For various reasons, we got lost in the Gawker archives last night. So what happened on this day in years gone by?

An actual radio listener says that this morning on WNYC, Wonkette founder and current Washington editor for Time.com Ana Marie Cox hinted that she might be one of the hosts of MySpace's Presidential Town Halls, those attempts to "engage" young people in the political process. (Good luck with that!) Anyway, they'll be visiting college campuses this fall. The kids can even submit questions via MySpace instant messenger! And watch the MySpace webcast! Fancy! Cox, we hear, will most likely be hosting along with the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza, who writes the politics blog The Fix for WP's website. He's not quite as pretty as Ana, and probably doesn't hate Eric Alterman as much, but we suppose he'll do. Calls to MySpace were not returned.

The Newseum, a gallery dedicated to the profession of journalism, is almost ready for visitors! Soon-to-be-former Times media reporter Kit Seelye takes a look at the monument to press freedom, decidedly one of the most expensive museums under construction.

As you surely know, Time columnist and ex-Wonkette Ana (pronounced AH-na, by the way) Marie Cox exchanged choice words with "contributor to virtually every significant national publication in the US and many in Europe" Eric Alterman on the weekend of the White House Correspondents' dinner. Present and accounted for were two Observer reporters, one of whom actually reported on the conversation. Bitchiness ensued. Soon, Cox's husband, CQ editor Chris Lehmann, stepped in to defend his woman's honor; along the way, a new term, GawkerGate was coined. Now enjoy this video version of the transcript and its accompanying blog ephemera, starring Julia Allison as Eric Alterman, Catie Lazarus as Ana Marie Cox, and our own Joshua David Stein as Chris Lehmann. Shot and edited by the indefatigable Richard Blakeley.

Click to enlarge.

Big news regarding the Most Important Intellectual Catfight Of Our Time Of This Week! Earlier, a glorious victory was declared by liberal punditron Eric Alterman in his dispute against Time's Ana Marie Cox, Gawker and the generals in charge of Guantanamo. Or something. We lost track of what he's pissed at a while ago. (Background! There was a party in D.C.—words were exchanged, various muddy accounts were published from each side, then a transcript emerged from the trusty New York Observer.) At one point yesterday Alterman used the phrase "GawkerGate," which was utterly hilarious. OMG, someone questioned our newspaperlikeness! We're weeping. Now Chris Lehmann, not at all incidentally a spouse of Ms. Cox, has chimed in with a really vicious unpacking of Alterman's speech acts, revisions, and various blusterings. It's a really sweet read for those who love supremely bitchy and over-the-top eviscerations. Which is all of us! Frenemies no more!

Earlier we received the following note from one Grant Hickey about recent reports of an argument between Time.com blogette Ana Marie Cox and adorable liberal blowhard Eric Alterman: "Just want to say that it's good to know a site which should never be read or taken seriously, given that the writing is apparently made up (I've read much of Mr. Alterman's work, and I'm going to have to side w/him on this one). I'll be sure to let all my friends know to dismiss gawker.com as the same level as the rumor mags in the grocery checkout stands." Yes! Do let all your friends know that. We feel the same way about ourselves! And please enjoy reading this truly priceless (without price!) transcript of their "conversation." Not only does it have a brilliant Pinteresque middle section involving parties and proper names, it's sure got a great ending.

Apparently it wasn't all moist eggs and cherry blossoms (or Julia Allison having sex with Henry Kissinger) at John McLaughlin's post-White House Correspondent's Dinner brunch. There was also a heated discussion between Time.com Political Editor (and, yes, Wonkette editor emeritus) Ana Marie Cox, and Nation columnist Eric Alterman, who is best known for being the living embodiment of the kind of smug liberal condescension that has won the Democratic party a whopping two out of the last seven elections. Cox confronted Alterman about recent comments he had made concerning Time's recent hirings, specifically, the hiring of Cox.

