John Carroll (pictured speaking) became a newspaper martyr when in 2005 he resigned as editor of the Los Angeles Times rather than implement budget cuts demanded by the penny-pinching corporate overlords. But that wasn't enough for David Simon, creator of The Wire, the HBO drama about crime, politics and the media in Baltimore. Simon, a former reporter at the Baltimore Sun, still blames Carroll for "single-handedly destroying" the newspaper; he's the model for the bland manager of Simon's television show who urges staff to do "more with less". [Baltimore Sun via Fimoculous]

This morning's New York Times begs your pardon for an error in yesterday's editorial that said no winner of a contested caucus had ever gone on to win the White House. Turns out Dubya did, in 2000. We know the Times is rabidly anticipating the end of the Bush administration, but how hard is it to look up what happened the election before last? Admittedly, this whole "caucus" concept is a toughie. Yesterday, two of the most popular searches on Google, according to Room 8 founder Gur Tsabar, were "Iowa caucasus" and "caucasus," neither of which look quite right. A Caucasus isn't so much an agonizing exercise in televised self-government as a Russian mountain range. God Bless America.

Graydon Carter's diatribes against the Bush administration have passed through the full arc of a great journalistic campaign. When it began, five years ago, the president was the still the victor of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Vanity Fair editor an aging liberal prophet in the wilderness, irritating, and mocked. Then Graydon Carter because simply a prophet, vindicated by the collapse of the Bush presidency. And now? The obsession continues (the latest editor's letter even compares George Bush to the awful mid-level manager of the Office) — but it feels dated. As we've been told by the pundits, the results of the Iowa caucuses show that the electorate has moved beyond the war in Iraq, Bush and the Clintons. Graydon Carter has not.

Is prolific New York Times golden boy Sewell Chan hiding something in his trash? Like maybe comments critical to his CityRoom blog posts? According to one of his readers, who blogs over at Young Manhattanite, Chan "pretty much cribbed entirely" his post today about MetroCard makeovers from design blog A Brief Message. The blog just happens to be run by Times' design director Khoi Vihn, not that you'd know from reading his post, since Chan credited the site's operation to someone else. Whoops! When his reader aimed to correct Chan in an online comment, the Times superstar allegedly hastily updated the post and squelched the critical comment without publishing it. Maybe he thought no one would notice he'd ever been wrong in the first place?

Have you heard? Some authors are totally tatted up! But it's hard to know who, 'cause you obviously can't see tats in headshots. Well, except for Darcy Steinke, who shows 'em off in her publicity photo. But who else is all inked up?

I'm sitting in the CES press lounge when my editor, Owen Thomas, sends me an email:

You punch one lady cop (and call her a dyke) and suddenly you're not fit to anchor the local news anymore. Even in Philly! Alycia Lane, who assaulted a member of the NYPD last month, has been officially released from her contract by CBS3. There's always Pittsburgh. Or the internet! Maybe she'll come by to take your questions before she finally disappears. [CBS3]

In the CES 2008 Press Lounge:

Me: The lunch line is out of food. They're going to revolt.
Peter Shankman: Yeah, right. Let's see all these fat, out of shape, wannabe reporters start a revolt. That would be great.

Press lounge, CES 2008
Dr. William Coggshall, Pacific Media Associates

You know all those trannies that are "in transition" that like to be called "ze" instead of he or she or whatever? Have you ever typed out "s/he"? Remember all the "womyn" you communed with at college? And obviously "hir," the politically-correct catchall for both "him" and "her," "reek[s] of east-coast liberal elitism." (Does it?) Therefore! The new gender-neutral pronoun is....YO. As in, "Yo was flirting with my boyfriend," instead of "She was flirting with my boyfriend," or the even more popular, "That bitch was flirting with my boyfriend."

Everyone in the magazine world is getting very excited about the new year's massacre at Conde Nast, the publisher of titles such as Vanity Fair and Vogue. Conde is tightly controlled by the Newhouse family, and its office politics have all the transparency of the Brezhnev-era Politburo. But we're told by one insider that Lou Cona, formerly the publisher of the New Yorker, is stepping up by moving to group ad sales, even if the role sounds less glamorous. Anyway, business: boring! There's one amusing tidbit. Gina Sanders, promoted to publisher of Lucky magazine, presided over the huge success of Teen Vogue. We're sure her continued ascension has nothing to do with her marriage to (pictured left) Steve Newhouse, heir-apparent to the Conde Nast empire.

