One month ago, Jack Stuef, an editor of Wonkette, became notorious for writing a post where he mocked Sarah Palin‘s toddler son Trig. Wrote Stuef (among other things): “What’s he dreaming about? Nothing. He’s retarded.” Trig Palin has Down syndrome.

People were, rightfully, enraged, and not just conservative bloggers. It was a bipartisan sort of fury. First Stuef issued an apology. And Wonkette editor Ken Layne told David Weigel at Slate that he had placed Stuef on probation. But when nine advertisers began boycotting Wonkette, the website pulled the post.

We wonder if this was when Stuef began thinking of leaving Wonkette. In any event, last week he wrote a goodbye post, where he offered a sincere look at what it’s like to be a 22-year-old blogger who has to work every day in the space between provocative and offensive, and how sometimes one can slip up.

At times, especially when I’m tired and have to somehow hit eight posts when there’s no real news happening, I’ve broken some of my own. I don’t like to make easy jokes. But I have. Kind of often. A few times I’ve made fun of people who really didn’t deserve it, and when it was pointed out to me, I apologized. This sort of thing happens, even when you make a point of trying to stay true to yourself as much as you can, because you’re human. Overall, though, out of all the 1,642 posts and countless thousands of jokes I’ve written here, I can say I’m proud of most of them.

As bloggers, FishbowlNY can’t help but see where Stuef is coming from, even if we never condoned his Trig post. We wish him the best.

A big story broke on the Daily Caller today with a series of leaked Twitter direct messages from top Sarah Palin aide Rebecca Mansour mocking major political figures like Mitt Romney and even Palin’s own daughter Bristol Palin. Mansour sent private messages calling Romney’s fans “wacky as hell,” and said conservative blogger Erick Erickson of Red State was “a total douchebag.” She also said about Bristol: “She will hold her at arm’s length. Even Thatcher was never able to disown her screw up son Mark. It’s a Mom thing,”

But an intriguing part to this story is how the direct messages were leaked in the first place. Politico’s Ben Smith wrote that he has been waiting for this story to break for a few months, as somebody tried to sell him the same emails last fall.  “Does Politico pay for exclusives?  Cause I’m looking to sell. I have 122 direct messages from Sarah Palin staffer Rebecca Mansour,” the person “Toki de la Vega” emailed.

When Smith responded with a counter-offer of “lunch and ‘undying gratitude,’” he received this response:

“Sorry, Ben, but it’s going to take more than a happy meal and a hand shake to get me to betray someone’s confidence. Only freshly printed 100 dollar bills help me get over feelings of guilt,” wrote the emailer, who continued, “Would it violate some fake journalistic ethics and standards to get me in contact someone who does pay? I know that the thought of blogging about this is making your panties wet. The topics range from Chuck Hagel to Ricky Hollywood and everything else in between. It’s a f***ing blogger’s gold mine.”

Read more

Sarah Palin, who rocketed to fame after being unable to form a single coherent answer during an interview with Katie Couric, had a similar moment after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

At the MSNBC after party, NBC’s blog NBCU Direct asked several famous attendees the following question: “Who do you think is the most influential journalist today?”

This actually turned out to be an amazing question choice. Some had answers right off the top of their head: Eliot Spitzer confidently chose Brian Williams, based on his viewership, followed by Jon Stewart. SNL’s Bill Hader got credit for choosing a non-TV personality, The New Yorker‘s David Grann.  But others struggled to even come up with a name (or seemed reluctant to name someone other than themselves, like Bret Baier).

Sarah Palin, well, she was one of the people who struggled. When asked she responded, “Oh my goodness, that’s a great question!” with excessive brightness, before asking her husband Todd Palin what he thought.

Todd had nothing

Palin returned,  “Um, gosh, that’s a great question, I have to think about it, OK? Because there are many.”

At that moment she walked up to Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren, with whom she was attending the MSNBC party, and then turned back to the NBC cameras and shouted: “Greta Van Susteren!”

Video is below the jump.

Read more

According to Gabriel Sherman, Roger Ailes advised Sarah Palin not to comment on the tradgedy involving Gabrielle Giffords, and when she did anyway, espcially in her typical “take brain out of head, place brain on table, then speak” way, it angered Ailes:

Ailes was not pleased with her decision, which turned out to be a political debacle for Palin, especially her use of the historically loaded term “blood libel” to describe the actions of the media. ‘The Tucson thing was horrible,’ said a person familiar with Ailes’s thinking. ‘Before she responded, she was making herself look like a victim. She was winning. She went out and did the blood libel thing, and Roger is thinking, ‘Why did you call me for advice?’

If this is true, and Palin deliberately went against the advice of the man who not only pays her a hefty salary, but pulls major weight in the Republican party, FishbowlNY would like to welcome Ailes to our WTF Palin? Club, which was formed years ago. We have t-shirts. We’ll send you one.

• Mediabistro: An interview with Brandon Holley of Lucky magazine. Hope she didn’t mind us poking fun at that Lucky Kids thing.
• TVNewser: Julianne Moore is going to play Sarah Palin in an upcoming HBO adaptation of the book Game Change. If Jeff Bridges plays Todd Palin count us in.
• SportsNewser: Mel Kiper compares Cam Newton to Akili Smith, thus ruining Newton’s day, but making Smith’s.

