Yesterday, Poynter Online’s Jim Romensko posted a memo that Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson sent to that paper’s entire staff. In the message, Thomson announces that two News Corp. employees—Journal Deputy Managing Editor Jim Pensiero and Gabriella Stern, Newswires‘ Senior Editor for global news—will be leading a new “Special Project” at the company. Pernsiero is to be the project’s Editor-in-Chief, while Stern will be his Managing Editor.

A little over a week ago Rupert Murdoch’s Wall St. Journal launched its new local New York City section to great fanfare. It’s since been one hell of a week for local news, and if there was ever a time for the Journal to shine and impress the past five days were a better opportunity than anyone could reasonably expect. Alas, as far as I can tell they’ve made nary a blip. Here’s some suggestions on how to change this.

The Wall Street Journal launched their much-anticipated ‘Greater New York’ section this morning in a concerted effort to challenge the New York Times‘ local coverage, circulation, and advertising dominance. Below find Arthur Sulzberger and Janet Robinson’s memo to staff regarding the launch…they don’t seem too worried. Actually, there’s some funny stuff asides.

The 2010 Pulitzer Prizes have been announced and no, the National Enquirer did not win for its intrepid reporting of the Edwards’s seemingly endless scandals. Here’s who did win. The Washington Post won four awards, the most this year. The New York Times walked away with three.

CBS radio correspondent Mark Knoller, a favorite around these parts (and an Office Hours guest) is getting his stipple due in the Wall St. Journal today.

Hmm. Notice something missing? A close look reveals most major media outlets have neglected to mention that today is the 7th anniversary of the Iraq War. Not a single major op-ed to be found. Nor a trending Twitter hashtag. It’s almost as though where the media is concerned the Iraq War didn’t happen.

So maybe it wasn’t just the Salahis that pushed Desiree Rogers out of her job as White House social secretary. Turns out it might actually been a penchant for putting on expsensives dresses…oh and perhaps being a tad too frank with the press.

If it is, it would be an odd move for a the Rupert Murdoch-owned entity, which just last year expanded into the local journalism sector along with The New York Times by adding a SF-bay edition in November. But Raymond Sokolov, who has been doing freelance restaurant reviews for The Wall Street Journal for the past four years abruptly left his position when he was told by editors that they wanted him to start reviewing “food trends” instead: a much broader, nationally-themed topic.

From New York Times executive editor Bill Keller’s 2008 letter to the George Polk committee. It was this letter that WSJ managing editor Robert Thomson was referring to when he accused Keller of “casting aspersions” on the Journal. Hmm.

Despite the fact it looks like Facebook has shored up many of its new privacy setting issues which drew red flags when they were unveiled last week, the public fallout continues. Seems that those easily overlooked 350,000 people who actually took the time to figure out the privacy settings and apply them are none to happy with the arbitrary nature with which their control over their personal information was suddenly removed. Also, a lot of them work in media.

Who knew the fallout from Tiger Woods driving his car into a fire hydrant could be so far-reaching. The least surprising outcome from last month’s debacle is perhaps that sponsors are reconsidering their sponsorship. The most surprising thing — other than the fact such a small incident has turned into such a large one — is how it may be changing the way we get our news. Literally.

It’s nearly impossible to be surprised by political hypocrisy on any level these days, particularly when you are talking about iron-fisted rulers of countries like Iran. But still, this is sort of funny, in an Onion headline sort of way: Apparently, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran has a blog.

Now that ‘President plays sexist golf’ meme has been so ably snatched up by the NYT, the WSJ is apparently attempting to turn President Obama’s fondness for golf into some sort of John Le Carre thriller.

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. Further examples after the jump.

Bruce Wasserstein, a Wall Street investment banker who helped pioneer the hostile takeover in the 1980’s and turned the mergers and acquisitions business into a high art, died Wednesday. Mr. Wasserstein, 61, was the chairman and chief executive of Lazard. The cause of death could not be immediately learned, though he had been hospitalized earlier this week for what was described as an irregular heartbeat.

This month’s Michael Wolff Vanity Fair column is about how much Rupert Murdoch hates the Internet. And no wonder! It’s full of pornography, stalkers, thieves, and worst of all…aggregators. Get your check books out, kids, Rupe isn’t interested in any free rides.

What to do about Glenn Beck? Keith Olbermann is issuing ridiculous “Fox-twas” in the hopes of putting a stop to him, to little avail. But could a really devastating SNL sketch wreak the same havoc on the cable anchor as Tina Fey‘s did on Palin last fall?

Two days ago Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan got his hands on a leaked email from the executive VP of PR giant Burson-Marsteller to staff suggesting they use Mark Penn’s (yes that Mark Penn) latest column on the subject of “glamorous camping” as a way to attract new clients in that industry. Mark Penn happens to be the CEO of Burson-Marsteller. Two days later the NYT picked up on the story, with notably slight attribution.

Rupert Murdoch is not scared to take your money! While the New York Times continues to be all willy-nilly about whether or not to charge for content, Rupe, whose WSJ has been behind a paid firewall since the start, is going to charge for everything!

The obvious question remains: will people pay?