Mr. Byrne. (Photo: Catalina Kulczar)

About two-thirds of the way into How Music Works (McSweeney's, 352 pages, $32) by David Byrne, one of rock music’s most omniscient presences, there is a rare attempt at stark self-awareness: “The online music magazine Pitchfork once wrote that I would collaborate with anyone for a bag of Doritos,” Mr. Byrne recalls. “This wasn’t intended as a compliment—though, to be honest, it’s not that far from the truth.”

This helps explain why David Byrne the brand is getting, for lack of a better word, boring.

That's not to say that the former Talking Heads front man’s output is of a diminished quality, or that there’s nothing of interest in it. There is, however, something that feels dutiful about Mr. Byrne now—one doesn’t so much genuinely desire to read his musical manifesto as feel strangely obligated to do so. (It’s probably not a coincidence that I felt similarly about listening to his most recent musical project, an utterly predictable collaboration with the much younger musician Annie Clark, who records under the name St. Vincent.) There are legions of books—all those “For Dummies” guides, for instance—that try to answer Mr. Byrne’s titular question. But those books aren’t by the man who wrote “Girlfriend Is Better.” So: read on. How Music Works isn’t just a grand proposition; it’s a serious one too, notwithstanding Mr. Byrne’s cool dismissal, in his preface, of the idea that this is a definitive text on anything—neither music nor, for that matter, his music: “This is not an autobiographical account of my life as a singer and musician, but much of my understanding of music has certainly been accrued over many years of recording and performing. In this book I draw on that experience to illustrate changes in technology and in my own thinking about what music and performance are about.”

By and large, the 10 chapters that follow cover much of what Mr. Byrne promises at the outset: knowledge that never gets too personal derived from his experiences as a listener, a creator and a businessman, in that order. The most enjoyable moments are those when he reneges on his prefatory claims and lapses into memoir. Mr. Byrne’s lengthy description of how the Talking Heads shopped for their look after their first record was released is an out-and-out joy to read. A little later, he recounts the evolution of the Talking Heads’ proficiency, but stops abruptly to ask what “being tight” as a band means today. It’s not a rhetorical question: “It’s hard to define now, in an age where instrumental performances and even vocals can be digitally quantified and made to perfectly fit the beat.” Throughout the book, there are moments like this, hints at what would have been a better book—Mr. Byrne fully ruminating on his life and music—but he never allows these personal insights to take shape. His grumpy sentiment here is intuitive, and maybe even correct, but it reads like a self-conscious avoidance of writing about himself, a cutting off of things before too much is given away.

When Mr. Byrne’s crankiness gets the best of him, though, it is all the better for the reader: there are two chapters on technology and music, and the second is titled “Crappy Sound Forever.” He chastises seemingly the entire world of listeners for allowing music to be distilled into formats of lesser and lesser quality. It’s at least entertaining. In a section on business and finance, he asserts, “I, for one, would not want to be beholden to Live Nation.” Assisted by charts and graphs, he explains how the money that goes into the recording of a piece of music comes out of it—this is all rooted in hard numbers and, in the stronger moments, even harder experience. And the eighth chapter—“How to Make a Scene”—while not a step-by-step on how to rewrite the culture of live music in North Brooklyn, isn’t a half-bad blueprint.

Even when Mr. Byrne is at his most impassioned, though, his book is never exactly a call to arms. Perhaps there is too little at stake. In the final chapter, he breezily runs through the neurological and societal foundations and implications of music (among other things), and the result is as highfalutin as it sounds. (The section bears an epigraph from none other than T.S. Eliot.) He skims these sprawling topics as neither a scholar nor a student nor a full-throated music-maker (even though he’s clearly all three), but instead opts for the passive voice of the knowing—albeit detached—observer. It is likely the most evenhanded approach he could take in attempting to describe several centuries’ worth of musical culture. His efforts are commendable, but the question on the cover is never really answered, even in terms of what it means to Mr. Byrne personally.

