One can practically hear the giggling between the lines as The New York Times covers the New York Post's gossip page scandal that had the Post airing its own dirty laundry. Last year the Post fired Jared Paul Stern, a Page Six freelancer, after a billionaire accused him of trying to shake him down with promises to not write embarrassing things about him in exchange for cash. Stern is now suing the Post for his termination, in addition to a lot of other people, including Bill and Hillary Clinton. As part of his suit, Stern enlisted the aid of a friend named Ian Spiegelman, who the Post had fired a few years ago after he sent an extremely obnoxious email that was widely circulated. Spiegelman more recently wrote a litany of embarrasing things about the New York Post and its employees and gave it to Stern, but it became public on Page Six, where the Post characterized its former employees as liars. more ›

At my window sad and lonely, by Brainware3000. more ›

-- Gawker has Jared Paul Stern's book proposal. Better get those presses running quick, boys-- his 15 minutes are running out fast! more ›

- There's a ROBOT PARADE tomorrow at noon under the Manhattan Bridge in DUMBO (Pearl Street, between York and Front Streets.) Seriously! more ›

This morning we woke up not at all surprised to see Jared Paul Stern still flagellating himself over at Gawker. But to be honest, we were getting kind of bored with the whole thing. The best part of JPS's first post was his last line and the first comment: "And, just in case you were wondering, yes I can tell who's really posting the Comments. I am, after all, the Editor." Followed by Nick Denton commenting "Um, actually, commenters are anonymous, if they want to be. I am, after all, the publisher." We read that, laughed and went to eat an Easter meal with our family. When we got back a few hours later those two lines were gone, and Gawker went a little cray-cray. more ›

we knew, we just knew, that if we stuck with it long enough eventually Denton would notice and maybe give us some blog-company to play with on the weekend (no offense to you, our fair readers, but it can get very lonely here on the weekend web). But we had no. Fucking. Idea. more ›

- And it's the first night of Passover! There are some community seders from the 14th Street Y...and if you want to go all out, we recommend this matzoh-style yarmulke - hello, afikomen! more ›

The Daily News continued its coverage of the Page Six gossip scandal with the emails between reporter Jared Paul Stern and one of Ron Burkle's staffers - and these emails show Stern asking where the money is! Stern, under investigation by the feds for trying to extort billionaire Burkle in exchange for more neutral coverage, claims that he was asking about an investment Burkle was supposed to make in his Skull & Bones clothing company, which Gothamist can sort of believe - the fulfillment section is totally Cafe Press, and that Burkle is manipulating the Daily News to make the Post look bad. But the big news, though it seems like non-news, that the Daily News and Times are tackling is how gossip columnists tend/seem to be nice to their friends - or people who give them freebies, fly them out for events, give their kids jobs... Anyway, Gothamist has been loving the Post-Daily News slugfest because while the two papers hate each other, one would never survive without the other. more ›

With obvious glee today's Times and Daily News went to task covering the Page Six payola scandal in greater detail. more ›

This a very good day in the Daily News newsroom, while it must be more of a bummer at the Post's offices. News that a NY Post gossip writer has been investigating for trying to extort a billionaire mentioned in Page Six has turned into Christmas in April for the Daily News. (You can read the NY Times' article, as they are somewhat less invested in the story.) According to the Post's statement on its website, Jared Paul Stern (called a "freelance reporter who sometimes worked two days a week" by editor in chief Col Allan) tried to extort over $100,000 from Ron Burkle, investor, big time Democratic party donor and friend of Bill Clinton, in exchange for not featuring stories about Burkle in the paper; according to the feds' tapes, Stern even tried to get Burkle to invest in his clothing line! That's Page Six chutzpah right there. more ›