In your class warrior Thursday media column: the media is congenitally unable to stop covering stupid stories, Mississippi's Fresh Air censor resigns, more theories of David Westin's departure, and Paste magazine freelancers are left high and dry.

In your terrific Tuesday media column: Simon & Schuster stands up for its in-house plagiarist, Jon Capehart pranked on the Twitter, the force behind David Westin's departure, and bad times in newspaper-land.

David Westin is resigning from his position as president of ABC News, which he's held since 1997, apparently because of a "long-running conflict... over the financial standing of the news division." Of course! Want to read his resignation note?

Project Runway host and all-around fashion guru Tim Gunn turns 56 today. Fashion designer Cynthia Rowley is turning 51. Publishing heiress Anne Hearst is 54. ABC News president David Westin is turning 57. Artist Jenny Holzer is 59. Choreographer Paul Taylor turns 79. IBM chairman Sam Palmisano is turning 58. Hotel owner Sam Chang turns 49. Patti Scialfa, the singer, songwriter, and wife of Bruce Springsteen, is 56. Filmmaker Ken Burns is turning 56, too. Actor Josh Radnor turns 35. Stephen Dorff is 36. And Tony Sirico, who played Paulie Gualtieri on HBO's the Sopranos, celebrates his 67th birthday today.

ABC News investigative reporter Brian Ross got suckered into a 2007 story about the effectiveness of waterboarding, that turned out to be false. ABC's newest defense sounds just like...Dick Cheney, defending waterboarding:

Tim Gunn of Project Runway (and chief creative officer at Liz Claiborne!) turns 55 today. Also celebrating: Designer Cynthia Rowley is turning 50. Anne Hearst—heiress, occasional writer, and bride of Jay McInerney—is 53. ABC News president David Westin is 56. Actor Stephen Dorf turns 35. Famed choreographer Paul Taylor is 78. Multimedia artist Jenny Holzer is 58. And IBM chairman and chief executive Sam Palmisano will celebrate his 57th today.

Boy, ABC News president David Westin must have really been moved by the story of Randy Pausch, a 47 year-old professor and father who has terminal cancer. It's not every day an exec as high up as Westin takes the time to email the entire ABCTV staff just to talk about an uplifting story! Westin is truly touched by how Pausch has altered our lives. That's one interpretation. Another, more accurate interpretation, which is completely validated by the contents of Westin's email [via Jossip], is that the exec saw a good chance to use this ill man's story as an example of the badass corporate interactivity going on under the Disney umbrella. Westin's totally excited about Pausch's TV segment, sister company Hyperion is publishing the book, and the guy once wanted to be an "Imagineer" for another Disney unit... When he still had his life before him, of course. The full email, after the jump.

As the former president of ABC News, Westin oversaw all of the news that emanates from the house of Mickey Mouse from 1997 to 2010. These days, he's the president and CEO of NewsRight.