It’s likely Mr. Byrne never set out to discover how music works. Throughout, he comes across as indecisive at best, uninteresting at worst. He ends by discussing pop music versus a more structureless cacophony, but it’s hardly a conclusion: “I like a good story and I also like staring at the sea. Do I have to choose one?”

Of course not. He is, after all, David Byrne. Beyond that, why take a strong hand when you can take an even one? The book feels safe, sensible. The problem is that the reason we care about Mr. Byrne at all is because his musical work of decades past was all about not making sense, to paraphrase one of Mr. Byrne’s lyrics. It didn’t always work, but it was never boring.

editorial@observer.com

Kanye West’s newest album, Cruel Summer—a compilation of his G.O.O.D. Music label's artists—is to be released next Tuesday, September 18. A few of the tracks have already been released, but today saw the release of the album's opening track, To The World, which features R. Kelly singing the hook. And at two minutes and 25 seconds in, the following verse comes from Mr. West:

I need a new crib to hold my plaques
Rick Ross had told me that.
Said I'd be all up in Goldman Sachs.
Like, "These ni**as tryna hold me back
These ni**as tryna hold me back."
I'm just trying to protect my stacks
Mitt Romney don't pay no tax
Mitt Romney don't pay no tax.

For those in need of contextual help herein: Rick Ross is a fellow rapper, and "stacks" refers to money. In other words:

• He's just trying to protect his money and find a decent place to invest it.
• He's been advised by fellow rapper Rick Ross to invest it with Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management, because people will no doubt try to prevent his liquid wealth from growing, by hook or by crook.
• Take Mitt Romney, for example!
• Mitt Romney found a way to ostensibly evade the full reach of the Internal Revenue Service—or at the very least, a tax rate for people as wealthy as he is—and if Mitt Romney doesn't have to pay taxes, why should Kanye West?

 
Previously, Kanye West famously told the world that former president George W. Bush "does not care about black people" and later imagined his eventual foray into fatherhood:

And I’ll never let my son have an ego.
He’ll be nice to everyone
wherever we go.
I mean
I might even make him be Republican
So everybody know he love white people.

And now Mitt Romney can say his taxes have been rapped about. Which his opponent can not.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

In a sidebar in this week's New York Magazine front-of-book Intelligencer section, Eater noted a preview for the forthcoming "Ruth Bourdain" authored book, Comfort Me With Offal, which was attributed to:

"Ruth Bourdain (aka Voice writer Robert Sietsema)."

The problem? Village Voice dining critic Robert Sietsema already denied being the person behind Ruth Bourdain last October after a Star-Tribune writer came up with a theory that ostensibly outed Sietsema as the mastermind behind the Tweets, which prompted Eater to ask:

 Does someone at New York magazine have insider info, or are they just messing with everyone?

In a phone call with The Observer this afternoon, Mr. Sietsema again denied involvement with Ruth Bourdain. So how did his name end up in the magazine? "The only conclusion that I can come to," he explained,  "is that Ruth Bourdain says he’s me in the text [of the book], which I have not seen. It looks like they’ve seen a copy of the book."

"I can’t imagine they’d be so stupid to say that without having any evidence that it’s me."  As he tells it, nobody at New York called him to verify his identity as the person behind the account, "and they are a fact-checking group," he noted, referring to New York's research department. "So I can’t help but think there must be something in the pages.

"As part of the humorous shtick, I can imagine Ruth Bourdain writing in the book, 'Well, I’m Robert Sietsema, of course.' It's in his or her best interests to have me as the cowcatcher on the front of the locomotive. "

When asked what New York thought of Sietsema's denial, The Observer received a terse email from a magazine spokesperson explaining: "This was an editing error." While they did not respond to further questions about how the error came to be, they did note that the mistake would be corrected in the next issue.

"It’s amazing that she’s been able to keep her anonymity for this long," marveled Sietsema.

