Scandals

It's a classic technique: dump bad news late in the day on a Friday and hope the news media and the public mostly ignore it. Bonus points if it's a holiday weekend. Double bonus for a summer holiday weekend.

We kept one eye on Twitter all day on Friday, waiting for some crazy news to break. Who knew it would be about former VP candidate and Alaska governor Sarah Palin? In the afternoon, news started to trickle in. The first reports from a press conference in Alaska without a live transmission were that Palin would not run for a second term. Then it became clear that she would be resigning, at the end of the month, and her lieutenant governor will be taking over her role for the remainder of her term.

In the days that followed, talking heads and critics have attempted to make sense of the unexpected turn of events, but Palin's reasons for her resignation are still unclear. CNN's Anderson Cooper interviewed Palin's spokeperson Meg Stapleton on Friday but didn't get any closer to understanding the decision (see video above). Conservative pundits Karl Rove, Mike Huckabee, Chuck Grassley and George Will all appeared on Sunday morning talk shows questioning Palin's unprecedented move.

Some have (not surprisingly) managed to find the humor in the situation. Political analyst Andy Ostroy suggested a few other jobs for Palin including Alaska tour guide and personal shopper, while Berkman Center fellow David Weinberger listed the top 10 reasons she resigned. Number one? "Desperate bid to be mocked by Tina Fey one last time."

Expect more weighing in over the next few days as all the "media elite" start to return from their holiday weekend vacations. No rest for the weary!

If one thing could push Michael Jackson's death off the front pages of news Web sites around New York, it is the sentencing of Ponzi scheme perpetrator Bernard Madoff.

Earlier today, a federal judge sentenced Madoff to 150 years in prison -- the maximum sentence. Madoff's attorneys had requested a 12-year sentence, citing his age of 71 years. But the seemingly endless sentence handed down today speaks to the seriousness of Madoff's crimes, and there was reportedly applause in the courtroom when Judge Denny Chin announced his decision. Now, he will definitely be in jail for the rest of his life.

Prior to the handing down of his sentence, Madoff was confronted by a number of his victims, who spoke of their experiences after losing their life savings in the investor's scheme. Of course, the New York -- and international -- media was there to capture it. Here are some stories currently circulating the Web (and we'll bring you tomorrow's front pages as well, which are no doubt going to be Madoff-heavy).

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Virginia Quarterly Review blogger Waldo Jaquith made quite a stir with his discovery that portions of Wired editor Chris Anderson's new book "Free" were pulled from unattributed sources, namely Wikipedia. But we wondered, how did Jaquith happen upon Anderson's plagiarized sections?

We tracked down Jaquith -- as he was en route to a vacation in Virginia Beach -- and asked him how he made the connection between "Free" and Wikipedia.

For Jaquith, it all started with a parenthetical. During the passage from "Free" in which Anderson describes the saying "There's no such thing as a free lunch," Jaquith noticed that something was amiss. "It mentioned Crescent City and then, parenthetically, said New Orleans," he said. "At first, I was thrown off. I thought that maybe that before it was called New Orleans it was called Crescent City and I was mad at myself for not knowing that."

The reference needled at Jaquith so he did some research. His first stop: Wikipedia. To his surprise, the Wikipedia entry for New Orleans only mentioned Crescent City as a nickname. So he Googled the citation just as Anderson had written it in his book. That's how he found an entry for explaining free lunch on Wikipedia.

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Virginia Quarterly Review blogger Waldo Jaquith has dug up passages from Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson's new book, "Free," in which Anderson pulls chunks of text from Wikipedia entries, without attribution.

In addition to the allegations of plagiarism, it also seems like Anderson didn't fact check some of the info pulled from the Web, as Jaquith explains: "Transcription errors are present in most of the quotes and citations within this Wikipedia entry, a result of contributors making mistakes while entering information from nineteenth-century newspaper articles. Those errors have been reproduced verbatim in 'Free'."

Anderson has refuted given an explanation for the plagiarism, saying that the publishing of the book was rushed and the mistakes came about because of the elimination of footnotes. But that doesn't stop this whole situation from being incredibly ironic -- especially because "Free" is a book about how companies can make money from giving away some products for free.

As our colleagues at BayNewser pointed out:

"It's sort of like if Abbie Hoffman had claimed after the fact that he actually meant to suggest that people buy his book, but a last-minute publishing error led to some erroneous cover copy."

Related: Wired's Anderson: "The Free Vs. Paid Debate Is Misunderstood."

Also: Maureen Dowd Blames Plagiarism On A Friend

After proclaiming that the "Jon & Kate + 8" marriage scandal was single-handedly helping to bring a dying media back to life, we thought it only fitting to add our voice to the cacophony of opinions making noise after last night's "J&K" episode revealed the couple's plans to divorce.

While watching last night's very special one-hour episode, we couldn't help but agree with Kate Gosselin: the show and it's publicity did not cause this couple's problems. It may have sped up the process of a total break down in communication, but it also gave the family the means to survive. Maybe Jon wouldn't have had to quit his job if he had to support the family, but he probably would have grown to resent his wife for something else instead. And without the show, Jon certainly wouldn't have been able to afford those pretty diamond earrings he was wearing last night, not to mention the hair plugs and the exciting life he now leads. Do you think a 32-year-old, balding man with eight kids would be able to attract 20-something girlfriends without the allure of reality show fame?

Regardless of what the inner workings of Jon and Kate's relationship might be -- before or after the cameras began to capture their every move -- what's at stake is a brand and empire that they have spent the last few years building. It seems that neither one of them wants to let all that hard work go to waste, so both Jon and Kate said last night that filming of the show will continue, even as they try to figure out custody, alimony and all of those lovely things that come with the splitting of assets.

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Confession: We were one of the 9.8 million viewers who tuned in to watch the season premiere of "Jon & Kate + 8" on TLC Monday night. Although we have long found control freak Kate Gosselin and henpecked husband Jon a bit difficult to watch, the train wreck of a big family reality show has nevertheless kept us riveted for four seasons.

This week's viewership was up 4.4 million from last season's finale earlier this year. The jump is undoubtedly linked to the Jon and Kate scandal that has been splashed across tabloid magazines, television shows and Web sites for the past few weeks.

Not surprisingly, this scandal has meant big bucks for a tabloid media industry that has been searching for a golden goose since Angelina gave birth to her twins. Today, the New York Post's Keith Kelly jumped on the bandwagon by reporting that putting Jon and Kate on the cover of Us Weekly for the past six issues has helped the celebrity tabloid bump up newsstands sales dramatically.

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Two days after writing a blog post criticizing the practices of Singapore's
Judge Belinda Ang, Gopalan Nair, the Singapore Dissident, found himself arrested by the country's police force and held in solitary confinement for five days.

Nair, an American citizen who has a law practice in California, was planning to leave Singapore on June 3. He explains the back story and his time in prison in a subsequent post:

I was ordered to change into prison clothes and taken in handcuffs to a cell. From that moment I was kept in solitary confinement alone in a cell. The light was kept on 24 hours. There was no bed or even a mattress on the floor. I had to sleep on a hard floor. Although it can become cold there was no blanket. Unable to withstand the cold, I began shivering uncontrollably. I asked for a blanket from a passing guard. He provided it. This was on the 3rd or the 4th day of my confinement. Truly, it was not a blanket at all. It was a thin plastic sheet, which was not even long enough even to cover your feet. It did not keep you warm. But anything was better than shivering.

Nair says free speech and expression are at the heart of the matter:

It appears to me as well as anyone watching this case that what the Singapore authorities are trying to say is this. Do not criticize the Singapore judiciary no matter what. Even if the Singapore judiciary were to say, two and two is ten, the Moon is made of cheese and Christmas Day does not fall on December 25th, we have to keep our mouths shut and go about our business as if nothing happened!

