Tumblr doesn't like to talk about all the porn and spam coursing through its servers. But when NPR's Fresh Air started commenting on the problem, the microblogging site came clean. Because who is dumb enough to cross Terry Gross?

"We're aware of a recent increase in blogs with odd URLs that are following large numbers of users," a Tumblr rep wrote to Melody Kramer, Fresh Air's associate producer and Tumblr curator. "We're doing everything we can to quickly suspend these blogs and to keep more of them from being created." Kramer had needled Tumblr spammers in a short post to the Fresh Air blog.

Tumblr spammers don't just want to drum up traffic. In some cases, they're trying to infect users with malware, too, as TechCrunch notes. It's all part of a seedier side of the site Tumblr likes to keep hidden away from investors, advertisers and the press. Fresh Air and Terry Gross are apparently exceptions. Maybe Tumblr figured the radio show has enough experience juggling the sacred and profane to know where the company is coming from.

[Photo of a Tumblr employee at the company's Richmond, Virginia office via Tess Shebaylo/Flickr]