Indeed, it is: Not only does Ruth Bourdain operate in a relatively small world (the food journalism subculture), but also, has a book coming out, has done press for it, and was even recently handed a James Beard Award for accomplishments in humor. Sietsema also pointed out that Regina Schrambling of Gastropoda has been suspected of being behind the account.

Before him, Eater co-founder Ben Leventhal (who called Ruth Bourdain's identity "perhaps the best kept secret in all of food") once pointed to both food blogger Josh Friedland and Adam Robb—the creator of a fake Twitter for 'Resturant Girl' (aka former Daily News food critic Danyelle Freeman)—of collectively perpetrating Ruth Bourdain on the world. As for whether or not Sietsema would seek any royalties if falsely identified as the identity behind Ruth Bourdain in the book, he explained: that kind of thing just isn't his style.

"It’d be much easier to just step in front of a car."

For the time being, the identity of "Ruth" remains at-large.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

WHAT STARTED THIS

The profile, titled "The House That Hova Built"—released online September 6, and in print September 9—really started seeing pickup today for this particular line:

He gets a little agitated when the subject of Zuccotti Park comes up: "What's the thing on the wall, what are you fighting for?" He says he told Russell Simmons, the rap mogul, the same: "I'm not going to a park and picnic, I have no idea what to do, I don't know what the fight is about. What do we want, do you know?"

Jay-Z likes clarity: "I think all those things need to really declare themselves a bit more clearly. Because when you just say that 'the 1 percent is that,' that’s not true. Yeah, the 1 percent that's robbing people, and deceiving people, these fixed mortgages and all these things, and then taking their home away from them, that's criminal, that's bad. Not being an entrepreneur. This is free enterprise. This is what America is built on."

Jay-Z's certainly not the first person to criticize the Occupy movement for a perceived lack of direction, but he may be its most famous.

THE RESPONSE

One Occupier has since responded in kind by planning a protest (or "teach-in") outside of his upcoming concerts at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn:

On SEPTEMBER 28th we will arrive at his sold-out Barclays concert to lovingly show Jay-Z what we want and how he can help: by encouraging his fans to take action for social justice in their communities, schools, workplaces, and homes.

Join us September 28 at Barclays at 6pm for an Occupy Wall Street teach-in and musical performance. Let’s be a sincere answer to Jay’s question. In turn we will ask one of him, one Florence Reece wrote in the 1930s and still matters now, “Which Side Are You On?”

THE MIDDLEMAN

Meanwhile, Def Jam Records founder Russell Simmons—who was responsible for bringing Kanye West down to Zuccotti Park last year—published a blog post regarding Jay-Z's comments, in which he both defends the rapper and takes him to task for not knowing better:

Jay-Z's words matter. He was honest enough to say that he didn’t understand it. A lot of Americans don’t. He was also honest enough to recognize that there are some in the 1 percent who "deceiving" and "robbing," so I know in his heart he gets it. I know he is a compassionate person who cares about the poor, so I'm certain if I had two more minutes with him, I could change his mind.

PRECEDENT

Previously, Michael Skolnik—who is the editor-in-chief of Simmons's site, GlobalGrind—published a post about Jay-Z and Occupy Wall Street last November, when the rapper caused a ruckus by debuting a shirt after a Madison Square Garden concert that read "OCCUPY ALL STREETS."

The shirt, sold by Jay-Z's Roc-a-Wear apparel line, was controversial on its debut, as the company explained that it wouldn't be donating profits to the movement that ostensibly inspired the design. Back then, Skolnik and GlobalGrind decried any controversy over the shirt, noting the "factious [sic] media" who had, in his mind, drummed up controversy over nothing, and urged readers not to look too far into the shirt:

The corporate-controlled media is so thirsty for the blood of the celebrities that they try to find silly and frivolous things to separate great messengers from the people. The media, and I am not just talking about the right wing media, needs to give up on this divisive style of journalism and start to support the 99%. You can own your old-school corner of the media, but you cannot own our future. We are sick and tired of the media treating the Occupy Wall Street movement like it is some rag-tag group of hippies who are camped out in a park. This movement has grown so quickly and so widely that it has inspired heroes of ours, like Jay-Z, to spread the message for us.

