“The Times newsroom, like most corporate nerve centers, is a labyrinth of intrigue, gossip, back-biting, rumor, false piety, rampant ambition, betrayal and deception. Those who play this game well are repugnant. They are also usually the people who run the place.”
 — This is a pretty brutal take-down of the documentary Page One

, written by Chris Hedges, and to be fair, the film really has it coming. It is also a pretty nasty and appropriate attack on Bill Keller, who was indeed a war cheerleader. (Never forget!) In the film, the main characters — David Carr, Brian Stelter and Captain Eye Candy, Tim Arango — come off great and are shown to their best. The film itself, as a documentary, is a disaster-piece, in part for some of the more political reasons brought up here.

This is a really terrific essay by Alex Shakar, who was set up to be the Hot New Un-Sad Literary Young Man ten years ago with his first novel, when Bill Clegg got him $300,000 (or more?) from Robert Jones at HarperCollins. Pub date: September, 2001. Guess what happened! That’s right: Jones died and Clegg, soon enough, went MIA in a crackhouse. Oh also some other stuff I guess.

Part of the purpose of a large advance, I understood, was to gain a book publicity. But I told nearly no one. Instead, for weeks, I did math in my head. I subtracted my agency’s cut and divided the figure by the five long years I’d lavished on the book and came out with a perfectly reasonable — boring, even — middle-class salary. I divided it by the ten years since college I’d been writing, the result more lackluster still. I thought of acquaintances and friends of friends who’d been riding the dotcom wave into stupefying wealth. I was basically a peasant, I reasoned. But one who could pay off his student loans. One in need of tax advice. It was about a third of a million bucks.

He’s back with another book… ten years after 9/11, set five years after 9/11. It is not published by HarperCollins.

“We pretty much are right at average. So far it’s been a pretty mild, nice summer.”
 — National Weather Service meteorologist Lauren Nash explains that the season hasn’t been that bad so far, particularly compared with last summer, which, you know, fine, but HAVE YOU BEEN OUTSIDE TODAY? Good lord.

You’re going to have a hard time believing this one, but you know that ad you’ve seen pretty much everywhere on these Internets? The “1 Tip for a Tiny Belly” bit? Turns out it may not have been on the up-and up!

Here is a pretty blistering essay on Britain’s phone hacking scandal, which, with each new horrific revelation, is causing ever more damage to Rupert Murdoch.

Here is a new video for a new Sade song. Well, pretty new. The song came out last month, one of four previously unreleased tracks on The Ultimate Collection. One of the others was a remix of “Moon and the Sky,” featuring a verse rapped by Jay-Z. That one was kind of underwhelming to me. I think I’d be more interested in hearing Raekwon rap on a Sade song. There’s a new video from him today, too. With Nas, for a song they did for Rae’s recent Shaolin Vs. Wu-Tang album.

And you know Rae would cut off his right arm to collaborate with Sade.

“This is a historic moment for New York, a moment many couples have waited years and even decades to see, and we are not going to make them wait one day longer than they have to.”
 — You just can’t ever stay mad at Michael Bloomberg, because then he pulls one of these — opening up the city clerks’ offices on Sunday, July 24, the first day gay marriage is legal in New York State. (Servicey note: smart gays know you can apply online in advance.)

by Abe Sauer

Credit was heaped on social media as the tool that won Obama the 2008 election. The New York Times described it as “an unforeseen force to raise money, organize locally, fight smear campaigns and get out the vote that helped them topple the Clinton machine…” Some told everyone to take a pill, calling the crediting of social media a “big snake oil spotlight.”

But you knew what would happen anyway: 2012 candidates have certainly rushed to Facebook, along the way proving that some understand the platform better than others.

A candidate’s Facebook gallery can make him or her look more presidential, or less, introduce a family, or showcase the humanity of a person whose very job requires him or her to be soulless.

For example, here’s Democratic Florida Senator Bill Nelson, up for reelection in 2012, caring about another human being.

Facebook is also a great place to deflect criticism by portraying your concerns as exactly the opposite of your political focus. For example, here’s Michigan GOP Presidential primary candidate and Congressman Thaddeus McCotter openly caring about children, which is a perfect balance to his 2007 “no” vote for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Or, from his official Facebook page, here’s Wisconsin’s Scott Walker reading to a bunch of black schoolchildren — right around the time that the governor cut hundreds of millions in public school funding.

