As we told you Monday, one sad editrix of celebrity gossip sheet thinks her profession is living on borrowed time. It's one big void out there, the canvas is blank, there is no news. And it's not just low culture. The zeitgeist at large seems to be suffering from tired blood (maybe too much vital energy spent looking at mobile porn?). Nicholson Baker's Human Smoke was the most noteworthy book to be published so far this year, and it argued that World War II wasn't worth fighting. World War II. That's not even counterintuitive in a fun Slate-y kind of way. As for the election, we're in a massive lull until at least Labor Day, barring Israel's surgical strike on Natanz, which happened yesterday while you were updating your Tumblr page. The arts? The worst film of the year, M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening, is (tellingly) about about an epidemic that causes inanition followed by suicide. The Jewish Museum's exhibiting action painting at a time of supreme lassitude. Elsewhere the herd of independent minds has taken a collective nap: the red siren that blares in Matt Drudge's head has been as silent as the one in James Wolcott's. So what's going on?

The late Tim Russert initially refused to host Meet the Press because, in his words, he was "ugly." Sad! He just looked like a regular fat dude to us, no grosser in appearance than plenty of other fat guys you might see on television any night of the week, as SNL cast members or wacky sitcom neighbors. But Doree Shafrir points out that you don't generally see ladies who look like Tim Russert on television, and certainly not hosting important news programs. "We expect our female pundits and news anchors to be intelligent and beautiful," Doree says, "but men can get away with being overweight and unattractive." We kind of disagree with that.

Less than a day after Tim Russert died of a heart attack at 58, his life and death have received so much coverage that some bloggers-who need to have opinions on everything-are complaining about the coverage, and that, too, of course, is being covered. Both The New York Times and the Stranger focus on one particular note of dissension from John Cole of Balloon Juice. The rant, and a lot more Russert coverage, after the jump.

Fun game: take this Katie Couric comment on sexism toward Hillary Clinton and replace the Senator's name with the anchor's. Ha ha iron our shirts, Katie! Stop hosting the "news" and get back to humoring the wacky weather guy in the morning! Also it's all tremendously sad. Video below.

Leave it to the French to [insert something racy here]. They have their own little scandal with a lady news anchor. It's similar to the issues we've dealt with here in the US—the chauvinist rise and fall of Katie Couric, last seen sympathizing with Hillary Clinton—but so much more French. The respected and beloved 60-year-old male presenter of Europe's most-watched news broadcast was just fired and replaced with a 41-year-old blonde cutie. And it's all the fault of crazy president Sarkozy!

On MSNBC's Morning Joe show today, Courtney Hazlett reported on the current racial tiff between Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood. She reminded us that this isn't the first time the two have had issues: "Spike Lee got really uppity" about Eastwood's WWII movies before! I wonder what Spike Lee has to say about that. Click to watch the lady say the racist thing. [via PlanetGordon. Hazlett is the same reporter who said "we've almost had a dress rehearsal for this with Owen Wilson" when actor Heath Ledger died in January.]

Page Six has a "DARK THEORY" (or, if you prefer, a "bizarre scenario that seems possible") about why former Access Hollywood host Larry Mendte would want to read the email of Alycia Lane, his cop-slugging former co-anchor at the CBS station in Philly. Yammering coworkers say that Mendte was jealous of Lane's success, and "worked hard to take Alycia down." The clear implication is that Mendte may also have been responsible for leaking past gossip items about Lane's personal life. It certainly qualifies as a dark theory, but is it true? Nobody knows yet, so here's an anonymous coworker's gratuitous quote about Mendte's wife: "She's an older version of Alycia, which I find a little freaky." [P6]

What do you get when you have a local weather man whose last name is Quinn and is quite dashing, plus a local anchor who is perhaps overtired and has gay things on her mind? The answer is revealed in this snippet from tonight's 5:00 p.m. airing of CBS 2 News in New York. Watch the Freudian slippage after the jump.

