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We always love our slutty sister Wonkette, but we particularly love her at times like this, when she's busy digging up — by which we mean idly sitting back and waiting for others to tell her about — a potential journalism scandal involving none other than The New York Times. Wonkie tried to tip us to this last week, but there were no explicit mentions of Nicole Richie or gay sex or Alessandra Stanley, and so our eyes just glazed right over. Today, however, sis drops in phrases like "Jill Abramson" and "Sharon Waxman" and "Big Ol' Journalism Scandal," and now she's got our attention. Here's the charge:

The New York Times is sitting on a story about columnist payola either because (depending on who you believe) a DC PR firm (Dezenhall Resources, according to our anonymous and quite possibly delusional source) browbeat Jill Abramson into spiking it, or because reporter Sharon Waxman "polluted her reporting" by threatening said firm (and we can't imagine anything more terrifying to a giant, powerful PR firm than a single Times reporter, right?).

Somehow we have a hard time buying that Abramson was browbeaten by a flack, but, still, Wonkette seems convinced and we always support the family. Also, we really do lover a good pundit-payola scandal, and it's been far too long since the last one.

Got any insight? Let us know and we'll pass it along.

Our Big '06 Media Scandal: A Lot Like Our Old '05 Media Scandals [Wonkette]
Related: Could This Be Our Big '06 Media Scandal? Please? [Wonkette]