Pat Kiernan Deserves Better: According to a recent report, SNL head writer Seth Myers is inexplicably in the lead to be Kelly Ripa’s permanent co-host when she returns from vacation, while NY1 cult fan favorite Pat Kiernan is supposedly in "second." The world deserves better. [Showbiz 411]

Page Six as the NewsCorp Nuptials Page: Today in Page Six, an announcement about the birth of one New York Post staffer's son, and another about a Post staffer's marriage. While admittedly adorable, what's funny about this isn't the fact that it's under the "WE HEAR" heading—You couldn't confirm it?—but that it seems to keep happening. We should note, though, that this item is in fact both more positive and less restrained than the stiff-necked gun-to-back coverage of Post executive editor Jesse Angelo’swedding. [Page Six] 

A Few Good Fareeds: Did you happen to see Newsweek International editor Tunku Varadarajan’s defense of Time's Fareed Zakaria on The Daily Beast/in Newsweek? A few things of note:

1. Invoking the words "lynch mob" in reference to what happened to Fareed Zakaria.

2. The stated idea that "media reporters of the kind who hounded Mr. Zakaria occupy the lowest rung and exult at the prospect of pulling people down."

3. Use of the term "Schadenfareed," which was not attributed to Ron Mwangaguhung—which it should be, because he was the first to coin it.

4. This is in defense of Mr. Zakaria: "He also writes academic-lite books that presidents clutch as they clamber aboard planes, and gives speeches at—it is said—$75,000 a pop."

Mr. Varadarajan's perspective implies he is so deep inside a certain media institution that he has only a colonoscopic view of anything outside of said media institution. Mr. Zakaria, for his part, resigned from a position at Yale recently, which is definitely not an admission of anything and which you should clearly take to mean nothing. [The Daily Beast, NH Register]

Matt Drudge Just Wants to Dance With Somebody: BuzzFeed's John Herrman posted a brilliant story tying Matt Drudge to the insidious forces of Israeli house music. This is brilliant, hilarious and wonderful. [BuzzFeed]

Lede of the Day: This one comes to us via New York Times dining writer Jennifer Steinhauer:

JUST as the culinary cognoscenti press us into embracing certain food trends (“You will eat pork belly! Love cupcakes now! Hate cupcakes now!”) so, too, do they dictate our drinks.

Meta, much? It's a piece from someone actively participating in the "culinary cognoscenti" engaging in the exact act she is decrying. An astute copy editor need only make two small changes in order to lend this sentence accuracy:

JUST as the culinary cognoscenti press us into embracing certain food trends (“You will eat pork belly! Love cupcakes now! Hate cupcakes now!”) so, too, do they we dictate our your drinks.

See? Easy. [NYT Dining]

Syndication Power: Why is CNN Money so successful? Its partnerships and syndicated content. A simple, smart and important take, here. [24/7 Wall Street via Talking Biz]

Roger Clark Deserves Better: NY1’s gonzo reporter Roger Clark could not get into infamous nightclub Tunnel in the ’90s. We need to know more about this in the form of a picture of his hair from that era. [@RogerClark41]

Leathery Lacey: Yesterday, David Carr took on the matter of former Village Voice staff writer Rosie Gray, who penned a think piece for BuzzFeed (they do those!) about the ongoing downsizing at the Voice. It's odd to hear Village Voice Media's Kegmeister and Pledge Hazing Chair Mike Lacey imply—to the New York Times, no less—that one of his staffers was "let go" when she actually quit. Carr noted:

“Of course it is disappointing to let Rosie Gray, or any staff person, go,” he wrote. (Ms. Gray actually left the paper, she was not laid off.) 

Is that objectively sleazy? We think it might be! [Media Decoder, Buzzfeed]

Long Drop Off A Short Pier(s): Here's a video of Piers Morgan interviewing a chair. Compelling stuff. [Dylan Byers/Politico]

Pando Penenberg: The Adam Penenberg—yes, the guy who busted Stephen Glass—is joining Sarah Lacy’s PandoDaily as editor. Yes, the PandoDaily of Sarah Lacy, a site whose mission statement alone stood for everything terribly conflicted about tech journalism. Conclusion: This is either a turning point for Lacy, or for Penenberg. Here's hoping it's the former. [PandoDaily]

From Soft News to Soft Drinks: Speaking of moves to dark sides, the head of ABC's This Week is leaving to work for Pepsi. Unfortunate for This Week and ABC News on the whole, which isn't exactly having a great week. [NYT Media Decoder, Atlantic Wire]

Sharp Penn: They might not have much of a football program these days, but incoming Penn State students who aspire to get into this journalism racket are in the right place: Their campus newspaper rightly made the top spot among its contemporaries. [College Media Matters via Romenesko]

- - -

Sleazy media gossip? Tips? Ideas? Conspiracy theories? Favorite words on Urban Dictionary? Please, by all means, let us live, and send them our way.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek