Whether a drug-addled woman in the midst of an apparent complete mental breakdown should be really held personally responsible by her exploiters for her complicity in her exploitation is a matter best left to Dr. Phil or blog commenters, but it's clear to all who've followed the travails of Britney Spears (and they're hard not to follow, with each nightly travail conveniently illustrated by paparazzi photographs immediately disseminated to USWeekly and TMZ, not unlike that amazing cyber-lebrity episode of CSI: Miami that was repeated last night) that she is a quite willing participant in her own liveblogged downward spiral. And hell, when the Daily Mail reports that (estranged paparazzi ex of Britney) Adnan Ghalib's auctioning off of "intimate" photos is "her worst nightmare," we are not entirely convinced. Still, it's a bit unseemly that one "lensman" would go to Page Six to defend the honor of his tribe (or pack? swarm?).

Dear Manhattan-meet the rest of the country. Or at least, the lucky titles still surviving at a Wal-Mart in rural Alabama, visited this weekend by Folio. Last week, the superstore cut from its shelves more than 1,000 magazines, including the New Yorker and Better Homes and Gardens. Happy hunting, folks. Or flexing. Or both! Click the image for a closeup. [Folio]

Why is it that some companies get coverage and others don't? One could go into all sorts of conspiracy theories, but I think the reason is often much simpler: Reporters write about what they understand. Quantcast fits the bill — which is why the Web-measurement service's $20 million round has gotten top billing on all the usual suspects.

Scoops are important to journalists. But do readers care? Some writers persist in thinking so. I can't remember ever seeing such backbiting over a humdrum funding announcement: Kara Swisher of AllThingsD scooped everyone last Friday with a rumor that Slide, Max Levchin's Web widget maker, was raising a big funding round. Sarah Lacy of BusinessWeek had more details of the $50 million round in an already-written column published to the Web after Swisher's post. Brad Stone of the New York Times weighed in that afternoon. And that's when the knives came out.

Web hits, "the current fool's gold of the newspaper industry," are bringing down the level of discourse in this country, says veteran Los Angeles Times sports columnist Bill Dwyre, in a column that leads with the saga of Golfweek's editor, who was fired after sticking a noose on the cover last week. The press, Dwyre says, spends too much time covering Britney and public demonstrations of stupidity, separate entities in this case. There's a war on, you know. What? We had no idea! This is a perfectly valid sentiment, but that's the problem-it's a sentiment, not an argument and it's about ten years past tired. I'm pretty sure William Randolph Hearst would have something to say about the web getting all the credit for inventing the proper way to monger a scandal or bait a race. (See racially insensitive image above, c. 1894.)

Editor & Publisher is reporting that Harvard's student newspaper, The Crimson, has endorsed Barack Obama and John McCain. The press says this is big news, because as everyone knows, Harvard students (and Ivy Leaguers overall) are much much smarter than everyone else. If you were backing the other guy, sadly, you're a moron.

Speaking of old school, this weekend the Times featured an epic 2,000-word Alan Feuer profile of legendary Daily News reporter Jimmy Breslin who's got a book out and, who is, much to Feuer's surprise, still alive, kicking-and working! Gee whiz, good for him. Feuer may not be the most erm, precise reporter on the planet, but like any fabulist worth his salt, he's got a good grip on phrase-turning. "Mr. Breslin's growl is actually more of a squawk and not unlike how a pintail duck might sound if it smoked a pack a day through a kazoo," he writes. Of course, that line sounds like it's pulled straight from a Breslin column, but never let's mind that.

The LA Times is letting editor James O'Shea go at the end this week. O'Shea was hired 14 months ago after the last guy couldn't figure out how to save the newspaper industry. Management was really, really hopeful that O'shea would be able to figure it out, but more than a year later - a whole year - the paper's still in the same god damn mess. Chaos at the highest levels is clearly a sound strategy for transforming an obsolete business model. Keep it up, LA Times. You'll be out of this in no time.

Well that didn't take too long. In an online statement today from editor Tony Ortega, the Village Voice announced it has separated itself from art critic Christian Viveros-Faune, whose direction of two commercial art fairs was raised yesterday by a blogger as a possible conflict of interest.

