A letter to the editor in this morning's Wall Street Journal has a breathtakingly straightforward lede: "Do you consult your dentist about your heart condition?" "Surely, not!" their readers likely chortled, spilling civet coffee all over their sprite-skin slacks. Yet that is precisely what the WSJ did four days ago when it published the hilariously titled op/ed "No Need To Panic About Global Warming" that was signed by people who have never studied global warming. more ›

Today the typically ludicrous Wall Street Journal editorial page stands up for its boss Rupert Murdoch, whose empire is sinking into an ever-expanding scandal morass. (Over the weekend, the Times summed it up best with the incredible headline: "Taint From Tabloids Rubs Off on a Cozy Scotland Yard"—"Taint" since discreetly changed to "Stain"). The Journal's editorials and op-eds are renowned for their cartoonish "THE BUMS LOST!" ranting, and today's entry is particularly roaring, as the paper frames the News Corp. scandal as an assault on "press freedom in general": more ›

Les Hinton, the chairman of Dow Jones and one of Rupert Murdoch's most trusted confidants, stepped down today amid the burgeoning hacking scandal at News Corp that has extinguished the British tabloid News of The World, forced News Corp's British subsidiary president (and Murdoch favorite) Rebekah Brooks out of office, and spurred an FBI investigation of the company. As the Guardian reports, Brooks's resignation "removed a human shield" from Hinton, as he held her former position at the time when some of the more appalling activity occurred. The Dow Jones publishes The Wall Street Journal, and the paper has walked a fine line in covering the scandal, with the Times's Bill Keller telling the Daily Beast, "I think the Journal has played it pretty much down the middle." more ›

The Pulitzer Prizes have been announced and this year's big winners are the New York Times, which won two (for International Reporting on Russia's justice system and for David Leonhardt's commentary), and the LA Times, which also won two (for Public Service on corruption in Bell City for Barbara Davidson's feature photography). The Wall Street Journal received one for Joseph Rago's editorial writing, the Washington Post was honored for breaking news photography after Haiti's earthquake and ProPublica won for national reporting about Wall Street's role in the economic meltdown. The Chicago Sun-Times won for local reporting on Chicago's violence and the Star-Ledger won for its feature writing, a special look at the 2009 sinking of a fishing boat in Cape May. more ›

Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that the owner of Manganaro's Grosseria in Hell's Kitchen had put the building up for sale, and would be closing as soon as it's sold. However, their "Eatery Closes After Decades-Long Family Spat" headline rubbed the owner's son the wrong way. Proprietor Seline Dell'Orto told the Observer, "We're not closing! No one said that to that idiot reporter!" And apparently all the attention has Ms. Dell'Orto feeling guilty about their service. more ›

NYC has an overabundance of larger-than-life characters who leap from the pages of the local dallies with Tex Avery-like behavior and buffoonery. A kind person would say their out-sized personalities and antics are an appropriately out-sized reflection of our city. But then again, sometimes you just want them to shut up and go away. And it seems many NYers especially want former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Reverend Al Sharpton to go away. more ›

Taiwan's Next Media Animation is now trying to break down the media war between the NY Times and Rupert Murdoch. This video includes not only Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger firing people via trapdoor and Rupert Murdoch as some sort of man-shark hybrid (wife Wendi also appears), but there are cannons of money being fired, Carlos Slim, a spoof on West Side Story, a bird pooping on the Times and Wall Street Journal and a barb at blogs. Bring it! more ›

When you're done reading the Lindsay Lohan cover story, you can also read about Rupert Murdoch vs. Arthur Sulzberger media war in Vanity Fair. According to a summary of the story, VF reporter Sarah Ellison spoke to Andrew Neil, who was editor of Murdoch’s Sunday Times. Neil says, "Americans have this patrician attitude that they have a God-given right to produce these boring newspapers and not be challenged to do it. The New York Times really thinks it’s the BBC...the PBS of newsprint... So, that’s what gets Murdoch’s juices going. He sees [dramatic pause here] a fat pig there for the taking." There are also bitchy comments from Wall Street Journal and NY Times executives. more ›

The NY Times shot a cease-and-desist letter to the Wall Street Journal over the slogan, "Not Just Wall Street. Every Street." The line appeared in a NY Times ad promoting its strengths over arch-rival Journal, which now has a New York section. The Observer reports, "But! On May 26, the Wall Street Journal had a house ad inside its pages, which described the Greater New York section this way: 'Not Just Wall Street. Every Street.'" The Times says it's a proprietary slogan and it has a "trademark application pending with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office." Full letter here. more ›

It's been two days since the Wall Street Journal ran this front-page photo of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan playing softball, and people are still asking: Was the photo intended as innuendo suggesting Kagan is a lesbian? Some lesbian activists think so, and they've pegged the paper as homophobic. And the Journal isn't exactly bending over backwards to apologize. But a deeper question lingers: does softball = lesbian? more ›

