To readers who don’t live in New York and may have missed the story, two Fire Department employees (one of whom happens to be the commissioner’s son) got some justifiably bad press for posting racist statements on their feeds. The first guy’s tweets included some slurs we’ve never even heard of as well as this infamous statement:

“I like jews about as much as hitler. #toofar? NOPE.”

Clever! The commish’s son later “chose to retire” from the force while the second offender got suspended without pay after being “outed” by the New York Post. Of course the NYPD would rather avoid the NYFD’s self-inflicted PR headache, so this week the organization released its first set of strict social media guidelines.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

An “inside source” says the extra-tight pants of Mad Men‘s upcoming sixth season, set in the late 60′s, have required AMC‘s design team to work a little Photoshop magic on promo images of Don Draper–but Hamm’s rep naturally doesn’t want to discuss this massive scandal.

The long and short of it: enough with the Dick (Whitman) jokes!

We have to say, though: We understand why Hamm’s flack is sick of reading this sort of easy click bait, but we also don’t really see how the star is getting shafted by the press. It’s all in good fun, right?

Apparently not: the very irritated rep told the Daily News that “It is ridiculous and not really funny at all. I’d appreciate you taking the high road and not resorting to something childish like this that’s been blogged about 1,000 times.”

Correction: make that 1,001.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Today we’re happy to bring you a guest post by Lindsay Goldwert, a senior program executive at a global tech PR firm. Before she leapt to the dark side, Lindsay worked at the

As a communications vet who’s worn both the “journalism” and “PR” hats, she provides us with a very unique take on the delicate dance that we call “media relations.” Enjoy!

I have a confession: until very recently I was a working journalist–and I was very cruel to PR people.

Who could blame me? Tasked with writing and producing “life & style” content for the New York Daily News’s bustling website, I could not be bothered with endless email pitches that had nothing to do with my beat. I got snippy when people called to ask me if I had received their e-mail, yet every time I cleared my inbox it managed to fill up again within the hour.

By mid-morning every day, I already had a slate of content to work on–most of it stories that bounced off the day’s news. Yet PR people still called me (always when I was on deadline) to ask whether I might have time for a desk-side client interview or a three-hour lunch event.

Didn’t they know that, as a digital reporter, I never left my desk? Soon, I didn’t just ignore emails from PR people — I deleted them en masse without reading them. Eventually, I got so frustrated with the ill-timed telephone calls that I just stopped picking up my phone altogether.

Sound familiar?

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Sure, it sounds a little ridiculous at first, but according to a letter Williams sent to the NYPD earlier this week, he’s already three quarters of the way toward his goal of raising $100,000 to fund the initiative.

Beyoncé, Jay-Z and the NYPD have yet to sign off on the proposal, but top cop Ray Kelly did tell the New York Daily News that “We want to get as many guns off the streets, and if this works, we’d like to support it.”

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Here’s the summary: in January President Obama nominated Chuck Hagel, a former Republican senator, for the Secretary of Defense position. Unfriendly media outlets soon began running stories about Hagel’s supposed ties to anti-Israel advocacy organizations, eventually dropping the ominous name “Friends of Hamas.”

Whatever Hagel’s politics may be, there is no such group–but that fact didn’t stop the story from spreading.

Today a reporter for the New York Daily News published a column identifying himself as the (unintentional) source of the smear. Dan Friedman called a source within the U.S. Senate two weeks ago to ask whether there might be any truth to rumors, floated by Hagel opponents, that accused him of making paid appearances before anti-Israel groups. Friedman jokingly suggested the names “Friends of Hamas” and “Junior League of Hezbollah.”

Things only went downhill from there.

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Photo courtesy of Getty Images

Last week we updated you on the juiciest available details regarding the David Petraeus scandal; most of these revelations involved a Tampa, Florida-based socialite named Jill Kelley, who seems to have played the role of third party spoiler in this twisted romantic tragedy.

As the controversy grows into every tabloid writer’s dream scoop and the media subjects Mrs. Kelley’s life to a far greater degree of scrutiny than she ever expected, a few interesting details have come to light.

There’s quite a bit to sort through: First of all, Mrs. Kelley has an identical sister named Natalie Khawam. The two enjoy participating in Florida politics, raising money for charitable causes…and racking up combined debts of approximately $7.6 million! Mrs. Kelley is currently “mired in lawsuits from a string of banks”, and Ms. Khawam declared bankruptcy earlier this year after engaging in a court battle over custody of her son and receiving character testimony from both General Petraeus and top Army General John Allen (who seems to have developed an amorous interest in her sister that included hundreds of not-so-discrete emails).

Another mini-scandal: Petraeus helped Kelley earn a gig as “honorary” consul to South Korea, but Kelley reportedly dropped the first part of her fake title when socializing—and this weekend the New York Daily News ran a story alleging that she tried to turn the unpaid position into a big-time score by enticing businessmen with her fictional connections to South Korea’s president.

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Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro received more than his usual share of media attention after using a launch event for his newest substance abuse prevention program to call Gaga a “slut” who is “influencing many, many children”–all because she was photographed mock-smoking a joint onstage at a concert in Amsterdam last week before joking, “For those of you wondering if I’m high right now, I am not.”

We’re a little concerned about Molinaro’s grasp of popular slang (or lack thereof). And we have a feeling his remarks weren’t a planned part of his new PR initiative.

Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President and mayoral candidate, saw an opportunity to worm his way into what we will call “Slut-gate”, leaping to Gaga’s defense by calling her “a social justice activist and a real leader for marriage equality in this country” in an interview with the New York Daily News.

She quickly returned the favor today by tweeting her thanks to Stringer—and her 30 million other followers. We’re not sure if this incident will improve Scott Stringer’s chances in the mayoral race, but we’re fairly certain that a lot more people know his name today than yesterday, and we say touché, sir!

Political PR is truly surreal, isn’t it?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

They appeared at a Publicity Club of New York event on Wednesday featuring New York Daily News’ website, Fox 5’s Good Day New York, HuffPost Women and BuzzFeed Shift. The panelists advised on pitching tips and faux pas to avoid.

Since New York is a market saturated with news and events, the local media outlets emphasized that the bar is high for what will capture the audience’s interest. As Lindsay Goldwert, editor at New York Daily News website’s Living section cautioned, their stories need to pass the “Get out!” or “Seriously?” test.

All five speakers also provided a snapshot of their media brands.

Good Day New York airs for 5.5 hours in the morning. “They’re all local segments, and they run the spectrum,” executive producer Jason Hartelius explained. So don’t send him invites to cover an event in Alaska, as recently happened. Instead, send pitches with catchy subject lines, such as “Hugh Laurie trades his stethoscope for a piano” as a heads-up that the actor is performing in concert in New Jersey.

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CNN en Español has launched CNNEspanol.com.

Also, CNN made their new morning plans official this week. TVNewser talked with Soledad O’Brien about what’s changed since the last time she was on morning TV.

Daily Beast TV launches. (Clip above, which is really a clip from The Daily Show, but OK.)

The Audit Bureau of Circulations released its list of top 25 U.S. daily newspapers for the six-months ending September 30. The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The New York Times top the list.

Fox News was tops in the ratings, with The O’Reilly Factor leading.

For more media moves and news, click through.

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