Will the kvetching never end? The photog recipient of that famous "fuck you" from Tribune CEO Sam Zell has finally come out of witness protection to speak about her harrowing experience. "It was not my intention to offend him," Sara Fajardo told the Orlando Sentinel's ombudsman, who also spoke to the paper's publisher and editor for his Sunday piece. Both of them hated on "Sam" (so accessible Zell is with the first-name bases!) for his "inappropriate" comment to their shutterbug, who for her part says that contrary to reports that Zell begged and pleaded for her forgiveness in the days after his public cuss-fit, she hasn't spoken with him since. At the Los Angeles Times, Gustavo Arellano gives his paper hell for using the phrase "two-word obscenity" to describe what Zell had said to Fajardo. Fucking pussies.

The press has been barred from covering Karl Rove's speech today at Choate, the chichi Connecticut prep school. Sort of like Rove was barred a few weeks ago from delivering the school's spring graduation address. "This is a special program, a school event, and we typically don't invite the media to a school event," a spokeswoman said. "It's our standard way of doing things." Well then!

So on Friday we asked if everyone's favorite stoop liner, The Brooklyn Paper, might be "undergoing some turmoil," according to what editor Gersh Kuntzman allegedly told one of his freelancers, who complained about not being paid for months. We got a dressing-down in the comments from Kuntzman, who accused us of violating the Constitution, his mom, and some other stuff. Of course, that was after the editor sent us his eBay listing promising the highest bidder "a piece of journalistic, medical and political history." Oooh! "How about a little last-minute buzz on my cast?" Kuntzman asked us. You will be sad to learn the bidding for the cast "worn by legendary Brooklyn journalist Gersh Kuntzman after he broke his ankle in January" ended last night, netting the editor $102.50. Brooklyn Paper freelancers: on Monday when you mug him for your share, practice a little compassion, hmm? Aim for the other ankle.
Previously: Itsy 'Brooklyn Paper' Killed By Gigantic News Corp?

David Schuster, an NBC News correspondent whom no one on Earth had ever cared about before today, has just been suspended for announcing that it was "weird" how the Clintons "pimped out Chelsea" when they made her call all those superdelegates and those ladies from The View. Chris Matthews, Tucker Carlson, and even lovable old Pat Robertson will still appear on the network regularly. [Media Matters]

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:

Trouble brewing at The Brooklyn Paper? A tipster warns that freelancers at the local weekly haven't been paid since last summer and editor Gersh Kuntzman has told them the community glossy is "undergoing some turmoil." Probably in the form of Rupert Murdoch, who bought the paper's main competition last year, but maybe also because of all the beggars milling around wildly! The Brooklyn Paper's five editions (what, you expected Bay Ridge to share with Park Slope?) have helped New York's j-school students cut their teeth and pay for pizza for the last twenty years. Now what will they do, eat copies of The Bronx Beat?

Former Senator and man who wishes he could own slaves Trent Lott "may go to work as a network political consultant. Lott says he's being courted by CNN and FOX to do political analysis." [TP]

Tribune Company's head-troll-in-charge, Sam Zell, caught some positive press when he unveiled his new employee handbook a few weeks ago. It was refreshingly honest! Entertaining and off-the-cuff! Also? A blatant cut-and-paste job from another company's manual down to the font. With a few very specific Tribuney differences, of course.

The influence of Maureen Dowd, formerly important New York Times opinion columnist, is dead, at the age of 13. The Pulitzer-winning columnist is still blamed, in some circles, for killing Al Gore's shot at the presidency with her relentless, belittling, emasculating, and most importantly media consensus-shaping columns. She used to be inescapable—on the Times home page, on Sunday morning politics shows, in every political blog on Earth—but now it's hard to gin up outrage about her scrubbing negative quotes from columns or mistaking black women for other black women. In 2004, those stories would've been all Atrios talked about for days. (Maybe they still are, does anyone read Atrios anymore either?) In 2000, they wouldn't have been outrages at all, because everything she said was immediate conventional wisdom. So what happened?

Does Tribune CEO Sam Zell seem like a rumpled and eccentric batshit kooky homeless dwarfy man to you? Good news! You're an excellent judge of character. In an email tenderly addressed today, as usual, to his "fellow employees," Zell discusses increasing his reported token annual salary by two pennies to 52 cents. Diplomatic hobgoblin that he is, Zell writes: "Do I need a committee, meeting and another consultant to change that policy? Oh, that's right, I'm in charge now. What policy?" We'll give him one thing-saying 'fuck you' to his employees without actually saying 'fuck you' to their faces on camera is an art. Progress! Full e-rant after the jump.

The New York Review of Books, highbrow home of Joan Didion letters and occasional epic literary feuds (or "nerd fights") today undertakes it greatest challenge: explaining "blogs" to its million-year-old readers. The author assigned to the task? Journo (and cartoonist!) Sarah Boxer, who has assembled a little print anthology of blog "writing." Which means that her task is two-fold, actually: explaining blogs to old people and justifying collecting them into a book to herself. How does she fare? Hilariously!

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

Yesterday's gallery of journalism flicks, whose soaring soundtracks are partly responsible for infecting your mind with the Pulitzer bug, was a collection of some of our favorites. Twelve of yours, clamored after in the comments, are after the jump. Can we talk about Michael Keaton's secret burning desire to be a scrappy little news guy? Robert Redford too. 'Course, if the role of scrappy news guy came with a dressing room, an Alan Pakula script and six or seven figures, we'd be all over it too.

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!

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]

Did you know that seemingly harmless job listings site and blog network MediaBistro is a tool of the FBI? It's all true. FishbowlLA editor Kate Coe wrote an item about the Clintons' secret CIA plot to destory former POW John McCain. Which led one intrepid blogger to uncover the secrets behind the CIA control of the entirety of MediaBistro and Kate Coe's connection to the political assassinations of artists Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake.

Time Out's Julia Allison-led Singles Issue is online now, complete with a behind-the-scenes video of the making of that sure-to-be-iconic cover image. Also there are essays! One, from Ms. Allison, about being a self-empowered single lady or something. An another, from some non-famous TONY staff lady, dissenting! Ashlea Halpern is not buying Julia. Because Allison's "MARKET YOURSELF LIKE A BRAND AND BE TRUE YOURSELF TOO LADIES" advice is insipid and useless pap, sure, but also because Ashlea seems to be convinced that it only works "if you happen to look like Julia Allison", which surely ties a record for point-missing. Oh, we've embedded the damn video after the jump, in case you have no self-respect. It's four minutes long. She rolls around in bed with her dog in PJs. 'Cause she's single and loving it! [TONY, Previously]

Big news on today's View. First: Joy threw a Super Tuesday party and everyone but Elisabeth showed up. Also: Chelsea Clinton personally called all of them (except Elisabeth) to ask that they please vote for her mother. And they all did, and then they talked about it on The View. Even Sherri! Jesus. Did anyone call Tyra? The Daytime Lady Primary wasn't lost with Oprah! [Jezebel]

Pessimistic cynics, the lot of you! Your nominations for the magazines most likely to succumb to these, our lush economic and intellectual times included TV Guide, Money, anything whatsoever to do with Rachael Ray and unsurprisingly, Radar and Portfolio. After the jump, a look at the rest.

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]