The WaPo's Howard Kurtz reports that NYT style section reporter Warren St. John got Jayson Blaired by a German reporter ("Malte Lehming, Washington correspondent for the Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel") who reprinted, almost verbatim, the lead paragraph of St. John's recent piece on "metrosexuals." Aside from the obvious ethical transgressions, you have to wonder how stupid one has to be to plagiarize a front-of-the-section article in one of the most widely read newspapers in the world.
Where candidates meet the pressure [WaPo]

Perhaps it's indicative of the New York City bubble in which we live that upon seeing the word "Blair" in a Drudge Report headline, I think "Jayson" instead of "Tony" and wonder what weapons-dossier-related grievances the tobacco-Fields-spotting fabulist would possibly have with the BBC. Vanity Fair seems to have acquired the same Manhattan microcosm affectation for the August issue and with exception of the cover story [vapid *sputter* boring *gag* Kennedys], I actually like it. (Yeah, I'm as loathe to say it as you are to hear it.) It's completely Manhattan-centric and parts of it areoh my godsnarky. There's an eviscerating two page review of chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's pseudo-Chinese restaurant 66 in which reviewer A.A. Gill refers to the shrimp-and-foie-gras dumplings as "fishy-liver filled condoms" and a beautiful essay by James Wolcott on how the crime committed by Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass was that they ruined sucking up for everyone. [Listed as a "notable suckup" in the latter essay: "a certain former editor, who on the debut of her CNBC talk show hailed Barry Diller as the 'daddy cool' of business and Bill O'Reilly as 'the king of cable' and made even a commoner like Malcolm Gladwell feel like Queen for a day."] There's also a feature on society photographer Patrick McMullan's 80s party pics from various clubs in Manhattan that looks vaguely like Radar's article on Area from their first issue and a Christopher Hitchens essay in which he notes that forcing himself to contemplate President the 43rd's choice of Jesus over liquor pushes him "well above my pay grade at this magazine." No one in the Vanity Fair demographic is going to have any idea what they're talking about, but I think it's brilliant.

We seem to have precipitated an avalanche of [Conde Nast publisher] Si Newhouse sightings:
· "This was back in the mid-'90s, in my freelance days, when I could take off in the afternoon to see a movie. (Come to think of it, I can still do that, only I don't actually choose which movie I see.) Anyway, I'm at Film Forum
during their Samuel Fuller retrospective checking out a double feature of 'The Steel Helmet' and 'Fixed Bayonets.' There's this little dude in a Lacoste shirt in the row behind me talking to a taller, rather brassy woman of a certain age. He's bemoaning to her the fact that the costs at his business are too high. It's kind of funny, so I look closer and realize that the guy is in fact Si Newhouse. I'm thinking, what the fuck is Si Newhouse doing here? Is he an auteurist? Did he serve in the Korean war? (Both of the films that afternoon were set therein.) Anyway, the woman starts giving him money-saving advice. 'Why don't you just get rid of messenger service? I mean why do you need it anyway? What with fax and e-mail there's just no point.' Si mulls this over for a little bit, thinking that maybe the broad's on to something. But no.. A few seconds of chewing on the idea and he shakes his head, saying, 'No, you still need messenger, for when you've got to send out tchochkes and all that...' At which point the lights went down. "

After yesterday's [Conde Nast] publisher Si Newhouse doesn't-like-garlic-so-is-he-a-vampire debate, someone writes in with a Si-is-not-a-vampire vote and explains how it's possible that a Conde Nasty could not know that he's the "old man" with whom Vogue editor Anna Wintour can be seen lunching: "Folks frequently don't know what Si looks like; he uses this as a weapon. One time at the old 350 Madison location, an outside sales rep and someone with her were headed up to Vogue and were trash-talking Anna. Si happened to be on the elevator with them, but they had no idea, since he was likely wearing one of his torn sweaters and looking like the janitorial help. Si doesn't like hearing anyone talking like that about his people, so he got off the elevator, went into his office and called security, asking that the people be tossed out of the building."

A reader writes, "I've got a second on that Newhouse putting the kibosh on garlic thing from a friend of mine who is an insider at Restaurant Associates, although no verification on whether or not he can see his own reflection in a mirror." Perhaps one of you Conde Nast people could inconspicuously walk past Si with a mirror of some sort? Or all of you? Spontaneously? It could be a Conde Nast "mob project."

