In your picturesque Thursday media column: Journalism used as a tool to obtain sexual satisfaction, WaPo libelously ponders libel, the homeless intern speaks words of hope, and FAIR is cutting writers' pay.

A lady went to a swingers club, as a freelance journalistblogger, and had a threesome with two other ladies. So there!


Haha, some anonymous commenter on WashingtonPost.com wrote that Maryland politico Cheryl Kagan was "carrying on with others husbands" and it was such an ordeal to get the comment removed from the story that the ombudsman decided to write his own story about what an ordeal it was, and that story included the full, libelous comment. Makes perfect sense.


Briana Karp, the homeless girl who was miraculously signed to poverty-level Elle internship, tells Mediaite that she's grateful for the gig:

Nobody has specifically seen the story and called offering me a job yet, which is fine by me – I am hopeful that I can score a good job on merit, talent, and a great résumé!

Thinking like that is how homelessness happens in the first place.


Writing for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting will make you poor(er). This email went out to contributors to FAIR's mag:

Dear Extra! writers:

We're having a serious budget-tightening at FAIR in response to the recession, and making some very difficult choices about how to save money to keep the organization going. I'm sorry to say that one of the things we're going to have to do is to reduce the rate we pay freelance writers—from 30 cents to 25 cents a word—starting with the November 2009 issue. Hopefully better times are ahead and this will turn out to be just a temporary measure, but in any case we hope this won't be too much of a burden on your own economic circumstances when you write for us. We are very grateful to the freelancers who make Extra! possible, and who put work into each article that is impossible for a small nonprofit magazine like Extra! to ever fully compensate.

Regards,

Jim Naureckas
Julie Hollar