We've long been fascinated by the differences between Mets and Yankees fans, and though we've come to some tenuous conclusions on the inner-city rivalry (the consensus is the Mets have a better theme song), it's still hard to pinpoint what the real differences are between each teams' fans. Well, the scientists over at the WSJ laboratories were also intrigued by this question, so they outsourced their search to a polling firm Public Opinion Strategies, who conducted a survey of 650 male and female fans across all five boroughs. And the results...will shock you. more ›

Though he's facing scandal after scandal, Gov. Paterson says his plight is just the plight of every person in that office. He told the Wall Street Journal recently that he's merely a scapegoat for the state's problems, and that all the issues were really the Legislature's fault. Ok, valid point, but he takes the pity party a little too far. "Whether the governor is David Paterson or Rick Lazio or Andrew Cuomo or Superman, we don't have a structure that empowers a single leader to get his or her state out of a major conflict." Superman? C'mon, he would totally have paid for his own Yankees tickets. more ›

With yesterday's launch of the Wall Street Journal's Greater New York section, 79-year-old media mogul Rupert Murdoch held a party at Gotham Hall. Conveniently, another of Murdoch's papers, the NY Post reports, "Murdoch said the aim of the section was to give a "better choice to consumers" and he promised it would deliver a 'fresh, robust, perspective on their city, the country and the world,'" and mentioned that the NY Times' local circulation "had 'declined by 40 percent over the past several years.'" more ›

The Wall Street Journal's "NY Times-killing" New York section launched today. Online, the "Greater New York" offering has a mix of free and paywall articles. For instance, the lead story, about subway bomb plotter Najibullah Zazi getting waved through the George Washington Bridge checkpoint by Port Authority cops, is free, but the story on NY State considering emergency borrowing is subscriber content. And the WSJ apparently thinks its readers take the subway but are confounded by Metrocard swiping, hence an article on Metrocard swiping (free). more ›

Hey, no tabbed browsing for Rupert Murdoch! According to the Observer, Murdoch told an audience during a taping of The Kalb Report, "I have a double computer screen behind me, one with the Wall Street Journal dot com and one with the New York Times dot com, and I'm comparing them." And don't worry, he doesn't just compare the NY Times to the WSJ—he also reads it: "I go through it and I stop at several places... You can see it very clearly in the way they choose their stories, what they put on Page 1—anything that Mr. Obama wants." more ›

As part of its dogged attempt bring the New York Times to its knees, the Wall Street Journal is slashing its subscription prices by as much as 80%. As it prepares to unveil its "Times-killing" city edition on April 12th, the WSJ has sent offers for a $10 a month subscription (about 1/4 of the average Times subscription) to some Times subscribers. Reuters also reports a similar $2.29 a week subscription offer for people who sign up online. more ›

Media baron Rupert Murdoch has made it clear that he intends to destroy the New York Times. And now, the Times is starting to fight back. Just days after the Gray Lady abandoned its hiring freeze to poach a Wall Street Journal arts reporter who could potentially reveal all of the secrets of the Journal's planned "Times-killing" metro section, the paper of record gives some ink to the pending newspaper war, making it clear there's no love lost on either side. more ›

Since Rupert Murdoch reportedly has an "Ahab-like obsession" to destroy the NY Times and is rolling out a New York region section in the Wall Street Journal, the Times is apparently leaving nothing to chance. The Observer reports that Journal arts reporter Kate Taylor quit and is joining the Times: "Up until [Thursday], two sources said that Ms. Taylor was in the office making phone calls and sourcing up in anticipation of the New York section's launch next month. The Times, which has been under a hiring freeze for years, is clearly sending The Journal a signal by poaching one of its earliest hires." However, Times cultural editor Jon Landman claims the paper was interested in Taylor for "some time... You can't have too many good reporters." But one WSJ source said, "People here are fucking furious. She knows all the plans." more ›

The New York Times can't catch a break. Just before the launch of Rupert Murdoch's planned Wall Street Journal metro section, the cash-strapped publication lost its stranglehold on one of the few places where people still read print newspapers—Starbucks. For nearly a decade, the Times was the only national paper sold at 6,500 Starbucks locations nationwide, Advertising Age reports. But starting soon, the chain will begin hawking copies of USA Today beside the Gray Lady. A Times spokeswoman said the paper is "delighted" to share Starbucks' shelf-space. "Customers will have more choices, just like they do online and on every newsstand," she said. But how will the Times feel when Murdoch starts trying to get the Journal into Starbucks? more ›

[UPDATE BELOW]: Media magnate Rupert Murdoch has never liked the New York Times. In fact, ever since the Times editorialized against his bid to purchase the Wall Street Journal, Murdoch has had "an Ahab-like obsession" with destroying the Gray Lady, according to New York Magazine. And next month he hopes to plunge the final, fatal harpoon into her heart. more ›