Various and sundry Conde Nasties react to yesterday's Conde Nast Burger Guy update:
· "I just want to clear something up. Conde Nast's 'Burger Guy' was never transferred to the pasta bar, which is gone now, anyway. He was moved to the sandwich line and then to the new salad line. Thank you."
· "I would like to note that it is probably impossible for the incident between Anna Wintour and 'The Burger Guy' to have ever happened because Anna never goes down to the cafeteria to get her own lunch. Impossible. I work there, I know."
· "Anna Wintour eats in the cafeteria. Not everyday, but often. She sits at a table that's on the right when you first walk in and kind of hidden. She does eat hanburgers and fries. I don't know what these people are talking aboutI've seen her at that table with the same old man dozens of times."
· "The 'old man' Anna eats with is S.I. Newhouse!!"
· "Of course Anna eats in the cafeteria. People just don't always recognize her. Now that she has gotten her eyes done, she no longer wears her sunglasses indoors."

A reader writes, "A funny thing you should know about the Conde Nast cafeteria (and one of the most shameful, considering it's the parent company of Gourmet) is that they don't have garlic there. Not anywhere. Not ever. Not even when one of the Restaurant Associates visiting chefs are there. The reason is that [Conde Nast publisher] Si Newhouse DESPISES the smell of garlic, and had it banned. I've been there a few times, and my friend who works at [X Conde publication] has gotten it confirmed from several sources." I bet I know why.

The Observer's "Off the Record" column (All Times, All the Time) continues to investigate potential candidates for the top position at the NYT post-Raines resignation. Metro editor Jonathan Landman's take: "I truly know nothing. It's all a lot of people making stuff up. I don't know; you don't know. Everybody's making stuff up." Journalists making stuff up. Wasn't that how this whole thing started?
Sulzberger shops [Observer]

Little Gray Book Lecture founder/McSweeney's & Men's Journal columnist John Hodgman on his ambitions after years as a media person, fiction writer, and literary agent: "To become independently wealthy. Maybe by someone giving me moneyit doesn't really matter. I would prefer to not have to kill someone. I would like the 'Little Gray Book Lectures' to become a radio showideally, a public radio show, because, as you know, that's where the money is."
So what do you do, John Hodgman? [Mediabistro]

The WaPo's Peter Carlson shares my feeling about the Kennedys (ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz.) Vanity Fair's August issue contains a feature story on John Jr. and Caroline Bessette Kennedy that Carlson says "those of you who have no life will love." The facts in the story are supposedly refuted by a 2000 book titled, The Day John Died. Carlson's take: "Who is right? Who knows? And, really, who cares?"
Scenes from a cursed marriage [WaPo]

The New York Sports Express (a relatively new subsidiary of the NY Press) is feuding with the L (a relatively new events listing guide for the Lower East Side, Brooklyn and other neighborhoods on the L line.) Both free pubs bought orange curbside boxes, so L editor Scott Stedman suggested they duke it out in a boxing match. He originally wanted a soccer match, but Press editor Jeff Koyen (or "Jeff Koyer" as the Post affectionately calls him) thought soccer was "too European." "I'm not going to do some stupid boxing match to settle this," says Koyen. "We'd prefer to get drunk and play them in a softball game... What we're really looking for is a street fight, and we'll kick the c—p out of them." [Koyen notes via email that "I'm not one to quibble over misspelled names or bad quotes, but I'd never use the phrase 'kick the crap out of'. Most likely, I said 'kick the living fuck out of' or something equally and typically vulgar. Damn copy editors."] My advice to Koyen: dispense with the softball game (softball is a sport for tweedy book nerds from publications with higher ad rates) and subject them to one of your old editorials. The orange boxes aren't worth it.
Rival freebie editors see red over orange boxes. [NY Press]

"Someone once told me that at the Soho House in London, the cocaine problem had reached such epidemic proportions that one of the managers suggested putting these fans in the gents' cubicle that went off every thirty seconds," says How to Lose Friends and Alienate People author Toby Young. "They're these really powerful fans. But someone else pointed out that if you did that, it would just turn into this game. You'd have to rack it up and snort it before the fans started." We're sitting in the bar at the Soho House in New York and discussing the irony of doing a formal interview in a club where theoretically everything that's being said is supposed to be off the record. (House rules. This may be my last overpriced cocktail at Soho House.). Toby's in town to promote the paperback release of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, which is an autobiographical account of his experiences working for (and getting fired from) Vanity Fair. He's also looking to produce a New York version of a one-man stage play based on the book that recently played to sold out performances at the Soho Theatre in London. He has reportedly had some difficultly casting in New York because the actor would have to impersonate Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter and rising actors are said to be afraid of being blackballed from appearing in the magazine.

