January 2011
Julian Assange: The Real Failure of Wikileaks →
cattleprod:
Really? Don’t you blog about gossip that makes NYC media people email you ‘fuck you’ and shit?
Not in at least six weeks.
That’s the most poorly nuanced, cynical take I’ve seen on this. Way to jump on board the character assassination bandwagon. It’s like each attempt gets more pithy, first Vanity Fair, then NYT, and now its trickled down to the mainstream viewpoint of halfway...
Julian Assange: The Real Failure of Wikileaks →
My first - and only - take on Wikileaks:
Assange’s “data dumps” are indeed that: gigantic shits on the global consciousness with little regard for integrity, aim, or anything, really, but the way they feed his own ego. To the public, he’s equitable to a constituency of college kids who go from globalization protest to globalization protest ostensibly to enact change...
"briefcase full of cocaine" →
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Patrick Wolf - The City
I Won’t let the...
Joe Coscarelli: Stripped →
joecoscarelli:
Here’s how a reporter loses credit for his work:
On Monday, dude who made phone calls reports exclusively in Women’s Wear Daily that Kate Winick, a senior editor for Worth magazine, crashed a $250,000 Bentley during a test drive for members of the press.
That same day, MyFoxPhilly.com …
Must-read for everyone, but especially assholes who don’t already understand...
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Watch“This is the smartest movie ever.”
The Education Reform Roadblock: American Identity →
Education reform is doomed to fail, because it offers no concrete roadmap and fails to address the underlying reasons why so many Americans are opposed to reform in the first place: the expectation of membership, the expectation of safety. Immigration, and being shut out in our own country. Guns, and being unable to protect ourselves from our countrymen and government. It all amounts to a deeply...
War Of The Snow Days
lock:
spiers:
johncarney:
My boredom is at war with my reluctance to go out in the snow tonight.
Someone throw a really amazing party so that I have no choice but to go out.
I think this may be the first time in history that Carney and I are thinking the same thing.
Make it happen, people.
Okay, everyone. I have a muscular fist-sized take of uncut “Columbino” and a room...
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How to Defend an (Alleged) Mobster, by Oscar... →
Famed former mob lawyer, Bombay Sapphire spokesman, and the mayor of my hometown, Mr. Oscar Goodman:
Basically, you defend those kinds of cases the same way I defended a case for my clients who were charged under like indictments. The same way I represented Jimmy Chagra, charged with killing a federal judge.
Goodman’s a character. He was so infamous for his defense of mobsters, he earned...
Why Steven Tyler Needs to Stop →
Christopher R. Weingarten, folks:
And wouldn’t you know it? There was Steven Tyler on Wednesday night’s premiere of the eleventy-hundredth season of American Idol, sitting behind a desk and a trenta of Coke, telling a 22-year-old singer named Rachel like it is: “I know why we’re here. We’re all here because we’re not all there.” Tyler was there because,...
"A Racy Show With Teenagers Steps Back From a... →
thedeadline:
My Thursday scoop about “Skins,” which required me to Google the words “child pornography,” “child pornography lawyer” and “child pornography canada” repeatedly. Awkward.
This, in the same week Nick Bilton got the word “Goatse” in the Times five times. Nice.
Before posting the photos and voice mails,... →
What’s funny is that sometime shortly after reading this, Nick will stop by Gaby’s desk, and quietly note that she needs to stop holding back his writers so much. I was once in a conference room being lectured over a blatant violation of Fair Use that Nick called me in on, and it ended with him and Gaby snipping at each other over Nick’s accusation that she’s scaring me off...
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Yet Another Set of Artless, Bullshit Pictures... →
Next time, they should all hold exotic fruit. Or murses.
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Esquire: Why Does Roger Ailes Hate America? →
Our profile of Fox News boss Roger Ailes from the February issue is now live. Sample quote:
This is what Roger Ailes remembers answering: “Yes, if you take away whoever stands in the way of my complete control and get me distribution. I can beat CNN because CNN has never had any competition and won’t know what to do. And MSNBC will ignore me, because they’re arrogant. And if...
The Sports (Sideline) Reporters: NFL Playoffs,... →
Last week, Sage Steele, Suzy Kolber, and that hot chick who covers the Oregon games even though she went to Auburn all taught me how to play football. It was craziness. Did you know there’s a guy on the field called a “tight end”? That’s a butt joke.
This week, FOX Sports Pam Oliver (who is, like, all over the teevee) and NBC’s Alex Flanagan (who is also all over...
Is 50 Cent a White-Collar Criminal? →
We just wanted to make sure, especially after his $50M “take” was widely reported, despite not having sold the stock. Isn’t this the kind of shit that raises red flags at the SEC?
Well, we called the SEC. That was neat. They gave us a fun quote. We also rang up one of America’s foremost experts on securities law: Jonathan R. Macey, the Sam Harris Professor of Corporate...
10 Questions for Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales, 10 Years... →
I interviewed Jimmy Wales about one of my everyone’s favorite things in the universe, Wikipedia, which turns ten on Saturday. We talked geopolitics, how pickup lines can bring about world peace, Muppets, Lost, and rock. I’d feel negligent if I didn’t note that I expected him to be an insufferable asshole. He couldn’t have been cooler.
Sample:
ESQ: Fair enough. What...
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“Still, the long downtrodden feeling that used to permeate the hallways of Hearst...”
– The King of Hearst - John Koblin, WWD, January 12, 2011
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Dating Advice for Julian Assange... from the... →
Yet, just as WikiLeaks needed the New York Times to sort through an entire cache of classified diplomatic cables, we required assistance sorting through this man’s (and accused rapist’s) torrid love life. As such, we turned to Patti Stanger, the dating expert who helps incredibly rich, incredibly awkward men find the women who love them (and their money) on Bravo’s hit TV show...
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In Arizona, Looking for Answers and Finding the... →
Esquire’s on the ground in Arizona:
So the most confounding thing about her shooting this weekend — besides conflicting reports as to whether Giffords was actually alive — was not why some nutjob would do such a thing. It was how nutty things have gotten around here so quickly, and why getting angry is getting to be a surprisingly unsurprising experience. “When SB1070 happened, I...
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My Breakup Letter to the iPhone →
This isn’t because you let me sleep in on Monday, but that was the last straw. I didn’t want to write this. I can’t believe I’m doing it. And I love you. Goddamnit, I love you. I can’t imagine life without you. But four years after we took our vows and signed the two-year, non-refundable data-and-voice plan that binded us, it’s time you know how I really feel...
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Duly Noted
Derision of Institution X continues to center around Misunderstanding and Fear of Survival Skill Y, whose largest fault continues to be lack of institutional memory.