Tiger looked more like the elusive Cheshire Cat in the Wall Street Journal today when the paper's print edition edited out the golf pro from a photo accompanying an article about his big media appearance. The original photo depicts Tiger Woods jogging with some unidentified white guy, but in cropping the photo, the Wall Street Journal kept the black man down on the cutting room floor. The caption? Tiger Woods jogs Wednesday near his home in Isleworth, Fla. BatteryPark.tv, which spotted the gaffe, notes that at least the online version of the article previously featured the correct entire photo with Tiger "and this anonymous jogging companion." Oh no Tiger, not another "anonymous companion"! more ›

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who owns both the NY Post and the Wall Street Journal, has been been put in the humiliating position of asking for a favor from his competitors. The Journal has been getting ready to launch a new edition in April, with an NYC metro section intended as a tough competitor to the Times. Meanwhile, Murdoch’s News Corporation is upgrading the Post’s printing plant in the South Bronx so that it can print the Journal and the Post. But there have been major delays on that, and now Murdoch needs to outsource some of The Post’s printing, so he's been reduced to begging his enemies for help. We do believe a HA-HA is in order. more ›

The Wall Street Journal reports that it "received more than a dozen envelopes containing an unknown white powder, and New York City police and hazardous materials crews are investigating the matter." Apparently one floor of the offices (located at the World Financial Center) was evacuated—the Daily Intel suggests it could be the one where Rupert Murdoch's office is located. Last fall, an envelope with a suspicious white powder was sent to the NY Times and another was sent to Reuters. Update: We're hearing there's now a "full hazmat response" at the WSJ offices and decontamination is being set up for people exposed on floors 9 through 11. more ›

Recent data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows how badly the restaurant industry is being battered by the recession. Eateries and bars shed jobs for five consecutive months through November, which is the longest stretch of downsizing since the government began tracking the info in 1990. 66,500 jobs have been lost since July, and George Prassas at the Labor Department tells the Wall Street Journal that the extended decline is "definitely something different than what the food-service industry's used to." To personalize the article (and bum everybody out), the Journal tells the sad story of one unemployed waitress on Long Island:

Dawnmarie Capuano, with 14 years of experience as a waitress, hostess and restaurant manager, was earning as much as $200 a night in tips between two jobs at an Italian restaurant and a pub. more ›

Newsweek has a feature on Rupert Murdoch and his desire to take on the NY Times with his new purchase, the Wall Street Journal. But more interesting for media watchers might be the end of the fourth paragraph, where Newsweek reports:

"The fight could escalate in unknown ways if billionaire New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ends up acquiring the Times. As NEWSWEEK has learned, top associates of the onetime information executive are encouraging him to do just that."

Newspapers all over the country are paying close attention to the stunning news that Governor Eliot Spitzer paid for a prostitute - and was apparently a regular client - to "visit" him from NY to DC. Our local papers all take a shot at the former crusading Attorney General who rode into the Governor's Mansion on a promise of reforming Albany. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a person trapped under an automobile at 9th Ave. and 55th St. in Brooklyn, a missing delivery man at De Kruif Pl. and Dreiser Loop in the Bronx, and a scaffolding incident on 7th Ave. and 25th St. in Manhattan.
• NYC's Dept. of Health wants pharmacists to be allowed to administer flu shots, citing the death toll of the disease and underutilization of vaccination supplies.
• A female pedestrian was struck and killed by a sanitation truck early this morning at 50th St. and 7th Ave. in Manhattan. A few hours later, a male pedestrian crossing the street at 23rd and 7th Ave. in Manhattan was struck and killed by a U.S. Postal truck.
• Publication synergy at News Corp. as Gawker notes downtown vendors selling The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post together for just $1.
• Plans for a City Jail in the Hunts Point area of the Bronx have been nixed.
• The rap artist known as Snoop Dogg will be performing in Greenpoint, Brooklyn on March 13 as part of a VH1 special. Greenpointers has the 420 411 on how to win tickets.
• The Town of Huntington on Long Island has banned vendors from selling 'silly string' within 1,500 feet of a parade route; but people can bring their own if they want. Firefighters complain that the novelty substance damages the paint on their vehicles.
• And "Danny Boy" is too depressing for Foley's Pub in Midtown, which is banning the song for the entire month of March.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an officer shot on Vandalia Ave & Ardlsey Loop in Brooklyn, a gas leak at Dongan Pl. off Broadway in Manhattan, and an aircraft emergency at JFK in Queens.
• The City's investigating whether its artificial turf fields are poisonous.
• The Brooklyn Paper finds Obama did get votes in many Brooklyn districts (here's the congressional district breakdown for all of NYC).
• Blogging by athletes at the summer Olympics in China will be allowed. Blogging about the summer Olympics by athletes will be highly restricted.
• The father of the three children murdered by their mother is suing Nassau County for $60 million.
• Rupert Murdoch's ownership of Dow Jones is practically unnoticeable, unless one is longtime Wall Street Journal First Amendement lawyer Stuart Karle. He's fired.
• St. Saviour's demolition was halted by the Department of Environmental Protection.
• This time arguing over a grade worked: The City will revise public school report cards issued last year, after feedback from pretty much everyone.