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)

Alright, now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on to David Strathairn’s portrayal of Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, Good Luck.

It was no small task undertaking the role of the embodiment of all that is pure and right with journalism, but Strathairn did a fair job.

To be frank — and we understand this is perhaps blasphemous to some of you — but we felt the movie was a bit overrated. It relied to heavily on stock footage and pre-written scripts from old Murrow broadcasts.

In addition, the Murrow in this movie was stuck on one gear, almost robotic in his determination to take down McCarthy. Then again, perhaps that stone cold resolve was exactly what was needed to accomplish such a goal. We just feel it would’ve been nice to see Murrow with his guard down a few times, but five packs of lung darts a day will do that to a man.

In any case, Strathairn’s Murrow, though seemingly somewhat one-dimensional to us, still carried himself with such an air of bravado and purpose, that it makes one proud to follow in his legacy.

That’s why he’s our FJOTD for today. Good night, and good luck. Retraction: the day just started, so um… Good Morning!

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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

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!

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.

The way a society feels about its economy is a lot like the way your wife feels about her body. The reality of a given situation (a few extra pounds, a few wrinkles here or there) doesn’t matter as much as the feeling about the situation (“I feel beautiful, maybe I’ll put on the fancy underwear tonight”).

It’s our job as a husband to make sure that our wife’s consumer confidence never falls below a certain level. That’s because the second she stops feeling beautiful, the less likely she’ll be to take off her clothes and let us perform our husbandly duties. Thus, when she appears wearing a pair of pants that not only make her butt look big, but also bring up a solid philosophical question as to whether her butt might now be defined as a planetoid, you don’t dare say as much.

Planetoid? Interesting. We wonder if that would be the appropriate term to describe the 8,000-pound elephant sitting in his room as well.

Now, let’s put aside the questionable comparison (at best), and focus on the core of Mr. Black’s point.

The economy works in much the same way. The better society feels about it, the more they spend and invest, and the better we all wind up doing. Words like “recession” and “crisis” affect the economy the same way that “fat” and “wrinkly” affect your wife. When society hears them enough, they go into lockdown mode, which means no nookie for anyone.

Wait! There’s more!

Thus, if perception equals reality, doesn’t it make sense for loaded language to be kept out of the national discussion of the economy? The people who need to know these things are still going to be informed — brokers and bankers, fat cats and robber barons — while the rest of us can operate under the best kind of ignorance: blissful.

Well, if you put it that way …

To be frank, we’re not big fans of Mr. Black. We don’t appreciate his style of crazy-rants-that-intentionally-say-too-much-to-make-things-awkward type of humor that he relies so heavily on and that ultimately turns every post he writes into something about himself first and foremost.

Yet, we digress. In any case, his argument that if the media could ignore recession talks, consumers will essentially open up their legs (oops, did we say too much?) wallets more, thus saving the economy.

Silly media. If you didn’t talk about foreclosures jumping 57 percent, those people would still have their homes! Oil prices wouldn’t be over $112 a barrel, and the U.S. dollar would remain high!

So, if we don’t talk about newspapers dying, does that mean circulation is up?

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)

Whew that was a lot of surfing!

So back to Ms. Gallo. Maya wrote for the sassy Fashion-lifestyle magazine Blush (think Allure or Glamour). Kinda odd, seeing as how she was a feminist and all. During the pilot episode, Maya took a job with the magazine because she was fired from her original job and didn’t have anything else lined up. That, and well, her father was the owner. Nepotism! Gotta love it.

So why does Maya deserve to be our FJOTD? We’ll tell you why. Despite the fact that this faux-Stanford graduate worked a womens magazine owned by her father- she never lost sight of her ideals and always stood her ground. The best example of this was when she won a Femmy (The show’s answer to magazine awards) for a story she thought did not seem to have enough seriousness to it (it was about cleavage on the New York Subway) so she declined the award in her speech.

Three words: You go girl!

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?Ted Gup wrote an exceptionally poignant piece on why he thinks so, and we kind of agree. Who’s fault is it that the young are presented with news personalization services without anyone telling them the repercussions of using them? By using these services, they can potentially cut themselves off from the wider scope of things if the breadth of their news subscriptions aren’t large enough. So for example, instead of reading a print or online newspaper with a bevy of things to choose from, people are receiving stories that specifically have to do with say- Brad Pitt. Or The NCAA tournament. Now our question is, who’s the real winner here? People like Netflix or Nike that want to advertise to niche audiences?

