Suspect payments totaling $24 million have tainted Walmart's operations in Mexico. In a statement released by the company, Walmart acknowledged an investigation related to compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. This follows a damning New York Times article, which alleges a cover-up of widespread bribery.

Consummate do-gooder NYT columnist Nick Kristof is waging a campaign against Backpage.com, the online hooker-ad compendium, and its corporate parents, Village Voice Media and (until Kristof gave them bad PR) Goldman Sachs. Is there a note of hypocrisy to be found in all this? Perhaps, a little!

Yesterday, New York Times foreign correspondent Jeffrey Gettleman (pictured) won a Pulitzer for his reporting on strife and famine in Africa. Though the Times traditionally decides who of its reporters deserve nominations, Gettleman didn't wait for the bosses—he nominated himself. Does that make him an asshole?

Hey, young cohabiting couples: An article in Sunday's New York Times says you're all doomed to fail. Unsurprisingly, this is currently the most-shared thing on their website. But this is one of those articles you can't just share willy-nilly, as the passive-aggressive message conveyed by the act of sharing is actually more important than the content of the article itself.

Golf-playing platitude generator Thomas Friedman has a grasp on the English language that would probably be described, by Thomas Friedman, as "a big tree in the forest swinging in the wind," because Thomas Friedman is just a god damn nonsensical shame, as a writer.

A few weeks ago, New York Times science and health reporter Don McNeil sent out a scathing email to colleagues attacking Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. for piloting a "ghost ship" and running off to the Himalayas with a management guru while the paper founders.

New York Times Wall Street reporter Kevin Roose spent a day living like a billionaire for an article. A day that could have been filled with personal parades and hot air balloon rides was instead a total letdown.

Mustachioed soothsaying simpleton Thomas Friedman long ago mastered a formula for justifying business trips all over the world by writing columns about them—columns that, while not genuinely insightful or even pleasant to read, contain a sufficient number of plausible-sounding platitudes to enable your average Xerox Corporation regional manager to sound informed during his morning meeting with underlings and sycophants.

Frank Bruni, America's Worst Newspaper Columnist, served up a hack's dream on Sunday: His old college pal is an abortion doctor, Bruni says, and once performed an abortion on one of the most vocal and angry anti-abortion protesters that plagued his clinic. Just goes to show you that things are never quite as they seem, I suppose. But did it happen?

Evidently unaware that you can get The New York Times on the street, an "emotionally disturbed" man attempted to climb up the side of the New York Times headquarters because he wanted a copy of the paper.

Whenever the first snow falls, or the first hot day of summer strikes, or when the heat gives way to autumn's crisp air, or when the chill of winter finally breaks for spring, or just when there isn't shit happening in the world, the Paper of Record published one of its trademark "weather stories." This is not simply a report on the day's weather; it is a report on the day's weather masquerading as a news story.

Since you're reading this site while you should be doing something more productive, chances are that you're the kind of self-proclaimed "internet-savvy" media consumer who said to yourself last year, "Hey, I don't care that the New York Times started an online paywall, because it comes with 20 free articles per month, and besides, it's full of easy holes for an internet-savvy consumer such as myself!"

There is no better way to quit your job than by unloading on your former employer in the pages of the country's paper of record, and for that if nothing else we salute (former) Goldman Sachs executive director Greg Smith, who has a Times Op-Ed today entitled "Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs." Spoiler alert: it's because the firm is filled with "morally-bankrupt" sociopaths.

Wealthy, influential, and widely read pundit, author, and pop- sociology-flouter David Brooks today uses his New York Times op-ed column to announce to you, me, and everyone else around the world: he still likes the Mets. Yeah. Thought about liking the Nats, but... had to stick with the old Mets. Mmm hmm. But did he find a way to work in some pop sociology?

A.G. "Baller of a New Generation" Sulzberger—son of NYT publisher Pinch Sulzberger, heir to the throne of the Times empire, and natural wisenheimer—has completed his exile in Middle America, where he helmed the Kansas City desk and was forced to endure prolonged periods of subpar vegetarian cooking. He's coming home... TO RULE. To work on the Metro Desk, we mean. Don't fool yourselves; he'll be ruling soon enough.

Venerable New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz was recently schooled on the meaning of "Illin'," sending shockwaves through the close-knit puzzler community. He's learned his lesson, if Sunday's crossword puzzle is any indication.

The New York Times today has a story about the "flaws" in the Russian presidential election, won yesterday by (surprise!) Vladimir Putin. Election observers, report David M. Herszenhorn, "issued a harsh critique" of Putin's "preordained and unfair" victory.

Remember vocal fry, the hot new linguistic fad for women? It's this really interesteeeaaaaaaaaang speech pattern in which people draw out and sometimes "croak" the end of a word.

Living alone always sounds so good, doesn't it? You'd have complete control over the remote control. You could always finish the last of the cereal without feeling guilty about it. You could walk around naked every morning. The possibilities are endless.

Can't get enough of the mild musings of inadvertent New York Times columnist Frank Bruni? It's your lucky day—he's started a blog.