Sure, the Village Voice may have just avoided a strike — but is it any match for celebrities on Twitter? CNN is reporting that the Voice is engaging in some serious Twitter warfare with Ashton Kutcher, likely to the delight of his more than seven million followers. It began with the Voice‘s derogatory article accusing Kutcher for getting facts about sex trafficking wrong with his (admittedly oddly conceived, but no doubt well-intentioned) “Real Men Don’t Buy Girls” campaign.

As we’ve covered in the past, there is an existing controversy over the fact that Village Voice Media generates a significant revenue from escort ads on its classified site Backpage. So if they call out anyone over sex trade concerns, in fairness they should be prepared for that all to come up. Which it did.

Kutcher fired off a number of tweets, including: “Hey @villagevoice speaking of data, maybe you can help me… How much $ did your ‘escorts’ in you classifieds on backpage make last year?” and “REAL MEN DON’T BUY GIRLS and REAL NEWS PUBLICATIONS DON’T SELL THEM.”

The Voice responded, “Wow, @aplusk having a Twitter meltdown! Hey Ashton, which part this story is inaccurate?… we’ll bite. Tell us the hard facts you have collected. We’ll fact-check for you.” Later, when it seemed like Kutcher wasn’t responding, the publication added: “Where’s your fight now, @aplusk? Did you sleep in, or are you just tuckered out from last night’s Twitter tirade?”

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New York Observer media reporter Kat Stoeffel reported that Village Voice Media was drawing a huge amount of revenue — by some estimations $2.1 million — from escort ads on its classifieds site Backpage.com, even when organizations like Craigslist had shut down their erotic services sections due to lawsuits regarding child prostitution and trafficking.

Let’s just say this story went over somewhat badly with Village Voice Media. Terribly, in fact. Executive editor Mike Lacey wrote a long, invective-filled response to the Observer today, sounding near apoplectic with rage. Every other sentence contained an insult for Stoeffel. It’s worth reading the whole thing, but here are some highlights:

Stoeffel is the overly powdered aunt that haunts family holidays. At dinner, she’s left her teeth in a glass of water on the bedside table. She’d like to chew your goose. But she’s left to gum your bird while forgetting the grandkid’s names.

Admittedly, we’re not entirely sure what he’s getting at there. But let’s continue:

Because she is neither competent nor engaging she should not be allowed to discuss religion or politics, let alone sex and journalism.

And that’s just how it begins!

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Sarah Ellison, former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, has a sprawling, in-depth look at Julian Assange and his relationship with The Guardian and other media entities in Vanity Fair, and it just went online. Naturally the Internet is buzzing with reviews of the piece, so instead of giving of our take (we could be bribed though – think king-size Snickers), below are a collection of views from places we like to read:

• Jack Shafer at Slate says that Assange comes across as a complicated egomaniac who has become increasingly difficult for the media to work with.
• Kat Stoeffel of The New York Observer grabs a few excerpts from Ellison, including one that disagrees with Shafer’s notion that Assange’s ploys were purely selfish in nature.
• Jack Mirkinson discusses how Assange almost sued The Guardian over at The Huffington Post.
• Nicholas Jackson of The Atlantic applauds Ellison for pointing out little known details.

After a report on Gawker fueled speculation that he left the New York Post following a heated exchange with editor-in-chief Col Allen, Gregg Birnbaum has found a new home as Politico’s senior editor.  Kat Stoeffel writes that Politico’s editor-in-chief John Harris distributed a memo yesterday that lauded Birnbaum’s talents and took a few shots at the Post.  Birnbaum will be based in New York and his work will cover breaking news.  Read on to see the complete version of Harris’s memo below.

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Add a new name to the revolving door at The New York Observer: Kat Stoeffel is rising from intern to online staff writer at the paper. Read managing editor Aaron Gell’s memo to staff, via Runnin’ Scared, after the jump.

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