Courtesy of Gawker, we bring you what will undoubtedly be the worst PR move of this or, arguably, any other week: a Minnesota chiropractor’s office sent out a press release implying that both the Aurora Dark Knight Rises tragedy AND the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 could have been prevented by…you guessed it, a trip to your friendly local back specialist.

According to the words of an unnamed PR genius writing under the headline “Don’t Let Anyone Go All Batman on YOUR Kids,” the perpetrators of these horrific crimes were almost certainly motivated by an inability to “feel pain, feel happiness, feel anything” stemming from screwed up or “WAY haywire!!” nervous systems that all lead back to “subluxated” spinal columns and other chiropractic discomforts. Like, duh.

If only those mass murderers had gone in for a glorified back massage. We have no words.

(In the most obvious follow-up ever, an apology was issued the next day.)

State Farm enlisted the talents of Spike Lee for a clip commemorating 9/11 and the nation’s firefighters. About 150 children went to four New York City firehouses to sing the Jay Z/Alicia Keys song “Empire State of Mind” as a thank you to the city’s bravest. You can purchase this version of the song from iTunes with proceeds benefiting the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Spike Lee does New York on film like no one else.

State Farm has a little blurb about the campaign on the bottom right of its homepage, but otherwise information about the program is available on the State Farm YouTube channel. The clip already has about 435,000 views.

Hurricane Irene Photo: NOAA

Hurricane Irene coverage is coming on as strong as the storm is. A state of emergency has now been declared in five states.

Jack Shafer and three other staff members have been laid off at Slate. Fellow journalists are not reacting favorably.

Jim Romenesko, Poynter’s popular media blogger, is going into “semi-retirement” starting January 2012. He’ll be launching his own site, JimRomenesko.com, and working part-time at Poynter. He’ll still be tweeting under his usual handles, and will continue with his other websites.

ABC News and plenty of other media outlets have announced their planned 9/11 coverage.

Bloomberg is acquiring BNA, a company that provides legal and regulatory research and analysis. The deal is worth $990 million and should close this year.

Thankfully, journalists held in the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli have been freed. CNN’s Matthew Chance offers a first-hand account.

More media moves after the jump.

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