DSK

​The rape case against former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn began "crumbling" when the Manhattan D.A. picked up on some red flags, previously obscured, in the accuser's biography, the most damning of which was association with a man in jail on drug charges. A taped jailhouse call, translated from a Fulani dialect and reported in the New York Times via anonymous source, had the accuser telling the man, now identified as Amara Tarawally, something close to, "Don't worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I'm doing," in reference to DSK. But in an interview with the Daily Beast, Tarawally, who's being held in an Arizona detention center and could be deported, backs up the woman -- his "fiancé," he claims. "I know that he [Strauss-Kahn] did what he did," Tarawally said.

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​Yesterday on Andrew Sullivan's blog over at the Daily Beast, the august blog king shared a small example of how a "blogger's relationship to his readers can get a little strange." I'll say, Andrew. I'll say. More >>

​The media must have been all caught up today in covering really super-important news like the fact that our black president is not from Africa, at least not directly -- that, and the fact that our news cycle can still be manipulated by a moron if he's rich enough -- because the press seems to have taken the day off from covering the press, at least in a way that strikes this navel-gazing enthusiast as any sort of interesting. (On a related note, Andrew Sullivan seems to think that it's the job of the media "always to press for more information," even when that means indulging or validating conspiracy theorists, but that also makes our head want to implode a little bit.) All of which is to say that on this Wednesday, our daily media column Press Clips is mostly about how awful journalism can be.

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​Every time we turn around there's a switch-up at the newly Arianna Huffington-helmed AOL and Huffington Post hybrid, with the boss simultaneously cleaning house and sprucing up, by kicking AOL-ers to the curb and hiring up a handful of big names. The Huffington reign has left a large number scrambling, with some staking out new land and others unsure where to head next. More on the upheaval inside Press Clips, our daily media column. Plus, Katie Couric's long-expected exit from the nightly news, Andrew Sullivan's new home and (almost) a big scam at Condé Nast.

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​Howard Kurtz, the former Washington Post media critic and current Washington bureau chief at The Daily Beast, suffered some embarrassment earlier this year when he admitted to waiting six weeks before running a correction on a factually inaccurate article. Kurtz thought he was speaking with up-and-coming Republican Darrell Issa, who he quoted extensively, dubbing the man the "GOP's New Top Cop." Over a month later, Kurtz issued his correction, clarifying that he had been speaking to Issa's spokesman, Kurt Bardella, not the congressman himself. But now that Bardella has gone and got himself fired, Kurtz is more than willing to blame Bardella, even for their own unconnected mix-up, which had nothing to do with Bardella losing his job.

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via Daniel O'Neal

​Just about everyone on the internet (including us) has already praised the Twitter account @MayorEmanuel, which ended its journey when the real Emanuel won last week's election for Chicago mayor. That fanfare makes today's victory lap and collective celebration entertaining on a number of levels, not the least of which is the revealing of the account's creator as Dan Sinker, something of a media hero already in some circles for his creation of Punk Planet. Also on this busy media Monday, all-star blogger Andrew Sullivan is taking his ball and going to play with Tina Brown, Salon can't sell itself and Keith Olbermann moves to the internet. Details on all of it inside Press Clips, our daily media round-up.

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​Newsweek, the long-suffering magazine, was purchased by audio equipment billionaire Sidney Harman way back in mid-2010 and hobbled on, losing employees along the way, but impressively still managing to put out a product every seven days. Then, after months of rumor, Tina Brown came along, joining her own website The Daily Beast with Harmon's print product and promising "Vanity Fair meets the New Yorker," quite conveniently considering she once ran both. (Update: Brown, through a representative denies making this characterization.) Unfortunately, as a Newsweek spokesperson put it today, "In any merger, there are potential overlapping functions," and today the long-expected cutbacks began. Find out how bad the damage is below in Press Clips, our daily media round-up. Have more from the inside? Tips go here.

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New Jalopnik, Gawker's Car Blog

​Gawker, The Daily and NewsBeast, oh my. Three of the year's biggest media launches so far have landed, albeit in different stages, on or around February 1, 2011, making for some vaguely exciting times on the internet, if you're into that sort of thing. Taken together, the shifts indicate a committed move toward the web (which, duh) but also toward tablet readers specifically, as pictures are set to be bigger, and some even in 3D, while a historic newsweekly, treading water for years, pins its hopes to a young website, which inflates its readership numbers as one of those dreaded aggregators. But aside from What It All Means, how do the new or revamped publications look and work in practice? With Gawker we now know in part, with The Daily we'll know soon enough and the new Newsweek is at least setting itself up to succeed. More inside Press Clips, our daily media round-up.

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​Gabriel Snyder, who was fired by Nick Denton as the editor-in-chief of Gawker in February 2010, will be joining The Atlantic as the editor of the magazine's Atlantic Wire aggregation website, according to an Observer report today. Snyder will replace Ben Carlson, who left for a job at Rupert Murdoch's iPad newspaper The Daily. But more than just a New York hire, Synder's task to ramp up the online aggregation section of a 154-year-old magazine raises real relevant questions for aspiring young writers. Is aggregating the only way to make it? Answers -- plus, find out what happened to Julia Allison and details about the new 4chan -- inside Press Clips, our afternoon media round-up. (Tips go here!)

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​We've written twice this week about the trial of Shawna Forde, a troubled anti-immigration crusader, who stands charged with first degree murder for the 2009 killing of 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father in Arizona. Gina Gonzalez, Flores' mother, was also shot in the botched home invasion; she testified Tuesday about witnessing her daughter's death. And yet, despite the tragic narrative -- including its cursory similarities to the death of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green at the hands of Jared Loughner, also in Arizona -- plus the inclusion of other hot-button issues like immigration and extreme political discourse from groups like the Tea Party and Minutemen, which Forde identified with, much of the mainstream media continues to avoid the story of Flores' death. In this Friday edition of our media column, Press Clips, we'll examine why.

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