Media News

Former Journo, Fake Fireman, Alleged Rapist Braunstein Gets 'Freaky' in Jail (NYP)
Creepy sex-fiend suspect Peter Braunstein — sent to Bellevue on a suicide watch after he plunged a knife into his neck — spends his days bullying fellow inmates, ogling female staff and fondling himself in public, says his former psych-ward roomie.

Trump's 'Apprentice' Losing its Magic (AdAge)
Donald Trump's The Apprentice is showing serious signs of exhaustion. Ratings and ad dollars are on the decline at the NBC/Mark Burnett franchise, and media buyers grumble that its heavy reliance on branded entertainment tie-ins threatens to turn the show into an infomercial.

One Man's Secret Is Another Man's Scoop (NYT)
J. Edgar Hoover once referred to Jack Anderson "and his ilk" as having minds that are "lower than the regurgitated filth of vultures," according to Anderson's memoir. The book makes for interesting reading at a time when freedom of the press and national security are matters of heated debate.

Harvard Author Faces Scrutiny (BoGlo)
A Harvard undergraduate who signed a book deal for reportedly $500,000 while still a freshman is facing allegations that portions of her newly-published first novel closely resemble parts of a coming-of-age novel published by a New Jersey writer in 2001. Kaavya Viswanathan's How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life contains more than a half-dozen passages in which the language closely echoes Sloppy Firsts, published by a division of Random House, including one 14-word sequence that appears in both books.

JPS Fights Back With Words (Baltimore Sun)
"Not only is [Jared Paul Stern] a foppish gossip columnist, now he looks like he's a bit dangerous. It's perfect," said cartoonist Tony Millionaire, a friend from their New York Press days. "I smell a book deal." Independent: It is unthinkable that such serious allegations could be made against British gossip columnists, writes Sholto Byrnes. They may, on occasion, be venal, drunken, lazy or inaccurate, but not crooked.

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