Bald Vanity Fair media columnist Michael Wolff isn't afraid to be asked the tough questions. That's why 10 lucky winners will be pulled from the Internet to ask Michael Wolff questions about media, life, and his new biography on media mogul Rupert Murdoch, The Man Who Owns the News. But not in person, natch. Wolff will be answering the questions online, as well. New Media!

Then again, it's Wolff himself who will be picking which questions to answer, so you know that at least nine of them are going to be "Why is Tina Brown such a bitch?"

To enter your question to Wolff, go here.

The New York Times is finally catching up to the rest of the class in speculating that conservative Rupert Murdoch is a closet Obama fan, despite the fact that his New York Post, up until recently, supported John McCain with every ounce of its trashy heart.

But before you start accusing the Grinch on his heart growing three sizes too large, remember that this is Rupert Murdoch we are talking about: an Aussie whose only alliance is to that of the almighty dollar.

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It's been less than a month (barely) since Tina Brown launched Daily Beast, and already it is trouncing the competition. Bitter grapes for Michael Wolff, whose own Newser is getting beat in web traffic by Brown's site, and who has publicly said some notsonice things about the British news mogul.

Funny thing today at the newsstand: The conservative New York Post, helmed by conservative Rupert Murdoch, gave what appears to be a stunning endorsement of Barack Obama on their cover, despite the fact that the paper already officially endorsed John McCain.

So what gives? Early defeat and a zap to reality, à la The Drudge Report a couple weeks back? Or was Murdoch been increasingly in the tank for Obama, but afraid to show support against his party lines until it was reasonable safe (i.e. had cold facts to back it up) to do so?

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Rupert Murdoch likes money more than politics. Rupert Murdoch likes newspapers more than television. And Rupert Murdoch liked Michael Wolff circa last year more than Michael Wolff circa right now. Wolff, of course, is the Vanity Fair columnist and Newser.com proprietor who is also writing Murdoch's biography. Actually, it's already written, and will be published in December — with what was supposed to be Murdoch's blessing. The News Corp. chieftan cooperated with Wolff's book, sitting for interviews and such, but now he wants to take it all back ever since an advanced copy of The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch landed on his desk, and one of his aides had a chance to outline it for him.

Accusations made in the book — like Murdoch being embarrassed by his own Fox News, its chief Roger Ailes, and the ridiculous conservative slant they both share — have left Murdoch fuming. And complaining, all the way to Wolff's publisher Doubleday, an imprint of Random House, a company Murdoch actually does not own. (This would've been so much easier if News Corp. owned them, instead of Bertelsmann AG. Alas.)

Except Wolff has Murdoch on tape, and there are recordings of interviews with the Aussie's children and even 99-year-old mom. Which means the book is probably based in fact. Also evidence that Wolff got it right: Murdoch and News Corp. aren't even threatening legal action.

Which leads us to believe:

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Figuring out why the media love to harp on the New York Times is like figuring out, um, why the media love to harp on Katie Couric: There must be a reason, but it's sort of ambiguous.

Couric, like the Times, serves a worthwhile purpose: Delivering the news and instigating debate.

But also like Couric, the Times, once a revered institution, has become an easy punching bag when any reporter, blogger, or self-professed media critic is looking for an easy punching bag.

Why?

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While there are plenty of radio industry insiders who will defend Rush Limbaugh's new $400 million deal — inevitably contingent on ratings delivery and plenty of other factors — one person in particular is pasting a picture of radio giant Clear Channel on his dartboard. It's Vanity Fair's Michael Wolff, who spent the month of May assailing the New York Times and the month of April on the war between John Malone and Barry Diller. On CNBC yesterday, Wolff called the deal "a monster error."

"I know – I’m sitting here saying, ‘What are these people smoking?’ You know, the truth is that Rush Limbaugh has been – he’s ridden the rise of conservatism for 25 years and I don’t, maybe nobody quite, quite has been following the news, but that’s coming to an end. It’s going to be over and Rush Limbaugh in a relatively short period of time is going to look like a really kind of out-of-it kind of oddity and I cannot for the life of me imagine how someone could have made this deal."

