Have you heard? Journalists are getting old. AND! Losing their jobs. It's not really going to affect most of America, since they're not exactly reading newspapers anyhow, and Digg.com suffices for staying in tune with the news cycle. But their job losses are affecting some folks, namely: bar owners. Journalist watering holes are the ones facing the silent deaths thanks to shrinking news media budgets; no longer do they have a steady stream of reporter patrons walking through their doors, expense accounts or not. It's quite sad, actually. EXCEPT! It's not like The Waverly Inn is going anywhere. After all, that place is owned by the biggest celebrity tabloid editor in all of the world, and boy does he ever drink.

We aren't the only ones who noticed David Carr's piece in the New York Times today seemed a little to close for comfort to what was basically the same exact article written by Michael Calderone in the New York Observer two weeks ago. But that's not going to stop us from reiterating.

From Carr's piece today:

Many reporters are now forced to conduct themselves like C.I.A. operatives, encoding files, shredding notes and switching cellphones. But technology also makes forensics on determining where leaks came from far easier.

From Calderone's piece :

“With this crazy environment, with subpoenas and so on, there is this feeling that you have to act like a drug dealer or a Mafioso,” Mr. Barstow said ….

Mr. Barstow said he suggests disposing of story drafts and cutting back on telephone and e-mail contact with sources—or using disposable cell phones for important calls. Reporters should be wary of meeting sources at their offices, Mr. Barstow said, so as to avoid sign-in sheets and security cameras.

Sure, Carr went the CIA route versus the drug dealer route – also a big surprise, considering he is the new king of drug lit – but more or less it's the same piece.

But that's not the only Carr news we received today. Check out Fishbowl, NY:

So what does Carr think about being one of the poster children for publishing's "Rehab Lit" movement? "I don't think about it," Carr said, adding that he liked Choire Sicha's recent piece in the New York Observer on the budding phenomenon.

In October, look for a Times piece by Carr, about himself, which will incorporate lines like, "Members of A.A. have been struggling with the significance of that second “A” for more than half a century."

An Obsession With Leaks and Plugs [David Carr, New York Times]
Times Studies How to Shake Feds: Disposable Phones, Erasable Notes: "Act Like a Drug Dealer" [Michael Calderone, New York Observer]
Rehab Lit: David Carr Sorting Through 30 Hours Of Video, 40 Hours Of Audio For Addiction Memoir [Fishbowl, NY]

So, we sort of glazed over this story this morning because we were so inundated with Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan, and Jessica Joffe. Plus, we thought it was common knowledge that most reporters were paid by the government. (Kidding, Observers, kidding!)

We'll cut to the chase. 10 Miami reporters who were being paid upwards of $100,000 by the U.S. government (where the fuck are we? Russia?) have been exposed by the good side. Among those who were willing to sell their soul and obviously missed that J-Schoo ethics class include "veteran reporters" from El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language subsidiary of the Miami Herald, along with various radio reporters.

The "journalists" (pictured below) were paid thousands by the White House over "several years" to carry out the duty of undermining Cuba's communist government under Fidel Castro. To the Spanish people so they would vote Republican …. we assume.

CONTINUED »

• Y'all better get bar hopping out of your system pretty darn quick. Something about people getting loud when they're drunk? No idea what all that's about. [NY Sun]

• Four more years of not watching David Letterman are upon us. [Reuters]

• Dang! Britain is so freakin' lucky. If only the US administration would follow suit. [AP]

• Breaking news: the New York Times makes the gays cry. And though it is in the Styles section, it's not in fashion, so … pretty amazing. [Queerty]

• Who said being a reporter wasn't for the tough guys? Well, actually, he probably wouldn't have gotten his ass kicked if he was tougher, but … that's why we stay home. [Local 6]

• Bill Clinton does not appreciate ABC's depiction of him in their new 9/11 mini-series. It was completely void of hot college girls laying around his pool. [NYP]

Are you sick of hearing about "citizen journalism" yet? About how bloggers are talking over the world and eliminating the importance of real, solid, old school reporting? Of course your not. (Everyone loves to see the establishment burn, right?) Well, the New York Times roasts themselves today in their "you and your tape recorder are the wave of the future," article.

CNN, The Guardian, and random Euro-tabs are resorting to "reader-generated photos and video files" to fill gaps in the news footage when reporters couldn't run fast enough to get to the scene or when it's too boring, dangerous, or pointless for them to run out of the office. Basically, the point of the article is that real journalists are completely unnecessary. (We didn't say it people, the Times did!)

“The important events of the future will be documented by amateur photographers,” said Nicolaus Fest, a member of the Bild editorial board. “We knew that early on, but didn’t have the technical possibilities to do it.”

So, looking back to Monday two factors point to the importance of "citizen journalism." 1) Jossip captured some important crime busting footage, and 2) Business Week ran this story yesterday.

Often times it is difficult to understand the tragedy the comes along with war. As Americans, we are so detached from the death and destruction that happens in far-off places like the Middle East — it can be hard to relate and sympathize what "those people" are going through. Y'know?