It would appear, in retrospect, that Jay-Z was never too "up" on the message.

[Ed.: All of this goes without mentioning the fact, of course, that he's an investor in a basketball team playing at a stadium named for one of the largest financial institutions in the world, Barclays Bank.]

What happens now? Well ...

CONCLUSION

1. Occupy will have its musical protest outside the Jay-Z concert. They will likely not come up with anything as good as previous Jay-Z protesters, but here's hoping.

2. It will receive some degree of press coverage, but likely not too much (though more if the protesters are manhandled by security or cops).

3. Jay-Z will make a canny reference about the entire thing in a song.

4. Somewhere down the road, someone will have another opportunity to ask Jay-Z about this entire incident in a future magazine profile.

5. Repeat.

Further Reading:

Shocker: Jay-Z Officially Doesn't Care About OWS [ANIMAL New York]
Jay-Z Says He Didn't Understand Occupy, but That Didn't Stop Him From Profiting Off It With T-Shirts [Gawker]

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

I, Roger.

Fox News chief Roger Ailes is trying to get that paper. Elsewhere in News Corp, two locals go all Benedict Arnold on a certain tablet newspaper and a certain tabloid newspaper. What's it like to get an employee evaluation at Reuters? How's that whole Media-and-Race thing going? All that and more in your Thursday Evening Media Briefs.

Roger, Dodger: Fox News chief Roger Ailes is renegotiating his contract according to Fox News' least-favorite journalist, New York contributor Gabriel Sherman (who's working on a book about the network). Some things you probably didn't know:

1. Ailes' personal lawyer appears as a Fox News contributor. Synergy, now!
2. If he were to leave Fox News, Ailes possibly wants to buy the Cleveland Indians, thus fulfilling his destiny as the real-life basis for the villainous owner in the next Major League movie.

And onto the numbers we go (emphasis ours):

One source familiar with the talks speculated that, given Fox's record profits, Ailes could ask for a mega deal, worth more than $30 million per year. But another source close to Ailes explained that, for Ailes, signing a new deal is not only about the money. Ailes has to figure out what he wants to do next. But money is surely a consideration: Ailes is a guy who likes to keep score. And at News Corp., he's the third-highest-paid executive, behind Rupert Murdoch and COO Chase Carey. This week, it was announced Ailes made $21.1 million last year. With Fox News on track to earn $1 billion in profit, it's certain Ailes would want the biggest contract of his life.

Sherman makes an excellent point that—in light of News Corp's restructuring in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal—Fox News is a more crucial piece of the Fox pie now more than ever. Know this: Whatever Ailes' deal ends up being, it's likely going to say far more about how Rupert Murdoch intends leaving this planet than what Roger Ailes has done on it. Sherman's wonderfully juicy report is worth clicking over for the read. Do it. [Daily Intel]

The Murdoch-to-Mort Refugee Trail: Capital New York reports that the thoroughfare of employment between News Corp and the New York Daily News remains trafficked, as always. This week, it's the copy chief at The Daily—Jon Blackwell —who's off to the Daily News as a deputy managing editor for production. Apparently, he was with News Corp for over ten years, much of which was spent on the copy desk at the New York Post. Meanwhile, Don Kaplan—on the Metro desk at the Post, and previously their TV writer—is also off to the Daily News as their new TV writer. [Capital New York]

Media Employment and Race: The More Things Change, Pt. XXVIII. The Atlantic's Ta -Nehisi Coates pens a wonderful thinker on the diversity problem in the media business, which yes, absolutely still exists (to wit: look around you). As he put it:

Magazines have long had a diversity problem, and that diversity problem is inscribed in their DNA. You can add on to this the fact that the traditional way of breaking into magazines involve ways utterly inaccessible to most black people. The unpaid internship was long seen as a right of passage. Very few Americans can afford such a luxury, and fewer still African-Americans can afford it.