— DIANE CLEHANE

There were plenty of movers, shakers and deal makers at Michael’s today to keep things interesting, but a little birdie told me the media A-list was also out in force yesterday. So, as a public service to Lunch’s faithful readers, here’s who was there on Tuesday: Matt Lauer with Jack Welch, Page Six’s new editor Emily Smith and publicist Peggy Siegal presiding over one of her legendary lunches with Ed Zwick, Jean Doumanian, Meryl Poster, Jonathan Alter, Jodi Applegate and Lori Singer (Yes, the one from Footloose!).

With that bit of news out of the way, I can tell you that I was intrigued by all the networking I saw today. It was a little more overt than usual — and that’s saying something. However, some folks, like my Greenwich neighbor Kathie Lee Gifford (looking better than ever, by the way), just come to this quiet little spot to relax with friends. I asked Kathie what she thought of co-host Hoda Kotb‘s new book, Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair and Kathie Lee, and she told me, “I’m so happy for her! She has been working so hard. Tonight she finds out if she made it on to the Times‘ best seller list, and these days that takes a lot.” We wouldn’t bet against her.

But not all the action was happening in the dining room. We spotted Patti Stanger of Bravo’s Millionaire Matchmaker pacing outside of Michael’s front window, screaming into her cellphone, stomping her feet and dropping f-bombs like there was no tomorrow. I have no idea who was on the receiving end of the ear-splitting call, but I can tell you it wasn’t exactly a love connection.

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. Lord and Lady Rothschild in from across the pond. Tally ho!

2.  Joan Jakobson, Pamela Fiori and Thomas P. Farley, a young curly haired gent we initially didn’t recognize but now know as the host of the web TV show New York Insider. (Nice to meet you, Thomas!)

3. Kathie Lee Gifford, sipping a white wine spritzer with Patricia Kluge and two well-heeled gal pals.

4. Stephen Swid

Read more

Last evening, Forbes released their annual ranking of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women on their official website, Forbes.com.  The list included 18 media and publishing personalities and made it clear that the women controlling the industry have no shortage of creativity, wealth, and executive power.  Take a look at the major players that Forbes recognized this year:

Oprah Winfrey, talk show host and media mogul, #3
Arianna Huffington, editor and co-Founder, Huffington Post, #28
Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief, Vogue, #56
Tina Brown, The Daily Beast, #34
Cathleen Black, chair, Hearst Magazines, #67
Janet Robinson, CEO, The New York Times, #85
Nikki Finke, founder, Deadline Hollywood Daily, #79
Suze Orman, author, CNBC host, #61
Rachael Ray, talk show host and author, #78
Meredith Viera, co-anchor, The Today Show, #40
Ellen DeGeneres, talk show host,  #10
Christiane Amanpour, news anchor, ABC’s This Week, #73
Anne Sweeney, co-chair, Disney Media Networks; President,Disney/ABC TV Group #69
Katie Couric, anchor, CBS Evening News, #22
Diane Sawyer, news anchor, ABC’s World News, #46
Sarah Palin, television commentator, Fox News, #16
Rachel Maddow,  anchor, The Rachel Maddow Show, #50
Martha Stewart, talk show host, author, #99

The full list can be viewed in the Forbes October 25 issue, on newsstands today. 

— DIANE CLEHANE

If we’d come by on Monday, we would have run into Tyra Banks at breakfast and Harold Ford, Jr. at lunch. Oh, well. Michael’s was still brimming with plenty of the usual suspects today, and more than a few did a double take when Tim Gunn arrived with legendary editor Grace Mirabella on his arm.

When Project Runway‘s unflappable designer mentor sat down with the former Vogue editor, I wasn’t surprised to overhear their conversation turn immediately to fashion. Tim was all ears when asking Ms. Mirabella (whose namesake magazine remains one of my all-time favorites) about her thoughts on age-appropriate looks for everything from jeans to evening wear. Gathering intelligence for all those fledgling fashionistas, no doubt.

Here’s the rundown on today’s crowd:

1. Jack Myers of Jack Myers Media Advisory Group, presiding over a table of social media gurus: Huffington Post’s CEO Eric Hippeau, president Greg Coleman and senior vice president Phil Cara with Stephen Cannon of Mercedes Benz, Virgin Mobile’s Stacy Schwartz and Tom Cuniff of Combe Inc.

2. Peter Brown and John Reid

3. Producer John Hart (long time, no see!) with another distinguished looking white-haired gent

4. My good friend and publicist extraordinaire Catherine Saxton and Richard Smullen, co-founder and CEO of AdGenesis, beezag, and koppr. Catherine tells me she’s jetting off in a few days to Marabella to visit with “some Khashoggis.” Send us a postcard!

Read more

Watch CBS News Videos Online

• TVNewser: Everyone on TV is still making fun of Sarah Palin writing on her hand. Especially Robert Gibbs.

• The New York Times: Tonight marks Jay Leno‘s departure from prime-time.

• FishbowlDC: Esquire lit into Bill Kristol…but were they serious or just taking the piss?

• The Boston Phoenix: Want to know why you’ve never heard of The Boston Phoenix? Because The New York Times keeps poaching all their talent.

• TheWrap: Google unleashed new social network Buzz today, disses Yahoo.

• Here’s your Sarah Palin highlight reel, addressing the Tea Party convention, with a bunch of stuff written on her hand.

• WTOP.COM: Nicolas B. Tatro named Deputy International News Editor of Associated Press

• AdAge: Only Professor Moneybags can afford to support the news industry.

• Mediaite: Megan McCain knows exactly what is wrong with Sarah Palin, as do the rest of us.