But today brings a very insightful look into how the casualties of war can affect almost every aspect of our lives. See, it isn't just the citizens of war-stricken countries who suffer, but the reporters overseas, covering the global events, are affected with hardship as well. Some of them even had to give up their summer vacations.

The events of this summer — missile launches by North Korea, the reported illness of Cuba's Fidel Castro, the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the war in Iraq, a new war between Israel and Hezbollah, and now a suspected terrorist plot in London to blow up U.S.-bound aircraft — have kept news outlets especially busy, ruining or postponing vacations for many journalists.

CNN's Anderson Cooper, who flew from Israel to London Friday, has been putting off his vacation "week by week, like kick the can," and plans to finally take this week off, CNN chief Jon Klein says. CNN's Miles O'Brien spent his planned vacation "dodging Katyusha rockets" in northern Israel, while Soledad O'Brien spent hers in Jerusalem and Cyprus, Klein says. "This summer has kept us on our toes."

Wow. It's sort of hard to find the words to express how we feel about this heart wrenching sacrifice. Especially when we think of all the citizens of Israel and Lebanon whose country houses are probably, like, totally destroyed.

Vacation? What vacation? [Peter Johnson, USA Today]

• Face or no face, Bob Woodruff is making the return to New York. [TV Newser]

• Writing about restaurants and chefs is such a thankless jobs. The press even have to "pay for their own meals." [Romenesko]

• Ha! Washington Post journos want to get paid to blog? Does anyone even read those things? [Washington City]

• It's a pretty sad day for a celebrity when your name is in the news once in the past five years, and it's because you're getting divorced. [CNN]

• Working at 4 Times Square just got worse. [Curbed]

• The flip side to the "bloggies need newspapers" argument comes from (who else?) NYU's Jay Rosen. [Press Think]

• A media hang-out for uber-geeks is on the rise, down in the the "new" Silicon Alley. [NYT]

• We don't know what you heard bout Tom Wolfe, but he just re-enforced the pimp/ho differentiation by swanking up his ride for street cred. And he doesn't even have a new book coming out. [NYT]

• Everyone hates journalists, except, of course, other journalists. (Hey, they're the ones who wrote the article.) [Miami Herold]

• It could be in the style of psychic Cindy Adams predictions, but Ed Carr is said to be "dead cert" to take the Economist's top spot. [Press Gazette]

• Your Monday mag round-up includes Details readers cutting off their balls, Men's Health readers getting rock-hard abs, and everything you've ever wanted to know about Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, and Dick Cheney. Let's hope the rest of the week goes up from here. [NYP]

• Wait, journalists were responsible for the Holocaust? Then who was running the media during World War Two? [NYT]

• Things are getting so tough over at Rolling Stone that you have to be one of the next 50 people in line for the thrown to be hired as a music writer. Nice job, Lord Freddie Windsor. [Page Six]

• The beauty of Allure is that it has managed to survive solely based on a readership of Conde Nast employees. [NYDN]

• The media doesn't care if Johnny Weir is gay. His flamboyancy is much more relevant than who he's sleeping with. [Sun-Times]

As if the dangers encountered by Jill Caroll and Bob Woodruff weren't enough to convince you, the New York Times is here to remind us that Iraq has become a scary place for journalists.

Upon first reading the headline, we were like, "yeah, no shit. Helooo, there's a war. War=death." But then we kept reading and realized that not only is it the deadliest place for journalists right now, but it's the deadliest of the last quarter century.

Is this the fault of Iraqi insurgents? Or our own government? Nope. It's Judith Miller's fault. Says, Paul E. Steiger, Wall Street Journal managing editor,

The example set by the United States "may have contributed" to these trends.

"With a prominent U.S. reporter jailed for 85 days, new legal threats emerging every day and the U.S. military stonewalling investigations into the deaths and detentions of journalists in Iraq," Mr. Steiger wrote, "the press fared badly at the hands of U.S. authorities." The journalist jailed for 85 days last year was Judith Miller, then a reporter for The New York Times.

Yep, you heard that right. Dick Cheney is shooting people, but it's really Judith Miller who is increasing violence.

Iraq Has Become the Deadliest Place for Journalists, Report Say [Katharine Q. Seelye]

Finally, a solution to the problem of underpaid journalists. Freelancers on Jeopardy! Why didn't we think of that?

Maybe Jim Nelson has a shot at his New Year's goal after all.

This New York journalist can currently be seen on "Jeopardy!" (Who is Peter Rubin?) [Fishbowl New York]

• Here's a tip, LiveJournal fan: get a sense of humor that incorporates sarcasm before reading blogs. If Matt Damon can laugh about it, so can you. [MSNBC]

• We totally take comfort in the fact that our readers are smarter, funnier, and probably better looking, than, say, Matt Drudge's. Even NYU kids could've thought of a better caption than "Bananas in pajamas'. [Drudge Report]

• Shocking, breaking, headline news: journalists are shit broke. [Slate]

• Poetry is back on the block—ready and willing to upset it's readers whenever possible. [New York Sun]

• Must we go over this again? Ok, one more time. Paying journalists=journalists will stop accepting bribes=journalists won't get fired, then make millions writing a book about it. [Pittsburgh Tribune Review]