Thunder on the Left

"The newsroom was populated by characters, like the editor who tried to use the paper's FedEx account to send cocaine to a pal in Miami. Or the mob writer Jerry Capeci, who'd get indignant calls from wiseguys he'd failed to mention in his column, the made men as petulant as debutantes left off the society page."

Nice little paper ya got there. . . .

Just in case you were losing sleep over the WSJ saying it will start accepting front-page ads, Jeff Jarvis suggests you calm down:

"Juan Antonio Giner rightfully ridicules the journalistic lead weights who are moaning about the Wall Street Journal taking an ad on its front page. They have to pay the bills somehow. How do they think journalism is supported? By advertising. You can't whine on the one hand about cutbacks and then whine on the other about revenue. I think it would be a mistake to hand over the page to an advertiser; it would be a mistake to blur the line between ad and edit on the page. But as Giner points out, lots of Europeans have taken ads on their front pages for year."

Was this piece about Kate Hudson really libelous?

"Kate Hudson has accepted libel damages from a supermarket tabloid that claimed she was dangerously thin, her lawyer said Thursday.

"The British edition of the National Enquirer has agreed to pay undisclosed damages and print an apology for an October 2005 article that claimed Hudson was 'way too thin' and looked 'like skin and bones,' said Simon Smith, a lawyer for the 27-year-old actress."

I thought actresses only sued for being called fat.

And today's must-see link: Jesus' General has a very funny ad with Angela Merkel endorsing Joe Lieberman.