So some scientist did some study that showed that many fewer people would die of the lung cancer if we all got CT scans, or something, and they printed the study in the New England Journal of Medicine. But now the New York Times has revealed that the study was funded in part by a foundation that received four grants from Liggett Tobacco, so none of it counts. "In the seven years that I've been here, we have never knowingly published anything supported by" a cigarette maker, the editor-in-chief of the journal said. Because he wants us to die. They'll take all the studies in the world funded by groups whose raison d'etre is proving that cigarettes are bad! But one little giant tobacco company tries to come up with a way we can safely journey into the country of the shadow of flavor and suddenly its a big ethics crisis. Now they'll ban the cigarettes, again. [NYT]

Eric Boehlert predicts that Fox News is basically fucked. While the liberal Media Matters senior fellow's job is to criticize and decry Fox News, that network's continued relevence will ensure that he keeps that job. So it is presumably with both glee and secret dismay that Boehlert presents a portrait of an epochal force in news presentation on its sad decline.

Reuters might have another little problem with dramatic photos from the Middle East. The wire service sent this photo out last week with the caption "Palestinian lawmakers attend a parliament session in candlelight during a power cut in Gaza January 22, 2008." The photo—taken, along with a couple similar ones, by Gaza local Reuters photog Mohammed Salem—purports to show how Palestinian leaders are soldiering on in the face of the Israeli blockade and power cuts. Except that it's clearly the middle of the day, and sunlight would be streaming through the windows if the curtains weren't closed.