What's It Like To Be Probed/Evaluated For Your Worth at Reuters? Just let this marinate for a moment:

One correspondent was told that he doesn’t use enough pronouns in his writing when they couldn’t find anything else wrong with him.

The only thing less dignified than being taken out back and Old Yeller-ed because you're old is having someone come up with soft euphemisms, and past that, boldfaced lies about why they're doing it. [Jim Romenesko]  

The Boys, On The Wrong Bus. Today, in amusing corrections:

An earlier version of this story suggested an earlier report had mentioned a bus tour, which it did not.

[Buzzfeed]

The Boys On The Bender: Resident MSNBC delicate flower Chris Hayes needs sleep. At midnight. [@chrislhayes]

License to Jill: New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson —the first woman in the paper's history to have the job—made some Vanity Fair power list, which is great, except somehow she dropped a ranking and is less important than Jay-Z and Beyonce (who the Times uses in their ads). This reporter remains mystified at the fact that Graydon Carter once had something to do with Spy and also wide-eyed at his reverence towards celebrities, which—we've been here long enough, we shouldn't be surprised—we're slightly ashamed of. [Vanity Fair]

WaPo Wha-Wha? If you can explain what's happening in this Washington Post filing—or at the Washington Post, period—in three sentences or less, The Observer will send you a pastry* of your choosing. [Washington Post]

[*Pastry subject to avaliblity.]

- - -

That's it for tonight. Give us your shady, your sketchy, your salacious media gossip. Or tips on making a paper crane army with very little effort. We're still after that one.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

BuzzMedia Can't Bill Out: Remember BuzzMedia? They're the Mom-and-Pop Blog Devouring Machine that recently took over Spin. And a press release today announces their latest new and exciting addition to the team: Suri's Burn Book! How excited is everyone for this? 

BUZZMEDIA’s mission is to define digital culture. One way we do this is by publishing digital media brands that engage a loyal and devoted fan following with their authentic voice, compelling original content, and unsurpassed storytelling. There are a limited number of influential publishers, and that is very true for the entertainment categ—

We'd rather not let you finish, BuzzMedia CEO Tyler Goldman, because at the end of the day, you just purchased a Tumblr. Then again, it is a brand world. And the more brands you own, well, the more brands you own.

One thing they didn't announce in that press release: That their Vice Preisdent/GM of Music Bill Jensen—previously Village Voice Media's Director of New Media—is out at BuzzMedia after just eleven months (compared to a five-year-plus run at Village Voice Media). An email to the publicist who sent us the press release about their acquisition of Suri's Burn Book wasn't immediately returned, because it's probably not the response they expected, is why. Jensen was with BuzzMedia during an intense spree of acquisitions, including the aforementioned Spin, as well as a foursome of punk rock blogs and an electronic music blog. What could ever be so volatile in a company dedicated to swallowing smaller companies as a growth strategy that would result in the parting of a fairly credentialed new media guru after only eleven months? You tell us.

Beloved Music Writer Gets Important Job: And speaking of Village Voice Media, last week, we took note of Bullett writer Luke O’Neil's piece about reading something so terrible it made him want to quit writing about music. The piece he read was an LA Weekly blog post titled "The 20 Worst Hipster Bands," and yes, it did in fact read like a bad Facebook note written by an insecure Young Republican having a tough first semester away from his parents. That guy who wrote it? His name is Ben Westhoff, and get this: Village Voice Media has put him in charge of the company's music coverage, "particularly the blogs," according to an internal memo. But of course.

And the guy who put him in charge? VVM executive associate editor Andy Van De Voorde, who is basically the Isaiah Thomas to VVM chief Mike Lacey's James Dolan (which is to say: not naming him alongside Lacey in this piece titled "How Management Killed The Village Voice" is to deprive the man of some serious due credit). As for Bullett's Luke O'Neil, if he hasn't hung up his music writer shoes and already started life as an organic tomato farmer by now, well, this ought to do it.

