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Free Will Astrology: February 20-26, 2013

The Fall Of Curtis: How September 11, 2007 Changed Everything For 50 Cent

Let me indulge in a little bit of Jay-Z/Kanye fan fiction in the least 50 Shades of Grey way possible: Def Jam President and retired rapper Jay-Z was fed up. 50 Cent had been sending subliminal barbs Jay's way for eight years, starting with a shot Mr. Carter's way on "How To Rob" when they were b ... More >>

Free Will Astrology: February 22-28, 2012

It's All For You: A Few Thoughts On The Lana Del Rey Saturday Night Live Debacle

You might have heard that the much-discussed singer Lana Del Rey had her U.S. television debut this past weekend on Saturday Night Live, and that the hive mind of public opinion declared that her performances, of "Video Games" and "Blue Jeans" did not go well. The satirical indie-chronicle Hipster R ... 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 >>

Michael Bloomberg Sued by Reporter Over Cathie Black Freedom of Information Requests

​Today, I am suing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Last year, Bloomberg baffled New Yorkers when he appointed publishing executive Cathie Black to be the city's next schools chancellor. Black was an unpopular choice, and for months, responses to her appointment ran the gamut of ridicul ... More >>

Facebook Tried to Plant Negative Press About Google

​A secretive story has been bubbling in Silicon Valley this week, in which the PR firm Burson-Marsteller pitched anti-Google articles to national newspapers on behalf of some unnamed client. Google, they claimed, has privacy issues that the American people should know about -- but it was far f ... More >>

How Your Cover Sausage Gets Made: The Likely Inspirations For Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" Cover

​Late Friday night Lady Gaga released the cover for her forthcoming big deal of an album Born This Way, and reaction to it was fairly swift, and mostly "huh?" The cover, as you can see at left, features Gaga as a half-woman, half-motorcycle, and the more vocal Gaga fans out there tried to spin ... More >>

Did the Huffington Post Steal Their April Fool's Day Joke? Plus More Media Gags!

​Today, almost every media operation in the world has already attempted or will soon attempt to make a joke at the expense of their readers, viewers, visitors, or customers. Most will actually fool very few, while even less will be funny. We've already noted some of Google's gags for the day, ... More >>

Anonymous Exposed: Hacker Group Infiltrated, Chat Logs Leaked

​Late last week Gawker posted a story outing correspondence between users thought to be "leadership" members of the internet hacker and activist group Anonymous, one previously referred to in the press as non-hierarchical. In the chat logs, a clear chief can be seen giving orders to his fellow ... More >>

Why Did Gawker Refuse to Run John Cook's New York Observer Article on Scientology?

​On Tuesday afternoon, the New York Observer, now under the editorship of founding Gawker editor Elizabeth Spiers, published a juicy feature about Scientology by current Gawker editor and investigative journalist John Cook. Atop the article is a purposefully placed Observer editor's note in it ... More >>

Gawker Media Rolling Out Redesign, The Daily Coming Tomorrow and NewsBeast Merged

New Jalopnik, Gawker's Car Blog​Gawker, The Daily and NewsBeast, oh my. Three of the year's biggest media launches so far have landed, albeit in different stages, on or around February 1, 2011, making for some vaguely exciting times on the internet, if you're into that sort of thing. Taken tog ... More >>

The Huffington Post Gets Blacker, Howard Kurtz Gets Paid as Press Clips Returns

​Press Clips has long, if intermittently, been the name of the media column at the Village Voice, years ago on paper in the hands of journalists like Sydney Schanberg and Keach Hagey, before being brought to this blog by some untamed rabble-rouser called Foster Kamer. But as a wise man once wr ... More >>

Regrets, Remainders, Deleted Scenes, and Bridge Burning: The Immolation of Press Clips

​Well, here we are. The final Press Clips. COME ON, POOKIE! Let's burn this mothafucka down!

Gawker Refuses to Post Correction on WikiLeaks DNS Screw-Up, Trades Threats With Company Asking For Apology

​The last week's political and media hoopla over the latest WikiLeaks document dump has had the internet going nuts. Things got so wild online that Julian Assange's official website spent hours over the span of a few days crashed after a series of DDOS attacks. Amazon.com kicked WikiLeaks off ... More >>

Press Clips: RELEASE THE IACRACKEN! (or: Newsweek/Daily Beast Merger Rumored, Again)

​ARISE, DAILY NEWS BEAST OF THE WEEK! Press Clips, Day 20, I'm Somehow Writing About The Observer Again edition, right here:

Dustin Dominiak: The Guy Who Sleazed Christine O'Donnell, Says Friend (Updated)

​Remember that time earlier this afternoon Gawker took some guy's sleazy story about the time three years ago on Halloween he hooked up with Christine O'Donnell, the would-be Senator from Delaware, and published it anonymously after paying the guy off?