An anonymous recap: "...I'm also sunburned from yesterday, the Conde Nast (booze-less) cruise. The whole thing was like a bar mitzvah circa 1992. The boat was called the Spirit of New Jersey...there was a woman in an evening gown belting out "New York, New York" and "Be our guest," encouraging people to join in...a buffet featuring salisbury steak...it was an irony-free zone. I got stuck at a table with a bunch of asshole guys who said things like, 'yeah, my father is so and so, that's how i got this job.' and 'so have you been to Brooklyn? it's...different from Manhattan. But it's not all ghetto!' Then two of them spent several minutes congratulating themselves for slumming it in Brooklyn Heights." The little known tenth circle of hell: getting stuck on a boat referencing New Jersey with a bunch of Conde Nasties and no booze.

US Weekly editor turned former US Weekly editor (as of yesterday) Bonnie Fuller is moving to American Media with a pay package that will reportedly surpass that of [Vanity Fair editor] Graydon Carter's and her longtime rival/idol [Vogue editor] Anna Wintour'smaking her the highest paid editor in the industry. I haven't seen the official statement from Fuller's spokeperson yet, but I'd imagine that it goes something like this: "Nyah, nyah, nyah, NYAH, nyah!"
Her ride to the top of the business [NY Post]

BREAKING: Bonnie Fuller, the editor who turned US Weekly into essential bathroom reading, has quit. David Carr at the New York Times says she's joining the group that owns the National Enquirer.
Bonnie Fuller profile [Gawker]
Editor of US Weekly resigns from magazine [NYT]
Fuller resigns despite three-year contract [WSJ]

Newsweek reporter Seth Mnooking and the Village Voice's Syd Schanberg have been arguing over whether Schanberg implied at Mediabistro's "Future of the New York Times" panel that the NYT's ad-loaded lifestyle sections contributed to their recent problems. What was actually said, according to the transcript:
Seth Mnookin: If they need to do 10 new sections to keep the quality of their reporting, I'll support that. We live in a capitalist society, and they need to survive in a capitalist market. If they have five more crappy escape sections and can keep their A section as one of the best sources of news in the world, that's a tradeoff I'll make. I can just throw away the Escapes section. But if the A section disappears, there's no place else I can go to get that.
Syd Schanberg: Internally, though, that's part of the problem. The reader can control the extraneous stuff, you're right, but the inside of the paper... the publisher is wondering what the standards are. Because the standards for, say, the City Section and the Style Section, are different from the A section. Then you say, 'Well, what are the standards?' And those lifetime sections and advertising sections creep in and create confusion.
[Ed.I could jump in here and conveniently say that they're both implying that sappy service journalism is contributing to the demise of investigative reporting, buuuut I won't. I'll just imply that I could imply it.]
Let's go to the transcript [Romenesko]

The Black Table interviews the always eloquent VICE mag editor Jesse Pearson:
Black Table: Is Vice Magazine *really* a magazine or is it just a circular for skateboarders? There seem to be an awful lot of ads. Sometimes the stories seem like ads and vice-versa. What's the thought process there?
Jesse Pearson: First of all, fuck you. We have maybe 5% more ads than Spin and Vibe, but we're free, so stop your whining. If you are implying there is some sort of carefully calculated corporate agenda, you are a fucking moron. We just try to assemble a magazine that we would want to read. We also want to exist and stay profitable. Magazines are not cash cows, so grow up and get over it.
Between a rock and a hard place: VICE Magazine's Jesse Pearson [BlackTable]

Re: Tuesday's sighting of ex Talk editor Tina Brown, a reader writes: "Some questions prompted by Tina having her PA take notes at a panel on the future of the Times: If she uses those notes in her column, will she credit the assistant? If she doesn't, is it time for a new term, a la Zeta-Jonesing? As in, will she be Bragging [as in, Rick]? Or, if Bragging means 'using an uncredited stringer's reporting,' will using an assistant to take noteswhen you're sitting there yourselfbe called Brown Bragging? (One more: When the assistant carries Tina's lunch, is that called Brown Bagging?)

Readers report that [Ex Talk editor] Tina Brown was spotted at last night's mediabistro panel on the future of the New York Times. "She was sitting towards the back of the room taking notes on a little pad while her PA was taking more extensive notes for her on a much bigger pad. Immaculately dressed and stunning as usual." How sad. Tina Brown has to go to a mediabistro event to network with the other freelancers.

Unintentional comedy from the NYT's "corrections" page: "Because of an editing error, an article on Sunday in the special Women's Health section about reasons for exercising misplaced the quotation marks in citing advertisement for the New York Sports Club. The ad read: 'Exercise reduces the risk of cancer. Not to mention the risk of saggy butt.' (Both sentences were part of the quotation, not just the first.)"
Corrections [NYT]