In today’s New York Times, writer Motoko Rich is surprisingly rough on Amazon’s Kindle, bullying the e-reader by analyzing its best-sellers list – and finding that more than half of them are available for free. Ostensibly, the piece is about how publishers are working to spur sales by giving away titles, hoping “that customers who like what they read will go on to obtain another title for money.” But dare we say, this Times piece sounds like it was written by… a blogger.

Wow, Tina Brown is very smart. It was reported today that Brown is set to launch a Daily Beast book imprint, Beast Books. The imprint will publish both paperbacks and ebooks on a much faster schedule than traditional publishing keeps. Also? The imprint “will select authors from within The Daily Beast’s cadre of writers, most of whom are paid freelancers, to write books with quick turnarounds.” That’s not all.

The New York Times is not going to be scooped by the National Enquirer anymore! The Times is running an A-1 story today about the latest developments in the John Edwards “drama” and its plenty sordid. However there is something slightly more worrisome than Edward’s alleged behavior. Many of the most damning elements of the piece are paraphrased from a book proposal that has just gone out to publishers. Did anyone vet this proposal?