As we speculated yesterday, the New York Times has thrown its weight behind Hill "The Rill Dill" Clinton, endorsing the former first lady to be the Democratic presidential candidate. To wit: "The Times’s editorial board strongly recommends that they select Hillary Clinton as their nominee for the 2008 presidential election," and a little later, they gush, "We are hugely impressed by the depth of her knowledge, by the force of her intellect and by the breadth of, yes, her experience." And it's true, Hillary does have nicer breadth than Obama. But the editorial board is letting Barry down easy peasy.

Is the New York Times Company trying to buy Metro, the city's freebie daily and the rest of Boston's? Silly rabbits. Running Bill Kristol and buying yet another flagging property isn't going to scare off Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal. Don't lets look too desperate and flail-y. [FishbowlNY]

The New York Times' Heath Ledger obit, under Times lifer James Barron's byline, features additional reporting by no less than 14 other contributors, including "Culture Reporter" David Carr, byline champ Sewell Chan, and the Arts Desk's Campbell Robertson. (Sheila McClear, Maggie Shnayerson, and Hamilton Nolan contributed reporting to ours.) [NYT]

Predictably, both TMZ and the New York Post's Pagesix.com are claiming exclusives on news of the apparent suicide of Heath Ledger. The New York Post's boast is rather marred by the borked timestamp on their web story, which was 4.41am, a full eleven hours before the death of the 28-year-old Australian actor. (Update: Perez Hilton claims an exclusive even though the purple-haired blogger was an hour late to the story.) But the earliest report we found was a rumor on Radar magazine's Fresh Intelligence blog, courtesy of Alex Balk, about five minutes before TMZ and Pagesix.com. And the most impressive coverage has been the New York Times' City Room blog, which had the news early, and quickly gave it texture, with recent quotes from the young actor, hinting at his depression. The Gray Lady has long refused to cover celebrity news, except in the most indirect of ways, despite the appetite of the reading public; online, at least, the Times has surrendered.

Blogger obsession No. 1 meets blogger obsession No. 2 in this 1,185 word daydream by relatively unknown blogger John Ellis that's climbed onto Techmeme. If the market cap of the New York Times Co. falls below $2 billion, he says, "The company that has the most to gain from buying the New York Times is Google." Ellis envisions "a fascinating and challenging project: the reinvention of a great newspaper across multiple platforms and within a variety of applications" that will "attract people of great talent." Gee, who would that be. Not that it's a bad idea — it's just that by wishing for the Gray Lady to be taken over by media-savvy, deep-pocketed management eager to try new ideas, Ellis makes a great case for Rupert Murdoch.

As you may have read in Vanity Fair, the Village Voice, The New Yorker, or on this very site right here, Rudy Giuliani was kind of a capricious dick back when he was mayor (and probably before then too, but who cared?). Today the Times joins the season-long pile-on, just as it becomes increasingly likely that America's Mayor won't win a single primary. The best illustrative anecdote appears early: When a chauffeur's call to Giuliani's radio show to complain about a police-rigged red light "yielded no results," the driver took his case to the Daily News. It made the front page, and then the chauffeur was arrested, that morning, and taken to court on a 13-year-old traffic warrant. Then a police spokesman falsely claimed to the Daily News that the driver had been convicted of sodomy. "Then," the Times writes, "Mr. Giuliani took up the cudgel."

Scoops are important to journalists. But do readers care? Some writers persist in thinking so. I can't remember ever seeing such backbiting over a humdrum funding announcement: Kara Swisher of AllThingsD scooped everyone last Friday with a rumor that Slide, Max Levchin's Web widget maker, was raising a big funding round. Sarah Lacy of BusinessWeek had more details of the $50 million round in an already-written column published to the Web after Swisher's post. Brad Stone of the New York Times weighed in that afternoon. And that's when the knives came out.

Speaking of old school, this weekend the Times featured an epic 2,000-word Alan Feuer profile of legendary Daily News reporter Jimmy Breslin who's got a book out and, who is, much to Feuer's surprise, still alive, kicking-and working! Gee whiz, good for him. Feuer may not be the most erm, precise reporter on the planet, but like any fabulist worth his salt, he's got a good grip on phrase-turning. "Mr. Breslin's growl is actually more of a squawk and not unlike how a pintail duck might sound if it smoked a pack a day through a kazoo," he writes. Of course, that line sounds like it's pulled straight from a Breslin column, but never let's mind that.

The power of the intertubes will soon be bringing us "Mondays with Merce," a video podcast of the weekly dance class taught by legendary choreographer and dancer Merce Cunningham. We know you're excited. We know you know that Cunningham is cultural royalty, and that until now his class was only open members of his dance company and hand-picked guests. We also know it's been too long a since an 89 year old man helped you improve your pirouette. Clear out some space on that nano, your Tuesday morning commute is about to get a whole lot dancier. Also, it's not exactly going to be a free download. Here are 2000 breathless words from the New York Times.