Agence France-Presse, which previously prohibited the use of Wikipedia as a source by its journalists, has extended the restriction to Facebook. Imagine that: banning reporters from Facebook. Who do they think they are — Mark Zuckerberg? [Journalism.co.uk]

Turns out we were right about those business-side cuts at the Village Voice. Sources inside the paper tell us long-serving staffers were fired today, among them the Voice's accountant and benefits director, who, we're told, had spent 38 years at the weekly.

At CES 2008, respectable press and barely-tolerated bloggers were separated into groups with different badges but mostly similar levels of access. At Macworld 2008, there was, theoretically, only one badge for all types of press. In reality? Some hacks were more equal than others.

Magazine shakeup! Longtime Vanity Fair contributing editor David Margolick is leaving the Condé Nast magazine to join Portfolio (as Howell Raines did earlier this week), the Observer is reporting. Margolick most recently penned a well-received profile of Eliot Spitzer for the magazine. Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter is known for his rotating list of favorites-could Margolick have been on the outs? We would wish him better luck with his new capitán, Portfolio editor Joanne Lipman, but we're not sure he's headed for friendlier pastures. One thing's for sure, Portfolio must be putting serious coin on the table to convince players like Margolick to come on board. If you know, let us know.

CNN introduced their own YouTube/America's Funniest Home Videos user-generated content bonanza "iReport" last year to vague acclaim, prominent website placement, and a Sunday afternoon televised roundup. Now they've finally caved and bought the domain names "ireport.com" and "i-report.com" from a squatter who picked them up for $100 in 1997 and unloaded them to CNN for $750,000. All so that the nation may more easily find photos of puppies that look like baby polar bears. [Silicon Alley Insider]

Anne Wojcicki, wife of the search engine's Sergey Brin, has a special offer for those select journalists invited to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The first 50 reporters to show up will receive a complimentary DNA test from 23andMe, the personal genome service which Wojcicki founded with a little financial help from her billionaire husband. The company's most exciting offering: an "odds calculator", which indicates the likelihood of the subjects falling victim to common journalistic ailments such as heart disease, and Alzheimers. What about technological redundancy? After the jump, the full release.

Is NBC betting on the Writers Strike continuing indefinitely? A recent press release that might have nothing to do with anything could be construed as to suggest 'yes'! "SELECT ITEMS FROM NBC'S HOTTEST SHOWS TO BE FEATURED IN SECOND LIVE AUCTION" they announce. Starting Monday the 21st, head over to nbc.com to buy up unused "select items" from "Heroes," "The Office," "Friday Night Lights," "30 Rock" and (best of all!) "Las Vegas." Items getting auctioned listed below.

Things we miss about old-timey journalism: bourbon in every desk drawer, the sound of 400 Underwoods clacking away at the same time, teletype rolls cascading out into the hallway and the undivided attention of the American public. Things we don't miss? Alcoholic colleagues (Balk aside), carbon copy paper, the glass ceiling and mini-fridge-sized tape recorders. Would we go back to the golden age of newspapers, the days of afternoon editions, hearty circulation, fat expense accounts and the magic of the rewrite desk? Oh, probably, but we'd like to take our iPhones, if that's cool. With that, we announce the beginning of Old School Odes, in which we remember The Press The Way It Was.

Stealing classified-ad revenues from big media was far too easy. Craigslist has found a challenge that its ample pockets are up to: corrupting the minds of future journalists. It has given $1.6 million to UC-Berkeley's Center for New Media, which works with departments ranging from engineering to journalism to determine the extent of the Internet's effect on our lives, to create an endowed faculty chair.

Calling all BabyBjorn-sporting Brooklyn hipster parents! The New York Times is seeking undecided Democrat parents for an upcoming web video. They'd really prefer you be a member of Park Slope Moms (or whatever) and also be one of those types who jabbers on about politics with your pals. Gosh, how ever will they find such people?

ArtsJournal blog 'Modern Art Notes' has a well-argued post today alleging that Voice art critic Christian Viveros-Faune's position as co-director of two major art fairs is an inherent conflict of interest. "The arrangement puts a Village Voice art critic in bed with a major art market player," Tyler Green writes. He makes two significant points-that Viveros-Faune's work in the Voice has the power to advance the commercial prospects of artists he's got a business interest in and more disturbing, that by ignoring an exhibit, he has a good chance of squelching its success. Determining who might have been wronged by the one-time Roebling Hall gallery-owner's conflict would be pretty much impossible. Does any of this matter?