It’s not just the French writers who can be accused of demonstrating a chilling lack of sympathy to the accuser in the Dominique Struass-Kahn sexual assault case. New York Post, which we generally appreciate for its lovably outrageous reporting, can cross the line every now and then. Tom McGeveran at Capital New York looks at today’s headline: “HOTEL MAID IN HIV SHOCK”.

This is the gist of the story, summarized by McGeveran:

[I]t reveals that she was living in an apartment organized for her by the charity Harlem United, which places people with H.I.V. and AIDS in rent-assisted housing. The sum of the importance of this fact, which does not establish that the alleged victim is H.I.V.-positive, is the suggestion that the accused sex criminal “may have more to worry about than a possible prison sentence” because, “[according] to the federal Centers for Disease Control: ‘It is possible for either partner to become infected with HIV through performing or receiving oral sex.’” This, in the mind of the Post, qualifies as a “shock.”

This seems monstrous. As Alex Balk at The Awl writes: “I am filled with ineffable rage over the whole thing.” But McGeveran, more cynical than we are, warns us not to get too outraged just yet:

Perhaps worse is yet to come: They do not yet ask the police whether rubber gloves were used by officers attending to the alleged victim. There’s always tomorrow!

Two years ago today, Choire Sicha, David Cho and Alex Balk launched The Awl, and the eclectic website keeps getting better with each passing day. It’s a site that all of New York media has celebrated, and rightfully so.

If you’re one of the few who haven’t visited the site, do yourself a favor and check it out. Oh, and while you’re there, wish them a happy birthday. But don’t sing. We’ve heard your voice and though we think it’s beautiful, others might not recognize it right away.

If you build it, they will come. That mantra worked for Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams (because playing catch with the ghost of your dead dad isn’t weird at all) and it appears Eric Gillin, Director of Hearst Digital Media’s Men’s Network, is hoping that it works for Esquire.com as well. In an interview with Joe Pompeo at The Cutline, Gillin was frank about his goals for the site:

Bet on us producing more stories that grab people. We want to become the first thing that you check in on.

Gillin knows a thing or two about web presence. He was the former Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of The Black Table, a witty blog that ended in 2006, which featured early writing from people like Alex Balk of The Awl and New York magazine’s Will Leitch. Now overseeing Esquire.com, Gillin’s first step toward boosting readership was to bring on Foster Kamer, FishbowlNY’s biggest fan.

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Video: “Jon & Kate + 8″ is back on the air tonight after a short hiatus. Will you be watching?

AgencySpy: Gawker‘s sites have been having issues. Possible causes: server issues, heavy traffic or an attack, possibly from irate Scientologists. Just a theory.

BayNewser: Two of the three Americans detained in Iran Friday have Bay Area connections. Both Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd are journalists who have written for Sandy Close‘s New America Media.

Gawker: The Awl, the latest Web project by Gawker alums Choire Sicha and Alex Balk has logged one million visitors since its launch in April. Congrats!

Associated Press: The Associated Press Managing Editors Association awarded a public service award to The Seattle Times today, for its work uncovering hundreds of MRSA-related deaths that had never been revealed to families or the public. The Virgin Islands Daily News in St. Thomas and the Lexington Herald-Leader in Lexington, Ky. also received prizes in the lower circulation categories.

Mediaite: Five quick questions with media scion Luke Russert. Our favorite answer was his optimistic take on the future of journalism: “Whatever happens I just feel lucky to be in the business at the dawn of a new era.”

The Radar refugees are resurfacing. Aaron Gell signed on as editor-in-chief of Hemispheres. Choire Sicha, Alex Balk and David Cho launched TheAwl.com. And now Maer Roshan, the man at the top of the thrice-failed magazine, has a new full-time gig. Buried at the bottom of Keith Kelly‘s column today comes the news that Roshan will join TheWeek.com as editor.

The Week, brought to the United States by Felix Dennis after the magazine was a huge hit in England, saw its ad pages jump 42 percent in the first quarter of 2009 (or 19 percent, depending on your source). Given the struggles of other newsweeklies, Roshan looks to be in a good situation.

Earlier this week, Choire Sicha and Alex Balk launched TheAwl.com to mostly positive acclaim. Has the press’ lovefest led to strong traffic?

Sicha, for one, has no idea. “You know, I have actually *never looked* at our traffic,” he emailed FishbowlNY.com this morning. “I leave that in David Cho‘s capable hands; he’s our business guy, and that stuff is his problem. I am just trying to have a good time, and that itself is our stated goal.”