Nair, who was charged with insulting a public servant and has been released on bail, denies sending emails to Ang.

Rupert Murdoch, apparently not content to destroy The Wall Street Journal and Newsday (and, in the process, The New York Times) has resorted to hiring hackers. From our friends at Reuters (via Mashable):

A computer hacker testified on Wednesday that a News Corp. unit hired him to develop pirating software, but denied using it to penetrate the security system of a rival satellite television service. Christopher Tarnovsky — who said his first payment was $20,000 in cash hidden in electronic devices mailed from Canada — testified in a corporate-spying lawsuit brought against News Corp's NDS Group by DISH Network Corp.

The plaintiffs claim Tarnovsky, one of the "two best hackers in the world," was tasked with hacking into DISH's satellite network and stealing code which would then allow the NDS Group to flood the market with knock-off smart cards. Had he succeeded, the estimated cost to DISH would have been $900 million.

Tarnovsky says he's been on the Harper Collins payroll for the past 10 years.

UPDATE: We called Erin Crum, director of corporate communications at Harper Collins, for comment. She was unaware of the story and said she call us back. After waiting 30 minutes, we called her back and she said she had no comment, citing the fact that "it's a News Corp. lawsuit." Calls to News Corp.'s PR have yet to be returned.

UPDATE: Teri Everett, senior vice president corporate affairs & communications, emails us the following statement:

Statement from NDS on Echostar Litigation

The Echostar litigation dates back to 2002 and involves allegations which NDS has vigorously denied. Our position remains the same. There is no validity to these allegations. A significant proportion of the claims have already been dismissed over the years.

The litigation process and associated discovery have only strengthened NDS' position that we had nothing to do with the Echostar piracy. The hacking of Echostar was the result of inferior technology arising from inadequate investment in research and development by Kudelski. NDS, on the other hand, invests heavily in research and development — at that time we reinvested over 30 percent of our revenues into R&D — and the result is that we have zero piracy and the platforms of our customers are completely secure.

We are confident our position will be upheld at trial.

Remember Jessica Cutler? You know, "Washingtonienne"?

The Senate aide-turned-sex blogger had her 15 minutes of fame a few years back when Wonkette discovered her story and outed her? Remember afterwards when Cutler and Ana Marie Cox were BFFs for two days? And then how Cutler released a book that sunk like a lead zepplin?

It looks like she's working as an escort these days. The New York Post discovered that Cutler is listed as an escort by NYC-based Wicked Models, operated by the Eliot Spitzer-linked Kristin "Billie" Davis.

Unfortunately, the Wicked Models site is borked right now, but that's Cutler's picture to the right. Here's her description:

Brooke is an All-American brunette with long dark hair and big green eyes. She has the benefits of an Ivy League education. With her good looks and background, she is a great companion for any gentleman. Rates start at $1,000 per hour, please call or email to schedule: 212-xxx-xxxx - xxx@hotmail.com

Incall available to select clients.

Google cache available here.

Darlene Rodriguez's police officer husband being accused of rape... We've covered it before.

It turns out that, yesterday, she accompanied husband David Rodriguez when he turned himself in on charges relating to raping a 17-year-old-girl.

The host of Today in New York told her fellow reporters, "I just want to say I know a lot of you and a lot of you know me. I'm here to support my husband [...] I believe in him. I love him. He's innocent 100 percent."

The 17-year-old girl he allegedly raped was also able to distinguish identifying features of his genitalia, including a shaved pubic area. Uhh, Darlene... he might not be "innocent 100 percent." Hate to tell ya, but it kind of sounds like he's not.

Also, for the sake of disclosure, the 17-year-old was living with a 35-year-old boyfriend who was rumored to be a drug dealer and who had just been arrested for assaulting her. One thing is for sure: There is more to this story than what has been reported.