New York Post headline: "Press pussies soft on O." The Post itself is rock hard.

Here's an extremely simple rule for journalists wondering when to disclose that they're married to an influential government official: always. Always disclose that. This rule is, strangely, too complex for adult human Campbell Brown to understand.

The Village Voice has laid off at least three staff writers, bringing their staff writer count to... negative two?

And the Romney campaign's contentious relationship with the media continues.

The new CEO of the New York Times Co. is Mark Thompson, previously the Director-General of the BBC.

Barry Eisler, a former CIA agent turned novelist, has put forth a handy checklist that journalists can use to determine just how co-opted they have become by the very powers over which they are supposed to be serving as a watchdog. It can help any reporter decide just how far down the road to hackdom they've traveled so far. It's like one of those online personality tests, but it tells you exclusively how much of a sellout you are.

Former Gawker editor Elizabeth Spiers took over as editor of the New York Obsever in February of 2011, bringing a measure of stability to what had been a decidedly up-and-(mostly) down enterprise under parsimonious wunderkind owner Jared Kushner. Now, Spiers is leaving.

In an effort to improve tense relations between Mitt Romney's campaign and the press, the Republican candidate's travel press secretary Richard Gortka got in a loud fight with members of the media today.

The Daily, News Corp's big fancy well-funded "iPad newspaper" project, was never really a good idea from day one. A once-daily, hugely expensive, geographically nonspecific newspaper that is not available on the internet: just not a great business plan. Now, a year and a half after the launch, the reality appears to be crashing down.

The New York Times' Julie Bosman reports that Jonah Lehrer, the precocious New Yorker writer who was caught fabricating Bob Dylan quotes in his book Imagine, has resigned from the magazine. Here's his statement, via Bosman's Twitter feed:

Glasses-adjusting New York Times-version-of-a-Republican David Brooks is a highly talented political columnist-craftsman, in the sense that he is able to lay a thin veneer of pop psychology-varnish over even the most cracked glass coffee table of intellectualism* (*David Brooks-style mishmash alert). Today, Brooks puts forth his most breathtaking ideological prescription yet: our leaders should always be doing opposite things at all times.

Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams is America's least necessary cultural critic. Reading a Mary Elizabeth Williams column on any topic in the news is like sticking a needle full of SUPER SWEET SUGAR WATER in your veins and pushing the plunger until you say "Blaaaauuurrrrgghhhhpablumpablum." Does Mary Elizabeth Williams have something unnecessary—so unnecessary that it would have been a net gain to humanity to say nothing at all—to say on the topic of our recent Very Sad Aurora Movie Theater Shooting Tragedy? Yes of course she does. If you had hoped to avoid it, you lose.

Shoes, dropping, everywhere: British prosecutors announced they're charging eight new and very high profile people with criminal phone hacking in the endless News Corp tabloid phone hacking scandal. The biggest names: former News of the World Editors Rebekah Brooks (a top lieutenant and trusted confidante of Rupert Murdoch) and Andy Coulson (who went on to become the spokesman for British prime minister David Cameron). Five other former NOTW editors and reporters were also charged, along with private eye Glenn Mulcaire, who was heavily involved in the phone hacking.

I'm sure I'm not the first one to point this out, but it must be said: in the July 23 issue of The New Yorker, Jane Kramer has written a "Personal History" story entitled "A Reporter At Odds: Trading the notebook for a guidebook." The intro:

Americans hate the media with a passion. So they'll be happy to know that the average U.S. journalist—grrr, the MSM!—is paid even less than the average American.

"The Borowitz Report," a satirical news website written by Andy Borowitz, will now be hosted on the website of The New Yorker, the legendary weekly magazine that once published James Thurber and Dorothy Parker. Borowitz, unsurprisingly, has been a long-time contributor to "Shouts and Murmurs"; now, as a flagship blogger for the website, he'll join Malcolm Gladwell, David Denby, Jonah Lehrer and Adam Gopnik as one of the magazine's best-known names.

New Yorker editor David Remnick, who really is a mighty fine journalist in his own right and who has shepherded his magazine through an extended period of excellence, is a man whose opinions on matters journalistic should be paid heed. Except for his opinion about that twee little pastry fetishist Francophile yuppie shit, Adam Gopnik.

Last week, a 14-year-old girl declared victory in her campaign to convince Seventeen magazine to incorporate images of "Real Girls" into its pages. What she gained (besides lots of press coverage) isn't completely clear; Julia Bluhm petitioned Seventeen to cut down on Photoshopped images by printing "one unaltered photo spread" per month, and editor-in-chief Ann Shoket responded by vowing to readers the magazine would "help make your life amazing!" and "give you the confidence to walk into any room and own it."

The Daily is a daily newspaper that is available only on iPads. This was, and remains, a terrible business model. Consider:

XO Jane went through a lot of serious drama when they had to part ways with dust-smoking suicidal narcissist downtown swinger beauty columnist Cat Marnell, after they had sucked every last car-wreck-in-action page view that they reasonably could from her while still maintaining a decent Caring Big Sister posture. But there's good news, desperate readers: XO Jane has an equally depressed suicidal beauty writer to serve as Marnell's spiritual successor.