It's a New Yecade! I am going to keep saying that until it catches on. But either way, we're five days in and everything feels COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. Actually, and weirdly, it sort of does — maybe it's because of all the decade-end stuff, maybe it's because Nexus One is going to force us to buy a new phone, maybe it's because the TSA is about to peep our privates — but "2010" already looks, well, normal. We already feel SO much more mature than 2009, right? Enough to look back now on the year that was with a little of the perspective we didn't have while we were still in it (any 2009 wrap-up that didn't include the phrase "Crotch Bomber" clearly was not complete). Enough to admit some of those things that gave us shame — like secretly loving "Party in The USA" by Miley Cyrus. Which I do. Which I can now freely admit. I also love that song about a shorty fire burning on the dance floor. Am I alone in this secret love for cheesy Aughts-Pop? I refused to believe it — so I pried it out of a few of your favorite media people, or even some people you don't much care for. I also asked them who their favorite villain of 2009 was, and what we should blame on the a-a-a-a-a-a-alcohol. Turns out, maybe also this list. (more...)

The NY Post has not been immune to the rocky year of print publishing. Despite rumors of slumping newsstand, a persistent ad recession, and a nasty harassment allegation, the Post still delivers on what it does best: evidenced in the front page headline on today's paper that concerns the failed attack of Flight 253. (more...)

TOO INSIDERY Hostile takeover! Blogger coup! Get the big guns! Call Nick Denton? Nope -- false alarm -- it's just Young Manhattanite guest blogging the weekend at lawsuit magnet/sports blog Deadspin. That's right, just a couple of friends sharing their blogs and hiding behind anonymous bylines. Nothing to see here! But isn't Foster busy with the flagship? Him being the mouthiest and all, how are they turning out any content at all? (more...)

After six years of successfully, improbably preserved anonymity, British sex blogger and former prostitute Belle de Jour has revealed her true identity: she's Brooke Magnanti, a cancer researcher with a Ph.D. in informatics, epidemiology and forensic science. The British media sometimes tends towards alarmism on issues that even vaguely smack of sexual morality (see: that one photo of the drunk girl with her underwear around her ankles). How is it taking the news?  (more...)

While Gawker Media has plenty of high-profile women — Anna Holmes, Gina Trapani, Lux Alpatraum, Annalee 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. (more...)

The internet was abuzz this weekend with a report claiming that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a fervent opponent of Israel and frequent Holocaust denier, was actually of Jewish ancestry, evidenced by a photo in which the conservative leader held open his identification card after voting. Britain's Daily Telegraph reported early on Saturday in no uncertain terms alongside the accompanying photo (left): (more...)

Is there a better time to bury news than Saturday night of a sleepy holiday weekend? Probably not —by Tuesday, this will be a two-day-old story that will be pushed aside in favor of focusing on Obama's scary, propagand-tastic speech to America's children. Even the Sunday shows didn't get into it too deep. Such is the holiday weekend news cycle. (more...)