Hillary's Turn

Salon announces that Sid Blumenthal is leaving"to join the Hillary Clinton campaign as a senior advisor. His incisive thinking and incomparable writing will be missed. Sidney was our Washington bureau chief during the 2004 election, presided over one of the best accounts of George W. Bush's missing year in the Texas Air National Guard, and has been a weekly Salon columnist since 2003."

Jack Shafer says the coverage of the Hollywood strike has been remarkably tilted toward the writers:

"Why the journalistic fixation on the strike? The national impact of the strike (even a lengthy one) won't be great. But dailies such as the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, whose bottom lines depend on movie advertising acreage, will feel the pain if Hollywood closes shop.

"Newspaper reporters tend to identify with their cinematic brethren because writers tend to look out for other writers no matter what genre they work in."

Speaking of the strike, it's not quite "The Daily Show," but Jon Stewart's writers have put together a very Daily-like video.

Get this: Rupert Murdoch thought about buying the New York Times?

"Why Murdoch would disclose his recent infatuation with the Times is unclear, especially if he's now ruled out a takeover attempt," Newsweek says. "One motivation might have been simply psy-ops--military argot for psychological warfare. In short, the wily mogul may be trying to rattle New York Times Co. chairman and newspaper publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. According to a pivotally situated Times employee , the mogul wrote a personal note to Sulzberger on or around the day that he won the battle for Dow Jones. 'Let the war begin,' the note read, according to this source, who requested anonymity in discussing a sensitive topic."

By the way, e-mail is now dead. Or terminally unhip. Or something.