In your philosophical Friday media column: arm-twisting at the San Francisco Chronicle, intellectual thuggery at the NAACP, body-slamming of college papers, and death and rebirth of reporters:
Lois Draegin was an editor at TV Guide before she got laid off—now she has an internship to help her build internet skills. That's admirable! But the internship's kind of awful. We should know!
The US government has released "numbers" and "statistics" about the month of February, and how it went for us, the American people, in terms of "jobs." It went poorly.
In need of a new career, one that you don't have to be ashamed of, unlike your last job as a corporate attorney or investment banker? Why not become one of the highly trained operatives who pesters the bereaved to pay their dead loved ones' debts? Business is booming in this "newest frontier in debt collecting," because even though the recently-deceased's next of kin aren't legally obligated to pay outstanding Visa and cell phone bills, with a little prodding and tailor-made psychological manipulation, they often do.
• Merrill Lynch's top 10 earners in 2008—a list that Andrew Cuomo will be interested to take a look at—is out. Each made more than $10 million in cash and stock in 2008 as the bank racked up losses of $27.6 billion. [WSJ]
• The private sector lost nearly 700,000 jobs in February. [CNN]
• A UBS exec will address the Swiss bank scandal on Capitol Hill today. [NYT]
• Ben Bernanke yesterday: "If there is a single episode in this entire 18 months that has made me more angry, I can't think of one other than AIG." [BN]
• Bill Ackman's hedge fund dropped in February, Ken Griffin gained. [BN, NYP]
• More than 8.3 million mortgages are underwater, according to a report. [BN]
• Bernie Madoff has agreed to give up rights to his investment firm and company art collection. A hearing scheduled for today to look into conflicts of interest on the part of his lawyer, Ira Sorkin, has been postponed. [AP]
Attention, unemployed young media people: according to what we fear may be a real Craigslist job posting, you may be able to make up to $10 working for a publishing company! If you're not "bitchy."
Michael Bloomberg may be willing to spend $45 million preparing Wall Streeters for careers in other industries, but it looks like some finance types are already branching out. Take the investment banker in Connecticut who says he'll "offer the highest quality lawn cutting service for less than what your scraggy, tattooed landscaper charged you last year." Not that he's at all bitter about it or anything. [Clusterstock]
Conan O'Brien's story seems more bitter each time he's asked about learning Jay Leno would precede his Tonight Show on NBC.
The New York Times' publisher's son has the increasingly rare privilege of a fresh newspaper job, at the Times no less. But his situation is not entirely enviable.