MSNBC President Excited Network Can Live Up To Base Expectations: So MSNBC president Phil Griffin exclaims with glee to Michael Calderone about the network besting others on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention:

"I'm thrilled. You kidding me?" Griffin told The Huffington Post, shortly after getting the news. "You have to take a moment. For all of us in here, we're just taking a moment. Nobody thought we could do this. But to beat CNN and Fox on a big night like that? To beat ABC and CBS on a big night like that? That is friggin' fantastic.

Flash back to New York Times television critic Alessandra Stanley's astute review last week of MSNBC's news coverage, entitled "How MSNBC Became Fox's Evil Liberal Twin" in which she explains MSNBC's core product as a diametrically opposed but otherwise nearly identical version of Fox News. All of which goes to say: Why wouldn't you watch the DNC on MSNBC? They're obviously going to give it every second of airtime is does deserve, doesn't deserve, and then some. They're taking the nuance out of singularity. It may be a numbers victory for MSNBC—albeit a shortsighted one—but it's also a symbolic data-point for what it's taken to get there, and that's abandoning the pretense of news in favor of being an informational arms dealer for one of two factions. Thrilling. [Huuffington Post]

Today's Sole Piece of Semi-Uplifting News: News Corp bonuses got cut. So, schadenfreude out. [The Guardian]

- - -

Tips? Love notes? Easy instructions for the assembly of an army of paper cranes? Thoughts on how loving How I Met Your Mother makes you feel vaguely uncomfortable? Tumblrs for BuzzMedia to acquire? Send 'em here, and we'll try to talk someone out of something.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

With New York Observer alum Jim Windolf at the helm and featuring contributions from George Gurley and Mark Ames, Punch! put out three issues before announcing that it was going on hiatus on August 14. 

Jim Windolf (Right) at a Rufus Wainwright Performance at Rose Bar in 2010. (photo courtesy of Patrickmcmullan.com)

Now Punch! will be focusing entirely on its new app-developing platform, described by its company CEO as a "Blogger" for app makers, while putting its editorial plans on ice for the foreseeable future.

"Somewhere down the road, it became clear we had two businesses in our hands," David Bennahum, CEO of Punch! Media, told The Observer earlier this evening.  "We had potentially a media-business producing the Punch!  products, which you know, then we had the technology business giving other companies this very powerful tool that we developed ourselves."

The initial plan was to have the custom-app division fund the editorial content. After raising $2.25 million in seed funding from venture capital funds like Betaworks and Techstars, Punch! seemed poised to publish a year's worth of issues.

But after just three editions, the magazine is on "hiatus" and its editorial team, which included Brooke Siegel (formerly of Daily Candy), is no longer with the company. 

"We had to wind it all down," said Mr. Bennahum. "We couldn't do two things at the same time."

"As we kind of look at our options, knowing we really couldn't do both, it became clear that the technology business was just a very large and exciting opportunity relative to the original business," said Mr. Bennahum. "Doing the Punch! the magazine app well requires complete focus."

With the magazine scrapped (for now), Mr. Windolf said he is no longer with Punch! 

"If he [Mr. Bennahum] restarts the magazine, I'd like to do it, which might happen," he added. (Disclosure: Daniel Edward Rosen was commissioned by Mr. Windolf in June to write a story for Punch!).

The news came as a sudden and sad twist to a publication that just months ago was poised to reinvigorate the magazine medium with new interactive content. Videos like "32 and Pregnant" and "Tiny Pundits" (featuring The National Memo Editor-in-Chief Joe Conason and three precocious and pugnacious kids) were picked up by The Daily Mail, The Atlantic Wire and Politico and lauded as spot-on spoofs.

"We did some good things, got a lot of attention for the few issues I put out as editor," said Mr. Windolf. "I was especially happy with the videos made for Punch! by young director Chioke Nassor, a huge talent and great guy."

