The NY Times' article about presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain's superclose relationship with a young, attractive female lobbyist (more about her here) has drawn a lot of criticism, especially from McCain himself. His campaign seized the moment to raise money for his campaign. Campaign manager Rick Davis' fundraising letter read, "With John McCain leading a number of general-election polls against Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, The New York Times knew the time to attack......

The headline for the above-the-fold NY Times story about presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk, doesn't quite prepare readers for the juicy insinuations waiting for them in the second paragraph. The first sentence notes that during McCain's 2000 presidential campaign advisers were worried because... A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate......

The shocking news of Heath Ledger's death in an SoHo apartment is front page news. The Post uses a lovely photograph of Ledger and ex-fiancee Michelle Williams while the Daily News uses a still from Brokeback Mountain. Both focus on drug-related cause of death, though the News emphasizes it more. Newsday gives more attention to the economy while placing news of Ledger's death in a sidebar (Newsday's readership is more Long Island-based). amNew York uses......

If there's one thing to warm up New Yorkers - and New York newspaper editors thinking about a holiday issue - today, it's the Giants' NFC Championship win over the Green Bay Packers. Let's look at how they touted the big win. The Post opts for quarterback Eli Manning on the cover and kicker Lawrence Tynes on the back sports cover. Points for puns on both headlines. The Daily News and Newsday both use the......

We almost thought that the NY Post website was offering a game of "Which one of these things is not like the other?" But it turns out that celebrities Christina Aguilera, Nicole Richie, Courtney Thorne-Smith and David Alan Grier all had babies. The four babies - two boys (from Aguilera and Thorne-Smith) and two girls (Richie's and Grier's) - were born at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai, the hospital where Britney Spears was recently hospitalized and......

As last night's Iowa caucuses heralded the beginning of the heated drive to presidential nominations and general election, news of Barack Obama's Democratic win and Mike Huckabee's Republican win is naturally front page material. The Daily News and Newsday both take "BAM" as their headlines, though the News focuses on Obama while Newsday offers a split Obama-Huckabee cover. The NY Times has two large photographs of the winners, but emphasizes Obama's win a little......

Nothing makes our skin crawl like reading stories about bedbug infestations. The notorious nocturnal bloodsuckers are almost impossible to get rid of, attack you under the comfort of covers, and can leave you covered with welts. Yesterday, the Daily News took a final 2007 look at the bedbug epidemic that leaves no corner of the city untouched. In 2004, 537 complaints were phoned in to 311 regarding bedbugs; however, in the fiscal year ending......

Last month in Rolling Stone's November 15th issue, the magazine turned 40 -- and while going "over the hill" they may have crossed the line. The issue contained a four-page fold-out section called Indie Rock Universe, which amongst other things included the names of Indie's elite. This "universe" was discovered when the pages of a fold-out "butterfly gate" ad for Camel cigarettes was opened up. This is where the lines began to blur, as the......

After Letterman announced his show's comeback with new episodes, writers' strike or no writers' strike, the leaders of late night all followed suit. Conan O'Brien, who has been growing a "strike beard" and paying his non-writer employees out of pocket, will return on January 2nd -- and his West Coast network-mate, Jay Leno, will do the same. Yesterday the WGA released the following statement regarding this move.“The AMPTP walked away from the bargaining table on......

Guys, it’s Rachael Ray’s world, we just eat in it – this was verified by Time Magazine when the Food Network host was declared one of the 100 people who “shape our world” last year. And now that world will continue turning for at least two more years; it was announced yesterday that Ray’s contract has been extended beyond the Bush administration. That means at least 120 more episodes of her daytime cooking show, 30......

The MTA has apparently narrowed down the list of contenders to develop the West Side Rail Yards - and may even ask them to team up together. According to Crain's New York, the MTA favors the developers who have already lined up tenants. Which means the front runners are The Related Companies with News Corporation and Goldman Sachs, Durst & Vornado with Conde Nast, and Tishman-Speyer with Morgan Stanley. But front runners may need......

The Patriots and Jets didn't have the worst weather in the league Sunday, but they still had plenty to complain about. Rain and wind didn't stay the Patriots from improving to 14-0 with a 20-10 win over the Jets in Foxborough, Mass.. It did help the Jets keep the game close and easily cover the record 27-point spread, for those who care about those things. Kellen Clemens' early interception, returned for what WEPN's Bob......

It’s said that when Dick Cheney was tasked with vetting potential Veeps for the Bush campaign, he carefully considered all the applicants before recommending the best man for the job: himself. Perhaps tearing a page from Vader’s playbook, Dark Lord Balthazar – AKA Gawker Media Czar Nick Denton – has found the ideal replacement to helm his flagship website in the wake of managing editor Choire Sicha’s resignation: an eager young go-getter from sector 7G......

On January 2, after seeing a young man have a seizure and fall into the 1 subway tracks at at the 137th Street station just as a train was entering the station, construction worker Wesley Autrey jumped in and covered the other man's body with his own. The train passed over them and a hero was born. Autrey repeatedly told the media that he didn't want his two young daughters to see the man,......

Sick of watching reruns? Nervous you'll only get 8 episodes of Lost next season? Well, The NY Times reports on the first break in the writers' strike.David Letterman is pursuing a deal with the Writers Guild of America that would allow his late-night show on CBS to return to the air in early January with the usual complement of material from his writers, even if the strike is still continuing. Executives from Mr. Letterman's company......

