Today in local newsmen: New York newsman Vince DeMentri was relieved of his duties at WPIX Channel 11 yesterday in relation to an incident days before where DeMentri slapped a chauffeur in a fight over a parking space. DeMentri’s lawyer has called the accusation a sham (despite the chauffeur sporting a bloody lip) and plans to sue the station.

The Washington Post has taken the saga of Family Research Council founder George Alan Reker and the “traveling assistant” he found on Rentboy.com mainstream a day after the story broke in the alternative weekly Miami New Times and then was fleshed out by the gay blogosphere.

Anyone else feel like New York politics has turned into some sort of evil game of roulette? With yesterday’s news that Harold Ford would not be throwing his hat in the New York senate ring comes a whole new round of gaming who might be willing to give it a shot. Enter Daily News and US News & World Report publisher Mort Zuckerman. Even the New York Post thinks this is a good idea.

The New York Times‘ ongoing blockbuster investigation of our beleaguered governor is less a blockbuster at this point than the political equivalent of the Friday The 13th franchise, with each installment gorier than the last. Today’s story however, may be the final nail in the coffin. Perhaps now might be a good time to brush up on New York State’s governor succession rules. It ain’t pretty, by the way.

The New York City tabloids are in agreement. Get ye gone David Paterson. Nothing brings batting media empires together like a politician on the rocks. It’s hard not to wonder whether they’ve had various versions of this front page under wraps for the last couple of weeks as they bided their “bombshell” time.

Rachel Maddow’s continuing emergence as the educated grown-up at the cable news talking head dinner table is not going unnoticed. Over at the Daily News today, critic Stanley Crouch is commending (in fairly strong terms, actually) both Maddow’s wit and her intelligence.

The collective conscience of the New York City tabloid editorial departments are at work this morning. After news broke yesterday that Tiger Woods would be giving his first press conference (coffee klatch conference?) tomorrow, everyone wants to lock Tiger Woods up!

High-rolling real estate player and New York Daily News publisher Mortimer B. Zuckerman may have politics in his future, according to a New York Times report this weekend. Zuckerman sees the Senate seat held by Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand as “vulnerable,” but might run as a Republican or independent — despite his known political leanings — to avoid having to pay for a primary campaign.

Wow. Well welcome to the new, new journalism where even the New York Times editorial board is forced to go meta. Seriously meta. Apparently, the rumors about a Paterson, fueled in equal parts by the blogosphere and the venerable New York City tabloids, got so out of hand the Times felt they had to push back in a editorial blog post. They went straight to the source.

New York was promised a government sex scandal, dammit, and we better well get one! At least if the New York City tabloids have anything to do with it. Apparently not satisfied with the news that the New York Times has only a sort of mediocre scandal to report in their much-gossiped about upcoming David Paterson profile, the tabloids have taken it upon themselves to stir up as much “chaos” as possible.

Whispers have been building about huge news regarding New York governor David Paterson, who took office after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer. Friday, The Huffington Post noticed the growing media buzz about a forthcoming New York Times scoop, but little other information could be gleaned from the handful of anonymous sources. Now, The Business Insider is reporting exclusively that the news will drop Monday and Governor Paterson’s resignation will follow.

The subject of today’s Inside the White House Press Corps is the New York Daily News’ Ken Bazinet, proprietor of the Mouth of the Potomac blog. He’s the guy in the briefing room who best fits the image of a hard-boiled reporter that we’ve all seen on TV. Here, he offers us his insights on covering the White House, and how Robert Gibbs is growing into the role of Press Secretary.

Ah, a tale of two tabloids. Over the weekend Governor Paterson, who admitted early on in his term that he and his wife had not always been faithful to each other, and whose son was arrested last week for shooting dice, (which is to say, Paterson is not new to the tabloids) was seen canoodling with a strange woman in New Jersey steakhouse. Or not depending which tabloid you read.

The media establishment in New York may frequently feel that the dismantling of their industry has reached what could be described as biblical proportions of the “dogs and cats living together” type. Be that as it may, it apparently is not yet bad enough for the New York Post and the New York Daily News to consider “printing together,” despite the fact such an arrangement would feasibly be to their mutual benefit.

It’s difficult to follow print journalism these days without feeling bashed over the head by the irony of the term. Most of the big stories are either about closures or firings, and what positive news there is tends to be about innovative moves online.

But according to the New York Times, one man is doubling down on print: Daily News publisher Mort Zuckerman.

Newspapers doubtlessly spent yesterday preparing their Sunday covers, unable to foresee exactly how the health care vote and bill would shake out, but fully aware of its inevitable headline grabbing appeal. Between placement, prominence, photo selection and of course, headlines, the results provide a look into the disparate layouts of the country’s prominent papers. Gallery inside!

Ruth Reichl did a Q&A in this Sunday’s NYT Magazine and talked briefly about the loss of her magazine. Reichl revealed that Si Newhouse informed her “not on email” (snap!) about Gourmet‘s “stunning” demise, and also discussed why she feels The New Yorker will remain “untouched” forever.

At some point the New York daily tabloids are going to become a luxury instead of a necessity. That day has apparently arrived at the New York Times Metro Desk. The NYO is reporting that the Metro Desk has been informed that, as of today, if you want the paper you now gots to pay for it.

Based on the coverage David Letterman‘s alleged love life is getting these days you’d be forgiven for concluding that Letterman wasn’t the victim of a $2 million extortion plot but the subject of an undercover investigation or sexual harassment lawsuit. Accuracy seems to be taking a back seat to scandalous headlines.

Maybe it’s the suspenders.

Or maybe it’s the fact that this snazzy 75-year old shops at Juicy Couture, but for whatever the reason, “celebrity” douchebags alike think that Larry King can save them from their swift decline into official American public scum.

Happy Anniversary Great Recession. A year ago today Lehman Bros. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and sent the economy into a tailspin the country is still struggling to cope with. Here’s a look back at the top five media moments from the last twelve months.

Feel like you might have picked up an old edition of the New York Times this morning by mistake? It would seem every major paper, both local and national, managed to get the news of Senator Ted Kennedy‘s death on their front pages before going to press except the Times. A gallery of newspaper covers from today after the jump.

Rosemary Port, the 29-year-old anonymous “skank” blogger who was outed by Google after a court order forced the company to reveal the identity of the person behind the blog “Skanks in NYC” feels exposed. Also angry at Google for violating her privacy. Port has apparently discovered the blogosphere is not so cozy without an anonymous handle to protect you! Not only that, according to Port, Cohen was asking for it.

When Mets general manager Omar Minaya called a press conference yesterday to announce the firing of Tony Bernazard, the team’s VP for player development, New York Daily News reporter Adam Rubin was bizarrely dragged into the story when Minaya alleged that “for the past couple of years,” Rubin had been “lobby[ing] for a player development position,” and might have wanted Bernazard out of the picture so he could get the job himself.

When the summer news slump hits medialand and there is no Montauk Monster to fill post quotas (and the Sotomayor hearings are not quite the MJ circus C-SPAN hopes them to be) nothing quite fits the bill like speculation on the evil machinations of Rupert Murdoch.

The latest? Rupe is out the buy the New York Daily News!