Responses to Pardon The Interruption host Tony Kornheiser's suspension from ESPN seems to be in universal agreement that it is an overreaction to his comments about Hannah Storm. But the reasons vary greatly. Here's a look at some of the post-suspension reaction: (more...)

People who memorize every cover of Men's Health may have noticed something curious about the December issue's cover, aside from noted dreamboat Taylor Lautner: almost all of the text and layout is identical to a cover from 2007, which featured Jason Statham. The self-recycling was noted by none other than intrepid media watchdog ... Perez Hilton. Hilton even throws some cutting, Jack Shafer-like criticism about the interplay of media and economy into the mix: "It seems the recession has stopped Men's Health from hiring new headline writers because we've seen all this shiz before!" In a statement to Mediaite, Men's Health editor-in-chief David Zinczenko defends the cover. (more...)

“Given how desperately we want to believe in a human god, it didn't take much peddling from Team Tiger for us to accept Woods as a modern deity...And we ate it up....So now that the "real" Woods has been revealed as a wild bone-daddy who behaves more like your out-of-work, alcoholic brother-in-law than an object of worship, we feel cheated.”

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“If Murdoch bothers to say something, it's almost an even bet that he's lying.”

- Jack Shafer, in the aftermath of Rupe's declaration that he's banning the Google, reflects upon Rupert Murdoch's tendency to behave like a politician when it comes to his media businesses. (more...)

“Where I come from, these observations would barely count as basketball-court trash talk, let alone words of war. The blame for upgrading low-level bickering to all-out combat has got to go to the press, which loves nothing better than to talk about itself. (That includes me, of course.)

To get a genuine picture of what a war on the press looks like, you can't fan the pages of Nexis for grouchy things George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, or even Richard Nixon said about reporters, newspapers, and networks. You've got to go back to the 1930s, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt raged against the press like noisy clockwork.

-- Slate's Jack Shafer taps his contender for the 'which President hated the press more' parlor game that has been going on in media circles of late. If the goal of the White House was to white noise any other news reporting out of the news cycle with their 'war' on Fox than I think, at this point anyway, their decision must be considered an unmitigated success! Of course, there appears to be another Somali pirate debacle on the horizon so perhaps we'll get a temporary breather.

"Although the privately held Condé Nast isn't as financially distressed as the bankrupt General Motors, and although the magazine business couldn't be more unlike the car business, the two distraught companies share woes.

Both succeeded in segmenting the market with semi-independent divisions that were once unique and distinct but that have since faded into one, much to the confusion of consumers. Both have dramatically dumped once-valuable properties. Both have allowed divisions to operate like independent fiefdoms at the expense of the company's greater financial good. Both have established cultures of privilege for top employees, and both appear to have woken up to their problems too late."

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Yesterday, the New York Observer took their turn in the age-old tradition of reporting on Matt Drudge's demise. Every so often some editor or reporter notices a new sliver of damning (usually anecdotal) evidence, surely marking the end for the Drudge Report, and decides that this time it might just be enough to squash the seminal ring-wing news aggregator once and for all. But as a notable wordsmith once said, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." (more...)

The A.I.G. Financial Products unit is to the global financial crisis what rickety levees were to Hurricane Katrina. But as Michael Lewis points out in his excellent article in the latest issue of Vanity Fair, F.P., as it’s called, used to be the envy of Wall Street. In 2001, the elite unit accounted for a stunning 15% – roughly $300 million – of the insurance giant’s overall profits. And it charged fees that would make most hedge fund operators blanch. (more...)