It was a supply closet off the main classroom, six feet across, with the only wall decoration being a length of pine board with a row of nails sticking out. Because of the terrible noise inside, the door was always shut. The two machines, industrial-era things that clamored and shook, spewed out a steady stream of hurt and lies and death. On this San Diego afternoon I was in the little room with my coffee, going through the accumulated Associated Press and UPI news that had cranked out of the wire machines during lunch and whatever regular classes I might have attended that day. Local stories, national and international [...]

The teaser for tonight's "Rock Center with Brian Williams" very special episode on Gawker Media is the most mindbogglingly dumb thing I've ever seen. It features reporter Jamie Gangel acting like a prosecutor, with all her notes bundled in her hand. She is also holding a pen? Just in case she wants to jot down some notes. After reading off a list of adjectives, to get "unapologetic" Gawker honcho Nick Denton to word-associate with them, or whatever, she then presents her case: "these blogs pay for salacious scoops, publish rumors, settle lawsuits when they have to, and if they get it wrong, they simply update."

To illustrate that when [...]

Last night, NBC premiered "Outsourced," the show that I am not going to watch about call centers and labor inequity and how weird Indians are, the latter two things definitely being stuff I'm not up to being amused about. Sorry, humorless! Also, what, they couldn't find a role for my high school buddy Ajay Naidu? Hell no then. But others watched!

• "I defer to African-Americans on issues of minstrel in this country and whether it's worth it or not. Oh, nah? It's not. Okay. What the fuck!!!"

• "But, if I may add my two cents? FUCK THIS SHOW IN THE FACE UNTIL IT DIES."

Holy Jesus, a giant bomb just went off in L.A. and it's only 6:25 a.m.-according to the News Source that is Ryan Seacrest's Twitter, Ben Silverman, the boy wonder noodlehead of NBC, is finally out and off to a whole new (yet not new) world. (Thank God someone follows Seacrest's Twitter.) According to Seacrest (and I can't believe I had to write that), Silverman is going off to form his own studio. Thing is… he already had his own studio. Which sold TV shows to NBC. Here's Ryan's take! "This means better shows from our favorite stars in u.s. and around the world." Hey, wow, he is my [...]

Broadcasting and Cable has a good laugh at those who were shocked by the Times profile of NBC boy-honcho Ben Silverman this weekend past. It's true: any Silverman story, even one as unrevealing and friendly as Carter's, can sound shocking if you're not accustomed to The Silverman Way!

Variety hates Amy Poehler NBC comedy advertainment vehicle "Parks and Recreation." Therefore I will love it. For three episodes. Then I will blog about how I hate it. Then it will pile up on my DVR and I will watch five episodes back to back and love it again. But by then it will be canceled. I'm so sorry Amy Poehler!

The 1990s came back last night during the Hurricane Sandy benefit concert, and everybody was so happy to hear about "grunge" again. What else is from the 1990s? How about the 1991 Gulf War? It seemed stupid at the time, but in retrospect it was kind of nice to have a very short American war in the Middle East, and also to win that war. Now a living memory (in the form of an inanimate piece of weaponry) is back in the news, bombing people in Syria. It's hard not to wonder if the return of the Scud missile will also mark the return of the [...]

So yes, Keith Olbermann is getting an unpaid vacation, for making donations to Democrats. Shocking right? This would have been the first time I ever watched his show, if he was going to go on the air and rip his NBC bosses a new one for being morons. And now there will be an audit of all the world's network employees. (Except at Fox. Which is owned by a political entity.)

The Internet's desire to kill any celebrity was at its peak last summer [Ed. note: "The Summer of Death"], in the wake of Michael Jackson's passing; in recent months, Twitter-borne rumors of dead celebrities had mostly gone dormant, perhaps waiting for the days to get longer and peoples' internal BS detectors to grow more sun-addled. The fake-death spectre did, however, rear its head last night, when some joker at the multiheaded gossip hydra Oh No They Didn't decided to mock up a TMZ screenshot claiming that Betty White had gone to the Miami retirement complex in the sky.

Jesus Christ, Rod Blagojevich is at NBC's press day for "I'm a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!" According to people present: "Blago on the other things happening in his life: they 'suck' and 'are scary.' He is five feet from Sanjaya."

"NBC… produced fluff pieces that made Deva and Round Lake, the Romanian and Russian team training centers, look like Dickensian orphanages where families abandoned their athletically gifted children—while showing America's Dominique Moceanu playing on a seesaw." —MMM HMM. It's been like this for ages, but it was really particularly hard to enjoy yesterday's amazing Olympics gymnastics with the high level of broadcast idiocy going on!

Chelsea Handler's Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea is getting a pilot at NBC. That book is a memoir of her time before she began dating the CEO of Comcast. One blog commenter responded: "Chelsea is the funniest woman alive! Her talk show makes all the others seem irrelevant. Perhaps she can now save the world of network sitcoms!!!! Great move by NBC!!!!" In other news, HBO is doing a pilot for Molly Shannon in which she plays a nun leaving the convent.

"These Olympics have just been a complete disaster," said a coworker the other day with the sort of learned gravitas that can only be acquired via a force-fed nightly diet of Chris Collinsworth's zip-up-necked sweaters (stitched, per the suddenly saucy Wall Street Journal, "entirely out of Phil Simms's hair.")

Alan Sepinwall has saved "Chuck"! That's right-the Star Ledger TV critic's campaign even got him name-checked by NBC's Ben Silverman at the upfront today, where "Chuck"'s return was announced. I guess they don't really mind that Alan trashed NBC in December on the Times op-ed page for becoming the Jay Leno network! Anyway, rejoice, nerds! All hail your Sepinwall.

Jesus, "Baby Borrowers" actually lasted for five episodes?