Jayson Blair could have laid low for a while, maybe let the whole row play itself out over his head, possibly come off looking like the wounded party; maybe even get some public sympathy.

But, no.....that would have been just too difficult, wouldn't it?

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Ari Fleischer said today he was going to step down in the summer. Good luck to him. He's done a pretty good job putting a human face on what has been at times a somewhat less than human administration. At least he's less of a grumpus than Marlin Fitzwater. Only a matter of time before the stories start circulating about what he knows that might be coming down the track for the Bushistas.

What the.....?

Recent events at the New York Times probably mean they won't be running that hideously annoying circulation TV spot anytime soon... you know the one where the smug yuppie couple talk about how, when their Sunday paper is delivered, “She goes straight for Arts & Leisure; I check out the magazine”....

The priceless payoff line, though, is when a really smug guy slowly removes his half-frame reading glasses and intones: "The New York Times...I know it will tell me things I won’t see or read anywhere else". tsk tsk...

As Salon said the other day, the one foreign word every journalist knows how to spell is schadenfreude, and there's certainly been enough of that going round in the aftermath of the Jayson Blair debacle.

Not knowing enough about how the 'Times' internal processes were able to break down so dramatically, and not being privy to whatever relationship there was between Blair, Howell Raines and Gerald Boyd; I really can't say whether I should feel sorry for the Times for having been played for suckers despite their genuine attempts to mentor and help this kid; or whether I think they got what they deserved.

I agree with Elmer Smith's take on it, in the Philly Daily News - that what Blair did should not, but inevitably will, be linked to his race.

What I don't need to hear right now, though, is any details of whatever monster book deal he's going to end up with. Please! My belief in human nature is fragile enough at the best of times...

And I'm not even going to dignify this guy with a second thought.

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Robert Samuelson in the Post seems to have it in for Lee Bollinger. He's far from the only one...

Satellite and cable channels have overtaken BBC1 and ITV1 in the ratings for the first time, according to the Indy, which also itself began charging for premium content on its site recently.

Meanwhile, indications are that the traffic bump the news web sites enjoyed as a result of the war was short-lived.