Henry Blodget was a famous Merrill Lynch analyst who got rich by hyping internet stocks in the 1990s until Eliot Spitzer caught him lying. Then Eliot Spitzer got caught choking hookers, and now they're hanging out on the internet together.

In your variegated Wednesday media column: Television's death foretold, the magazine industry's resurgence predicted, the Boston Globe's hope springs eternal, and something for tattoo enthusiasts to read.

For a startup founder itching to cash out, the recession can be tough: The economy fades hopes for an acquisition or plum funding round. Perhaps this explains some of the testiness around this year's awards from Silicon Alley Insider.

New York City's unofficial first lady, Diana Taylor, is celebrating her 54th birthday today. Hope Mike got you something nice! Others celebrating: Tom Brokaw is turning 69. Former Daily News gossip columnist Lloyd Grove is 54. Henry Blodget is 43. Chef Marc Murphy is turning 40. Axl Rose is turning 47. Journalist/author Michael Pollan is 54. Natalie Cole is 59. Rich Astley is turning 43. And Zsa Zsa Gabor is 92. Weekend birthdays after the jump.

United by ignominy, former Wall Street analyst Henry Blodget has forgiven Eliot Spitzer, the prosecutor who cost him his job. And he's getting softer on him by the day.

What do the instant comebacks of Martha Stewart, Henry Blodget, and Eliot Spitzer tell us? There's no longer anything to be ashamed of in failure. And that's cheery news for anyone who's been laid off.

If the government hasn't investigated you, why should anyone listen to your stock tips? That's the lesson of three Wall Street chatterboxes who once faced SEC scrutiny — and are now bigger in the stock-talk business than ever.

"Yahoo will almost certainly fire too few employees when it announces its mass layoffs this week," predicts Henry Blodget, the disgraced stock analyst everyone now listens to. Henry's got a bunch of charts you can look at, or you can read his kicker: "What's the smart amount of spending decline to plan for? We think about 10 percent next year and slightly more in 2010. We would also plan on the decline lasting at least two years."

Google is supposed to begin testing gambling ads in the UK today. I've come up snake eyes trying to get one onscreen, so I'd love a screenshot if you get one. Free-market champion Henry Blodget beat me to the summary:

The last time YHOO traded below $13 was after 9/11 and before the U.S. invaded Iraq. (I live in San Francisco, where even Republicans obsess over these connections.) Henry Blodget, the disgraced stock analyst everyone trusts now, says Yahoo is scrambling to update its layoff plans after watching eBay go first:

Some of Yahoo Tech Ticker's recent headlines have little to do with tech: "Senate Passes Bailout Bill: 74 to 25"; "Buffett Buys $3B of GE Preferred, Company Selling $12B of Common"; and "It's 'Absolute Nirvana' for Value Investors, Whitney Tilson Says." Tech Ticker talking head Sarah Lacy has posted an existential complaint. The title: "When Tech Reporters Become Irrelevant." When? We thought they always were. But we digress. Lacy writes that there's been one tech story this year mainstream enough for a Yahoo audience — the Microsoft-Yahoo non-merger — but that otherwise, "it's been a year of financial news."Fellow Tech Ticker talker Henry Blodget has steered his own Silicon Alley Insider website away from New York's Silicon Alley. Lacy seems to be taking it personally: "Judging from these eye-popping numbers, few of you aren't watching Tech Ticker. I'm glad I wasn't missed during my month on tour. Sniff." (Photo by Randy Stewart)

Why did disgraced stock analyst Henry Blodget post a long email by Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis to Silicon Alley Insider, and then take it down? There's the obvious reason: Calacanis hadn't given permission for it to be republished. But Silicon Alley Insider has reprinted Calacanis's emails before. We think it more has to do with the fight that broke out in the comments between Calacanis and Howard Lindzon, a Phoenix, Ariz. hedge-fund manager who owns a piece of Blodget's blog. Could it be that Calacanis's copyright gave Blodget a convenient excuse to unpublish the piece — an item that was generating ill will between one of his investors and a startup CEO whom Blodget thought it expedient to suck up to?If so, the peacemaking attempt failed. Lindzon has made no secret of his dislike for Calacanis, on his blog and on Twitter after Twitter after Twitter. In a post discussing the bailout, Lindzon gratuitously dissed Calacanis as someone who "started a bad business (Mahalo.ugh) at the top and now is scared and panicking to his e-mail list." Calacanis extended an olive branch:

