: all we need are beautiful movies to watch, everything else in this world is boring, I'm so depressed.
  • What does Gay Talese read every day? Exactly what you'd imagine Gay Talese reads every day. I mean exactly. "I used to work for the[NYT] back in the 1950s and 1960s," he mentions. Yeah, we heard.
  • "Good news for Newsweek," what? But it's been so long! Oh, here's the good news: it posted an ad page gain of 0% compared to last year. Things aren't getting worse, measurably! Party time.
  • Still haven't figured out how to get around the New York Times paywall? Here's an easy video guide.

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