• Bernie Goldberg: will bitch about CBS for food. [NYP]
  

• Barack Obama comes to New York. $2300 gets you in the door of his fundraiser with Antonio "L.A." Reid. [The Politicker]
  

• The axe falls today at Time Inc. Send your memos and stories here and we'll share them with the world. [NYP]
  

Is there a single more erotic phrase in the English language than "Time.com relaunch"? After you've toweled off, peruse a summary of the tweaks, which pretty much amounts to "More blogs!" and "More ads!", though many of the new bits aren't reflected on the frontpage yet. Among alterations on the blog front is Wonkette alumnette Ana Marie Cox, reconstituting the defunct Political Bite into a more group-grope effort known as Swampland. Gone are the days of universal Terry Colon illustrations, alas; now it's tasteful photos all round. Also on deck is The Ag, aka the Aggregator, a morning news digest la every other morning news digest. Just don't ask us what the "U" stands for in "Celeb-U-Gossip."

• Federal government trying to make Times op-ed page less boring. [NYT]
  

Brendan Nyhan pops up on Time.com's new political website to discuss the recent severing of his relationship with lefty mag The American Prospect. Nyhan resigned on Friday, after top brass decided he was being too evenhanded. Nyhan's essay brings up some interesting points about how the rise of political blogs is affecting the fiscal health of partisan print magazines like TAP, but we've got a feeling that there was something else in the story that resonated with Time.com Washington editor Ana Marie Cox. After all, the tale of a Prospect employee parting ways with the magazine for failing to toe the liberal line has to resonate with her on some level. Memo to TAPpers: If you can't sing "Joe Hill" in unison, you might be better off singing somewhere else.

• Rich dudes who want to be media magnates "look to the inherent worth of personnel and resources able to enlighten and expose, report and reflect, with a voice that can be heard above the din." Funny, we thought it was for the pussy. [Chicago Tribune]
• The UK Telegraph is looking to cut about seventy jobs, leaving us to wonder who'll be left to edit their vicious screeds against Polish plumbers and other assorted immigrants. [Guardian]
• Times questions Ana Marie Cox's "journalistic chops"; presumably it's only okay for her to write book reviews and op-ed pieces. The reverse Maureen Dowd transition, though? No sale. [NYT]
• Who wants to buy into a dying industry? The rest of said industry. [MarketWatch]
• Bee Shaffer, ex-journalist? Put us down as doubtful, but hope springs eternal. [IvyGate]

• Gawker-reader Jon Fine doesn't give a shit where you put your ads, so long as it doesn't affect coverage. Unrelated: Go see Little Miss Sunshine, it's the funniest movie of the year. [BW]
• Ana Marie Cox on her new position: ""I've been trying to sell out for a very long time." About as long as she's been using that quote, actually. [WWD]
• If you want to get Rachel Sklar's attention, mention her vagina. Just be respectful about it, okay? [ETP]

In an effort to tap into that whole Internet thing they've heard so much about, Time magazine has hired Ana Marie Cox^* to coordinate "TIME.com's political coverage as well as continuing to create features and essays for both the print and online editions." Cox, whose "sharp and witty" observations about Washington, D.C., will be mainly remembered as jokes about senior political figures getting fucked in the ass, replaces the recently departed Matt Cooper, the fellow who, rather than go to jail and actually get fucked in the ass, ratted out his sources to a grand jury.

Like a brave little girl who wants you to know that, while sticks and stones may cause bodily harm, criticism of a more verbal kind results in no injuries, Katha Pollitt shows up in The Times' today to thank an unnamed reviewer for trashing her recent collection, This Book Could Have Been Written At Any Point In The Last Thirty Years. (We're gonna let you in on a little secret, the review was by Gawker Media alumna Ana Marie Cox, and can be found here.) Pollitt, her head held high, relates how Cox's evisceration of her book (even in the "to be sure" paragraph, where the NYTBR reviewers are required by law to say something nice about the author, Cox can't help but make fun of Pollitt's strident pronouncements) actually turned out to be a good thing, since being written about by a semi-famous "mini-celebrity" enhanced Katha's own fame. It also turned out to be good for the book in the sense that Katha dropped a couple hundred bucks of her own money to jack up the Amazon numbers.

Boldface, the Times, March 10:

In case you missed the Janet Maslin review last Tuesday, or the David Carr profile Thursday, or the op-ed that also ran Thursday, the Times considerately ran yet another review of erstwhile Wonkette Ana Marie Cox's new novel, Dog Days, in the Book Review yesterday. (And people thought "flooding the zone" went the way of Howell Raines.)