In your finally Friday media column: a paltry offer for the Seattle P-I, Jake Tapper's a twit, arm fetish redux, Baba Wawa looks towards the end, and newspapers....you know:

Hearst tried to sell the Seattle P-I before they fired most of the staff and took it online-only, but they said they "failed to find a buyer." Although, it turns out, they did have an offer from a group of local investors: "Let's just say it was less than $10." Sadly, Hearst probably should have taken it.


Jake Tapper is blocking bloggers from reading his Twitter feed. Ah well. Use the time that you would have been reading Jake Tapper's Twitter feed to comb obsessively through video archives until you find a clip of Jake Tapper licking his comb like Paul Wolfowitz in Fahrenheit 9/11. That would be funny.

That whole Michelle Obama arm fetish? Not new. In the very first ever edition of the NYT's Sunday Styles page 17 years ago, the lead story was about a fetish for Linda Hamilton's arms, from Terminator. Amazingly, trend stories never become irrelevant.


James Rainey worries that cutbacks at newspapers will allow political consultants to plant smears with inexperienced young reporters, unlike the old days, when they planted smears with experienced reporters.

Oh no, Barbara Walters says she's planning her retirement "in the not-too-distant future." It seems like the media establishment just isn't ready for 100-year-olds.


Think it's bad being a newspaper these days? Try being a newsprint company. Then you would really be screwed. The bright side: according to an investment banker, "within the pantheon of media sectors, the newspaper business is actually still one of the better ones." The worst media sector: Silent films.