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Why Does Spotify Keep Ripping People Off?

By Emily Lundquist Ten dollars a month is a small price to pay for practically every piece of recorded music except The Beatles. Which is why, late last year, I signed up for Spotify. Only two months in, however, I was out, and feeling like I'd been ripped off. Turns out I'm not the only one. See ... More >>

Donald Trump Officially Is A 13-Year-Old Girl

Earlier this week, Donald Trump promised that his acts of scumbaggery towards Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington were just getting started. Today, the world's trashiest billionaire made good on his promise.On Tuesday -- in fine 13-year-old girl fashion -- Trump took to Twitter to call Huffin ... More >>

Matt Drudge, David Axelrod, and Tina Brown All Still Use AOL Email Addresses

~*xoMattDrudgexo*~@aol.com​You know who still uses an antique AOL email account, apart from your mom? A lot of really famous and important people. Politico's Ben Smith argues today that the outdated email service has actually gone from uncool and dated all the way back around to being a "status sy ... More >>

Chris Christie and Roger Ailes Have a Secret Relationship; It Sucks to Work For AOL

​Fox News boss Roger Ailes loves Chris Christie and has made no secret of his desire for the New Jersey governor to run for president in 2012. Christie maintains that he's 100% not running this time around, though that hasn't stopped a relationship from blooming between the powerful Republican ... More >>

Anthony Weiner 'Secret Muslim' Story Pulled; Journalism Undergoing 'Hamsterization'

​In the age of publishing directly to the Internet, often with little or no editing, sometimes embarrassing things end up underneath the logo of otherwise legitimate news organizations. Though where the Washington Times fits on the legitimacy scale is arguable (see: Sun Myung Moon), a post on ... More >>

Glenn Beck Moving to the Internet; Arianna Huffington Pissing Off New AOL Team

​After some unsuccessful press jockeying on both sides, negotiations between Fox News and their cash cow-turned-credibility sucker Glenn Beck pretty much disintegrated and so they worked together on his exit from the channel. Now it's time for him to ride his intensely angry, loyal and crazy m ... More >>

Arianna Huffington Wants an App To Tell You When To Stop Using Apps

Sophisticated Smuggler Busted With Suitcase Full of Baby Animals

Cute, not good for luggage.​In the craziest tale of an animal smuggler we've heard this year, a man was busted in Thailand with the following in his luggage: 1. 2 baby leopards 2. 2 baby panthers 3. a baby bear 4. 2 baby macaque monkeys

Kids Compete for Culinary Scholarships; Jews Do Seder Out

​More than 100 food recalls were made during the first quarter of the year, but only three recalls were for the dangerous E. coli pathogen. [Food Safety News] Twenty New York City high school students will compete for scholarships to culinary schools at a Careers Through Culinary Arts Program ... More >>

Is a 21-Year-Old Journalist to Blame For Burned Koran Killings in Afghanistan?

Pastor Terry Jones​There's a media story behind the tragic murders of 24 people in Afghanistan, killed amid riots against United Nations works and citizens of Afghanistan on account of the Koran burning ceremony held by Florida pastor Terry Jones. At his small southern church, Jones burned the ... More >>

Katie Couric Out at CBS News; Engadget Crew Ditches AOL For SB Nation

​Every time we turn around there's a switch-up at the newly Arianna Huffington-helmed AOL and Huffington Post hybrid, with the boss simultaneously cleaning house and sprucing up, by kicking AOL-ers to the curb and hiring up a handful of big names. The Huffington reign has left a large number s ... More >>

Huffington Post Folds AOL Sites, Hires a Few More; Howard Stern Sues Sirius Radio

Boss​Arianna Huffington's website, recently joined with (bought by) Tim Armstrong's AOL in an attempt to usurp the internet content throne together, has been making all sorts of media news headlines early in this 2011, and up to this point, they have fit into one of two categories. First, ther ... More >>

Huffington Post: Our Bloggers Like Doing It For Free

​On Thursday, the Newspaper Guild made a public plea to all unpaid writers for the Huffington Post to withdraw their services as a part of a strike against using unpaid labor in the wake of HuffPo's $315 million sale to AOL. "Just as we would ask writers to stand fast and not cross a physical ... More >>

TechCrunch Tells AOL to Piss Off; New York Times & Huffington Post Continue Catty Swipes

​AOL is balancing a lot right now. In addition to letting hundreds go last week, the media giant is moving toward becoming an editorial powerhouse, sucking up websites like Michael Arrington's TechCrunch family and Arianna Huffington's The Huffington Post, which is even hiring more journalists ... More >>

Huffington Post Hires Handful, Ditches AOL-ers; NPR Videos 'Inappropriately Edited'

​Since becoming a pair with his company's $315 million purchase of The Huffington Post, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and HuffPo founder Arianna Huffington have overseen the cutting of hundreds of content providers on the parent company's side, with Armstrong presiding over the laying off of over 2,00 ... More >>

Tina Brown Excites Staff With Redesign, Still Riding New Newsweek Hype Wave

​If there's one word to describe the media news narrative so far in 2011, it's probably "reinvention," or something like it, what with all of the relaunches, redesigns and restructuring, from AOL and the Huffington Post to Gawker, the New York Times (plus Magazine), New York Observer and Tina ... More >>

Arianna Huffington Named Editor-in-Chief of Black Voices, MapQuest, Old People's Email

​AOL bought The Huffington Post for $315 million, it's true. Arianna Huffington says she's "stepping off a fast-moving train and onto a supersonic jet," by which she means she just made a large amount of money. And she is now the editor-in-chief of Black Voices. Also, MapQuest and Moviefone, p ... More >>

Did The Huffington Post Win the SEO Game With Today's AOL Acquisition?

