Wal-Mart’s very own paid Civil Rights Leader/apologist Andrew Young abruptly resigned from his position yesterday after giving an interview in which he said his employer was good for the urban working class. Which is basically what he was being paid to say, except for the extra bit he added about the folks who aren’t so good: MORE »

• New DC based reality show tries to drum up buzz from bloggers, who think it’s “a big giant pile of who gives a fucking shit.” [Rock Creek Rambler]

• Mayoral candidates also crash and burn in trying to court bloggers. [Metroblogging DC]
• There’s no better way to remember the king’s last day than downing an obscene amount of cocktails. [Washington Cube]
• At least for a weekend, DC won’t have the highest concentration of nerds on the planet. [Last Second Thoughts]

Guantanamo suicides update: MORE »

They just want attention. Don’t encourage them. (NYT) MORE »

* John Negroponte will get Bill Frist’s phone records when he pries them from his cold dead hands! [Rude Pundit] MORE »

There is, apparently, some sort of Bentonville County Fair going on at Wal-Mart HQ. They’re calling it “Media Eduction” or “Please Write Favorably Of Us For Once Day” (the first one sounds ominous enough, actually…). They’ve invited a couple bloggers to liveblog (sort of) the proceedings, and it sounds like quite a treat: MORE »

Panic! Blogs engage in unethical practices! New York Times reporters shocked — shocked — to find that publicists influence news coverage! MORE »

Remember the Big Ol’ Journalism Scandal we speculated on last week? We got it, naturally, about half right, and some of the details are already in the public record. It’s partially described by freelance columnist Cathy Seipp here and here. And here’s a dissenting opinion from a columnist accused of accepting the payola (on TownHall, so you just know he’s a reliable, responsible journalist). MORE »

Someone sends along a tidbit from today’s Hotline:

Political Consulting Firms Doing Their Part
We know of at least one political consultant firm pledging matching funds for Katrina donations from their employees. The firm asked to remain nameless; they only wanted us to point it out to see if other firms would follow suit.

We understand that the Karl Rove would do almost anything to burnish his boss’s image after today’s NYT editorial, but not giving a name is a real rookie mistake. Also? Giving a tip to the subscription Nazis at “Hotline” is one hell of a way getting the word out. Guess they rulled out the alternate strategy of putting a Post-It note up in the breakroom. MORE »