Thomas Friedman might be the New York Times' most-ridiculed columnist. Certainly the backlash against him is the most vehement, evident in this hilarious-but-over-the-top piece by Matt Taibbi from the New York Press last year. Friedman is also a frequent target of the NYT Picker blog, a site we firmly believe one shouldn't mess with. Friedman's latest column appeared today in the NYT print edition and addresses his topic of choice, climate change. Unfortunately, it will do little to quiet criticism of him. (more...)

Rex Sorgatz is Mediaite's site designer and an occasional columnist. This list originally appeared at Fimoculous.com. #main .slice .posts .d { border-top:1px dotted #CCCCCC; margin:0px; padding-top:10px; clear: both; } #main .slice .posts .post0 .i { float:left; border:2px solid #275f7d !important;; margin: 5px 5px 5px -7px; } #main .slice .posts .p { margin-top:0; margin-left: 70px; } While compiling this list, I asked a few people a dumb question: What was the biggest online event of the year?

Random answers included Oprah joining Twitter, Michael Jackson's death breaking on TMZ, and Susan Boyle coming and going. Someone even tried to argue that a writer who detailed his firing from The New Yorker on Twitter was momentous. Sigh.

Last week, we told you about Harvard Business School professor and New York Times freelancer Prof. Mary Tripsas, who watchdog blog NYTPicker busted in an ethical pickle. Tripsas praised a company in her column which had just recently paid for her trip and accommodations to their headquarters, directly in violation of Times rules. This Sunday, public editor Clark Hoyt took on the issue (again): "Tripsas violated a policy against accepting travel or anything else of value from the subjects of coverage," he writes. "She will no longer be writing for The Times." (more...)

Lately, the New York Times has had a small bit of trouble getting its contributing writers to follow the rules. Freelancer Suzy Buckley was caught plugging her boyfriend's restaurant in a travel column just weeks after shopping columnist Mike Albo was fired for attending a "press junket," in which travel and accommodations were paid for. (Albo didn't even write about his trip.) These, along with a few other questionable situations, resulted in a stern column from public editor Clark Hoyt about the Times rulebook and a plan to "tighten enforcement." (more...)

After the New York Times cut 100 jobs, editor-in-chief Bill Keller told his staff that they should not fear a "next round" of layoffs because more cuts were neither "planned or foreseen." In a memo that circulated Friday, as reported by The Observer, Keller was somber, yet hopeful. "That unwelcome and unpleasant task is now behind us, mostly thanks to voluntary buyouts, but some of it through layoffs, and all of it attended by a sense of loss," he started. But about the future, he was measured, though optimistic: (more...)

New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt was not messing around this weekend, as he used his Sunday column to highlight and explain in detail the ethical shortcomings of two recent Times articles. Doing his job with gusto, Hoyt took to task Charles DeLaFuente, a copy editor who used a column space to complain about his own JetBlue airline mishap, and Suzy Buckley, the freelance travel writer caught plugging her long-term boyfriend's Miami restaurant. That may look like a friendly face, over there to the left, but public editors mean business. (more...)

New York Times travel writer Suzy Buckley is caught in a sensational tangle of journalistic ethics after notable watchdog blog NYT Picker reported that Buckley used the TMagazine travel section of the paper to recommend a burger joint owned by her former boyfriend. And, oh yeah, he's been accused of murdering an unborn baby. Scary Times! (more...)

Either not everybody at the Washington Post is on the same page about what "off the record" means exactly, or executive editor Marcus Brauchli is a liar: Did he or didn't he know that the advertised salons would be off the record? (more...)

The New York Times crossword puzzle is a veritable gold mine. Online an annual subscription costs $39.95 or $6.95 a month, which is why a $9.99 iPhone application (relatively expensive by industry standards) seemed like such a steal -- unlimited mobile use for a one-time payment of ten bucks! But insider blog NYT Picker is now reporting that the deal was too good to be true: anyone who has purchased the program so far will see their copy stop working in the next month or two -- and the Times keeps the $9.99. (more...)

"I love Sarah Palin. I mean, I love her more than anyone because as a journalist she is the best story ever... It's like Hollywood casting — when you have Meg Ryan playing a nuclear physicist or, you know, Calista Flockhart playing a Harvard lawyer — I mean, you've got this former beauty queen and sportscaster who is in the role of Dick Cheney, and it's mesmerizing." (more...)