A 64-year-old Indiana state representative, Phillip Hinkle, says he’s the victim of “a shakedown” when the Indianpolis Star asked him about a series of emails that suggest the married Republican offered a young man “$80 plus tip” to spend time with him Saturday night at a hotel. “The emails,” the paper reports, “sent from Hinkle’s publicly listed personal address, ask the young man for ‘a couple hours of your time tonight’ and offer him cash up front, with a tip of up to $50 or $60 ‘for a really good time.’” Hinkle is a Republican who voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

The sudden, shocking resignation of Rep. Chris Lee (R-NY) in the midst of an attempted-sex scandal has been the hot topic of conversation in Washington, especially at the Conservative Political Action Conference. On my way out of the conference Thursday afternoon, I spotted former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, so naturally, I wanted to get his reaction to the resignation, however brief.

It’s been a sensational–but short–story: Rep. Chris Lee, resigning just hours after Gawker published a story suggesting he’d sent shirtless photos of himself to a woman he connected with via Craigslist. The story moved so quickly Wednesday evening (hitting just in time for the primetime cable news shows, fortunately) the scandal had nearly run its course before the author of the original blog post even got her proverbial fifteen minutes. Thankfully, CNN’s Piers Morgan was able to squeeze in a few moments during his live (with studio audience, no less) interview of Donald Trump for Gawker’s Maureen O’Conner, who seemed delighted to be there.

Craigslist recently shut down its “adult services” section under fire from many groups who accused the site of facilitating prostitution. However, before there was the “adult services” page on Craigslist there was the back page on the Village Voice, and it is apparently getting the company in trouble.

After popular used furniture/writing gig/pseudo-prostitution trading site Craigslist received an open letter from 17 attorneys general requesting that their “Adult Services” section (that’s where the pseudo-prostitution happens) be shut down, the site has heeded the warnings and the section is now “censored.” Fear not, though– “Missed Connections” is still alive and kicking.

Craig Newmark looks like the kind of guy who would help you move your apartment, sell your furniture, get a job, or help you find that cute girl you saw on the subway. He does not look like the kind of guy who would kill the newspaper industry. And yet, he has been responsible for [...]

Are you unemployed and a resident of Colorado? Great news! Jason Clark, Independent gubernatorial candidate and lover of exclamation points, has a job opening on his campaign. In order to make a proper run for the state’s top job, he needs a running mate—and he’s willing to interview anyone and everyone interested. That’s why he posted this advertisement in the “Government Jobs” section of the Denver Craigslist page, hoping to recruit a qualified candidate to round out his team.

Traditionally, trust in the news media was established through good work – work that was also right. But distrust in the press grows when traditional journalistic values are forgotten. Right now, people mistrust the press a whole lot – but fact-checking might be the way to win that trust back.

You may have noticed that lots of the folks that make media for a living are pretty unhappy these days.

If you listen to Craig Newmark, the king of digital classifieds and the namesake of the now ubiquitous Craigs List – the newspaper folks he’s talked to don’t blame him for the demise of the newspaper business. It’s cool.

If you’ve seen Funny People — or read tech blogs — you know about the MySpace scene, where Adam Sandler‘s bigshot comedian character is hired to do standup at a big MySpace event (for a whopping $300, 000 — probably not a Rupert-friendly sum these days). Seth Rogen is his sidekick, an aspiring comedian whom Sandler taps first to write him jokes, then to be his BFF. Together they mock MySpace, like wondering what would happen if Tom from MySpace and Craig from Craigslist got in a fight. MySpace co-founder Tom Anderson even makes an appearance, asking Sandler: “Do you actually use MySpace?” Says Sandler: “I fuck girls, Tom. I don’t have time for that.” Zing