FJOTD: Edward R. Murrow of Good Night, Good Luck

Wow, we’re heading into new territory. Exciting, no? This is our first Fictional Journalist of the Day that is based on an actual journalist! There will be more to come. Also, if we have to tell you who this is and who it’s supposed to be, you should be ashamed of yourself.

We’ll tell you anyway, after the jump of course. Now for the links!

- This has to be a joke. There’s no way this is their official blog. Are you kidding me? (America Airlines on friggin blogspot)

- More bloggers on blogger burnout. At what point do we start comparing bloggers to addicted gamers? (Boston Herald)

- Douchie financial “humor” blogger takes a stab at snarking journalists/Washington Post. Comments indicate results were less than desirable. Aside: what the hell happened to Dealbreaker? Did they jump the shark while we weren’t paying attention? (Dealbreaker)

- This was supposed to go on yesterday’s job posts, but here you go. Ever wanted to intern for free, from your own home? The Big Lead, a five-tool sports blog, may have something for you. (The Big Lead)

- Schadenfreude! Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez is having trouble finding a job. We sure didn’t see that coming. It would probably help if he could actually recall what he did at his last gig. (NY Times)

- Hopefully, we’ll be getting to these soon. (Britannica Blog)

Openings of the week

Welcome job seekers! 

This is the Openings of the Week post! For those who are visiting us for the first time, this is where we scour the Web for the most interesting jobs to bring to you. Today, I’ve got some really fun gigs, including ones having to do with fantasy sports and game console reviewing. Talk about a sweet job. Can you imagine?

“So, what do you do for a living?

“Oh, I play the Wii. And then I get to write about it!”

…Yeah, pretty cool. Pretty cool indeed.

Happy Job hunting!

LOS ANGELES: The Associated Press- Night Supervisor

DENVER: Rocky Mountain News- Online Opinion Editor

SAN FRANCISCO- CNET- Console Previews

CHICAGO: WGN-TV- Interactive News Producer

NEW YORK: Dow Jones & Company- Reporting/Editorial Assistant

MIAMI: CBS Interactive- Writer, Fantasy Content

Life just ain’t fair

Greedy rich fat cats got you down? If not, here’s a couple reasons why you should be mad.

And here’s why you should be mad at those greedy idiots who didn’t know what they were doing in the first place!

It just ain’t fair I tells ya. It ain’t fair.

Aside: The FJOTD should be on the way some time later today, we hope. We appreciate your patience. In the mean time, do something to fight the greed! They’re taking money right out of your wallets!

When less is more: Why sometimes it’s best to just stick to what you know

Here’s a perfect example of why not everyone needs a public forum. We were actually going to just put this in the FJOTD, but we decided this needed some extra space. So yesterday on AOL’s TVSquad, blogger Jay Black had an interesting idea on why the media should shut up about the struggling U.S. economy already.

His reasoning? Ignorance is bliss. To simplify, if you want to avoid a recession, all you have to do is just not talk about it.

FJOTD: Maya Gallo

Hello friends!

I apologize about the lateness of todays yesterday’s Fictional Journalist of the Day. Due to circumstances beyond my control (also known as work laziness and general procrastination) I wasn’t able to provide you with our FJOTD at the appropriate time. We cool? Ok great. (Insert hip handshake here.)

So today’s FJOTD is from the now defunct (but fully syndicated) Just Shoot Me. Who is it, you ask? This person is a a magazine writer with a lot of sass and a whole lot of ideas in their head. They’re also an avid supporter of the non-objectification of women and has a heightened interest in world issues. No, not David Spade! He was just an assistant. Today we are honoring Ms. Maya Gallo.

More on Maya later! First, the links:

- How Twitter can get you out of jail, kind of. (Mercury News)

- Ever wonder where top news editors think the future of journalism is heading? Here is your chance to find out. (Editors Weblog)

- Pirate Bay Blogging: Pure. Unadulterated, uncensored content. (Torrent Freak)

This takes cross posting to a new level. (PC World)

Greenwashing in journalism: The BBC and the publisher of Nashville Interiors have something in common: They’re both putting out eco-friendly products for consumption. Will this green twist resonate with readers? Only time will tell! One is an online magazine from the BBC that focuses on “eco-fabulous” clothing. As for that women’s magazine… it’s coming out in August. Let’s hope they’re printing it on recycled paper! (BBC, Biz Journals)

The (Selective) Information Age

Remember how cool it was when Google first came out with its customizable home page?