Have you ever made it all the way through an issue of the New York Review of Books? Of course not! But did you realize that the septuagenarian crowd is getting totally rowdy back there, carefully crafting literate, occasionally randy personals for potential hookups? (Remember, they don't know how to use Craigslist). Actual example: "Manhunt for literate 70 y/o gay men!" Examples after the jump! (Totally SFW).

Is it wrong that we're kind of jealous that West Coast residents got another full week's worth of non-stop TIGER ATTACK coverage? [Corn Chips and Pie]

Anal annal-er and New York Press sex columnist Kelly Kreth was fired Friday after just three months by editor David Blum, who hasn't been satisfied by any of the four three sex columnists he's fired in the last year. Neither Rachel Kramer-Bussel nor Kreth's Press-predecessor Stephanie Sellars did it for the ex-Voice editor. The co-authors of his short-lived "Married Not Dead" sex column at the Voice (kicked to the curb a couple of days after Blum was replaced) didn't do it for anyone. "My feeling is, when you hire a columnist, you let them express themselves in their own way," Blum told us. "Ultimately you have to decide whether it works or not." Kreth was fired for "taste," which admittedly, came in short supply in her columns. In large supply? Gems like this: "I write about my tight starfish because I know, even while disgusted, people will be compelled to read. It doesn't matter if it is out of titillation or horror, want or need, we just want their eyes on the page and on us." Kelly, honey, we hate to break it to you, but the Press is no stranger to a tight asshole.

Writing in The Nation, Chris Hayes explains "why campaign coverage so often sucks": because reporters are terrified and confused and either keep entirely to themselves or else run in confused packs of other journalists to ensure that no one "misses" anything. Related: a poor Obama volunteer doesn't recognize and attempts to canvas the journalistic dream team of Ben Smith, Ana Marie Cox, and Maureen Dowd outside one Des Moines "media hangout." [The Nation via Crooks and Liars, Politico]

GQ sent supermodel Naomi Campbell to interview Hugo Chavez. Hugo says Fidel Castro is "the most stylish world leader." Ahmadinejad: snubbed. HuffPo offers: "Keep reading -OR- See pictures of Naomi Campbell's bikini beach vacation."

A useful guide to Time Warner, Hearst and Manhattan's other media headquarters. [The full map is at Gridskipper.]

'Extra' host Mark McGrath has said that 27-year-old Fox Business Network anchor Jenna Lee "puts the babe in business news." But it seems that even she's not babe enough to score viewers, let alone a date. Fox's fledgling biz network is off to a meager start with an average of 6,000 weekday viewers in its first two months. Maybe Jenna's requirements for would-be suitors are just too stringent! "My perfect man has to be wicked smart," she tells 'Extra'. "A good sense of humor doesn't hurt, but at the end of the day you want a smart man." Presumably you wouldn't mind if he were also a well-educated 18-35-year-old influencer with a high household income and a weakness for luxury goods? Ladies, next time one of you FBN pinup-newswomen talks to Sugar Ray about what you're looking for in an audience, be more specific!

Last night while everyone losing their shit in Iowa watching the battle of the century, Britney Spears was waging her own legal fight. A flurry of paparazzi descended upon her home last night to cover her scuffle with the cops and subsequent hospitalization. But what's the nation's reaction? How did Obama and Huckabee stack up against Spears for media love? The results might surprise you.

Early ratings for Rupert Murdoch's Fox Business Network have materialized, and the news isn't pretty. According to Nielsen Media Research, about 6,300 households on any given weekday are tuning in. Compare that to the 283,000 watching rival network CNBC. The number is so low you won't hear it officially from Nielsen researchers, because it doesn't meet their minimum standards for reporting. While it's still early going and Fox only reaches about 30 million households compared to CNBC's 90 million homes, the numbers aren't pretty.