At least two people were killed when a construction crane collapsed on Manhattan's Upper East Side shortly after 8 a.m. this morning. In this clip—with breaking shots of what can only be described as carnage from the scene—a reporter explains the crane's unfortunate configuration: it was actually hanging all the way over the street below, like a "gondola." Its collapse damaged at least 18 floors of a nearby apartment building. This is the second major crane collapse in the city in as many months. Click to watch the clip.

Alan Schnurman, the lawyer representing Fox News bedbug victim Jane Clark, explains the origin of the infestation: "My position is that it comes from foreigners...Because it became so inexpensive for foreigners to travel here, I believe they brought it into our hotel system." God, we knew it was a bad sign he called his client "Joan" yesterday. Just show the pictures and keep your mouth shut, Schnurman! You'll ruin everything! [NYO]

Gothamist.com, the NYC news-about-town blog, today posted a straightforward item about a 19-year-old woman who was raped in her apartment building in Soho last night. They described the suspect: "a black man, about 5'8" and 200 pounds, with a possibly pockmarked face, and he may be between 20-30 years old." Now, we were under the impression that Gothamist's readers are mainly drawn from the broad hipster demographic. So either our impression is way off, or many hipsters are thinly-veiled racist fucks (somewhat true, actually). Because the comments quickly turned into a call to throw black men off buildings:

The White House sent a FURIOUS letter to NBC news. They claim they're mad at how NBC edited Richard Engel's interview with the president last week. It's all bullshit, obv. The details, transcript, letter, and video—after the jump!

Former Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger was tapped to write News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch's profile in Time's "100 Most Influential People" feature. So what does Steiger, who retired from the Journal last year after handing it over to Murdoch-who is evil-think of the media baron?

"'Based on the record before us,' the FCC said, 'we conclude that TMZ does qualify as a bona fide newscast because it reports news of some area of current events, in a manner similar to more traditional newscasts.'" [B&C]

Aaron Brown was the serious, soft-spoken voice of CNN. Americans all remember his calm, powerful, and moving presence on CNN covering the attacks on the World Trade Center, as they happened, all day long. His first day at CNN! Then a couple years later CNN ditched him and gave his time-slot to Anderson Cooper, who is much prettier. But he's back! On, uh, PBS, where he'll look comparatively "young" and "cool." Anyway, Brown weighed in, for some reason, on the battle between Fox hothead Bill O'Reilly and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. "Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly 'are both larger-than-life figures,' he says, but Olbermann is 'smarter, funnier, better read and eminently more talented.'" Well. Is someone angling for David Gregory's spot once Gregory takes over for Chris Matthews? He's got all the time in the world, NBC. He'll wait out this rumored move that may never happen. [TVNewser]

NBC nightly news anchor Brian Williams blogged yesterday about how he's totally unsurprised that the Sunday New York Times is suffering rapidly dwindling circulation. 'Cause BriWi picked up one of these Sunday papers the other day and was totally unimpressed. "I must admit that on Sundays it becomes a tough paper to figure out. While this week's paper featured an op-ed piece by Elizabeth Edwards bemoaning the lack of serious, in-depth coverage of the political race, it's tough to figure out exactly what readers the paper is speaking to, or seeking." Then he sorta writes a Gawker post about it!

"California authorities have closed 17 miles of San Diego County beach as they search for a great white shark they believe attacked and killed a man training for a triathlon Friday morning."

Using the trash can drug meth makes a person mighty paranoid. So it was probably fear of having his genitals stolen that moved CNN talker Brian Quest (who is British) to attach them to his neck with a rope sometime before he was busted for possession in Central Park Friday night. But that still doesn't explain the dildo he had stuffed in his boot like a Derringer.

Embattled anchor Katie Couric (legs!) of the long-withering CBS Evening News got a vote of confidence from network boss Les Moonves yesterday, but it was probably just a bunch of meaningless hoo-ha. Moonves said at a staff meeting that Couric "is my anchor today, tomorrow and in the future." Aw, sweet. "But the public display does not change the reality that Couric is likely to relinquish the anchor chair after the election, according to two top network executives who declined to be named discussing a private meeting."