Given the site’s other stated goal of avoiding linkbait, we suspect traffic isn’t the most important metric but we asked Cho for his thoughts anyway:

Traffic may not be the most important metric, but it’s obviously one of the few base statistics that we have to gauge how people are responding to the site other than friends wishing us well and random strangers who that happen to email the notes@theawl line. That being said, two days of traffic is hardly a sample size from which we can draw any real judgments. Personally, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the numbers — especially the repeat traffic we’ve seen — through the first couple of days, but, again, it’s nothing we can hang our hat on or extrapolate from yet.

He added that the goals of the site are “to secure funding and then eventually create a lean and cash positive business,” and that “none of us want to make a site that we’re not proud of, so it’s all about figuring out a way to effectively monetize the audience that they’re building.”

The “if you build it, they will come,” business model, anyone?

Rumors that former Gawker-ers (and RadarOnline-ers) Alex Balk and Choire Sicha had some sort of secret project in the works have been flying around for a while now. Turns out the rumors were true. The Awl went live today.

What if there were a website that zippily surveyed a wealth of resonant, weird, important, frightening, amusing bits of news and ideas? And what if it weren’t totally clogged with reality show linkbait?

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Gawker is reporting (and FBNY has also heard separately from sources within) that Maer Roshan‘s multiply-launched magazine Radar is folding. The magazine, which pubbed at varying degrees of frequency, and was rumored to have been funded (at least in its later incarnations) by Ron Burkle, never really gave the impression that it was on solid ground. So in the current economic environment the news comes as no real suprise.

However! The Website (a completely different animal run by former Gawker Alex Balk) was, in our modest opinion, a must-read. And we not only will be sorry to see its demise but are amazed that the powers that be are shutting it down. The NYO is reporting “there might a business arrangement to keep the web site afloat and that it will be sold to AMI.” One can hope. Stay tuned.

Update: Hooray! (We think). Looks like the NYO had it right and AMI is indeed purchasing radaronline. Full press release after the jump. But wait! On second glance this part of the press release is quite worrisome for those of us who enjoy our Daily Intelligence just the way it is:

Chairman and CEO David Pecker said that David Perel, Executive Vice President of AMI News, will leave that position to become managing editor of RadarOnline. At AMI, Mr. Perel was responsible for breaking many of the biggest celebrity stories of the past two decades.

Also, the release makes it sound like they are interested in turning the site into some sort of online National Enquirer (also owned by AMI). One imagines if The Daily Beast has their wits about them they will quickly go on some sort of hiring spree.

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Stop the presses. Or moveable type. Or whatever. Radar has just informed us that Jezebel’s Moe Tkacik is staying put. Sort of. According to Radaronline.com executive editor Alex Balk, who posted the news just a few minutes ago, Gawker lord Nick Denton has managed to convince Moe to remain under his umbrella. He is apparently moving her over to Gawker’s flagship site, where she will be accorded “more creative freedom and fewer of the onerous tasks she is currently responsible for at Jezebel.” Says Balk:

I wish Moe only the best; this wouldn’t be so hard to take if she weren’t so talented, and I’m jealous of her soon-to-be co-workers at Gawker who will be the beneficiaries of her wisdom.

So yeah, Jezebel’s loss is now Radar‘s loss is Gawker’s gain. No word on whether Tkacik’s new found “creative freedom” at Gawker heralds some sort of new direction for the site or who Jezebel plans on tapping as a replacement, however we suspect current Jezebel “contributor” Megan Carpentier is probably a good guess.

Radar announced late last night that Jezebel stalwart Moe Tkacik is decamping to the website as of August 18. Tkacik’s departure will be a big loss for the Gawker Media run Jezebel; she’s roundly considered one of the stars of the site where she covers the politics beat and pens the daily feature Crappy Hour, among other things.

No word yet on what motivated the departure, though recently Tkacik has been on the receiving end of a lot of not-so-nice attention in the aftermath of an appearance on Lizz Winstead’s “Shoot the Messenger” show (backstory here). That said, Tkacik, a former WSJer, was one of Jezebel’s original hires when it launched in May 2007, and fourteen months is a lifetime in the career of the blogger. Meanwhile, Radar continues to be the place where everything good Gawker seems to end up. Former Gawker writer Alex Balk took over as executive online editor last fall, Choire Sicha has been guest-writing for the Fresh Intelligence blog for the last month or so, and former Wonkette, and current Swampland scribe Ana Marie Cox signed on as a contributing editor earlier this year.