Error-prone New York Times reporter Alessandra Stanley has spotted a novel and inscrutable hand gesture where one places their hand over their heart. It is popular in particular amongst politicians, usually the last to become aware of national trends. Stanley has observed Chelsea Clinton doing it, Michelle Obama doing it, but, most of all, Hillary Clinton doing it all the time.

New York Times television critic Alessandra Stanley's casual relationship with the truth has been well documented. She decided America invaded Iraq in 2002 and not 2003. She re-appropriated a common CNN slogan to MSNBC. And her crowning accomplishment: a rare triple correction on Walter Cronkite's obituary which earned her a scolding from Katie Couric. Her summary of NBC's 30 Rock, which has its series finale tonight, is only a little bit less wrong than usual.

New York Times television critic Alessandra Stanley, whose prodigious error rate has earned her such praise from her own colleagues as "a television critic with a history of errors"—not to mention the assignment of her very own personal copy editor whose sole duty was to try to face down her steady stream of mistakes—has offered up another doozy.

Infamously error-prone Times television columnist Alessandra Stanley earned herself a double correction today.

It's been a tough year for Annie Leibovitz, but maybe she can start fresh from here on out? The financially challenged photographer turns 60 today. Others celebrating: designer Donna Karan is turning 61. Kelly Ripa turns 39. Lorraine Bracco is 55. Sting is 58. Actress Camilla Belle is turning 23. '80s pop star Tiffany is 37. And two of Hugh Hefner's latest girlfriends, Karissa and Kristina Shannon, are turning 20. A roundup of a few people celebrating birthdays this weekend—including Al Sharpton and Liev Schreiber—is below.

• NBC is pulling out all the stops to promote Jay Leno's new show. Don't believe it? Try this out for size: "In early September, NBC will even adopt a portion of Interstate 10 in California to reiterate Mr. Leno's time slot." [NYT]
• Notwithstanding the Leno blitz, NBC is still looking to cut its budget. [NYT]
• No one cares about CNBC these days, in case you haven't noticed. [Slate]
• More on troubles at Condé Nast (revenues may fall by as much as $350 million this year), and the recent round of receptionist-purging. [NYP, NYO]
• The lobbyist scandal goes on. A couple of days after it was revealed that MSNBC's Richard Wolffe is now working for a lobbying firm comes the news that CNN's Bill Schneider has signed up with a D.C. think tank. [HuffPo]
• Related: Wolffe has another Obama-related book in the works. [TNR]
• Experts say the prognosis for BusinessWeek is not good. [DailyFinance]
• As you might expect, the mood has been very upbeat at CurrentTV today now that Laura Ling and Euna Lee have returned from North Korea. [NYT]

• Funny People debuted at No. 1 at the box office this weekend, although it was still the worst opening for an Adam Sandler movie in five years. [Reuters]
• Mort Zuckerman is selling shares of his real estate company to pump $50 million into the Daily News to pay for new printing presses. [WSJ]
• Lou Dobbs has become a PR nightmare for CNN. Presumably the fact that Media Matters is airing an anti-Dobbs commercial won't help matters. [AP, HP]
• Is the peace pact between Olbermann and O'Reilly a sham? [TDB]
• Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from Apple's board of directors. [BN]

We've made fun of her time and time again for her absurdly error-filled columns, but this takes it to an entirely new level: the New York Times publicly addressed The Alessandra Stanley Problem today in Clark Hoyt's Public Editor column.

Wow. Is the New York Times just picking on poor error-ridden Alessandra Stanley, now? Yet another correction was published in today's paper from her Walter Cronkite appraisal, which they've already corrected twice. Epic. [NY Times Corrections]

• After two very unsuccessful years as co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, Ben Silverman is finally leaving the company. He's teaming up with Barry Diller's IAC to start some sort of vague media/advertising firm. He'll be replaced by Jeff Gaspin, who headed up NBC's cable unit until now. [NYT, NYT, DF]
• Disney's G-Force topped Harry Potter at the box office this weekend. [THR]
• Remember Friendster? It's up for sale, in case you're interested. [PC]
• HBO is the most "gay-friendly cable network," according to GLAAD. [Reuters]

Katie Couric may be a little late to the "Alessandra Stanley screwed up Walter Cronkite's obit" party but she is officially its celebrity guest. Couric used her entire "notebook" column to school Stanley, and, boy, is it a doozy.

There are corrections and then there are Corrections, and error-prone New York Times mistaker Alessandra Stanley got corrected today. For the second time. For the same Walter Cronkite story. Cronkite was good, but he didn't "storm the beaches" on D-Day.

Oh, Alessandra Stanley. As far as newspaper idols go, you're my dreamboat. I loved your shoot-first, fact-check-over-the-dead-body-last approach to writing, but then you stopped doing it. But coming back to old-school-you over Walter Cronkite's appraisal? You're the prodigal-daughter of error.

We've received many emails tonight from readers taking issue with an Alessandra Stanley piece in the Times on Farrah Fawcett. Maybe it's the lede—"She really tried. And for a sex symbol that alone can be like an accomplishment."

Did you know that the reason talk show hosts don't have sidekicks anymore is because of blogs and Dick Cheney? Alessandra Stanley cracked the code!

So says Alessandra Stanley in today's Times. Instead we only care about Ponzi schemes, corporate looters, vapid rich wives and bribe-hungry politicians, because of the panic. Hahahahaha.

This is a really subtle joke, right, Fox production team? Or is it just our birthday? [CityFile, Related]

See also: The Worst Fact-Checking Team In Newspapers [Gawker]

Lyor Cohen and Al Sharpton are both celebrating today: The Warner Music chief (and boyfriend of Tory Burch) turns 49; the rabble-rousing clergyman is 54. Others marking the special occasion: socialite Alexis Bryan is 32. Clive Owen is 44. Jake Shears is 30. Gwen Stefani is 39. Ashlee Simpson is 24. Composer Steve Reich is 72. Tommy Lee is 46. Neve Campbell is 35. Actor Sean William Scott is 32. And the notoriously precise Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley is 53. Weekend birthdays after the jump.

"What Ms. Maddow doesn’t do is add a fresh or contrarian perspective to a cable news channel that increasingly positions itself as... a liberal alternative to the high-octane Fox News." [Times]