GQ assigned photographer Jill Greenberg to shoot Glenn Beck for an interview, in a cheeky homage to Greenberg's notorious series of crying children. Funny! Hey, didn't Beck accuse Greenberg of "terrorizing" children for those photos? Of course he did.

Last Wednesday a man named Gerald Walpin, a U.S. inspector general investigating the possible misuse of Americorps funds, received a call from the White House informing him of his firing, a firing some believe was politically motivated and highly illegal.

SHOCK: in yesterday's Fox News Poll, respondents were asked whether or not they believed that Barack Obama was still "sneaking cigarettes at the White House"! Are you outraged? Think Progress commenters are!

Well you just knew that Shepard Smith's off the reservation intellectual honesty at Fox News would backfire—Conservatives are going after him, some demanding Fox fire him, for the heresy he committed by making comments critical of right-wingers yesterday.

As we learn more about Don Broderick, the Fox News staffer who's accused of dragging a cyclist through Central Park, it sounds like he fits the tradition of Fox News' affinity for angry white men.

One of the things we've been waiting all day to see in the aftermath of the shooting today at the Holocaust Museum was how the conservatives would spin the incident. Now, thanks to Glenn Beck and Debbie Schlussel, we know.

Don Broderick, an angry white male who works for Fox News, drove into a Central Park bicyclist with "psychotic intent" last week and dragged him four blocks. What is it with Fox News's angry white (plus Geraldo) guys?

In your soothing Wednesday media column: the Boston Globe has a sense of humor, Jon Friedman turns 10, the Weekly Standard's getting dumped, Steve Doocy's kid finds a job, and crazy people want to start a new newspaper.

• It's only been a week since Conan took over the top-rated Tonight Show, but David Letterman has already passed over him in the ratings. [NYT]
• Also: Dave Letterman's new contract will keep him at CBS through '12. [LAT]
• Yesterday the Boston Globe's largest union rejected the New York Times Co.'s proposed package of cuts. The NYT responded by implementing a 23 percent pay cut anyway and now the union is taking the matter to court. [NYT]
• Ratings are down for CNN's Lou Dobbs. And thank God for that. [NYO]
• It's official: Ari Emanuel is the new Mike Ovitz! Both the New York Times and The Daily Beast invoke Ovitz's name in lengthy pieces on "the pre-eminent power player in Hollywood" and "Hollywood's new don." [NYT, TDB]
• Sound the alarms! Swine flu has returned to Condé Nast! [Daily Intel]

The New York Police Department confirms that it is investigating the alleged death ride that a Fox News staffer took a cyclist on in Central Park last week.

As we learned yesterday, Angelina Jolie's dad is a very angry at Barack Obama. Last night, he took his grumpy old man act to the O'Reilly Factor, where he basically called Obama a communist girlie-boy.

Just in case you were wondering, "What's driving Glenn Beck insane today?", Glenn's bulbous head was on the verge of exploding on the air over a UN proposal to ban on plastic bags. He even did his vaunted "Flipper" impersonation!

Remember when "Bruno" fell bare-assed into Eminem's lap at the MTV Movie Awards? Well, the fine folks over at Fox & Friends were so offended by that tasteless skit that they went outside to play football with women in lingerie!

Sean Hannity creepily interviewed Sarah Palin in some wooded area of Long Island, where Sarah proceeded to do what Sarah does—-Spewed out a maddening but hilariously folksy word soup that translates to "I told you so!"

Rush Limbaugh unleashed an exquisite blast of paranoia on Sean Hannity's show last night, predicting that newspapers, television networks, and radio networks will all go bankrupt (true), at which point Obama will personally take them over (crazy).

Yesterday Barack Obama gave his speech in Cairo and the "extremists" at Fox News had plenty of dumb things to say about it, so the Daily Show collected a bunch of clips and proceeded to mercilessly lampoon them last night.

CBS' lovable curmudgeon Andy Rooney became a great-grandfather when his grandson, Fox News producer Justin Fishel, and his wife birthed twins recently. We look forward to hearing Andy bitch about all of this is a future 60 Minutes segment. [TVNewser]

These posters were plastered over some Faile art in an unidentified city: "Kill Bill: A Roaring Rampage of Revenge. The Feel Good Movie of the Year." Bill: ranting about these on air will only add to their powers of attraction.

• Stephen Colbert will be Newsweek's guest editor next week. [NYO]
• Conan O'Brien's second Tonight Show dropped 30 percent from Monday's record-setting premiere, although that was probably to be expected. [THR]
• For the third straight month, MSNBC bested CNN in the cable news ratings. Fox News remained in first place, as usual. [Daily Finance]
• More bad news for CNN: Campbell Brown returned from maternity leave this week and immediately returned to fourth-place in the ratings. [THR]
• A new Harvard Business Review study reveals that 10 percent of Twitter users account for more than 90 percent of Twitter messages sent. [AdAge]
• Jon & Kate Plus 8 is still generating obscene ratings, sadly. [AP]

Ever since Bruno rubbed his balls in Eminem's face at the MTV Movie Awards, Fox & Friends has felt scared and alone. Steve Doocy wants to pretend it never happened, Gretchen Carlson can't get over the pantlessness, and Brian Kilmeade just refuses to believe that it was a hoax.