Atlantic editor Josh Green was writing a mildly unfavorable GQ piece about the Clintons until the Clintons said they'd pull Bill from the mag's cover if it ever ran. So they killed it. (For real this time, not like that old Vanity Fair rumor.) And Green took it to The Atlantic. The story is about how ousted campaign manager Patti Solis-Doyle didn't so much "run" the campaign as just act like a surrogate ego to Senator Clinton herself, and that Solis-Doyle continued to be allowed to fuck up Clinton's campaign primarily because of her slavish loyalty, and not for any political skill she might possess. The story is good! But now it's in the unread Atlantic. And the story's author is on the unwatched TUCKER. Clip below!

Noted asshole and Time "senior political analyst" Mark Halperin said, on Barbara Walters' satellite radio program, that John Edwards thinks Barack Obama "is kind of a pussy." We'd be shocked and appalled if Time hadn't hired Halperin from ABC precisely because of his skill with utter bullshit. They also employ Ana Marie Cox, who has called every candidate a pussy (or worse) at some point. Time political coverage: it's edgy! Until they print it, stripped of each edgy author's edge. (Halperin has already apologized, smugly.) After the jump, Halperin discusses his work as Bob Dole's speechwriter in 1996, his primary qualifications for "analyzing" politics. [Don't Quote Me via Romenesko]

Wonkette videographer Liz Glover made her way up to New York to cover fashion week, and she ran into Fox News! Or the Fox Business Network, that unwatched cousin. They were at fashion week filming a story about how hemlines predict the economy. Apparently. The Liz bugged them about their political affiliation. (The resulting Fox Business Hemline story is after the jump.)

Mind thievery at Brown University! A couple of rascally student reporters at the college's daily paper stand accused of lifting material from the Yale Daily News and Harvard's Crimson. (We're assuming there's no point in cribbing from the Cornell paper.) New York Times ethicist Randy Cohen dispensed a little sage advice there in December, telling a very interested crowd that taking Adderall to keep up a GPA was basically fine. "You can't be unethical all by yourself," he said. Great-like the world needs more overly-ambitious tweaked-out fabulists. This is Brown's third incident of plagiarism in as many months, and something like the tenth at an Ivy League school in the last year. Do Ivy Leaguers stretch the truth more than their counterparts? Who are the fibbiest kid reporters in the country? After the jump, a map of collegiate plagiarism scandals from the last few years.

Today, TMZ vampire Harvey Levin visited NYU's journalism department to talk about how he practices his craft and the entire self-aggrandizing mythos of journalism reportedly ate its own tail and then puked it back up in disgust, forever. Our favorite quotes:

Why won't THE MSM leave Choire Sicha's liquor store ALONE! [Radar]

From Maureen Dowd's column yesterday: "Even though Obama stopped smoking when he started running for president, he has lost five pounds racing around the country. Just like Hollywood starlets, he works out religiously and he can make a three-course meal out of a Nicorette." We'd link, except that it's not in the online version. Weird!

Page Six says Vanity Fair found an illegitimate son of John F. Kennedy out in Canada somewhere. His name is Jack and he "bears a strong resemblance to the 35th president assassinated in 1963." But Teddy strong-armed Graydon Carter and they killed the story! Except Vanity Fair says it isn't dead, so much as waiting on some sort of proof beyond resemblance and hearsay. Page Six, unfamiliar with such quaint niceties, is understandably unconvinced. [NYP]

Sam Zell, the touchy billionaire and Tribune Co. chief, doesn't just cuss out uppity journalists, he also berates disfavored Tribune Co. executives. At his Jan. 31 meeting with Orlando Sentinel staff, before he muttered "fuck you" to a journalist, Zell enthusiastically imitated a Tribune Co. executive who needed to be told what to do and was demanding instructions. He concludes, to raucous applause from the audience, that "this motherfucker makes $750,000!" The executive is never named, a dignity not afforded the lowly journalist Zell targeted, and it is unclear from Zell's confused narrative if the exec spoke to Zell or to a Zell informer. But Zell fingers the exec as one of the top six Tribune Co. executives. Is the story fabricated for effect, or is Zell talking about a real person? A pre-merger proxy statement shows two different executives clustered near $750,000 in total annual compensation. If you think you know who Zell is talking about, we'd love to hear at tips@gawker.com.