It's Mahalo founder Jason Calacanis's world, we just have the misfortune of living in it. The former Silicon Alley Reporter publisher decided to quit blogging, instead opting to send out his verbose fonts of wisdom as emails. Take his latest 2,948-word missive, "(The) Startup Depression" — claiming that anywhere from half to four in five startups will fail thanks to the current economic crisis (or at least, will blame their failure on the economy). Apparently Calacanis asked that the post be taken down. Because of a principled stand for intellectual property? Because SAI's publisher was getting the pageviews and Mahalo wasn't? Or because Calacanis can't take the heat in a public forum? The fight that broke out in the comments between Wallstrip creator Howard Lindzon, Blodget and serial entrepreneur Scott Rafer suggests the latter.

Does Henry Blodget, the disgraced former Wall Street stock analyst, have a Forbes fetish? We ask because his latest hire, Caroline Waxler, has the business fortnightly on her resume — as does soon-to-depart Blodget employee Peter Kafka. Blodget, best known for his Silicon Alley Insider site, seems to fancy himself a business-blog mogul, running two other sites — Clusterstock and the Business Sheet. Waxler will edit the latter which, in a refreshing piece of honesty, explains, "We’re still in beta, which means we still suck."At present, the Business Sheet's headlines read like Rupert Murdoch had reassigned the editors of the New York Post to man the Wall Street Journal's copydesk. I trust Waxler, with whom I worked at a now-forgotten business magazine, will liven things up. Most recently, she attempted to bring a dash of celebrity to an overserious TheStreet.com. And besides working at VH1 on shows like Best Week Ever, she has comedy running in her veins: Joan Rivers is her aunt. If anyone can find the funny in a market meltdown, she can.

The latest hire in online tech outlets smacks of cannibalism. Silicon Alley Insider, the vanity blog vehicle of former Wall Street stock analyst Henry Blodget, has lost managing editor Peter Kafka to AllThingsD, the vanity blog vehicle of Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg. Dow Jones makes for a steadier parent than AlleyCorp, the tech-startup holding company of DoubleClick cofounder Kevin Ryan. But one would think Swisher, who confirms the hire and says Kafka will start at the end of October, might have first raided the vast hordes of reporters working in the faltering medium of print before feeding on her own kind. Let's just hope she lets Kafka get out more.

DailyCandy, the girly e-newsletter founded by Dany Levy and acquired by Bob Pittman's Pilot Group for $3 million in 2003, has changed hands: Henry Blodget's Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that Comcast has picked up the company for $125 million. [SAI]

Legg Mason portfolio manager saved Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang's job this morning, and far be it from the always-exclamatory Yang to hide his relief. Yang recorded a companywide video address, and reading a transcript filed with the SEC, we can't help but wonder if Yahoo's lawyers missed a few exclamation marks. "Hi guys," the transcript begins — but we're betting it sounded more like "Hi guys!!!!11!!!!"

Silicon Alley Media, disgraced tech-stocks analyst Henry Blodget's recently formed blog collective, has raised a modest $1 million from wealthy investors, Tech Confidential reports. The A round's A list included Tacoda cofounder Dave Morgan and former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz. With the proceeds, Blodget is hiring editors for two new sites: Clusterstock, a spreadsheet-heavy analysis site, and Business Sheet, a tabloidy take on business personalities.

After an interview with employee Dan Frommer, Silicon Alley Insider publisher Henry Blodget received a "threat" from an Apple shareholder who didn't like the pair's skepticism about the market for iPhone applications and the stock's performance. But rather than go after Blodget for shorting AAPL, why not mention that the analysis comes from a man who had to settle a fraud suit and was kicked out of the financial business? That seems easier. [Silicon Alley Insider]

Former dotcom analyst Henry Blodget, who now oversees the tech blog Silicon Alley Insider, is used to legal messes. (He was barred for life from working in the securities industry, as you may recall.) Well, he has another case on his hands today! After the site posted a confidential YouTube document, Google fired off a scary letter. SAI later posted the legal threat, which it later removed, although Blodget's original post with the contract still stands. [Valleywag]