In 2007, Google spent $1.5 million lobbying Washington, D.C politicians and regulators. According to public filings, much of that cash went toward getting the Google-DoubleClick merger approved. Google says the rest went toward patent and copyright reform, online privacy, energy independence, getting funding for scientific research and education, increasing the H-1B visa quota and making the case for net neutrality. (Net neutrality is the belief that Google, not telephone companies, should dictate what's carried on broadband lines.) It's unclear whether the $1.5 million sum includes the money a Google-backed foundation spent hosting a 2007 Aspen Summit conference held at the St. Regis Resort in Colorado. FTC commissioner William E. Kovacic attended and he later voted to approve Google's merger. So did fellow commisioners Jon Leibowitz and Deborah Platt Majoras, who attended a similar conference in 2006.

Josh Quittner, the Fortune executive editor who's reportedly plotting his escape from his gilded cage at the magazine, has written a perfunctory profile of TechCrunch blog impresario Michael Arrington. Nothing we haven't read before — including the obligatory paragraph about Arrington's conflicts of interest in writing about startups even as he invests in them. Quittner observes that the practice seems to boost Arrington's reputation in the Valley. One conflict Quittner never mentions: As editor of Business 2.0, where I worked for him, he tried to strike a deal with Arrington to save the magazine by merging it with TechCrunch. The effort failed, landing Quittner at Fortune.

American stocks have declined over the past nine years, even before you adjust for inflation and the fall of the worthless dollar. It's the saddest stock scene since the 1970s and the Wall Street Journal said "we may be in another lost decade." To prove it, the paper furnishes a fancy chart and a bunch of statistics based on the S&P 500 stock index. In a brief disclaimer, the paper admits stocks are actually up if you use this other index. Which one would that be? Oh, just something called the Dow Jones Industrial Average, created by the founders of the Journal. [WSJ] (Photo via 60 Minutes)

Yahoo Buzz, the Digg competitor we uncovered last month, has Web publishers giddy over traffic binges. Us Weekly, Salon and Michael Arrington's TechCrunch all report that when Yahoo Buzz put links to their sites on Yahoo's homepage, they posted record traffic days. "It's clear that a link from Yahoo.com blows away anything Digg or any other competitor can offer," Arrington writes on TechCrunch. "That will keep the Buzz publishers, who must be invited into the service, paying attention." And paying for traffic, according to Yahoo's plan.

Are you an investigative journalist? Here's a cheat sheet, with sources: The single worst charge against Wikipedia chair emeritus Jimmy Wales is that he erased a $5,000 donor's embarrassing page history, an act akin to shredding a dossier or spiking a feature story. This allegation allegedly (pardon my reporter-speak) comes from the donor himself, former Novell chief scientist Jeff V. Merkey. Wikipedia's own records show that Merkey donated, and that Wikipedia editors complained when Wales scrubbed Merkey's page completely. Why is this worse than Wales editing his girlfriend's page? If you're a gumshoe reporter, you get it already.

Elisabeth Bauer was Jimmy Wales's first big perk as lord and master of Wikipedia. As with Rachel Marsden, the Canadian journalist at the root of Wales's recent woes, Wales and Bauer struck up a friendship online, over Wikipedia. And people are now saying Wikipedia paid for Bauer, known online as "Elian," to travel with Wales as an upaid Wikipedia press officer — a title he insisted on for her, though some argue she was unqualified for the job.

Jimbo, face it: You're not meant to live out your days administrating nonprofits and setting the low bar for lifestyle. You're not Al Gore. You're CEO material, meant to soar like an eagle, fly first-class, bang one bimbo after another, and dine at the finest restaurants. Your for-profit search engine Wikia could totally kill Google and make billions — ignore Marissa Mayer's giggling, we're serious here. Let go, let go of the tedious pro bono, pro-Bono work. Disengage from Wikipedia completely. The latest accusation — that you traded edits for donations — just show how dull fundraising is. The board of directors will thank you for making it safe for Seagate's chairman to donate another hundred grand, but screw them. This is about you, Jimbo. Become what you are.

(Photo by AskMen.com)

A post at AntiSocialMedia.net that's best quoted verbatim:

"The Wikipedia effort is not personality-driven," claims a commenter who insists that "nobody cares" about Jimmy Wales's behavior. The cult of personality in action: Journalist Cyrus Farivar — a regular contributor to NPR, The Economist, Wired and the New York Times — has had his Wikipedia page deleted several times in retaliation for a joke he made on Slate ("Yes, I added an entry on myself to Wikipedia. Why haven't you?") Meanwhile, Wales's entry is missing the "Personal controversies" section that sprouts on any conservative media personality's page. Of course, his Fox TV paramour Rachel Marsden has one. Here's the current sum of all human knowledge of the Wales/Marsden affair stored in Wikipedia as of 9:15 a.m. PST:

You probably don't care who Wikipedia's chair emeritus Jimbo Wales went to bed with, or what his official relationship to the site is now. What matters is that he's Mr. Wikipedia to thousands of volunteers who contribute to mankind's definitive collection of Foghat trivia. The past week's leaked chats and emails document three acts that aren't crimes, but certainly aren't Wales leading by example. Here's the cocktail-party list to remember.

