It's a tough call as to whether or not this is worse than ESPN's "Lidle, Munson share a connection" (um, yeah), but, at the very least, it certainly out-tackies the News'

Well, after yesterday's confirmation of the Post's "scoop" that Joe Torre would remain Yankee manager, we expected a little bit of gloating. Still, we're kind of surprised at how reserved they are: That little bubble on the front reads "Best (and Most Accurate) Playoff Coverage in Town!" It's almost subtle, considering. Still, we suppose when you've got something like this in your rear-view mirror

If you're scoring at home, the Post has come out on top of the News in two tabs' contest over whether or not Yankees skipper Joe Torre will remain at the helm: Torre is currently holding a press conference where he says he's staying on. Still, we can't be too hard on the News, which just two days ago was telling us that Torre was toast: Photo placement like this is pretty goddamn genius.

• In yet another installment of a series of just unbelievable coincidences, Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist critical of President Vladimir Putin, was gunned down this weekend. Politkovskaya becomes the thirteenth reporter to so perish during Putin's tenure. But we're sure it was an accidental, brutal execution-style contract killing. [Guardian]
• Just what we need: A hip-hop Cookie! [WWD]
• How sick, depraved, and out-of-control was Mark Foley? He tried to fuck a Post reporter. [NYP]

Why's it so great that the New York Post gave writer Sam Gustin a weekly tech column? Because only the Post can dig up the cruddiest image of its subjects, like Yahoo CEO — sorry, "Yahoo boss" — Terry Semel. A tabloid after my own heart.

After reading this morning's analysis of the latest Sean Delonas crime against art an irate reader sent an e-mail to Delonas expressing his displeasure with the cartoon, its depiction of homosexuality, its conflation of homosexuality with pedophilia, and Delonas' talents in general. The reader also suggested that he planned to bring the cartoon the attention of national gay rights groups. We share Delonas' response after the jump.

• Post headline promises way more than it delivers. [NYP]
•Film editor Dennis Lim is the latest casualty at the Village Voice. At this rate David Blum is going to run out of former students to fill all the open slots. [Anthony Kaufman]
•Fortune claims that female media CEOs are losing influence in relation to other lady businessmen. We don't know. Time Chair Ann Moore laid off about a million people this year, you don't get more influential than that. [WWD]
•New York magazine creator Clay Felker is in a nursing home. There will be no joke. [Forbes]

Post "cartoonist" Sean Delonas raises his game today with the masterpiece you see here. We're not sure which hand-drawn gay stereotype is our favorite: there are so many to choose from! Village People reference? Check! Umbrella drink? Check! Limp wrists? Check! AIDS ribbon? Check! Light loafers? You'd better believe it! He even gets a hamster in there (note the cage behind McGreevey)! Still, even with this cornucopia of homophobia, we're going to have to give the nod to what's going on in the bedroom, where a teddy bear holds what appears to be a big black dildo. You've got to hand it to Sean; he knows it's an accumulation of small details that really brings the bigotry to life.

If you read the print edition of the Post you'll have seen their recent series of ads touting the new functionality of their website. Recently, the campaign shifted gears a bit: Rather than forcing readers to confront the frightening sights of Mike Vaccarro's jowl-concealing goatee and Andrea Peyser's sour "nun who just caught you masturbating" face, the paper is now relying on testimonials from actual customers. Works for us: Nothing makes us want to check out a website faster than Vinnie from Elmhurst's seal of approval.

"MICKEY Rourke," reports the Post, "says calling somebody a 'fag' is OK in his book." Apparently, it's OK in the Post's book as well, because they repeat the word three more times. All, to be sure, in the context of Rourke's quotes. Interestingly, they choose to "bleep" out what we're assuming is either "jerk" or "fuck," and they resort to spelling out "ass." (In another Page Six item, "pissed" or "pooped" gets the "p—-" treatment.). Still, "fag" is just fine, so long as someone else is saying it. No word yet on "cocksucker," but maybe Betty White will do an interview soon.

• Could Tom Freston replace NBC Chief Executive Bob Wright? We're hoping yes, because a) we still blame Jeff Zucker for Hidden Hills, and b) Freston-Moonves II will make Ali-Frazier II look like Tyson-McNeely. [NYP]
• There's nothing more painful than admitting that Mark Cuban is right, but, you know, Mark Cuban is right. [Reuters]
• The Post has a brand new website with spiffy features including blogs, gossip news, and a celebrity-sighting map that is a complete and total rip-off of Gawker Stalker. [NYP]
• Rachael Ray's friends as annoying, talentless as Rachael Ray. [Radar]

New York's two major tabs rarely agree on anything but, in a heart-warming moment of unanimity, they're in accordance on one issue this morning: Lisa Santangelo, the woman with whom Jeanine Pirro suspected her husband was having sleazy boat romp sex, is "stunning." Also "young" and "brunette," although the News finds her "elegant," while the Post, presumably from lack of familiarity with the word, eschews the extra color. Everyone involved is denying that the affair occurred, but if Al Pirro did in fact stick it to Lisa Santangelo, wife of the attorney who represented him in the tax-fraud case that resulted in an eleven month prison sentence, you've got to give him credit: It's rare that you can screw two lawyers simultaneously without fucking either of them.

Star Map [Page Six]
Earlier: Tomorrow in the Post: Weborrhea N.Y.C.
Nostalgia: So Does This Mean George Clooney Won't Marry Us?

• NYP's Tim Arango becomes only reporter in last month not snapped up by Portfolio; he's going to Fortune. [NYO]
• NewsCorp buys up a bunch of metropolitan-area newspapers. Expect them to be rebranded as Queenist and Only the Paper Knows Brooklyn any day now. [NYT]
• If David Geffen buys the LAT will the paper be able to cover his friends fairly? Speaking as the employees of a gay media magnate ourselves, we're gonna say no. [DHD]

You may actually want to run out and buy a printed copy of today's Post: There are two full spreads dedicated to mocking the suicide attempt of Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens. Apart from a column suggesting that the Giants need to take full advantage of the troubled star's effort to end his own life, perhaps the central gem is the graphic reproduced above, which is a "comical" list of reasons that Owens might have wanted to die. We're of the opinion that no subject is off-limits when it comes to humor, but if you're going to cross the line you'd damn well better be funny. We're not sure who thought "He's upset Jeremy Shockey has an exclusive column in The Post and he doesn't," might induce a giggle as a rationale for a man's attempt at self-destruction ("Tried reading Jeremy Shockey's Post column" might have worked better), but even by Post standards this is lame. If we were Col Allan we'd be so full of shame right now that, well, we'd want to kill ourselves.

Lord knows we've not much pity in our hearts for Page Six, but the poor things must be dealing with a very dry hiring pool. Yesterday their newest hire, blogger Corynne Steindler (left), sent out a mass email announcing that her new gig would be celebrated with a party sponsored by the Thom Bar at Sixty Thompson. Surely Thom was just providing the open bar not because she's the newest Sixer, but simply because they adore Steindler, right? Bars just love to do nice things like that for people, especially bloggers! But when Radar called Post brass to ask about the situation, Steindler was quickly forced to cancel her party:

Poster Stalker [NYP]

Professional Bush-hater Keith Olbermann recently received an envelope full of white powder. The Post reports:

Earlier today, a glance at the New York Post website might have yielded an unusual scenario. On the website's right margin, the usual raft of pointlessly animated mortgage ads was occasionally interrupted by a subscription-shilling tower ad for the rival New York Daily News. Clearly an indelicate transgression by the ad server; or perhaps Post owner Rupert Murdoch just wants to look magnanimous.