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Michael Wolff: Simon Dumenco's call for the elimination of newspaper ombudsmen was only made stronger when every ombudsman wrote in to Romenesko to complain. [Romenesko]

Sometimes I just have to say, “what the fuck?” and the royal we doesn’t work as well. These are my thoughts—raronauer

Earlier today, my former coworker and current Brijit managing editor Bryan Keefer defended his site, claiming that it’s not for the pretentious and lazy.

Instead, he argued, the site is for the curious but overworked. It’s for people who do want to read lengthy Atlantic articles, but don’t have time to waste on the bad ones.

CONTINUED »

Times' business editor Larry Ingrassia pulls the plug on his proposed biography on Rupert Murdoch, possibly owing to creative differences with his partner (columnist Joe Nocera) possibly owing to the fact that Rupert Murdoch refuses to talk to anyone besides Michael Wolff and likely threatened to eat Ingrassia's first-born children should the book ever hit stores.

Vanity Fair columnist Michael Wolff scores a "high six-figure" book deal to write the biography of Rupert Murdoch.

The bio will focus heavily on Murdoch's $5 billion takeover of Dow Jones, but will also touch upon Murdoch's early life, and chronicle his gradual descent into evil despotdom.

[NYP]

Whatever happened to Caroline Miller, once the EIC of New York before a brief stint running luxe fashion mag Absolute? She's finally resurfaced, tangled up in Web 2.0 as the head of news aggregation site Newser.com (which happens to be offline at the moment). She's teamed with Vanity Fair's Michael Wolff and Highbeam CEO Patrick Spain to create what's supposedly a computer algorithm-based news dump that has human hands weighing in to play a role we're still a little unsure on. It'll be just like Google News, but with an obnoxious editor who insists on pointing out which items you should be discussing over chai lattes. [PC]

At least that's what we gleaned from the dek head of his Vanity Fair piece, which effectively labels Murdoch as the last media mogul who truly loves newspapers. Or at least the last of the moguls who can figure out how to turn a profit out of 'em. [VF]

Calling all restaurant goers! Ever left a waiter or waitress a paltry tip after somewhat lackluster service? Ever sent back a tepid bowl of soup, or inquired about a seemingly lost/forgotten dinner order?

Well, that's exactly what a bunch of Vanity Fair subscribers turned whiny babies are alleging Michael Wolff did on a recent dining out excursion. And, according to "an entire party of New York City diners," Wolff's poor restaurant etiquette has inspired them to boycott Vanity Fair, for as long as Michael "Excuse me, but I actually ordered this steak medium well" Wolff is a contributor.

Yep, we think that's a perfectly acceptable justification for canceling your magazine subscription. And yet, inexplicably, the entire party of oversensitive New York City diners have absolutely no problem with Christopher Hitchens…

• Air Force sergeant Michelle Manhart evidently missed the clause that forbade her from posing in Playboy, clad only in her official military dog tags.

• Michael Wolf follows in Tom Freston's footsteps and gets unceremoniously booted from MTV.

• NYT Co. eliminates 125 jobs in Boston because, well, the Times is a New York paper.

• A&E "completely shocked" to learn that people are far more interested in Sopranos reruns than new episodes of A&E Biography.

• Roger Ebert to sit on his thumbs during this year's Academy Awards; Richard Roeper described as "nervous" about holding down the fort.

• Fox news continues its love affair with Condi by blasting CBS for airing photos of the TomKitten via objective third-party, Father Jonathan.

Daniel Golden's new book, The Price of Admission, has already been widely discussed in the media — especially among gossips.

Golden spends 323 pages discussing how much the East Coast elite are willing to dish over or donate so their kids to make it into Harvard, Yale, or Princeton, with the most notable among his examples being New York Observer owner Jared Kushner.

And in yesterday's Times Vanity Fair writer Michael Wolff takes on the pages, interpreting the story as one of the regular folks. Sure, Wolff's kids go to "fancy schools" but that's because he bought them S.A.T tutors, not a new wing for the library. While Wolff is not one of the parents who bought his kid's into school, per se, he does think the fact that Golden wants "some people — people like himself — to have access to elite universities" to be ridiculous. Of course we also have to hear how Wolff could've written this book with more insight and depth than Golden did.

