In your balmy Monday media column: the ethics of getting journalistically blazed are debated, the WSJ yes-persons defend their hefty salaries, a Sudanese journalist is jailed, AOL's sales chief is out, the NYT chronicled, and no one trusts the media.

  • Gene Weingarten asks the tough question—based, he says, on something that actually happened—Is it okay for a reporter to smoke weed in order to get a source to trust him? The answer is keep your fucking mouth shut, Gene Weingarten.
  • The Wall Street Journal's independent "Special Committee" tasked with preserving the paper's editorial integrity is not a bunch of weako ball-clinging Murdoch shills, reports the Special Committee itself.
  • A female journalist in northern Sudan has been sentenced to a month in prison for writing an article about the rape of a female activist. She's the second reporter to be sentenced for writing about the incident, according to Reuters. Also, "Sudan's constitution guarantees press freedom." Everything about this story is so hilarious, which is something we're saying sarcastically in this instance!
  • Jeff Levick, the head of sales at AOL, is out in a corporate reorganization. His replacement: hopefully somebody with a golden tongue, because "AOL," ha.
  • Longtime NYT chronicler Seth Mnookin is back, with more NYT chronicling! This time, a New York magazine cover story about how the paper did not collapse and die or explode into dust over the past couple of years. You would have heard about it here, trust me.
  • According to a new poll, the vast majority of likely voters say the media is "biased." Yea, well. The vast majority of likely voters are dumb.

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