Your Facebook profile is also a perfect place to create a fictionalized version of your supporters. Here’s incumbent Republican Indiana Senator Dick Lugar with a black kid.

Essentially, a Facebook page can depict a politician as he pretends to be, not as he really is. It is a commonality that pols’ Facebooks are heavy with photos of regular folk interaction and light on, say, meetings with lobbyists. Nobody has an album titled “Fundraising.”

“Issues photos” are also a great add to any office-holder’s Facebook. Here’s concerned Wyoming Senator John Barrasso surveying our porous border from an album titled “Barrasso on the Border.”

Also, Facebook is a great place to feature your participation in the kinds of important, candidacy-defining events the “lamestream” media doesn’t give a whoop about. This means if you’re Thaddeus McCotter, you can create a whole album dedicated to your address at the Victims of Communism Memorial Ceremony.

Or, you can use your profile to tell voters something about yourself that may be awkward in the context of an official campaign event. For example, if you’re recovering alcoholic and Minnesota Congressman Erik Paulsen, add a picture of yourself at a Hazelden clinic.

Facebook is also a great place to highlight your party bona fides. For Republicans, there’s nothing more desirable in a Profile Pictures gallery than a shot of oneself in the same room with His Holiness, Ronald Reagan. Orrin Hatch, Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman are so lucky. (Yes, Orrin Hatch has a very active Facebook page.)

It also doesn’t hurt to throw in a few little meta-photo ops, such as yourself with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. For example, from their respective pages, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch and Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor pretend like they’re people Zuckerberg consults about things.

Your Facebook profile is also an excellent place to introduce the voting public to the best face of your family. From her profile, here’s New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in a shot that alternatively runs in the October Sears catalog.

But there is such thing as making the family look overly colloquial. Case in point, Ron Paul’s official shot of his family.

Be careful not to be too perfect though, here’s the Christmas Card added to Tim Pawlenty’s profile. Can you tell which one is his wife and which two are the daughters?

See, Michele Bachmann was wise not to upload this photo to her Facebook profile, as it may portray an un-presidential element of the family dynamic. It’s just fine where it is at her husband’s “Meet Dr. Bachmann” clinic page.

There is also the issue of whether or not to allow open comments. Some candidates like Mitt Romney and John Boehner allow no outside wall posts, though they do allow comments. Sarah Palin allows wall posts, though she famously deletes those unfavorable to her.

When it comes to allowing comments, the inability to periodically edit your photos and wall posts could lead to some embarrassments. For example, this photo of Texas Governor and rumored Presidential candidate Rick Perry is accompanied by the comment “WHO HAS 2 THUMBS AND HATES WOMEN???? THESE GUYS!!!!!”

While it’s obvious candidates themselves are too busy, or technologically inept, to work their own Facebook pages, they should take caution to vet the staffers charged with social media profile maintenance. Does a candidate for office of the most powerful position on earth want to be depicted with such impotence as this photo of Tim Pawlenty, which somebody on his campaign actually looked at and said, “Yes: THIS”?

Or how about this one of Rick Santorum, featured in the popular “behind the scenes” genre of pol Facebook pics. Is there a better way to make a man look as small as his ideas?

Then there is this one. It’s bad enough nobody in New Hampshire thought to take down the King Kong poster before Cain spoke. But then it was uploaded to Herman Cain’s official Facebook page by somebody on Herman Cain’s campaign who clearly hates Herman Cain.

But politicians shouldn’t let these pitfalls scare them away from social media. With a little practice, any candidate can learn to have a little fun with it. Just look at what Newt has been uploading.

Abe Sauer can be reached at abesauer at gmail dot com. He’s also on Twitter.

“Mexican truckers will be able to carry goods deep into the United States, and vice versa, under the terms of a deal signed Wednesday in Mexico City to end a 17-year-old trade dispute.”
 — This is how it all starts — and how it all ends. NATO! NAFTA! One world currency! Black helicopters going up the Mississippi! Ayn Rand foresaw it all! The World Bank is taking over our highway system!

“Air security is expected to tighten, particularly for international flights into the United States, in light of recent intelligence that terrorists might be considering boarding flights with surgically implanted explosive devices, an American security official said Wednesday.”
 — Good night nurse.