Bloomberg News' editor in chief Matthew Winkler made a proclamation today to the staff writers at the wire service: calling the economic crisis what it really is — a recession.

"But wait," you're thinking, "haven't we been referring to this as a recession since last Spring?" Sure, and the broadcast news pundits have no problem throwing that word around liberally. But in print, it's a little harder to find. Sure, there are obtuse references to "appearing" to be in an economic downturn, but trying to pin that phrase on a journalist is harder than catching a greased up pig in lipstick. Remember how pissed everyone got when Sarah Palin mentioned that we might be moving towards a Depression?

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Well well well…the plot thickens. Howard Kurtz wrote his Washington Post article yesterday on Greta Van Susteren's overly "sympathetic" post-election interview with Sarah Palin. In it, he quoted television critic and Baltimore Sun writer David Zurawik, who called the Fox interview "overly friendly."

Welp, no one says that Greta Van Susteren is friendly and sympathetic and gets away with it. Greta promptly took to her GretaWire blog to make a post, but it was quickly taken down…whether by Greta or the execs over at Fox Online, it's hard to say.

Luckily, the guys over at Johnny Dollar were able to retrieve a hard copy, and took a screenshot.

See Greta rage, after the jump:

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Dear Harold Meyerson,

A love/hate Opinion column about Fox News written in the form of an open letter to Roger Ailes in Washington Post?

Why not McSweeneys?

Your new fan,

Drew Grant

This is two clicks away from being the plot of Fatal Attraction. Or maybe Cape Fear. Or perhaps…a Nora Ephron movie??

Over news that the New York Times might be firing conservative columnist Bill Kristol, WaPo's Nora Ephron writes an annoyed love letter to her favorite hate-fuck.

Then Kristol's column began. I read it religiously every Monday. And slowly but surely, I became infatuated with him. How could I not? The man could not write his way out of a paper bag. His column was simply awful. Reading it was like watching someone dance on the head of a pin: his need to prove to his base that he hadn't gone over to the other side was so strong, his need to please his constituency was so moving, that I began to wish he would quit his job as editor of the Weekly Standard and become a Times columnist full-time. It was certainly not going to inconvenience him: the column couldn't have been taking him more than about twenty minutes to write. And it was great having him there, visible, so people like me could see what people like him were like. He was wrong about everything. It was such a comfort.

We see Meg Ryan in the role of Nora, and maybe Billy Crystal as Bill Bristol.

"Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's style is exceptionally ordinary. Nothing about it connotes authority. No detail announces that she is in charge."

And so begins Robin Givhan's September 28th analysis of the VP candidate's wardrobe. Of course, this was still a month before the news came out that Palin spent $150k of RNC money at Neiman Marcus and Saks to give her the perfect pitbull with a Chanel dress look.

Is the Washington Post fashion stylist eating her words? You betcha.

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Forget the "just a matter of time" Obama endorsements from liberal mainstays the New York Times and the Washington Post. Those rags were in the tank since '04. For a real barometer for America's political attitudes, check out the Bryan-College Station Eagle's endorsement of the Democratic ticket. Things are finally so bad that even Texas hate communities that usually loathe any African American who can't score a touchdown are betting on black!

Put this on your fourth cheeseburger, Limbaugh.

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It's not surprising that the Washington Post is endorsing Barack Obama this election. What is surprising is the time frame they decided to do it in: only half an hour after The Chicago Tribune came out with their own endorsement for the candidate, and four hours after the Tribune's sister paper, the LA Times, came out with a similar editorial.

For both the Tribune and Times, it marked the first time the papers have supported a Democratic nominee for the White House. The WP, a little less so, they've historically gone left. But the question remains: why the domino effect of endorsements on a Friday afternoon, after the morning/week's copies have already come out?

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Remember those glorious days before Labor Day, when the blogosphere was ablaze with rumors that Trig Palin, Sarah's supposed fourth child, might actually be her grandson? There was that DailyKos article (which seems to have disappeared…hmmm) which sparked a controversy and possibly tipped the campaign's hand in alerting the media that Bristol Palin was indeed a underage mother: She was five months pregnant at the beginning of September.

So the media circus shifted its attention to the new Juno controversy and Lynn Spears freaked out because of the hypocrisy of the MSM with their treatment of Bristol versus her daughter Jamie Lynn, and everyone forgot about baby Trig.

Except, not really:

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Dana Milbank is just so pleased with himself. He's managed to turn politicians' criticisms of the "media elite" into a four-minute long video starring himself, pretending to be part of this club (which he is).
Just good old Dana, being his usual clever, on point self, like those kids over at The Daily Show he's heard so much about.

See how long you can make it through the video without wincing at the heavy-handed approach taken by Milbank, who makes Michael Moore look like Richard goddamn Pryor.

