The putrid story of how a New York Congressman spent his days sending lewd pictures of himself to women he didn’t know has captivated the hearts and turned the stomachs of America for almost three weeks now, and CNN has taken to following every minute detail of this story with zeal. Did you know that, today, Rep. Anthony Weiner “came out, walking down the street like so many people do”? Yes, it’s true.

The repercussions of comedian Gilbert Gottfried‘s insensitive tweets regarding the recent string of disasters in Japan seem to have no end. Almost immediately after, Gottfried lost his job as voice of the Aflac duck. And now, in what has been described as “the f***ing most terrifying video on CNN.com” there exists a video of aspirational voice over artists looking to replace Gottfried as the voice of the Aflac duck.

Women from the most sparsely populated independent country on Earth are in for a treat this week, when a new Mongolian-language edition of Cosmopolitan will start appearing on shelves. As Jeremy W. Peters at Media Decoder notes, this is the 61st international iteration of the women’s magazine juggernaut; different versions of Cosmo are already being sold in countries including Croatia, Estonia, Kazakhstan, and Slovenia, as well as nations throughout Europe and South America.

Once a person takes a place in public office, they discover that they need to learn how to deal with the press and, occasionally, that involves figuring out how to avoid them. There are many strategies on how to accomplish this, the one currently most in vogue involves positioning the entire media as biased therefore depicting all of their questions as unfair attacks that you can rightfully avoid. Of course, that takes a while. Fortunately, Alberta Health Services CEO Stephen Duckett has found an easier technique: when pesky journalists start following you around, distract them with a big cookie.

With the media repeatedly warning us New Yorkers that there is nowhere we can hide from the terrible bed bug threat (I, in fact, am currently typing this while sitting upon a chair made entirely of dead bed bugs), one question remains: How will it affect our sweet New York lovemaking? Fortunately, CNN is there to answer the call with a thorough report that features everything you want from your news: terrible bug puns, bar patrons awkwardly pretending to be drink candidly, and the assurance that, no, condoms do not protect you from bed bugs. Finally an excuse not to wear them!

Mark this down as a Great Moment in Journalism: Kashmir Hill, a writer at Forbes.com, has just written a blog post in which she exclusively quotes source’s Twitter feeds, rather than using traditional quotes obtained by contacting sources directly.

The post, funny enough, is an analysis of a recent Wall Street Journal article that charges Facebook with transmitting its users’ personal information to advertisers and Internet tracking companies. (Side note: this is news, still?) Hill examines the Twitter streams of several tech experts and media types, noting how they reacted to the WSJ piece via Twitter. Here’s a typical paragraph:

The Chilean miner rescue last night put the cable news networks in a tough position (or maybe its more accurate to say that the cablers put themselves in a tough spot.) As is typically the case with live events that unfold on their own time, cable news hosts are given the unenviable task of filling time with sometimes mindless and banal commentary while the viewers wait for something, anything, to actually happen. Producers of CNN seemed to have predicted this predicament, but their solution of having Chad Myers report from a replicated “escape pod” was no less absurd.

Yes: it’s true: Geraldo At Large has somehow, inexplicably managed to land the interview of the century, if by “century” you mean “1992″: “Long Island Lolita” Amy Fisher, the New York native that captured America’s heart and Joey Buttafuoco‘s wallet before shooting down and attempting to kill his wife, Mary Joe. Here’s everything you need to know about her new porn movie, Deep Inside with Amy Fisher.

Who knew Fox News’ automobile reports could be so fun? Auto correspondent Gary Gastelu took the audience on a ride to try out a new Mercedes device to make driving a convertible more comfortable. In the process, he needed to bring along a backseat passenger but, apparently failing to find a live human being, he brought his ’70s superstar male blow-up doll along for the ride.

Jeramie Trespalacios lives in Winter Park, Florida and performs dressed as the Sesame Street character Elmo.

Recently, while walking to a neighboring music store, and still dressed head-to-toe in costume, Trespalacios was assaulted by an agitated customer who didn’t say a word, nor explain why he would attack Elmo. The local news clip reporting on this story can viewed below (complete with awesome recreation.)

If you’ve been looking for a fun way to humiliate a female friend who woks in media, you’re in luck! TLC’s makeover show What Not to Wear is apparently looking for badly-dressed lady journalists to appear on the show.

As Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan reports, the following email was recently sent out to “the types of people who know journalists”:

Meghan McCain has written some interesting and thought-provoking columns at The Daily Beast – holding wide-ranging opinions that we’d like to see on a This Week panel.

Today though, she went a different route. An interview with Jersey Shore phenom and, yes John McCain voter, Snooki.

Right on cue with last week’s column from Spud on what he thinks is wrong with cable news, all three cablers spent significant time this afternoon with live, BREAKING coverage of a Miami amusement park ride that was stuck with a couple people on it.

I don’t want to spoil the fun for you, you’ll just have to watch the video compilation of the breathless coverage.

Nothing says December spirit like Jesus with a shotgun and Santa on the ground. That’s the front yard display that has one neighborhood up in arms this Christmas season, and though the man — no, artiste! — who created the scene understands the objection, our Central Coast News anchor assures us that he has an explanation. And it’s anti-capitalist! You have to see the clip to believe it.

How do you turn a routine home burglary in Florida — in which nothing seems to have been stolen, even — into a story of national import? Easy: weave Barack Obama into it. Even if it involves quoting a burglar who is clearly mentally disturbed. Hey, it worked for Angelina Jolie:

We find ourselves living in a most interesting time: Health Care reform, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Sarah Palin and Oprah flood the news cycle. But there are other incredibly important stories that all too often get ignored – that is until now. Reporter Jerry Carnes at WXIA has just blown the lid off a story we’ll likely be discussing for the next few weeks – the great waffle shortage of 2009.

Beginning next week Sarah Palin and her book, “Going Rogue,” are going to be everywhere.
But we got a preview today of one way she’ll be welcomed — with marginalization, jokes and borderline sexist segments. Friday on MSNBC, Dylan Ratigan spent a few minutes during his Morning Meeting to address, “what is it about Palin that drives America wild?”

BREAKING: a state trooper somewhere pulled a car over at a three-way intersection. No one knows why. Alas, there is not that much more to this story from Hudson, New York’s Register-Star. But do you want to know which intersection it was? Find out after the jump!

All day today, the #1 story on CNN.com’s “Popular News” section has been about Sherri Shepherd‘s breasts. More specifically, how fond of them she is.

We don’t fault CNN (actually, it’s a People story), but come on CNN.com readers! Anyway, here’s why she loves them so much.

It’s been a while since the last “Great Moment in Journalism.” But there’s nothing like politics and beer to bring out our next installment.

All the cable news networks have been talking about this upcoming “Beer Summit” taking place at the White House tonight (6pmET! “Red, Light and Blue”!). But only one network took it to the next level – countdown clock.

Harry and Pepper were a happy gay couple living in San Francisco. Then suddenly, along came Linda, and sent the whole neighborhood into a frenzy. And they’re all penguins.

This is not a joke. In fact, this is a real story on CNN.com!