"Also nice magazine-style pieces by Mark Ames (on Romney's Mormon history) and George Gurley (on sad-sack character actor Fred Stoller) and a good essay on viral culture before the internet by Kliph Nesteroff ([who] writes for WFMU's Beware the Blog). So it was starting to come together, I think."

Mr. Windolf has spent the past month working on Fairchild Fashion Media's revival of M Magazine, edited by former Observer editor in chief (and Windolf muse) Peter Kaplan. M will be hitting newsstands on September 24.

"It looks incredible," said Mr. Windolf. "Kaplan put a lot of his tricks in there. It's beautiful; I hope it's a hit."

Speaking from the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Mr. Bennahum would not rule out a return of future issues of Punch! the magazine.

Despite rumors that Punch! had run out of money, Mr. Bennahum insisted that the company's financing is "secure."

"We don't have plans to announce another round of financing at this stage," he added.

drosen@observer.com 

Meet Margaret: The New York Times has a new ombudsperson who is not Arthur S. Brisbane, who was given the old "don't let the door hit you" on his way out. In his place?

Former Buffalo News editor Margaret Sullivan, who has already filed her first entry on her blog. The kicker:

Whatever the conclusions, whatever the effectiveness, of challenging facts, the idea that we have to debate the necessity of doing so strikes me as absurd.

What is the role of the media if not to press for some semblance of reality amid the smoke and mirrors?

Consider this her marking her territory, one that initially seems to stand in stark opposition to that of her predecessor, who once successfully trolled New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson after asking if it was the Times' job to report aggressively. Improvements: They happen. [Public Editor / NYT]

Cos-metic Changes: Cosmopolitan has a new editor, and it's former Marie Claire editor Joanna Coles. She got the job after Hearst brass David Carey was told by now-former Cosmo editor Kate White that after fourteen years in the position, she was ready to hang up her Twenty Heels That Will Make This The Best Fall Ever, or whathaveyou.

Lest you doubt Coles' credentials for what may be the most prominent editing spot in the Hearst empire,
(A) She's British and
(B) This:

Ms. Coles is a former reporter — who are not necessarily prized for their fashion sense — and has worked for both The Guardian and The Times of London. She reported for The Guardian here and then eventually went to work as an editor at New York magazine.

Meanwhile, Anne Fulenwider of Brides is moving into Joanna Coales' old spot at the top of Marie Claire (she used to work there as executive editor under Coales). This comes on the heels of another big turning-0ver of power in the fashion world—Sally Singer parting ways with T—if you so care to recall. Fashionista did; they put together a slideshow of recent turnovers in glossies. Must be something in the air. [Media Decoder, Fashionista]

People Don't Like Jobs: Politico's Dylan Byers brings us the sad story of campaign reporters who aren't fans of the 2012 campaign (the words "devastating joylessness" come into play, here). Which is to say nothing of how the general public feels about 2012 campaign coverage or how the candidates feel about the media, all of which goes to say: Nonshocker. [Politico]

Futility of Large-Scale Endeavor Questioned, Part II: The National Journal has finally published the long-awaited companion piece to all of those "Why Are So Many Journalists Covering The RNC?!" pieces, which is titled—what else?—"Why, Exactly, Are 15,000 Journalists in Charlotte?" Why, Exactly, indeed. [National Journal]

- - -

Are you a truth vigilante? Are you not a conspiracy theorist? Do you have something you think we might not delete more or less sight-unseen because doesn't concern about Ron Paul or hydrofracking as an alien conspiracy to probe our natural gasses? Basically: You have any media gossip? Give it to us now. Please.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

After all, editorial brass at the Times probably didn't expect their public editor to make headlines of his own on the way out, with an exit strategy that amounted to something just south of attempting to start a fire at the frying station while cashing his final paycheck.

Brisbane's final column was a veritable gut check from inside the house. Not only did the column contain a sucker-punch:

Across the paper’s many departments, though, so many share a kind of political and cultural progressivism — for lack of a better term — that this worldview virtually bleeds through the fabric of The Times.

