It's mentally fatigued to work for the New York Times, because everyone is always on your case about political biases and blatant nepotism. And it's hard for a reader to tell them to "suck less" because hey, they are still the standard for journalism in the city, if not the country.

Alas, the NYT is in a financial tailspin just like every other publication, so it's with a heavy heart that executive editor and Adam West lookalike Bill Keller dashed off a memo to his staff about the "consolidation" of the Metro and Sports section. At least he tried to rally his employees to look on the bright side:

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Because what an industry of navel gazers needs is another profile of Rupert Murdoch, Vanity Fair's Michael Wolff obliged and produced this piece of journa-schism. Its side effect was a discussion about where the (almost certainly false) rumors of Michael Bloomberg wanting to buy the New York Times began, but more amusing is the brief re-telling of how Murdoch stole the Wall Street Journal away from the Bancroft family with a giant false promise:

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You have to give Nicholas Kristof his due, the man is not totally incapable of feeling. After using the New York Times for his personal vigilante crusade to take down the men who instigated the anthrax attacks in 2002, Kristof has been feeling guilt pangs for perhaps being over-zealous with his information to the FBI.

This is relevant now because the man that Kristof originally fingered as the culprit, Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, was exonerated while the purported real criminal, Bruce Ivins, recently committed suicide before he was able to be tried. And Nicholas bucks it up like a true gentleman and issues a public retraction and apology to Hatfill, albeit eight years after the fact.

But Nick isn't content to let the matter drop, and wants the American public to walk a mile in his shoes with these fun hypothetical scenarios. What would you do if you were presented with questionable information of the "maybe wrong" variety but realized you were perhaps sitting on a big story?

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The New York Times is a venerable institution. One thinks of a tall, imposing gray building where Important Work goes on and then The News happens. Unfortunately, with the new generation of bloggers getting all the media hype lately, the NYT is starting to look a little stodgy by comparison. Like your uncle who says he likes Eminem, Sunday Styles is laughably outdated when it's competing against an army of itchy trigger-fingered Mac users who update their stories on an hourly basis.

That's why it's sort of cute, sort of sad, that Virginia Heffernan decided to write a complimentary piece to her article about Rielle Hunter's web series on Edwards, with a list of her favorite "web serials." Some of the shows she name-drops are actually pretty good (Clark and Michael, the strangely censored You S— at Photoshop, last summer's Tight Shots) but with few exceptions this listicle would read as a much-watch for web series that peaked anywhere from six months to two years ago. That's a major offense for those in the Twitter set, who would never dare to blog stories from the previous week, let alone month. A for effort, Heffernan, but here are some better examples of shows that are still circulating (for now):

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There was zero reason for book critic Michiko Kakutani to write up yet another Jon Stewart profile for the Times last week. She didn't have anything new to say, and Stewart didn't have anything new to promote. If anything, is was an exercise in Kakutani criticizing something other than the written word, and 900 others have done it previously, and better. [Photo: Slate]

D.C. gossip sheet Politico got all up in the New York Times derriere when, in reporting on MSNBC, Bill Carter failed to mention his newspaper's relationship with the network. (They've partnered for an irregular political roundtable show.) In scolding the Times, Politico's Michael Calderone then went on to realize his own employer has a partnership with CBS, which he's also failed to disclose.

Said by a New York Times reporter, relayed to us by a reporter at a competing newspaper, regarding this weekend's Democratic National Convention: "I'm probably just gonna get fucked up."

A funny thing happened on the way to ruining John Edwards reputation: The National Enquirer graduated from slippery checkout aisle gossip trash into a bonafide news source. Sure, the rag has broken legitimate news before — O.J. Simpson, and just recently, Patrick Swayze — but only since its John Edwards coup, where it forced the ex-senator and VP possibility into admitting an affair, has it attracted the respect of the mainstream media. Okay, maybe not respect, but at least the attention.

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With 32 reporters in Beijing covering the Olympics, it's nice to see the New York Times could afford two to the John Edwards scandal. And look what they turned up: a front page-worthy story that shows Edwards' camp might have been involved in lying to the press about Rielle Hunter! Though everybody but the National Enquirer was ignoring them at the time, two lawyers issued separate statements denying the scenario: Hunter's attorney said his client wasn't carrying Edwards' child, and former campaign aide Andrew Young's attorney said he was the father of the child. Now, it seems these two attorneys might have a connection that all ties back to Edwards, with money strewn along the way. Hey, this is what happens when you decide to investigate, isn't it?

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Remember when you were five and one of the lessons your parents instilled in you was "Crime doesn't pay"? Yeah, scratch that. Because New York Times media reporter David Carr found out that it does. Big time. The former women abuser, child neglecter, and drug user has seen his memoir The Night of the Gun climb aboard his his own paper's best-seller list.

Update: Or not.

David Carr, David Carr, David Caaaaarrr. So sick of hearing that name already, and his book, Night of the Gun, just came out. What the rest of the rooms of Alcoholics/Narcotics Anonymous wouldn't give to be the one guy who managed to turn his foray in crack cocaine into a much-hyped memoir? Or work at the New York Times? Okay, forget the AA analogy, and replace it with "everyone in the entire world, ever." David Carr is one lucky guy. Here are three things that this lucky man likes/doesn't like (booze and crack are not on the list):

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The New York Times finds itself embroiled in some gay drama.

Longtime copy editor Charles Cretella has been suspended for two weeks after allegedly sexually harassing a newer hire. But Cretella claims he's getting the shaft - and now he's suing:

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Back in February, we noticed something taking place inside Hollywood media: Both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety were putting themselves on the block. While Variety, from LexisNexis owner Reed Elsevier, was making its intent to sell a public matter, THR owner Nielsen publicly denied it was shopping itself around. Finally, this week and many months later, Sharon Waxman heard the same news — and added one tidbit to the gossip: the New York Times is supposedly a potential buyer.

Except, according to everything we understand, the Times is as much a player in this deal as, say, Rodale. That is: They're a big name publisher that always looks at these type of deals, but almost certainly won't be interested in taking on another (troubled) print liability. There's also some wild rumor about that Valcon, the name given to the six private equity firms that own Nielsen, might be interested in picking up Variety, too, and having total control over film studio advertising budgets.

"Federal wire fraud charges were filed Tuesday against a former La Crosse newspaper delivery man accused of bilking the New York Times for nearly $325,000 by submitting about 8,500 fake subscriptions. Martin T. Holtet, 50, of 235 S. 19th St., is accused of defrauding the company of $227,000 in delivery fees and $98,000 in printing expenses. Holtet was arrested Tuesday and made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Madison in the afternoon. According to the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Holtet delivered papers for the New York Times from 2002 to April 2008. Holtet was paid for each paper delivered in Wisconsin and Minnesota. From 2007 to early 2008, the number of subscribers in the La Crosse area jumped from 65 daily and 103 Sunday to 2,781 daily and 2,818 for Sunday papers." [La Crosse Tribune via IIN]

Not only does New York Times business beater David Carr get the huge publicity of an excerpt in The New York Times Magazine, he also gets a review in the Times' Books section. This is one of the perks of being a reformed crackhead and semi-reformed alcoholic who turned a lifetime of beating women and ignoring his children into a cushy gig at the nation's leading newspaper. So what does his own newspaper think? For starters, that Carr is an "excellent" media columnist. And, in the nearly 1,000 words he spends on his audit, reviewer Pete Hamill — sober alcoholic, author of A Drinking Life, and one-time David Remnick critic — had exactly one negative thing to say about the book.

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