The spread opened at 27 points. It's recently settled at 24 1/2 points, which, if held, would be the largest ever for an NFL game. More went into that spread than a terrible team playing an unbeaten one on the road. The Patriots have been running up the score on opponents all year, and everyone thinks they're doing it to teach the league a lesson after it was exposed -- on the word of jets......

PARTY: Though we were sad to see former editor, Colleen Kane, depart the media mothership of maleness, Playgirl magazine...the show must go on. Tonight come celebrate their January issue and their 2008 centerfold calender...all at once. Free booze and gift bags for all! 7 to 10pm // Happy Ending [302 Broome St] // Free THEATER: For “sophisticated literate slapstick, big on laughs highbrow and low,” Culturebot recommends 500 Clown Frankenstein. Although the cast is 497......

The Siena College Research Institute released information on how New Yorkers feel about Governor Spitzer, and the news is bad. Thirteen months after Spitzer was elected overwhelmingly to office, he now has a rating of 36% favorable/51% unfavorable (sliding from 64-22 in June, 41-46 in November) and a job performance rating of 27% positive=70 negative (55-37 in June, 33-64 in November). Not only that, but Siena Poll spokesman Steven Greenberg said, "A majority of voters,......

MTV network freelancers took their beef to the streets yesterday in protest of changes to their benefits plan; about two hundred of the workers spent the afternoon picketing outside the Times Square headquarters of MTV's parent company Viacom. According to Gawker, an initial chant of “What the fuck?!” was revised into the catchier “We care about our 401(k)s!” after a reportedly winsome young rabble-rouser climbed atop a garbage can and helped brainstorm new chant......

Mayor Bloomberg will be speaking at a United Nations conference in Indonesia, but he made a stop in Beijing first. He said to the audience at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, "Some people believe that by mid-century, as [much] as 75 percent of China's population may be city dwellers. Even an occasional visitor to China, like me, is struck by this rapid urbanization. It is one of the largest internal migrations by people in......

Yesterday's Knicks practice was cancelled so that the entire team could attend the funeral for Don Marbury, father of Knicks captain Stephon Marbury. Don Marbury died during the Knicks' Sunday night game. Despite being a team often criticized for lacking chemistry, they all stood together at the Coney Island Gospel Assembly on Neptune Ave. to support their point guard during his difficult time. Malik Rose spoke on behalf of the team to the 600-plus......

Sumner Redstone, who as majority shareholder still calls the shots at Viacom, has arranged a special holiday treat for his already well-exploited “permalancers”. (The term refers to the practice favored by Viacom and other companies of employing workers full time but classifying them “freelance” to keep their sneaky hands out of the insurance jar.) Though Viacom permalancers had previously been eligible for healthcare benefits after a year, new rules dictate that insurance will only be......

A Brookings Institution study reveals that New York is a great place for walking, with 21 out of 21 walkable urban places. But Washington D.C. is the most walkable on a per capita basis while New York is ranked 10th, because New York is measured as the NYC metro area, including NJ, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. The study's author, Christopher B. Leinberger, admits there are issues with the methodology, namely that walkable places are weighted the......

It may not be sweeps months, but WCBS 2 had a segment about a 12-week tiger cub who got a CT scan at a Long Island animal hospital. It's way easier on the eyes than the "woman who had a coat rack stuck in her face" story. Simba, a Siberian tiger at an Ohio zoo, was going to be put to sleep because she had a very bad sense of balance and could possibly......

Drama rocked the tabloid news website Gawker last week when half the editorial staff abruptly resigned. The news came to readers through an initially unassuming post on the website by editor Emily Gould, who addressed at length an essay about Gawker in the new issue of literary magazine n + 1 before divulging news of her departure, along with managing editor Choire Sicha. (It was later learned that a third editor, Joshua Stein, had also......

Gary Anthony Ramsay, the former NY1 reporter who was fired after calling into the station's live call-in show under a different name (to complain about former police commissioner Bernard Kerik), is weary. At least that's what he told blog Deep In the Heart of Brooklyn, in a long, breathtakingly soul-searching email. DITHOB's blogger, Brooklyn Beat, had previously wondered "Dude, Where's My Anchor" and someone purporting to be Gary Anthony Ramsay wrote back and gave the......

A day after the tragic death of Stephon Marbury's father Donald, some more details have come to light regarding his final moments. Knicks officials insist that Stephon's family asked the team not to notify him of his father's condition until after the game. Apparently this was not the first time Donald Marbury had suffered from chest pains like these. Donald was taken from The Garden right before the third quarter began, but the team only......

Yesterday Imus returned to radio, which means somewhere Al Sharpton was talking about it. Happy with the changes, but not quite certain the controversial cowboy will stick to them, Sharpton announced at a press conference yesterday that: "I can only wait and see if his deeds will follow up his words. I know the statements that he made we will continue to monitor as we'll monitor others." He also commented on the new sidekicks, saying,......

Resumes are being accepted to fill a sudden vacuum in the self-proclaimed “drug ring” that is Gawker. On Friday afternoon, at the end of a long Gawker post about palling around with the n + 1 crowd – who happen to be publishing a long think-piece on Gawker in their new issue – editor and cewebrity Emily Gould abruptly announced that managing editor Choire Sicha was to resign. And she would be joining him.......

...and a thousand Photoshop files were launched! Diane Sawyer may be a veteran journalist and may seem totally unflappable, but even she has totally embarrassing moments. This morning, during a segment unveiling Good Morning America's new holiday windows from the New York Botanical Gardens, she called Mayor Bloomberg a "munchkin." Really: “As a little munchkin, did you come to New York?” To be fair, she was asking Bloomberg whether he visited New York during......