But he’s immune to the greater comedy of manners and so misses a potentially more profound story: the joke may be on us — not just on the rich, but on everybody who’s clawed his way and his kid’s way into big-brand colleges.

"Us?" Well, obviously he doesn't mean us. He means, like, him his fellow VF editors and a few families that have lived on the Upper West Side since 1920.

Show Them the Money [Michael Wolff, New York Times]

• Brian Farnham joins Time Out New York as EIC. Dan Peres is totally jealous. [WWD]

• Bertelsmann, a German company, is looking to create a MySpace type site for an older, lonelier crowd. Don't they know that all the old lonely people already stalk underage teens on MySpace? [Cnet]

• Jack Shafer reveals his thoughts on media bias: it sells big time. And he completely duped us into reading his long involved column while he was at it. [Slate]

• New York Women in Communications Inc. honored "eight ladies of renown" with its Matrix awards yesterday. The only place where Jill Abramson, Candace Bushnell and Geena Davis can receive the same level or recognition — except when it comes to their outfits. [Fishbowl NY]

• Michael Wolff's latest political rant pretty much rips Press Secretary Scott McClellan a new one. Again, we try not to agree with Wolff, but we just always happen to hate the same people. [VF]

• It ain't easy being green. Especially when every magazine wants to be green, too, just like you. [WWD]

• If you make fun of Jay McInerney he won't invite you to his parties or share his snack pack. [Slate]

• Why do college students pay tens of thousands a year to learn journalism in New York? So that Gawker bloggers can come tell them it's all pointless. [WWD, WSN]

• Will anybody buy Sporting News? Has anybody heard of Sporting News? [NYT]

• New York magazine and Time Warner may not be necessary for Michael Wolff, but Time Warner's screening room is necessary for his boss, Graydon Carter [Page Six]

• The Office Pirates are coming to steal your absurdities. [NYP]

Straight from Michael Wolff's mouth to I Want Media's (IWM) Patrick Phillips' tape recorder to Jim Romenesko's blog to Jossip, the Vanity Fair writer expresses his disdain for the betraying ex-love of his life, New York Magazine.

IWM: New York magazine just ran a cover story on "The Blog" –

Wolff: I never read New York magazine. I never let people talk to me about New York magazine. It does not exist in my universe.

IWM: I'm guessing this is because you made a run at buying the magazine that didn't work out.

Wolff: Exactly. It no longer, as I say, exists in my world. It broke my heart. My family is banned from reading it or mentioning it.

IWM: Would you ever consider buying any other magazines?

Wolff: No.

IWM: How about Radar magazine, which is sort of –

Wolff: No.

Wow, what a friendly guy. Other classic quotes include:

"I am so right," "We've very clearly arrived at a moment in which everybody says duh, that was a really, really bad idea," and "It takes me a long time to write a sentence. Bloggers are fast, writers are slow."

Really, you have to read the whole interview to get a grasp on just how totally crazy pants Michael Wolff is. Not to mention the reporter who was forced to talk to him seemed as frightened as the girl who ate an omelet in Anna Wintour's elevator.

Michael Wolff: 'Big Media Doesn't Make Anybody Happy' [Patrick Phillips, I Want Media]
Don't even think about mentioning New York mag to Wolff [Jim Romenesko, Poynter]

• Did ya notice how there weren’t any omelets at the Conde breakfast bowl? [Fishbowl NY]

• First the Internet is taking over, then it's the corporate quest to take over the Internet. What did people talk about before the World Wide Web? [The Nation]

• Time Warner Book Group officially sells out. To the French, no less. [NYP]

• Michael Wolff calls Carl Ichan "a difficult guy." Yeah, corporate insults aren't really that offensive. [VF]

• In New York, skater and surfer chicks are quarantined to Union Square and Meow Mix. In Cali, they get fashion magazines built around them. [WWD]

• There were 90.7 million Super Bowl viewers forced to watch that incredibly stupid "magic fridge" Ad. [Ad Age]