For those of you inexplicably itching to get a jump start on your holiday shopping, a few of the holiday shops at Bryant Park have opened up early, presumably for the cracktards who happen to be ice skating in 70-degree weather at the new pond. Lucky for us, one of those early-bird shops is the New York Times Store, which carries a wealth of options for the Sulzberger lover in your life.
It seems everyone now agrees that Miss Run Amok will soon run away, and word is that she's busy negotiating the terms of her departure.
• Spin and Vibe are — shhh! — up for sale, much to Quincy Jones' chagrin. Buy 'em now, 'cause they're not getting any more relevant. [Radar]
• Andrea Peyser, winner of the Bestest Column In the History Of the World Ever Award For Excellence, really, really, really wants to stir up shit with Maureen Dowd. She quotes an Imus transcript, sort of calls MoDo a slut while calling her out on calling Judy Miller a slut. Women, jeez. [NYP]
• New CBS News boss Sean McManus donated a whopping $250 to Bush in '04. So he's a conservative and extremely stingy. That's no way to be a Pioneer, Sean! [E&P, via some blog]
• The internet "encourages even the most diligent reporters to become entertainers, even shills." Hey, did you hear that Al Reynolds got arrested? [CityPaper]
• Rupert Murdoch is buying the internet. By the way, please welcome new Gawker Editor Andrea Peyser. [Guardian]
We now introduce a new daily feature on Gawker: Today in Judy. What's the latest with Ms. Miller? Has she been fired yet? Did she quit? Any new details? Today in Judy is your easy way to keep on top of all the swirling Millerian news. (Also, in the future this will be a morning feature. We had computer troubles today, and our whole day has been screwed up. Sigh.)
• The Voice turns 50. Long live independent journalism! Oh, wait. [VV]
• Old Voicers, shockingly, continue to be apprehensive about merger. [NYP]
• Four reasons regulators should block the Voice-New Times deal. [SFBG]
• Nightliners are apprehensive, too, as overhauled, Koppel-less version of the show moves toward its launch. [NYO]
• Al Franken to enter Minnesota politics. Which will require moving there. The horror. [NYO]
• New New York Press editor Harry Siegel, who used to work at the Sun, is profiled by a freelancing Sun editor, who reveals Siegel's Press ascension was engineered by the paper's founder, Russ Smith, who doesn't own it anymore. It's almost as incestuous as one of our Mediabistro-EIC posts. [Doublethink]
• James Truman's new job will be in London, not New York. And Judy Miller's car sports a "Support Our Troops" bumper sticker. We don't mean to suggest any correlation. [WWD
• Why's the Times at war with itself? Because it deserves it. [MarketWatch]
Last night we were reading the latest from the Times, a carefully worded report on note-passing fun that makes us a little wet with hope that Libby and Cheney will disappear from the face of the Earth for their involvement with the leaking of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. But, as focused reading makes our heads spin, we were automatically drawn to the Times' interactive graphic (a portion of which is featured above), Timeline of a Leak. A handy chart showing who was involved with what and where, it's an invaluable decoding tool for two years' worth of political and ethical crap-slinging.
The long weekend of Judyism ended today not with a whimper but with a bang:
• Now Diane Sawyer wants the World News Tonight job. [B&C]
• But Geraldo says Elizabeth Vargas should get it. [B&C]
• New Time Inc. chief John Huey isn't as bad as he's rumored to be, says Huey. [NYP]
• Selma Blair went to an old psychiatric hospital and put a live rat in her mouth. For a photo shoot. For the Times, of course. [WWD]
• Announcing the cast for Miss Run Amok: The Movie. [Media Mob/NYO]
• After two days of conferring in Puerto Rico, magazine bigshots have breakout insight: Things must change. Wow. [Mediaweek]
• David Carr's kids believe only suckers pay for content. Content companies sort of believe it, too. [NYT]
• City of Newark, N.J., pays $100K for good news coverage. Which has clearly been very successful. [NJ.com]
The Millerized weekend began Friday night, when Bill Keller menschily (and strategically, we suspect) sent a staff memo apologizing for his Plamegate screwups and distancing himself — and the paper — from Miller. It intensified Saturday, when Maureen Dowd pulled Judy's hair and slapped her silly, and when Miller made public her you're-full-of-shit memo in response to Keller's. When Sunday came — with all this buildup, with the biggest circ of the week, with seven days since the big post-testimony exposes — the conditions seemed right for an explosion.
When Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the fifth-generation scion of arguably America's greatest newspaper family, moved into top Times management, he made a conscious decision to cut off the friendships with rank-and-file Timesmen he'd made during his years of seasoning at the paper. Two employees with whom he's remained friendly, however, are a former housemate from his Washburo days, Miss "Run Amok" Miller, and his star Washington columnist, Maureen Dowd.
It was, it seemed, the weekend when Millerpalooza finally, dramatically, exploded, leaving little bits of blown-about Judiana strewn everywhere: a torn bit of quilted Burberry jacket wedged into Friday night, shreds of a "Valerie Flame" notebook tossed like confetti onto Saturday, Sunday brunch haunted by St. Regis memories of Scooter Libby, a Barney Calame hangover lingering into Monday.
• Judy Miller is a real piece of work, says Wash Postis Gene Robinson. Not that there's anything wrong with that. [WP]
• Jim Cramer TV is a "surreal nightly call-in show on CNBC that is perhaps best described as Louis Rukeyser meets televangelism meets Pee-wee's Playhouse." [BizWeek]
• At D.C. awards dinner, Roger Ailes picks up Freedom of Speech award — and proceeds to exercise that right with wild abandon. [B&C]
• At Puerto Rico confab, magworld learns, among other things, that Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker does laps in a Speedo. Oddly enough, we knew that already, and we have no idea of how or why. [WWD]
Plus, Sulzberger molests small boys.
• Parents Television Council names list of best and worst shows for "families"; Gawker names PTC to list of worst bullshit "family values" advocacy groups. [NYDN]
• Judy Miller testifies before Congress in favor of shield law, several months too late. [NYT]
• Esquire-food-critic-gate continues: The Houston visitor's bureau paid to fly him down to sample four eateries, which comped his meals. Because, you know, Hearst doesn't have much cash to throw around. [Houston Press, second item]
• Dow Jones had a bad quarter, too — but still not as bad as the Times did. [WSJ]
• This just in: Elizabeth Spiers sells book, to leave Mediabistro. [FishbowlNY]
From zeitgeist queen Tina Brown's column in today's Washington Post:
• From our favorite Christian soldier, per an item yesterday: "I don't care if your researchers found out that Judith Miller and I have the same Webmaster. I am NOT Judith Miller, and I demand a retraction. Yours sincerely - Dawn Eden."
• But what if Dawn Eden is a Starlight Mints fan like our little Judy? [Lindsayism]
• You've always longed for a HitchensWatch, you just didn't know it till now. [Hitchenswatch]
• An easy guide to understanding the ASME's best mag covers. [Low Culture]
• Michael Musto ends his latest Village Voice column on a perplexing note. Although we'd not be surprised if he actually were going through menopause. [VV]
• Times Square denizens the Naked Cowboy and Naked Cowgirl join forces for the (presumably) naked interview. [Yes But No But Yes]
Actually, maybe none. They're all about brouhahas, after all.
• If you can stomach it, an overly thorough explanation of Paris Hilton's inextricable connection to capital markets. We'd hate to think the twatzilla has that much influence, but we're convinced at this point that God is dead and anything can happen. [The Stalwart]
• Is New York mag's Jennifer Senior stupider? Inquiring, extra-smart Jew minds want to know. [Canonist]
• Times music wonk Jon Pareles angers our neighbors to the great white north by incorrectly stating the origin of Broken Social Scene. Shame on him for making the Mounties cry. [Toronto Star]
• GQ gets increasingly Details. [Towleroad]
• Howard Kurtz reads blogs; blogs write about Judy Miller; Kurtz turns blogs into Washington Post column. Ta-da! [WaPo]
• Once again, the Times' Metropolitan Diary DOESN'T MISS A BEAT. [NYT]
FishbowlNY makes a great point: Leaky Times reporter Judith Miller and the Daily News' very-Christian headline writer Dawn Eden have a lot in common: They're both on some sort of hiatus (Eden from her blog, anyhow), they're both working on books (Dawn's writing some "don't have sex" thing, and Judy's making bank on her rumored deal), and they both threw their own shit at the office fan (Eden left the Post after her editing skills got a bit too pro-Jesus, and Miller, well, you know). Plus, we'd like to add, they both do what they're told without skepticism or question (Miller by the government, Eden by G-d).