But it's exactly the kind of sucker-punch that the Times absolutely must defend itself against, the kind that saw him feeding the bears, or rather, bearish ideas about the Times’s sacred commitment to objectivity: That insatiable view of the New York Times as the paper of the Liberal Elite.

In other words, he set the paper up to dignify the argument—which it did—and effectively started a conversation The New York Times does not want to have. And things—like TV critic Alessandra Stanley’s recent piece knocking MSNBC for simply offering "counterprogramming, not coverage" as the Liberal Bias version of Fox News—look different in its wake, even if they are more likely than not entirely unrelated.

Either way, they only have 11 more hours to go before Brisbane is done and new editor Margaret Sullivan begins. According to the Times, her term starts in "September 2012" and her first day in office is September 4, 2012.

But—even through Brisbane is still technically the public editor—anyone who clicks over to the public editor page today might think otherwise:

You'll note that Brisbane's name is on the page, but his face is gone a day early. Sullivan, who doesn't technically start until tomorrow, and who doesn't even show up for work until after the holiday weekend, has already been subbed in on the masthead. This has the odd appearance of decorators showing up into one's old apartment as things are still being boxed up, and having them start to hang family photos of the new resident, who hasn't even been given keys yet.

Can't imagine why.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

Karma's A Nice Person Sometimes: Recently let-go, widely-read, and widely-liked Village Voice staff writer (and, full disclosure, a former co-worker of this writer's) Camille Dodero was snapped up by Gawker as a writer there. The site's editor A.J. Daulerio on his estimable new hire, who starts September 24th:

"She's the tits."

Direct quote. [@AJDaulerio]

Drew-Hoo: New York Times multimedia editor Andrew DeVigal is leaving the paper for an "interactive studio" in Portland. Fence-jumper. [Tumblr]

From Reuters to Rock: Reuters senior media correspondent Yinka Adegoke is going to Billboard as Deputy Editor. [Billboard]

She Don't Want Your Life: Daily Beast columnist Michelle Goldberg apparently got into a pretty heated exchange with Varsity Blues actor Jon Voight.

Voight simmered for a moment and then said, “Take it easy there, shorty.” As Goldberg looked on in amazement, Voight sprang out of his low-slung chair. “Let’s just stand up, how tall are you?” he demanded, hovering over her a tad menacingly. 

She's basically Jonathan Moxon. As opposed to spending absurd amounts of money, starting fights at the RNC is not, in fact, the worst editorial strategy. [The Daily Beast]

Teach Me How To Shupak: NY1 "Rail and Road Report" morning celebrity and erstwhile Observer Media Power Bachelorette (Class of 2011) Jamie Shupak made a video with someone from the NY Daily News about How To Ride The Subway. Not sure she's actually an expert on this, per se, but if there's going to be one, it should be her. [YouTube]

Huffington Post Labs Exactly as Scary As It Sounds: While she might not be attaching giraffe parts to reporters for new blogging limbs, Arianna Huffington does have something called "Huffington Post Labs" where they're conducting crazy news experiments. The first one involves the most popular sentences on the Huffington Post, which is basically what news on the internet will be one day: A series of popular sentences. [TechCrunch]

A Rich Legacy: Is it a coincidence that Frank Rich got on Reddit not a day after Barack Obama did? Better yet, is there a better moment in that entire thread than when answered a question from a young woman in love with his son, Simon Rich, who wanted a "good word" put in for her? Rich's answer:

"Get in line."

My answer: Nope. [Romenesko]

Not Afraid To Be Servicey: One of the few genuinely nice organizations we'd love to see survive for future generations of Internet, or media, or multimedia, or whatever it is: StoryCorps now has a KickStarter page everyone should give money to. Alternately, everyone should go do a StoryCorps. [KickStarter]

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That's the end of the day, here. Tips, story ideas, Varsity Blues DVD easter eggs? We want to hear all of them. Tell us everything you know. | @weareyourfek