Good news for the Associated Press! "In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006," an annual report from the University of Washington reveals. The majority of arrests since 2003 have taken place in Iran, China, and Egypt, though the US of A gets a mention: "The report predicted that the number of blogger arrests in 2008 would exceed the 36 seen in 2007 thanks to greater popularity of blogging as a medium, greater enforcement of net restrictions, and elections in China, Pakistan, Iran and the US." Thats fine, fine company we're in, isn't it? Of course, the reported number could be deceptively low.

As we reported last week, the Associated Press sent a copyright complaint to a harmless little left-wing news aggregating site demanding they remove posts that featured "39 to 79 words" of their precious, precious copy. Over the weekend, after outrage from various blogs, they retreated. But they're not giving up! Blogs will bow to them! They will set standards, and blogs will naturally decide to follow these standards on their own accord, because that's how bloggers act!

When the rich blog for themselves, they don't stoop to snark or any of the other tactics that common scum like us employ. Take the angelic Melissa C. Morris, the socialite who runs May December. "Over espresso at a restaurant near her Manhattan apartment, she said that, on the Internet and in life, "I focus on the positive. I like to keep things lighthearted. Using a medium that often portrays women of her milieu as spoiled backstabbers, Mrs. Morris offers a rare perspective of New York society on her blog [...] The defunct Socialite Rank once passed harsh judgment over the social ambitions of young Manhattan swells like Mrs. Morris, but it and other socialite observer blogs are generally written by outsiders (in the case of Park Avenue Peerage, a college student in Illinois). But Mrs. Morris, 28, not only lives the life of galas, country houses and world travel, but reports on it in posts utterly free of snark."

Less than a day after Tim Russert died of a heart attack at 58, his life and death have received so much coverage that some bloggers-who need to have opinions on everything-are complaining about the coverage, and that, too, of course, is being covered. Both The New York Times and the Stranger focus on one particular note of dissension from John Cole of Balloon Juice. The rant, and a lot more Russert coverage, after the jump.

Chelsea Alvarez-Bell, the blogger who furiously quit her job with Seattle's Stranger yesterday because all the commenters were mean has returned briefly with a triumphant fuck-you to the angry mob. It turns out that her boss "was disappointed that I was quitting, and that he would like to up the ante. One dollar for every comment on ‘Fuck This, I'm Out' posted before 4 pm… if I was willing to write about how I spent the money. I agreed, and since then have been hitting refresh on the thread, watching the money roll in. I saw a lot of assholes being assholes, and nice people being nice. But what I was really glad to see was people discussing the state of the comments on Slog, which I hoped would happen."

TakeBackTheInternet.com

Vanity Fair's increasingly lively web producers have put together a handy grid of the world's blogs arranged by newsiness (the y-axis) and scurrilousness (the x-axis). Gawker and sister gossip site Defamer are positioned-thankfully-at the far left of the matrix. The full-size chart has clickable icons which link through to the featured site.

The closest the internet can come to coughing up a reference to a "terrorist fist-jab" that doesn't involve Hill is one comment on political blog Human Events Online. The comment was deleted. And also it was insane.

A new survey of newspaper editors finds that 44% of them wouldn't let their reporters have personal blogs without prior approval. On the other hand, 100% of reporters with personal blogs secretly hope to get fired so that they can become heroic blog martyrs. [Bloggasm, Previously]

Looking to keep tabs on which C-list girls-about-town "It" gay Peter Davis is rubbing elbows with? Now you can via his new papermag.com blog, which is called Peter Davis' Status Update in deference to the fact that he spends half his day on Facebook. (He has 3,183 friends and counting.) The pilot episode finds Davis at a party at the eponymous Upper East Side clothing boutique of "designer" Nicole Hanley, the daughter of Greenwich oil-and-gas magnate William "Lee" Hanley Jr., and concludes with an avalanche namedrop of second-tier socials—Carter Peabody, Travis Acquavella, Bartle Bull, Dori Cooperman, etc. Not present: anyone actually impressive.

