In your disputatious Thursday media column: M.I.A. wins an editor's note on her New York Times profile, Le Monde needs a rich friend, two high-profile retirements, and Nate Silver is moving up in the world.

M.I.A. was so pissed about her New York Times Magazine profile that she tweeted writer Lynn Hirschberg's phone number and then made a diss track about her. What a baby, right? Well. She had a good reason to be mad.

The too-rich-to-sell-out rapper apparently doesn't like the New York Times Magazine cover story about her. She's so angry, in fact, she just shared writer Lynn Hirschberg's cell phone number with the world and instructed people to call her.

How badly did the Times screw up the Blumenthal story? We asked this question earlier. Today, Clark Hoyt, the Times public editor answers it! Surprise: He doesn't think they screwed it up too bad. (But we don't either.)

On Monday, The New York Times accused Democratic Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal of falsely implying that he'd served in Vietnam. Then a Republican candidate bragged about having fed the story to the paper. What happened here, guys?

This memo just went out to NYT staffers, informing them that managing editor Jill Abramson is stepping down temporarily in order to take a turn running the "news part of the website." Three other top editors will take turns at her job in the meantime. Bill Keller tries to preemptively dismiss the speculation that will result from this but uh, sure looks like some sort of job tryout. "OPTICS."

Ever since the Wall Street Journal debuted "Greater New York" on April 26 and sparked a good old newspaper war with the New York Times, media watchers have been giddily blogging and tweeting out photos of various ads the paper has been plastering all over town to promote its new metro section.

In your competitive Tuesday media column: the fashion mag ad race is heated, GQ manages to sell electric doo-dads to people somehow, Michael Wolff's beef parade marches on, and the NYT rocked by "getting a good political story" scandal.

In troubled times politicians look to their base for support. So naturally the Republican Party chose God's waiting room as the site of its 2012 convention to nominate a presidential candidate. Arizona was in the running, but was passed over.

Four NYU students were lucky enough to get some New York Times coverage for their would-be Facebook killer. But they seem to have helped slip a nerdy sex joke past Times editors, as well.

New York Times publisher Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger has been working up his aggressive gumption lately, which he'll need to win the newspaper war with Rupert Murdoch, who is a genuine surly bastard. Pinch, lesson one: Don't cuss at Murdoch employees.

Ron Lieber writes a financial column for the New York Times. He is also a self-appointed Regulator of Restaurant Noise. Which is how he got himself kicked out of a restaurant last weekend, with good reason.

Need help finding a neighborhood to live in? The state Department of Health yesterday introduced its new cancer map that lets you see how many people in each census block have cancer, and what types of hazardous materials are nearby.

Users have jeered the New York Times' main iPad app, but the newspaper is listening to one in particular: We hear Steve Jobs is among the app's most vociferous critics and has been shunning it.

Right now the New York Times website features an ad for the new Queen Latifah movie Just Wright next to a story about country music star Chely Wright coming out of the closet in this week's issue of People. Oh, the irony! A screenshot is below:

Megachurches aren't generally known for their openness toward sexuality (just ask Ted Haggard!). But a Kansas church now runs a support group that helps perverted women beat their porn addiction: "God created sex. But the enemy has twisted it."

The government has subpoenaed New York Times reporter James Risen, asking him to reveal the secret sources he used in his book about the Bush Administration and the CIA. Meaning James Risen could be the next Judy Miller.

Remember your i-before-e's, people: Twitter has a growing subculture of scolds who are retweeting your grammar gaffes and spelling slips. They've taken down John Cusack and now they're coming for you.

If you asked us who on the New York Times masthead was most likely to be well-schooled in the art of air shredding, we would would have guessed columnist Nick Kristof. (Dude just has something metal about him.) Wrong!

"Rats Mob the Upper East Side." So reads the cosmically appropriate top headline in the Wall Street Journal's new New York section, with which Rupert Murdoch plans to exterminate the New York Times. The newspaper war is on!