Sources close to her confirmed late last night that First Lady Betty Ford, widow of President Gerald Ford, passed away at age 93 in Palm Springs, California. Ford rose to become one of the most popular modern first ladies in part due to her support of women’s rights causes at the time and her work towards acceptance of substance abuse as an illness and the world of the Betty Ford Center.

The recent appointment of former Time magazine reporter Jay Carney as White House Press Secretary has already spawned an effort to discredit Carney, and his former colleagues, by right-wing media watchdog Newsbusters. The right’s answer to Media Matters has released what it calls a “Media Bias Dossier” on Carney, but at eight quotes in a twenty-year career, it’s pretty thin gruel. It might also surprise Newsbusters to know that libeeral watchdog Media Matters has an even thicker “dossier” on Carney, and that Redstate’s Erick Erickson is among Carney’s biggest fans.

As former Time magazine reporter Jay Carney emerges from the Office of the Vice President into the glaring spotlight of White House Press Secretary, there will undoubtedly be an effort to capitalize on the right’s contempt for mainstream journalism by demonizing Carney, and his former colleagues, in one fell swoop.

Right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh provided the blueprint for this effort back in 2006, when he offhandedly slammed Carney and his wife, ABC News National Correspondent Claire Shipman, as “slave-owner and husband.” (h/t Media Matters)

Funny Or Die has produced a video featuring a star-studded cast of actors who previously portrayed US Presidents on Saturday Night Live. Jim Carrey‘s turn as Ronald Reagan and Dana Carvey‘s George Bush recall a kinder, gentler, and perhaps funnier era of SNL political satire. The message behind the video? Promoting finance regulatory reform (and reminding viewers that much of the financial mess in which Obama finds himself, was inherited from previous administrations?)

Well the Summer of Death is officially coming to a close, and it looks like we’ve made it! There is an old saying that celebrity deaths come in groups of three, but this summer they’ve been coming in pairs with one person’s passing being overshadowed by a more famous counterpart.

Who else has famously lost out in celebrity death coverage over the years? We’ve put together a gallery.

It’s not often that somebody dying makes me feel young. But the death of Walter Cronkite has inspired me with an overwhelming feeling of youthfulness. You see, I really know next to nothing about Walter Cronkite.  He means nothing at all to me. Hearing that he’s dead was like a looking at a well-painted apartment [...]