Popular internet gossip weblogger Mario "Perez" Hilton-Lavandeira 's late endorsement of Senator Hillary Clinton in the California primary might have been the deciding factor, according to venerable ABC journalist Sam Donaldson, who was trotted out by terrorists of some kind and forced to interview Lavandeira by phone, to his utter befuddlement. Donaldson explains that he knew Perez's grandfather Conrad, he wonders why there was "this hugely pregnant woman" on Ms. Hilton's internet site, then he promises to watch Perez Hilton's website every day. Buzz buzz! [ABCNews]

There on CNN last night, with Bill Bennett and David Gergen and other ghosts of administrations yore, was Paul Begala, commenting on the race, explaining that only rich people and the media like Barack Obama, while poor people all vote for Hillary. (He probably meant to specify poor white people but that's not the point.) He was identified, as always, as a "Democratic strategist." Not "former Clinton aide who's unofficially advising Hillary." So the on-air ban until there's actually a Dem nominee only applied to Carville? [Earlier]

Supermodel Naomi Campbell's gig as a columnist for British GQ apparently isn't quite lucrative enough to cover her expenses, like the out-of-court settlements to the many, many assistants she beat down, or repairs to the yacht she damaged when her boyfriend made this awful appetizer and then talked back to her. So she took some cash from a Brazilian entrepreneur named Nizan Guanaes to put on some Hooters shorts (left) and hang out at Carnaval in Salvador, Brazil for a while. Reports of bloody mayhem and panic should begin trickling out of Salvador as soon as Campbell finally snaps, probably within the next 24 hours. Click the thumb for Campbell's safe side in its full glory. [Made in Brazil]

"How many mainstream news sources on Monday will compare Obama to the Giants and Hillary to the Patriots? Watch this space for an ongoing tabulation!" [Bus Your Own Tray]

Salty billionaire Sam Zell has long been known for his foul mouth and abrasive demeanor, rough edges that helped the real estate magnate build a reputation as a feisty and iconoclastic investor. But Zell's bluntness backfired at a Jan. 31 meeting of Orlando Sentinel staff after Zell said "fuck you" to a journalist who twice questioned him about softening news coverage. Most staff did not hear the insult until they watched the incident on video, one source said, in a recording that has been making the rounds and generating buzz within the Sentinel. The target of Zell's curse was photographer Sara Fajardo, and Zell called her at least twice the weekend to apologize, the source said. After the jump, exclusive video of Zell's brazen insult.

The Columbia Journal Review kinda hates everything on the cable news networks, but we have to hand it to them—today's MSNBC interview with author Ben Shapiro does reach a new and impressive low. Shapiro wrote a book called Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House. This sounds like a man whose expertise on the political process should be celebrated on a national cable network! Contessa Brewer sat down with Ben and reinforced every single unfair negative stereotype about the vacuity of campaign coverage in something like two minutes. BREWER: "The only woman running in this case, Hillary Clinton, I was watching the debate the other night, looking at her beautiful skin, wondering if she's had any work done because I know that Botox and chemical peels and laser work and a little nip-tuck can make a world of difference." Ben, for those keeping score at home, doesn't think injecting botulism toxin into her forehead to temporarily hide signs of emotion and age would necessarily be such a bad idea for the 60-year-old senator. BREWER: "Ben, I think you're too young to know about Botox. I love the Botox. Next, we have an update on some reported UFO sightings..." [CJR]

The New York Times' Heath Ledger obit, under Times lifer James Barron's byline, features additional reporting by no less than 14 other contributors, including "Culture Reporter" David Carr, byline champ Sewell Chan, and the Arts Desk's Campbell Robertson. (Sheila McClear, Maggie Shnayerson, and Hamilton Nolan contributed reporting to ours.) [NYT]

If you wanted to hear Katie Couric say "oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit," Harry Shearer has the video for you. With the cameras sending live feed directly to Shearer's magic satellite, you are there as Katie preps for her New Hampshire primary election night coverage, bitches about the mic, repeatedly adjusts her top, announces the death of America's mayor, and says, of John McCain's wife, "she looks like a husky." Watch the whole clip below and fall in love with Katie all over again. [MyDamnChannel]

As Brian Williams reported that a CNN correspondent admits that they all find it nigh impossible not to be "biased" toward Barack Obama, a CBS-2 reporter (funny how so few outlets reported the questioner's affiliation btw!) had the following exchange with Hillary Clinton:

McCain and Obama: Are they very different? The same, but different? Kinda the same? It's a magical media world of imagination where anything's similar or different in critical ways if you believe in yourself! [NYT, NYT, Slate]

The big Times story about how Mitt Romney's race is all about still trying to live up to the expectations of his nutty coulda-been-a-contender dad is pretty fascinating (LOL @ Ann Romney saying, essentially, "My husband is running for president because of unresolved daddy issues") but this sentence is more or less the platonic ideal of shitty campaign journalism: "(Opponents say Mr. Romney has shifted on gun control, gay rights and immigration as well)." Leaving aside the period placement outside the parenthesis, "OPPONENTS" "SAY" THOSE THINGS BECAUSE THEY'RE VERIFIABLE FACTS. Some critics have charged that Rudy Giuliani is bald! And, uh, a serial adulterer. [NYT]