Did Jimmy Wales misuse funds from the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit he set up in 2003 to oversee Wikipedia? Publicly, the foundation's leaders are saying no. Privately, foundation chair Florence Devouard has alternately bragged about how she's mislead reporters and upbraided Wales over the scandal.

A tipster reports overhearing Jimmy Wales at SFO the morning of Saturday, February 23, pleading with a girlfriend — presumably Rachel Marsden — to keep the relationship alive. His eyewitness report of the conversation:

What's the worst thing Jimmy Wales could talk about with a girlfriend? Get your mind out of the gutter, and down into the sewer. Before his Wikipedia-posted breakup with Rachel Marsden, Wales plotted with the Canadian journalist on exactly how he was going to get her Wikipedia entry cleaned up. To avoid his foes at Wikipedia Review, he told Marsden he'd work through proxies. In a statement, he claimed he was not acting "inappropriately." Here are the transcripts which will let you judge for yourself. (Marsden is the "me" in this chat; Wales's moniker is "jimbo.wales.")

It's not the sex. It's the money. So contends Danny Wool, a former top administrator at the nonprofit which runs Wikipedia. Wool reports on how Wales ran up $30,000 in expenses on trips abroad, many of which allowed him to pick up speaking fees which he kept personally. Florence Devouard, chair of the nonprofit, confronted Wales about this. "I don't make any money, and my wife needs a washing machine," Wales reportedly told her. Her reply, according to Wool: "A gold-plated washing machine?" Wool is right.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Fox News personality Rachel Marsden have broken up — and Jimmy is learning a harsh lesson: hell has no fury like a woman scorned. Here's the goodbye email from Rachel to Jimmy and an IM conversation that strongly suggests Wales violated Wikipedia's rules to encourage favorable changes to Marsden's Wikipedia profile.

Breaking up stinks. Never more so than when your ex is Jimmy Wales, the unhygienic founder of Wikipedia, right-wing TV commentator Rachel Marsden has learned. Before Wales dumped her via Wikipedia, he left two reeking articles of clothing at her New York apartment. She's now selling them on eBay Canada. Today's contribution to the sum of all human knowledge: Jimmy Wales shops at Men's Wearhouse. Screenshots of the eBay listings:

This is surely a first: Breaking up with a girlfriend via Wikipedia. Jimmy Wales, the creator of the world's best collection of Outkast lyrics, has announced in a statement on the website that he's no longer seeing Rachel Marsden, the saucy Canadian right-winger who started chatting him up after her Wikipedia profile came under attack. (See Valleywag's exclusive transcripts of their secret love IMs.) One hopes Marsden didn't learn about the split by reading Jimmy's love note online. As late as last night, she told a friend that she and Wales had patched things up.

Chris Anderson, the organizer of the TED conference, has complained, not to me, not to my boss, but to my boss's boss about our publishing the complete list of his 1,198 attendees. Anderson — not to be confused with the Chris Anderson who edits Wired — finds it "troubling." What we find troubling is the list itself. Fine, it's daubed with Hollywood starlets; they're part of the draw. But why is Zack Bogue, an undistinguished real-estate fund manager, there? Presumably because of his connection with Google's Marissa Mayer. But come on. According to San Francisco's infamous "Googirl" profile, the two aren't even officially dating. That's right: You can get into TED as someone's plus-one.

Venture capitalist Lee Lorenzen has profited from the hype about Facebook applications. And he'd like to share. In a message he sent to reporters — the recipients were apparently chosen because they wrote about two of his startups, Adonomics and TheUADA — he's offering to let them invest in a financing round for the companies. I'll spare you the lectures about journalistic ethics: Michael Arrington already writes about startups he's invested in at TechCrunch. Why can't everybody play this game? Ah, well, there's the hitch in Lorenzen's plan: He likely has no clue how little money reporters make, compared to the programmers and executives of the Valley. While buying into a startup on the cheap in a seed round might sound like a promising investment, most journalists would rather get a guaranteed 18 percent return by paying off their credit cards. Why not just send reporters a check for every positive story they write? That seems easier. Here's Lorenzen's letter:

Venture capitalist Fred Wilson has lashed out at TechCrunch over its coverage of some startup you've never heard of. TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington responded by accusing Wilson of being biased. I'd summarize the whole spat for you, but Wilson's and Arrington's Twitters have done the job already.