We love a Radar hatchet job, especially when they're aimed at us in the form of email warfare, even after we help them with stories they're working on! But alas, it's not about us today, but about NYT media beater Bill Carter, who Radar henchman John Cook claims might be too close to his sources. Well, John doesn't claim it; critics do: "Now some critics wonder whether his close ties to networks make him the wrong guy to cover the cesspool that is show business."

Ah yes, those critics!

Turns out, Carter is BFFs with new NBC programming head Ben Silverman — revealed in testimony from Silverman during a breach-of-contract lawsuit. Carter, meanwhile, initially claimed that the twosome weren't friends; they hadn't even met each other's families, he argued. Well, that's not true, Cook finds out!

As Carter acknowledged in a subsequent interview, Silverman once met Carter's son during a visit to the set of The Office, which Reveille produces. Carter was there as a reporter, but he had asked The Office's show runner Greg Daniels if his then-20-year-old son, whom Carter described as "a fan" of the show, could tag along. NBC's publicist for The Office, who is responsible for organizing and scheduling working press visits to the show's set, said the Carter father-and-son visit did not go through her.

And according to a reliable source, Silverman has told people that Carter has met his mother—a former television executive for Court TV and other networks—and his sister and has described Carter as a "personal friend." (Carter denied meeting Silverman's mother, and said he doesn't recall ever meeting his sister.)

So what are we supposed to learn from all this? That Carter's coverage of Silverman might be slightly skewed in his favor. And also: Radar's reporters never, of course, get too close to their sources.