I make it clear to my students that it is not only their right but their duty to arrive at their own conclusions… but I challenge their right to tune out the world, and I question any system or society that can produce such students and call them educated. I am concerned for the nation when a cohort of students so talented and bright is oblivious to all such matters. 

Our answer? Both. The user gets what they want, and the advertiser gets to speak to their audience. The difference is, the advertiser is doing their job. The user is ultimately duped because by selecting certain stories, they could be missing out on news that can enable them to participate in Democracy.After reading this article, in some strange way we kind of look at news personalization services and think that yikes, for some people, this isn’t a tool of convenience, it’s almost like a shroud! If you’re going to use them, make sure your reading is well-rounded! Ok? Cool. Glad we had this talk.

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)

So where were we… ah yes, Kermit. So the news bureau he works for is the Sesame Street News, and my oh my does he have an impressive reel. His beat? The fairy tales one, naturally. He’s covered stories like the rescuing of Rapunzel to Humpty Dumpty to even Hickory Dickory Dock.On scene, Kermit reports with the finesse of a seasoned news vet. He also wears a really neat trench coat and fedora which shows that he’s totally ready for anything to happen. We wonder if they’re water proof like his skin.

The great thing about Mr. Frog is that not only has he had a career in journalism, but he’s handy behind the scenes as well. He produced Muppets Tonight and was the stage manager of the Muppet Show. This is one well rounded frog, and that’s why he’s today’s FJOTD. Now for some music!

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)

You’ve probably heard this speech, or seen a parody of it one way or another, but let me ask you something. Doesn’t it seem just as relevant today as it was almost four decades ago?

What about this gem?

That, dear readers, is why Mr. Beale is today’s FJOTD.

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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)

Now, back to our fictional “journalists.” Now, we must admit, when the movie first came out, we were interested because of the “journalist” portion of the movie. Watching an enterprising and engaging young reporter cutting their teeth in the big world.

Unfortunately for Sachs (hehe), all she becomes is a glorified personal assistant. To us, she’s sort of the Luke Skywalker to Priestly’s Jedi-gone-astray Darth Vader. Don’t judge us, please.

Sachs, of course, chooses her morals over the glitz and glam of the fashion magazine lifestyle. (Oh no! Spoilers! Our apologies) Meanwhile, Priestly stays the same old dead-inside-but-at-least-I’m-still-on-top magazine chief.

In any case, the movie is more about generally following your own path and maintaining your own values/integrity, and that’s applicable in any field. It ended a little too cheesy for our tastes, but then again … Well, we’re just saying.

Also, it kind of bothered us that Sachs (Northwestern grad, supposedly impressive clips) felt like she had to slum it to get some journalism cred.

Random Tangent: Oh yeah, before we forget. A couple years ago, we wondered what the hell Anne Hathaway was doing with her career doing all these kiddish movies like Ella Enchanted and the Princess Diaries. Then out of nowhere she does Havoc and um… shows her Sachs. Then does it again (we hear) in Brokeback Mountain. Now? She’s a full-fledged bankable actress. I don’t know if anyone’s ever achieved the transition from child star to legitimately respected adult actress by showing her goods better and in a shorter timespan than Hathaway.

I guess our point is, like Hathaway, Sachs forged her own path, and that’s why she’s one of today’s FJOTD.

As for Priestly? She’s in because she’s got this:

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!

So you’re probably wondering, exactly what is the issue at hand? No, we’re not jealous of Perez Hilton (well, maybe a little jealous since he’s worth so flipping much), but really what our question is, where are the ethics here?Perez Hilton has huge readership numbers, and one kind of wonders if putting himself in the story (or industry that he covers, rather) is responsible of him. Then again, do bloggers even have ethics since their work is so opinion driven? We mean, bloggers are begging to get credentialed with journalists!Just in the nick of time for this post, there will actually be a panel today discussing blogger ethics. We’ll talk about the results of this panel when information becomes more available.As for now- what standards do you think bloggers should adhere to? If any at all? Let us know! We’d love to hear from you. Leave us a comment. Your responses just might end up on this here blog!Oh yeah– If you’re still wondering if the drama has settled in the least bit with Perez Hilton and John Mayer, here it is: John Mayer’s peeps (yes, peeps) are now denying this story, and Perez is saying that he would even take a lie detector test to prove that his story is true.