Virginia Heffernan (and supposedly other people) lives in constant dread that her beloved Friday Night Lights will be canceled. It's her favorite show but draws only half the viewers of many other, dumber shows. Heffernan, the our favorite breathless TV critic, mournfully parses the situation in the Times Magazine, and it's sort of like when your articulate but totally misguided friend explains why nobody's into her fiance. She chalks up the show's flop to the unwavering artistic integrity of its creators and a lack of sophistication that leads laypeople to reject high art, just like when Shakespeare wrote the totally under-appreciated first season and a half of Hamlet. Hey, remember the time Heffernan compared lonelygirl15 to Jane Austen? We sure do. [New York Times]

After convincing his wife and fellow journalist to join him in Baghdad to cover the war, Times writer Damien Cave discovered that theirs was not the ideal situation in which to work out relationship issues. Theirs is a story of two communicators, a writer and a videographer, learning to communicate with each other during wartime. The troubles seems to be these: Mr. Cave was acting like a husband, Mrs. Cave was acting like a wife, while they were both trying to be act professionally while soldiers, friends and assorted other people were constantly being blown up all around them. Cave has found his closure in the pages of the Times style section and also the makings of a topical, romantically-charged dramedy starring, obviously, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. [New York Times]

Hilarity ensues over at the New York Times' City Room blog, where you can learn all about a slapfest going on at the Junior League, the women's charity-cum-country-club. It seems the Junyeah League is all a-twitter over some missing cash and dreary financials, which the Times wrote about yesterday. Their big priority now? Making sure the paper doesn't get a whole bunch of pageviews off it. Catty! Muffy too! The board is issuing email reprimands like this one: "Please DO NOT under any circumstances e-mail the article to your committee volunteers, friends, etc. The Times tracks the "most popular" hits and we don't need any more exposure than we already have." Ah, yes, the city Junior League, driver of national traffic, bold supporter of boardroom disclosure. This probably means we'll never get in, doesn't it. Damn.

Calling all BabyBjorn-sporting Brooklyn hipster parents! The New York Times is seeking undecided Democrat parents for an upcoming web video. They'd really prefer you be a member of Park Slope Moms (or whatever) and also be one of those types who jabbers on about politics with your pals. Gosh, how ever will they find such people?

Better start brown-bagging it if you're a New York Times employee; starting February 4, the cost-cutting newspaper will increase cafeteria prices by 3.9%, according to an email announcement to staffers today. But don't worry! Management would like you to know that coffee prices won't change-hungry employees hopped up on caffeine are both prettier and more industrious! Wonder if those catered lunches for masthead-occupiers are going to get a price-jump? Oh wait, they're already free! To be fair, prices will still be "8% to 10% below the average for the neighborhood," according to the memo. The Times cafeteria is run by Restaurant Associates, which also manages the eateries at Conde Nast, Hearst and Google-anyone know if those companies are also bumping up their prices? Let us know. Memo after the jump.

The strike is tough on striking writer Anna Fricke, as she reveals in a Times OpEd today. She's not even wearing pants! And she's watching the Food Network! And she can't even get drunk because she's pregnant. [NYT]

The former New York Times Building will get totally cute cafes and clothing stores—maybe even a big box retailer, like T.J. Maxx or Target! It'll also be the new headquarters for the investment group that bought it, Africa Israel USA. We're sure they'll keep it classy. FYI, it shall be called the Times Square Building from here on out. [NY Sun]

Jenny 8. Lee's forthcoming food-porny book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: now with excerpts!

The acknowledgments section of your book is not really the place to get all flowery and "express yourself." You thank your agent, the publisher you probably haven't met, your 'rents, and the friends who put up with your bitching over the last two years. If you're Times reporter Jennifer 8. Lee, however, and you've just written a book about the Chinese food diaspora called The Fortune Cookie Chronicles—well, the acknowledgments section might take on an overlong, strange life of its own. (Remember her totally adorable blog overshares?) In four pages of hugs and kisses, she probably thanks you! Excerpts, plus shots of the whole damn thing, follow.

Damsel Dowd in distress! President Bush to the rescue! During Bush's eight-day trip to the Middle East, the titian-topped Times columnist caught a doozy of a stomach bug and was rescued by the White House, who gave Dowd access to Dubya's doctor and a ride home on Air Force One. Awww. Frankly, we're surprised the administration let MoDo anywhere near a Bush itinerary, let alone an invitation to come along. Interesting little side note? The Washington Post reports that news organizations could pay more than $20,000 per journalist along on the journey. [WP]

The T-Mobile Sidekick has become a favorite target of muggers and thieves throughout New York and the nation. In response, the NYPD has decided to harass teenagers and New York Times blogger Sewell Chan has decided to explain what a "Sidekick" is: "The Sidekick — sometimes encrusted with Swarovski crystal — has been a popular accessory for celebrities like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. It has even made its way onto an album by the young rapper Soulja Boy Tell'em." (The link goes to Times music crit Kalefa Sannah's review of Soulja Boy's surprisingly longer than one track debut album, which does seem to indicate that that is the official Times stylebook-approved way to punctuate Mr. Tell'em's name.) [NYT]