​The Huffington Post, which was just bought by AOL for $315 million, is really good at what media mind Jeff Jarvis calls the "black art" of SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. That means, when people Google (or more rarely "Yahoo" or "Bing," which are not quite verbs) a term on a search engine ... More >>

Food Business Incubator Coming to Brooklyn; Cupcake Craze Goes Savory

​Maine lawmakers are trying to decide whether to make the whoopie pie the state's official dessert. The sole opposition is a Democrat worried about glorifying a product made with lard. [AOL News] A food-focused "business incubator" is planned for one of Brooklyn's lower-income neighborhoods, ... More >>

AOL TechCrunch Deal Is Done, So What Does This Mean for Everyone Else?

​Well, when we're wrong, we're wrong: I didn't think AOL was going to pull the trigger, but they just did. Apparently, at TechCrunch Disrupt -- Michael Arrington's cuddlefest of sycophantic entrepreneurs, wannabes, and the Real McCoy, who mostly attend to have their asses kissed -- Michael Arr ... More >>

Press Clips, Early Lunch Edition, Day 4: The Mediaite Street Fight

​Smell that? Media beefs, cooking everywhere this week. Also, blogging on drugs, suing the small guy, shady lobbyists, good hiring sprees, bad hiring sprees, and someone taking issue with Gawker's ethical standpoints. Happy Friday, Part 1, folks:

New York's Most Over-the-Top Fatty Foods; America's Craving for Bigger Flavors

​The Double Down sandwich from KFC isn't the most gluttonous thing you can eat in New York City. Other over-the-top calorie fests include Ditch Plains' Ditch Dogs (a pair of hot dogs on potato buns topped with mac 'n' cheese) and Mile End's Smoked Meat Poutine. [NY Post] Americans want spicie ... More >>

Monsanto's GM Corn Linked to Organ Damage; Underwear Bomber Ruins it for Salami Smugglers

​Roman food is the latest Italian cuisine trend in New York. While Tuscan reigned supreme for years, several new places serving Roman-inspired dishes have opened recently. [NY Times] According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, 2009 was a record year for the corn crop with 13.151 billion bus ... More >>

The Decade in Film: A Timeline

A lot can happen in 10 years. Here, the highlights.

Quick Hits

​AOL is now Aol, and has lost its Running Man logo because "he represents the communications products and that's not the whole new AOL," says Aol's Maureen Sullivan. The Running Man is rumored to drowning his sorrows with Mr. Zip.

The Blogroll Gazette: A Secret Menu Item at NYC Cravings; KFC's Dirty Double Down Sandwich

This week in food blogs... Serious Eats asked, "When is it socially acceptable to share food?" Answer: When you're dining with other foodies. And who the hell would want to do that? Midtown Lunch reported that the NYC Cravings truck will continue to serve its secret menu item of a chicken and pork ... More >>

Groovy Hate F*ck: Playboy, Rightbloggers, and the Death of South Park Conservatism

Last week Playboy did a crude take on conservative women whom the author, Guy Cimbalo, said he would like to "hate-fuck." Attacks on the piece, which was quickly pulled (though excerpts quoted in the commentary, as well as captured screenshots, testify to its ugliness), were numerous. The few li ... More >>

My Life as a (Pretend) Russian Sexbot

Russian computer program cyber-flirts to steal personal info. At least the robot got something out of the deal.

Cybersex Personas: A How-To Guide

Are you hot? Are you slim? Do you have big nipples?

Who Dat? We Want to Know.

Real American Zero

Twenty bucks a month for dial-up is too much, but $10 is just too cheap

Phish Bait

How to Stay on Top of E-Mail Scams

Hareware

It's Back!

The Return of Public Sex

Terms of Service

Sweaty Scenes From the Life of an AOL Censor

You've Got Porn!

Fresh-Faced AOL Feels Up Smut For Profit

The Adventures of SkooterBobby

Our Underage Test Probe Wheels Into the Lusty Wilds of AOL

My Throbbing Mouse

The Isaacson Connection

AOL's Love-Hate Relationship With 'Time'

Virtually Selfless

News Flash: There Is Life After Shopping

Death of a Child Prodigy

Old-school Online Service Pulls the Plug

File This Fetish

Language Barrier

On the Net, Talk Is Cheap but It Isn't Free

Wired Like Me

Linking Minorities Online Is a Major Challenge

Recreating a Rialto

Can the global village be saved from monotony?

'Link Different'

Selling Out and Selling Up Online

Hackers' Excellent Adventures

How Underage Pranksters Ended Up in the Middle of an FBI Cybercrime Investigation

The End of the Beginning?

Totally New York

Echoing Forth