One of the most sizzling parts of the Occupy Wall Street steak, from a media perspective, has been the conduct of police in dealing with the protests. With the number of arrests at Occupy protests now past the 4,000 mark, the arrests of journalists by the NYPD has become a major subplot. Mayor Bloomberg’s office has sought refuge behind their credentialing process, a red herring that The New York Observer‘s Elizabeth Spiers has gobbled up, nonetheless. Credentialed or not, reporters shouldn’t be rounded up under weak pretexts any more than citizens should.

Adweek has recently undergone an image overhaul, merging Adweek, Mediaweek and Brandweek into one, single brand and honing its focus in on the intersection of advertising, marketing and media. We spoke with Adweek‘s editorial director, Michael Wolff, about the brand’s changes… and on what he thinks about media reporters. (Hint: He may or may not find them “completely irrelevant.”)

From the “What New York Media Types are Fighting About This Week” file comes a(n ongoing) feud between Rupert Murdoch biographer and Vanity Fair columnist Michael Wolff and Elizabeth Spiers, Gawker founding editor and current editor in chief of The New York Observer.

Elizabeth Spiers – founding editor of Gawker, former editor in chief of mediabistro, and founder of Dead Horse Media – has been named as editor in chief of The Observer, where she will be overseeing both print and digital content.

While Gawker Media has plenty of high-profile women — Anna Holmes, Gina Trapani, Lux Alpatrom, Analee Newitz — it’s gotten some flack for a while now for having a chick-free masthead at its flagship site, Gawker.com. The site that launched such well-known bloggers as Elizabeth Spiers, Jessica Coen and Emily Gould saw its last female editor in December 2008 with the departure of Sheila McClear. Since then it’s been all-male all the time, to the frustration of many readers, watchers, former editors and boyfriends of former editors.