Who's dominating the discourse now, Jon Stewart? The "Daily Show" host may have pooh-poohed the relevance and influence of the print media, but Bono says magazines have an impact, specifically Time, and its managing editor Jim Kelly, both of which were mocked by Stewart at the now-infamous MPA event of late last month. Bono apparently singled Kelly out for on-stage praise at the U2 concert at MSG on Tuesday night, based on Kelly's decision to put the "Can Bono save the world?" story on the cover of Time three years ago, which Bono said vaulted him from just another agenda-celeb at the, er, kid's table to taking meetings with world leaders. Then he dedicated the song "40" to Kelly. Ha! Dominating the discourse is the new rich! [NYDN]
Did Vanity Fair lighten up Beyoncé? Radar's "Fresh Intelligence" is alleging that it did, claiming that a high-level source at the magazine confirmed that the star's skin was lightened digitally. Vanity Fair says that's ridiculous; Radar includes a strip of four magazines in which Beyoncé appears to be various shades, so who knows exactly what the story is. You would think that after the darkened-OJ-mugshot scandal at Time and the Martha-Stewart-body-double scandal at Newsweek that mags wouldn't be so stupid. Radar trusts its source; VF says no way; Beyonce isn't talking either way. How do we resolve this? Where is Kanye when you need him? [Radar]
How is Drudge still using those appalling graphics? Honestly, everyone else does redesign after redesign and he's still all about the huge old-school fonts and, when he's feeling really creative, that flashing police siren. Boggles the mind. Today he's really focused on putting the hard news first: the most prominent stories asks "Is it here?" about inflation (very Laurence Olivier in "Marathon Man"), "Poll: Americans are getting ruder," and "Freak: Man Accused of Punching Out Plane Window" and "Meet Five Toes, the Two-Tongued Cat!" It's true there is a photo of Karl Rove on the left with the headline "Rove faces fourth grand jury appearance." We'd have been inclined to meet Five Toes first though. In other news, Drudge has an ad in support of ol' Arnie for the California special election. Dude we are so not down with Prop 75 and 76, just so you know. [Drudge]
Avian flu found in Turkey. I'm sorry, I can't help giggling at that -- it's just that Turkey is also a bird, and it's the avian flu. Other than that, it's not funny at all. [NYT]
Also: it's still raining. And freezing. And gray and gloomy and depressing. Pathetic fallacy much? Can't speak for you guys, but it's raining inside my heart, too. After the jump, some rain songs to depress you, too.
Fishbowl's "I've Seen Fire And I've Seen Rain But Wow, Is This Ever A Lot Of Rain!" Mixtape
*Sung by some woman on the "Born on the Fourth of July" soundtrack because Bob Dylan's stuff is apparently not licensed for my little samples. Oh well.
Amanda Ernst
