Who’s prettier, more conniving and more ambitious: the characters from the CW’s Gossip Girl or the media elite? Both live in worlds of ambition, access, even backstabbing, and some might say it’s all one big popularity contest. But it’s not just beauty and a knack for spreading news quickly that unite our favorite teen-soap and the media figures whose every move we track. Spotted: Our favorite Gossip Girl characters and their real-life media counterparts.

Maybe Newsweek was onto something, after all. At the end of the first week of Sarah Palin’s hugely successful book tour the question most pundits (and much of the G.O.P.) seem to be asking themselves is what do we do about the Palin problem. Answer: no one has a clue.

This is interesting. In a column mostly devoted to detailing the similarities she shares with Sarah Palin (tongue firmly planted in cheek), Maureen Dowd appears to side with Palin on the events surrounding her problems with McCain campaign adviser Nicolle Wallace and the disastrous Katie Couric interviews.

Oh to be a fly on the wall for this dinner! Maureen Dowd takes a stab at Rush Limbaugh with her poison pen (not literally, though that might have been less painful) over Limbaugh referring to President Barack Obama as a narcissist, among other things. Also, apparently this was the dinner during which a passerby asked Rush if he was dining with a hooker.

Maureen Dowd is weighing in on President Obama’s habit of surrounding himself with men on the golf course (and elsewhere). And you know what, I suspect this may be one topic that Dowd, who has been circulating in powerful political spheres for much of her professional life, could actually shed some light on. And low and behold she does.

Over the weekend Arianna Huffington announced that women the world over are suffering from sadness, and introduced a new column to help women with their “sadness.” Maureen Dowd agrees! So much so she practically rewrote Arianna’s column for today’s paper.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about Maureen Dowd’s column in today’s New York Times is it is the first time I have heard someone in the mainstream press suggest that Joe Wilson’s heckling of the President last Wednesday was racially motivated. But MoDo isn’t afraid to go there.

Who: Glynnis MacNicol (Mediaite), Caroline McCarthy (CNET), Jessica Grose (Slate), Anna Holmes (Jezebel), moderated by Rachel Sklar (Mediaite). What: Gelf Magazine’s Media Circus “Overlooked: Women in Media” Where: JLA Studios Art Gallery When September 10, 2009 Thumbs: Up

“He was going to be the kind of guy who whipped you up and then, when you were all excited, left you flat, and then, when you were deflated and exasperated and time was running out, ensorcelled you again with some sparkly fairy dust.”

In her column today, Maureen Dowd writes about cowardly Internet bullies — all those bloggers out there who say the meanest stuff, and are seldom called to task for it. “On the Internet,” she writes, “it’s often less about being constructive and more about being cowardly.” Granted, Dowd puts her name on everything she writes. But the whole ‘cowardly not constructive thing’ — not so much.

Three years ago Maureen Dowd wrote a much talked about, much passed around column defending Anna Wintour and Meryl Streep‘s portrayal of her in the just-released Devil Wears Prada. The column was sharp, incisive, full of wit, and relevant. In short: Dowd at her best. In short, everything this past Sunday’s column about Wintour’s portrayal in the upcoming documentary was not.

Maureen Dowd and Tina Brown, both of whom share a fascination with all things Clinton, are both weighing in today on Hillary Clinton‘s ‘snap’ in the Congo, in wildly different, and surprising ways. But why does it seem that the press is willing to blame anything or one but Hillary, for her behavior.

This past Thursday Mediaite celebrated its one month anniversary. A couple of people have since asked us if we could break down our over all traffic numbers and publish the most trafficked Power Grid pages since July 6. The answer is yes! Turns out the results are actually sort of fascinating: who knew Christopher Hitchens had so much Power Grid game! Check out our inaugural Top Ten Power Grid Players after the jump.

This is the picture that is currently running on the homepage of the New York Times. I think it’s safe to say, considering the U.S.’s relationship with North Korea, Barack Obama’s relationship with Hillary Clinton, Hillary’s relationship with her husband, and Bill Clinton’s relationship with just about everyone (oh yes, and Al Gore!) that this picture is worth about 10,000 words.

Oh Maureen. Did you run out of things to say about the “beer summit”? Or Obama’s fly-swatting skillz? Last I checked, the world is still blowing up — or maybe there’s a temporary lull. But Maureen Dowd thinks the soon-to-be-forgotten souffle of the moment, Julie & Julia, by deadly director Nora Ephron, is occasion for us to be treated to Ms. Ephron’s deep thoughts about food. Priorities!

Willie Geist had Maureen Dowd call in to his new show Way Too Early With Willie Geist as his “Wake Up Call” to discuss her column in today’s New York Times comparing Sarah Palin to — who else? — Hillary Clinton. Turns out MoDo has a Palin shaped hole in her heart.

Peggy Noonan has entered the Twitter fray. @peggynoonannyc went live yesterday. Granted there’s not much there yet but you never now how journos will take to this thing. Jake Tapper referred to her arrival thusly: “a thousand tweets of light? @Peggynoonannyc now on twitter.”

It’s hard not to conclude there are two editorial standards at the New York Times: one for Maureen Dowd and one for everyone else. This past May, Dowd “accidentally” lifted a passage from TPM’s Josh Marshall and received a two line editor’s note. Not so for Times Mag writer Charles Siebert! Is there a double standard at work?

What cracks grown (and sometimes Pulitzer Prize-winning) women up more than hearing the real names of private parts? Not a damn thing.

Journalists, if you are going to spout off about Twitter, I beg you: Do some research. This has occurred to me frequently since Twitter hit the big time earlier this year, mostly because there have been frequent glaring errors on the part of “mainstream” journalists who write precious little articles about the microblogging service. On [...]