mediabistro.com: FishbowlNY

Media Minutiae: The "They Certainly Have A Degree in B.S" Edition

Harvard junior and Crimson managing editor Zachary Seward is suspended from school, then snares a co-byline in The Wall Street Journal thanks to his obsessive coverage of just-ousted Harvard president Lawrence Summers. Asked by New York magazine if it was all worth it, he replies "Isn't the media a big Ivy League reunion anyway?" (Oh yes, yes it is.) Somewhere, Rachel's fishterns are kicking themselves for buying her cheery sales pitch over the Journal's.
More Ivy shenanigans over at Gawker. Photos of Summers playing — what is that, squash? — with the author of the New York item mentioned above, editorial assistant Ben Mathis-Lilley, and scion Ben Wasserstein. In other news, young Yale alumni are shameless name-droppers. Anyone who went to state schools and have made it this far in the media business should, after reading these, give themselves a nice pat on the back. And then they should start saving up for their children.
Revenge Of The Sith, Episode II: A New Denial. After Friday's revelation that the SEC was now in the habit of subpoena-ing reporters (although it reserves the right to change its mind), this morning brings a statement from Chairman Christopher Cos admitting that neither he, "the General Counsel, the Office of Public Affairs, nor any Commissioner was apprised of or consulted in connection with a decision to take such an extraordinary step." Apparently, he didn't hear about it until he read of the subpoenas in The New York Times. "Reassuring, isn't it?" writes Gary Weiss. "Cox and -- well, it seems pretty much everyone else at the SEC, including the spokesman's office -- weren't aware of two journalists being subpoenaed until.... reading about it this weekend?" Christopher Byron notes in today's New York Post that "One source in the matter said that once news of the subpoenas hit last week, the SEC's D.C. headquarters went into something approaching "panic mode" as officials raced about to make sure that the finger of blame didn't fall upon them." But if Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne is somehow right about the Sith conspiracy, then the next episode will be (you guessed it) "The Empire Strikes Back."
"Mayor Parsons" has a nice ring to it. But only as long as we're treated to "Carl Icahn, Public Advocate."