Countdown regular Dana Milbank will no longer appear on the show. After appearing on MSNBC for the past four years, the Washington Post columnist signed a deal with CNN. Last night he appeared on CNN Election Center with Campbell Brown, which airs opposite Keith Olbermann's show. Of course none of this had anything to do with MSNBC temporarily ejecting Milbank after he wrote a piece about Barack Obama that took quotes out of context and called the candidate the Democratic party's "presumptuous nominee." [Daily Kos]

To get some advice on how to merge its print and web operations, the Washington Post — which currently eschews its completely separate online unit to an office outside D.C. — visited archival The New York Times to get some advice. Top Post-ies were led on a building-wide tour, with a stop in the Times cafeteria, with tips delivered along the way. If all goes accordingly, the Post will have learned that inane slideshows of fashion non-trends is where it's at.

If the U.S. economy — rumored to be in a recession — actually grew in recent months, but less than expected, is this good news or bad news? Is the glass half full, or leaking? It depends on whether you ask the New York Times or the Washington Post.

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Just a few short weeks ago when Len Downie was running the Washington Post, the paper had been carrying a reputation among some in the gay community for being less than friendly to the fagalas. Stories, like the one about the death of gay soldier Maj. Alan Rogers, were scrubbed of all gay references, seemingly as a matter of policy. (Downie personally edited the Rogers article, and removed any mention of his sexuality.)

To some onlookers, the Post had an unwritten clause in its style guide to remove any mention of someone begin gay; in fact, the official style guide says one's sexual orientation isn't worth mentioning unless its relevant, citing privacy issues.

But to a different set of eyes, the Post is making progress. A few years back, the paper began including same-sex couple in its marriage announcements.

So, with Marcus Brauchli now being named to the top spot, can we expect even more progress? Or will the word "homosexual" always be used in place of "gay"?

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ABC News and The Washington Post stand accused of purposefully withholding the results of their latest polling, which revealed Barack Obama commands an eight point lead over John McCain among registered voters. This is interesting, because the media is supposed to have it in the bag for Obama, and one wouldn't be wrong for thinking even the "unbiased" pollsters wouldn't want this information embargoed. [Media Matters]

Lloyd Grove's Portfolio profile of recently-installed Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth, granddaughter of Katharine Graham, is notable not for how she plans to keep the newspaper afloat in this economy, but for the accompanying photos of her. Yes, yes, grade Weymouth based on ad revenues and circulation, but please devote at least 1 percent of your judgment for her stems. How long before the rumors begin of an interoffice affair between she and Marcus Brauchli?

As major news outlets continue shelling out for a very expensive election season (Debates: $500k-$1m a pop; Convention coverage: ~$2m), some might be looking to cut corners. Networks like CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News already have some version of a user-generated news product, where viewers are solicited to send in tips and photos, that's less about getting all Web 2.0 than it is about getting everyday citizens to act as unpaid reporters (or so the inner cynic in us believe). But that doesn't mean the media are cooling down — quite the opposite. With the feisty Democratic primary done with, it's time to explore every possible angle leading up to November. Like what the temperature is on college campuses. Which explains why CBSNews.com, WashingtonPost.com, and university press syndicate UWIRE.com are teaming to find "15 to 20 top reporters" to keep their readers plugged in to who's waving what campaign banner on the Quad. They need everybody from investigative journalists to photographers to satirists to play a part. Interested? Fantastic. Just tell them how you like to be paid: Cash, cheque, wire transfer, or … exposure.

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Three standing ovations followed Leo Downie Jr.'s announcement to his Washington Post newsroom that he'd be stepping down as the newspaper's executive editor, a post he's held for the past 17 years. Downie was notable for being unnoticeable — no regular TV or party circuit appearances for this guy — while leading the newspaper to 25 Pulitzer Prizes. His exit, at least in recent weeks and months, is nothing except expected; new publisher Katharine Weymouth has made no secret of her wanting to name her own choice to the position, and though she told the Post she was "in no hurry to rush Len out of here," damn near showed Downie the door herself. That his announcement was finally made means one thing: He and the Post agreed on the terms of his buyout deal, which should provide plenty of funding for what he says he wants to do — spend time with his wife.

The Washington Post will join the NYT and WSJ in offering a glossy magazine that's more about serving advertiser interests than readers'. It will be called Fashion Washington, which is, yes, as silly as it sounds. [WaPo]

It turns out this photo of Tiger Woods in the Washington Post, which Photoshop Disasters fingered for being a doctored image, is actually not a photo editor's bungled work. In fact, it's an original image from Getty, and just one example of what can happen when a telephoto lens is placed in the hands of an oblivious photographer. The original image is here.

Think the Washington Post buyouts were all sad news for the newspaper industry? Not for feature writer Linton Weeks, who pulled one of those Malcolm Gladwell-level stunts in a final article for the paper. Pick up every first letter of each paragraph in "Updike Reads The Lines in American Art," and you won't even need secret decoder glasses to find his closing message.

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