The media has lots of unwritten rules. Many of them are followed more closely than the written rules. After the Times ripped off a year-old Wall Street Journal story with no credit last week, we realized the need for a complete explanation of the powerful rules governing a time-honored and fundamental practice: Stealing stories. Every media outlet in the world does it—after all, there's much more space to fill every day than there are exclusives. Done the right way, it's perfectly acceptable; done the wrong way, it can be the start of an undercover war. After the jump, we explain everything you need to know to be an honorable, thieving hack. Memorize it:

After commenters attacked the Times' Jennifer 8. Lee for her rather asinine, haughty story questioning how convenient bicycle commuting really is, her editor stepped in to defend her: "Readers, Since some of you seem to be seeking disclosures... Jennifer 8. Lee, a native New Yorker, has never owned a car. Nor do most writers and editors on the blog's staff. Indeed, several of us are avid cyclists." Proving cyclists can write dumb articles about cycling, too. [City Room via Animal NY]

Socialite and beginning blogger Emily Brill has "media strategist" representation for her blog chronicling the misadventures of a "Fifth Avenue Misfit." Who knew? It's DolceGoldin, who we reported on earlier re: their dealings with author James Frey. And "she's had one for a while now, surprisingly," we're informed. May we suggest the next strategy for Brill: earning actual monies from said bloggings! [Daily Intel]

Gothamist.com, the NYC news-about-town blog, today posted a straightforward item about a 19-year-old woman who was raped in her apartment building in Soho last night. They described the suspect: "a black man, about 5'8" and 200 pounds, with a possibly pockmarked face, and he may be between 20-30 years old." Now, we were under the impression that Gothamist's readers are mainly drawn from the broad hipster demographic. So either our impression is way off, or many hipsters are thinly-veiled racist fucks (somewhat true, actually). Because the comments quickly turned into a call to throw black men off buildings:

It's a long holiday weekend, so perhaps by Tuesday there'll be nothing left to say about former Gawker editor Emily Gould's extensive New York Times Magazine cover story about sleeping with people and blogging about it and having panic attacks on bathroom floors? No? Well, in any case, The Huffington Post's Rachel Sklar, a Canadian, provides a tasty summary of the essay and the ensuing media cluster-fuck. "This was an extended blog post, an overlong 'Modern Love' essay, 7,937 words that did not venture beyond the author's own experience; for some perspective, the NYT's investigative expose on the Pentagon's purported ties to on-air military analysts had 7,486). And for what?"

Veteran sportswriter Pat Jordan, who worked for Sports Illustrated back in the good old days when every athlete would grovel and tap dance for a chance to appear in that magazine, has a long piece in Slate today detailing exactly why his job was way better back then than it is now. To sum it up: athletes today know they can control the media, whereas back then they were basically underpaid rubes grateful for any press coverage that might land them some endorsements to enhance their meager salaries. Jordan also notes that Jose Canseco is a jerk, old-timey players weren't afraid to ogle girls in front of a reporter, and Deadspin.com is the future of sports journalism. Suck on that, Buzz Bissinger!:

Twitter is, uh... a microblogging thing, where you tell everyone what you're doing at any given moment. It's basically a colossal waste of time. But if you subscribe to ONLY ONE FEED let it be this one: the Twitter account of London's Tower Bridge. It makes all other Twitter feeds utterly redundant.

Hey, bloggers! The countdown to the three-day weekend clusterfuck of examining and reexamining former Gawker editor Emily Gould's forthcoming New York Times Magazine piece may be cut short! Because The Observer has a copy, and it'll probably be online tomorrow. You are forewarned: there is a photo of a blogger at a laptop, blogging. It's just Emily's hands, though. According to Matt Haber, the piece is "heavily diaristic." Do you want to read about Julia Allison? Sure you do.

A tipster sent us a reminder today, calling us idiots and pointing us to a 2004 Modern Love column from the NYT, which we will refer to as "The Dangers of Blogger Love 1.0." A young female blogger named Heather Hunter met a boy-blogger, through their respective blogs. And the girl found out about another woman in her guy's life... through that woman's blog. Read on, for the blogger-love warning that went ignored.

Much as Spy invested sarcasm, Suck invented blogging sarcastically. Or something. It was an internet magazine, like Slate and Salon except it didn't make you want to claw your eyes out, which is why it's defunct now. But everyone remembers it, and its glorious heyday. Greg Allen still has a bottle of Suck Soda. Which is tragic. He would like to know if anyone else has one. [Greg.org via Kottke, natch]