The media screwed up many, many times in 2008. As in other years! The ten finest episodes, listed for you below. Merry Christmas, from the media:

The Times may have backed off from its comparison of Caroline Kennedy to Sarah Palin last week, but there was no retreat in today's coverage of the senate hopeful's finance secrets.

Time's international editor Michael Elliott is an up-and-comer, second only to U.S. editor Rich Stengel at the magazine. But leading an iron-fisted gutting of global editions made him bitter enemies.

The Times accurately compared Caroline Kennedy's "controlled" press strategy to that of Sarah Palin. A Kennedy supporter buttressed that view on MSNBC. So why did the Times delete the comparison forever?

The White House has issued not one but two press releases accusing the New York Times of "gross negligence" in blaming George W. Bush's policies for the housing bubble.

There are so many gaudily fraudulent characters in the story of this country's mania for buying and selling homes — like Sam Leccima, the former Flip This House star who allegedly slapped "Sold" signs on unsold houses and didn't even have a real-estate license. A&E yanked his shows from the channel's lineup after charges that his house-flipping efforts were a hoax.

Caroline Kennedy is seeking a senate seat with few qualifications. She's also close (maybe very close!) friends with the publisher of the Times. So we're keeping an eye on the paper's coverage.

Oh, hey, look, it's Barack Obama, being elitist and hating America, during a depression. Prepare to see this photo of the president-elect playing golf throughout the right-wing media, and probably everywhere.

Like Rudolph Giuliani, the news crawl was great on 9/11 but was soon useless and despised. Now CNN is killing it, and hopefully Fox News will too, if the Simpsons mock them again.

Other publishers are cutting back on holiday parties and bonuses, but not Arianna Huffington! It's designer sweaters for her long-suffering employees again this year. So long as they do an advertorial "thank you."

The Siege of the New School, in which students occupied buildings, fought off cops, and terrified school president Bob Kerrey, has ended. Revolution wins! Exclusive first hand journalism—and wanton violence—below:

Arianna Huffington may have raised $25 million last month, but with her traffic tanking post-election, the Huffington Post publisher is clinging to old desperation tactics. Like straight jacking other people's content.

Remember back in the good old days of journalism, when reporters lived like veritable kings? Me neither. But we know those days existed, because now everyone who lived through them is getting nostalgic:

Professional loser Mark Penn—the strategist who can tell you exactly how to become disliked by each individual microsegment of the population—has a new book ad WSJ column. Let's talk about how stupid it is:

No reporters left to cover your city, no reporters left to cover your state, and no reporters left to cover Washington, DC. It's the new journalism.

Prospective senator Caroline Kennedy is "close friends" (ahem) with Times honcho Arthur Sulzberger, and has maybe been feeding the paper scoops, but apparently some Times writers are now trying to publish damaging dirt. Awkward!

It was supposed to be a blind item, but the accompanying picture of Anderson Cooper helps answer the Post's question about a reefer-mad "Olympic champion."

Have you guys been able to enjoy the news at all with this big AP byline strike? Been going on since Sunday? Anybody? Hello?

Oh dear: it seems that Muntader al-Zaidi, the heroic Baghdad Shoe Thrower, is being treated just about as well as we expected in custody. But there is a bright side:

We heard Time's Washington Bureau chief Jay Carney was leaving the magazine, but now we hear the stunning reason: to be VP Joe Biden's communications director. Carney was in the tank all along!