Brett Favre's Penis Was Persistent, At Least

Jenn Sterger​A year after Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre (then a New York Jet) sent sideline reporter Jenn Sterger pictures of his penis, allegedly to no avail, he gave her another call the next time she was in New York. The man was really into this woman. Or at least really into hi ... More >>

Presenting the Single Worst Sex Toy Ever: The Obamarator (Obama Vibrator)

Click to Enlarge. Not like that.​What are you going to be gift-wrapping this holiday season? A Squinky? A Sing-A-Ma-Jig? A Gremlin? Maybe for the children. But alas, a gift has arrived that will bring all Americans -- Red State, Blue State, Green Party, whatever -- together. If they're creepy. ... More >>

Yes: The New Yorker's Nick Denton Profile is On The Way

​Earlier this week, after New York magazine published a profile of Gawker Media owner/blog kingpin Nick Denton in their "Who Runs New York?" issue, it was asked by the New York Observer's Nate Freeman: "Did New York Scoop The New Yorker with its Nick Denton Profile?" Freeman noted of the forth ... 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 >>

Media Moves: Jeff Bercovici Going to Forbes

​Another breaking media move: we're now hearing reading that Jeff Bercovici -- AOL's star media reporter at Daily Finance -- is going to work with Lewis "Darth" Dvorkin at Forbes (or True/Forbes, as we like to call it around here) after being courted by a number of potential bosses, according ... More >>

John Cook Was Censored by Yahoo, Also: "Nick Denton is Going to Win The Internet"

​An interview with former-turned-current Gawker scribe John Cook -- fresh out of Yahoo -- had the following money quotes to deliver to his (former Radar co-worker) Jeff Bercovici at Daily Finance about Cook's experience with writing original news for search engine monolith Yahoo's news blog Th ... More >>

The Sweeter Side of 4Chan: Sending 90 Year-Old War Vet William J. Lashua a Birthday Card

​4Chan, if you aren't already familiar, is a series of anonymous message boards. The most infamous of the 4Chan boards is the notorious "/b" -- commonly known in tech circles as "the a**hole of the internet" -- the members of whom are known to be relentless, often dangerous pranksters. Reminde ... More >>

NYC's Golden Gossip Era Fades

Gotham gossip loses grip, fights off rabble. Rattled tattletales tell all.

Free Will Astrology: September 1-7, 2010

Live, in Concert: Cranky Kaplan and Wise Kaplan

Click to Enlarge.​If you have no idea what the @CrankyKaplan or @Wise_Kaplan Twitter accounts are, or what the big deal with them is, well, here's a primer. And if you already do, well, you'll be excited to know....

Henry Blodget's Money Talks: New Cash, Same Strategy

​Yesterday, The Business Insider's chief Henry Blodget announced a new round of funding to the world in a blog post explaining that the company just scored a cool $3M in the form of backing from a venture capital firm, RRE Ventures. That's more than the company's had since they started. TBI an ... More >>

The Media T-Shirt Project!

​It's Summer, and as we all know, many businesses get slow in the summer. Media is one of these businesses, and in media, you have to diversify in order to stay afloat, or something. It's bad enough you have to concern yourself with the terrible fate of blogger burnout in this heat! But making ... More >>

Video: Attempted "Icing" of Gawker Media's Nick Denton Yields Extraordinary Awkwardness

If you don't know what Bros Icing Bros is, well, the short version is that it's a drinking game involving "Bros" and Smirnoff Ice. Neither of which I'm willing to venture that Gawker Media publisher Nick Denton has ever had any kind of significant encounter with. Until now.

Hipster Grifter to Gawker: "Fuck You!"

​Kari Ferrell -- the urban celebrity and New York news sensation known to many as Brooklyn's "Hipster Grifter" -- is out of the pen, and (what else?) blogging regularly for ANIMAL NY. This week, however, she used her column space to take those who made her infamous to task.

Media Moves: Gawker's New Politics Hire Leaving Previously Gawker-Owned Wonkette; True/Slant Sale Looking Somewhat Stale

​Two major New York media moves to report today: Gawker has filled a recently widened gap for political blogging and reporting, while True/Slant - the little network that could -- was purchased in an M & A deal that met expectations in more ways than one.

