In your humid Thursday media column: ridiculous WaPo Twitter uproar of the day, everybody's needlessly peeved at Jose Antonio Vargas, Gothamist is sponsoring long-form journalism, an editor flees New York mag, and the Village Voice could have itself a strike.
Hulu has put itself up for sale, moving to end the grand alliance between the broadcasters who own the TV website and provide it with shows. This is really going to suck.
In your self-important Wednesday media column: Bill Keller's opinions on the internet are neverending, the New York Post gets more expensive, Salon's CEO resigns, Brian Lam moves to the ocean, and Poetry magazine successfully spends lots of money.
I don't know if anybody out there reads the editorials of the New York Observer—I never do, and I actually read the New York Observer—but, FYI, they are hilariously bad! A sample from the past few months:
In your threatening Tuesday media column: major layoffs at Gannett, Randy Michaels is back in radio, AOL eyes paid online content, rumors of OK! Magazine being sold, and Fortune poaches from the NYT.
In Style has an innovative new plan for saving print media: Their annual "101 Reasons to Smile This Summer" features five scratch-and-sniff scents. Editor Ariel Foxman explains the vaguely infantilizing concept:
In your musty Monday media column: paywalls infest the iPad, The Onion wants a Pulitzer, Ed Henry goes to Fox News, Spin magazine fires its editor, mommy bloggers get their own talent agency, and reporters are harassed in Egypt.
Patriotic Americans everywhere rushed home from church yesterday afternoon in order to tune into the "U.S. Open" golf tournament, knowing that god, in his infinite beneficence, would understand that enthusiasm for the "U.S. Open" is part and parcel of doing His work. Imagine their shock, then, when the NBC broadcasting network failed to include the words "under god" in their introductory segment for the "U.S. Open"—which, naturally, was a sickeningly sweet montage of pseudo-patriotic images up to and including American soldiers toting around carefully folded U.S. flags, as schoolchildren reverently recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Sickeningly patriotic, yes; but not sickeningly religious. To recap: Innocent, golf-loving American children were subjected, against their will, to a television montage of relentlessly patriotic symbology that did not include the words "under god" in its rote reenactment of our national indoctrination rites.
Daily Show host Jon Stewart entered the Fox News lion's den for the third time today, appearing on Fox News Sunday opposite Chris Wallace and having the exact same argument about the media that he had with... well, that he tried to have with Tucker Carlson back in 2004. It was infuriating! Not because of Stewart, who is an able if at times frustratingly conciliatory interlocutor, but because of Chris Wallace, who is a huge, silly boob. Above, Stewart tries to make a point, using big words; Wallace responds by showing a clip from Comedy Central's roast of Pamela Anderson. If you have the desire, or the patience, to wach the whole thing, you can find it here.
Today we watched a promo for Keith Olbermann's new show in which he talks about media bias and whatnot. So he's sort of a windbag! But maybe he's kinda right? One commenter agreed.
In your bilious Friday media column: World Net Daily takes a stand for crazydom, the Page One movie dissected by everyone everywhere, Keith Olbermann's show has at least one redeeming factor, and TV advertising will never die.
All of them, probably. But according to ABC News' Brian Ross (in a report that has been confirmed elsewhere), a "hit list" including "a member of Congress, Pentagon officials, a conservative pundit, executives of an American company," and other targets has been circulating on jihadi web sites.
Huzzah, it's the first official promo ad for Keith Olbermann's new show on Current TV—premiering June 20! Finally, someone to dispel that "heavily biased, corporate-sponsored spin." Keith Olbermann, the Adbusters of millionaire cable news pundits. [via Daily Intel]
The office of Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey is claiming that Fox News chairman Roger Ailes is a confidential adviser whose interactions with the governor should remain secret under New Jersey's executive privilege.
Though New York Post sex columnist Andrea Peyser's primary fixation has always been kitties, she's long been a connoisseur of weiner, as well. Needless to say, she's quite broken up over the end of this Anthony Weiner story. Behold:
In your mordant Thursday media column: Arianna Huffington offers concierge service, layoff rumors at Meredith (confirmed), Tina Brown on snark, the Guardian's digital future, and Greta Van Susteren's embarrassment of the day.
Say you're the 85-year-old ringleader of a massive pornographic empire, and like a gullible old slave-to-the-libido that you are, you propose to a 25-year-old and stake your reputation on the upcoming nuptials.
Congratulations to Brian Ross, America's Wrongest Reporter, for winning a coveted Edward R. Murrow Award honoring his coverage of the Toyota unintended acceleration story. The award, oddly, is for "Video Continuing Coverage" rather than "Fostering Global Panic Based on Bullshit Story." Still, a Murrow is a Murrow, right? Let's go to tape.
According to the New York Times' James Risen, Bush White House officials asked the CIA to gather dirt on and discredit left-wing academic Juan Cole because they didn't like the things he wrote on his blog.
