In your provocative Monday media column: debates over the National Enquirer's respectability and women's ability to be funny, a journalist is killed, and a new Vultureperson is hired.

"Does the National Enquirer Deserve a Pulitzer for Breaking the John Edwards Scandal?" Provocative question! The answer is no, but they do deserve a Pulitzer for breaking the story of the secret love child of the chair of the Pulitzer board ah...the John Edwards thing, yes.


Another provocative question: Is "zero" a sufficient number of females employed as professional joke-writers for our nation's late-night comedians? This lady in Salon says no! (Worth reading!) Counterpoint: Howie Mandel is a man. So.


Rupert Hamer, a 39 year-old British reporter for the Sunday Mirror, was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan last weekend. One US Marine in the same vehicle was killed as well. Hamer had three young children.


New York magazine has hired Claude Brodesser-Akner as West Coast editor of its culture blog, Vulture. Brodesser-Akner has worked for Variety, Wired, Ad Age, and TMZ.