The Most Exciting Moment of TechCrunch Disrupt Thus Far: Michael Arrington Told to "Fuckoff"

​Do you know what a TechCrunch is? No? Well then: it's a site run by a guy out of San Fransisco for San Fransisco tech geeks, and unless you work for FourSquare or you're a venture capitalist with a few hundred thousand to peel off, don't worry too much about it. All you need to know is that T ... More >>

Steve Jobs to Gawker Blogger: "What Have You Done That's So Great?"

​There's nothing surprising about a late night email fight, especially when alcohol is involved. We've all been there. But when the recipient of your angry missive is Apple's Steve Jobs -- and he takes the time to respond, four times, in the middle of the night -- it becomes news. Gawker Medi ... More >>

The Gizmodo iPhone Case: Editor Brian Lam's Off-Record Email to Steve Jobs

​Well, journalists, just remember: Off-record don't mean nothing to a court subpoena. Gizmodo, who had a huge, huge story when they paid for an iPhone prototype that was lost in a bar, is now experiencing that wonderful tidbit of information. Their editor, Brian Lam, shot Steve Jobs' public em ... More >>

Media Moves: Gawker's Newest Hire Poached from The Daily Beast

​The Gawker masthead's been pretty busy in the last few months, and they haven't even had any of their doors kicked in! It's about to see a little more action, though, as they've now added another name to their editorial team.

Exclusive: Further Legal Troubles Rumored For Gawker

​The battle between New York-based blog network Gawker Media and Apple over an exposed iPhone prototype is far from over, having made The Daily Show last night. Looks like they're going to have more legal troubles on their hands, however, though not from Apple this time. We hear that there are ... More >>

Media Moves: Gawker's New Full-Timer, the NY Observer's New Media Mob(ster), Our New Weekend Guy

​"Time to get paid, blow up like the World Trade," noted a young Notorious B.I.G. on his way to the top of the rap game, before he was brutally murdered in the climax of a rap war that left both him and his west coast equivalent, Tupac Shakur, dead. Hopefully that won't happen in this case! As ... More >>

John Cook Leaving Gawker for Yahoo News

​Woah.

Blodget and Salmon on Blodget vs. Salmon: The Last Word

​Last week, a war of words broke out between two fairly notable New York media presences. It was started after an editor was fired last week, the news of which we broke here. And we thought we'd try to end it here, too, by speaking with both about the spat.

BlogBeat: Denton's High Marks, Newsweek's Not-So-Secret Weapon, New Hires at Village Voice and Paris Review

​Another Monday, another BlogBeat column. Hopefully, unlike last week's column, this one won't cost us $20,000 a year in advertising money. A former employment situation with Nick Denton and Gawker is assessed, the face behind Newsweek's newest weapon talks, and new hires emerge at the Paris R ... More >>

Breaking: Clusterstock Editor John Carney Fired by Business Insider

​Gawker Media owner Nick Denton Tweeted earlier this evening, asking if the rumors he'd heard about Business Insider editor John Carney's firing were true. Well, Nick, here's your answer: John Carney, managing editor of financial news and gossip vertical Clusterstock at Business Insider, was l ... More >>

BlogBeat: Gothamist Sells Out to Cablevision, James Dolan Presumably Excited to Ruin Another News Outlet

​Gothamist -- the New York City metro news blog and subsequent locally-based "Ist" properties -- long a punchline among bloggers who poked at its overly excitable tones about the varying news minutiae it covered, finally gave themselves something to giggle over: a long-rumored multi-million do ... More >>

Gawker May Have Tough Time ID'ing 'DDoS' Attacker, Says Guy Who Caught His Own Hacker Assailant

​Gawker tells the New York Times that it's been unable to figure out who was behind the online attack that took down its various websites on Sunday and Monday.For long stretches on those two days, all of Gawker Media's sites were either totally down or just crawling as its servers were overwhelmed ... More >>

Former Gawker Writer Bemoans The No-Benefits Denton Plan

Ian Spiegelman is a former Page Six contributor who spent some time as Gawker's weekend blurb jockey.This morning, he left some interesting advice for his replacement. In the comments section of an otherwise harmless entry about (naturally) a piece in the New York Times, Spiegelman let loose with so ... More >>

J-Schooler Covers Own Class, Heavy Thinking Ensues

Harvey Fierstein on the History of Blowjobs

Fashion Week proves wearing, even to us model citizens

On Fire

Are Rated X and Hot Fuckin' Pink too pink and too hot for Scenic's owners?