Google users were given the opportunity to dote over their home on the web — no, not their MySpace, their homepage. It was really cool how you could pick out things like “word of the day,” a fun flower pot that you could water, and the real draw… niche news feeds! But really, who would’ve thought that the “convenience” of picking news might be what is leading the minds of young people to the ground?

FJOTD: Kermit The Frog

Hi all! Today’s Fictional Journalist of the Day is our first one of the nonhuman sort. His name? Kermit the Frog! He’s had a wonderful, wonderful career with Sesame Street News and in our opinion, is probably one of the best frog reporters ever!

More on Kermit after the jump! First, our links:

Pulitzers are out! Washington Post grabs six, and the NY Times takes home two. (Pulitzer.org)

CBS is thinking of using CNN while reporting… is that lazy or economical? (NY Times)

Don’t pay to learn how to be an entrepreneurial journalist, it’s all online! (Be Successful News)

This whole covering the negatives thing during the presidential primaries is really getting the people at Baylor kind of down. Well, not really, but they are discussing it! (Baylor)

Sure, anyone can participate in citizen journalism. Teaching it on the classroom, however? That might be a little more tough. (MediaShift Idea Lab)

The Tupac-Diddy story we told you about from the LA times has been officially retracted… finally. (LA Times)

FJOTD: Howard Beale!

Hey! Long time no see! Now, you probably saw this one coming. Today’s Fictional Journalist of the Day is none other than Howard Beale of the iconic 1976 movie Network. Why? Because he’s mad as hell, and he’s not going to take it anymore! That, and he was “the first known instance of a man who was killed because he had lousy ratings.”

On that note, let’s look at the links!

- This is what happens when you go on hiatus for extended periods of time. Ugh. On the bright side, it looks like we’ll be hangin’ with Mr. Cooper now. (NY Daily News)

- Interesting behind the scenes look at The Smoking Gun. (NY Times)

- How does your salary stack up? (Parade)

- A little late now, we know. However, this is a pretty good read for a few reasons. First, we find out that one of the contributors at TheBigLead makes less than $40k. Second, the readers/commenters subsequently give him the bidniz for said annual income. Third, tax advice for gamblers! (The Big Lead)

- Celebrity incomes! (Parade via AOL)

- Another interesting read on Gawker’s payscale and blogger compensation strategy. It’s riveting stuff people! Trust us. (MediaShift via Romenesko)

- On a related note, the temptation to pander and hype stories is greater than ever. (NY Observer also via Romenesko)

- For you freelancing freelancers, some part time jobs with benefits might help. (AOL Jobs)

FJOTD: Two for One Special!

We’d like to apologize for going MIA yesterday. We’re just going to blame it on technical difficulties and move on from it. To make it up to you, we’re giving you not one, not one and a half, but TWO Fictional Journalists of the Day! Today!

For this selection, we have chosen Andy Sachs and Miranda Priestly of The Devil Wears Prada. Now, you could argue that they’re not really journalists, and the aptly named Sachs (inappropriate!) was just a typical pretentious college grad at best.

We’ll have more after after the jump. But first, the links:

- You might get put off by the headline, but they make a good point about comments. Newspapers are adding comment sections for their online articles, but then subsequently disregarding them. The point of the comment section is to drive discussion and provide readers with a forum to be heard. Otherwise, what’s the point? Leave us one, we’ll talk to you. (Online Journalism Review)

- Hm, remember how we had the post about the UK teenage tycoons? Here’s America’s answer! America! F**K YEAH! (Forbes)

- Money lessons for the couch potato. Bloggers, pay attention. (AOL Money & Finance)

- More perks of the job! Our favorite? Smug Reporter vs. the Roided Revenger. (Gawker)

- And the Webby goes to… (Webby Awards)

- Here’s a piece on men’s mag publisher Felix Dennis. We used to be BIG fans of Maxim back in the day. We stopped reading it when we realized we were paying to read ads disguised as content. (Times Online)

- The good news about the newspaper bloodletting? Fresh eyes, of course. Will this be looked back on as the Great Journalistic Purge of the 2000s? (Slate)

- Interesting idea, and a lot of great reads. We’ll be keeping tabs on this. (Britannica Blog)

Perez Hilton and John Mayer… really?

So supposedly, Perez Hilton and John Meyer hooked up! Is this some mean day after April Fools day joke?

Said Perez:

FYI: Mayer’s rep did NOT deny this. Cuz it’s true.
P.S. John’s a really good kisser!