At least Swisher had the good taste to go after one of her News Corp. colleagues, too, calling MySpace chief (and former Facebook COO) Owen Van Natta a girly penman. On tour with Facebook PR chief Brandee Barker, Swisher also threw in some self-deprecation that doubled as disclosure: thanks to a spouse who works at Google, Swisher dines freely on the search giants vaunted food, making the All Things D editor especially well-positioned to judge Facebook's cafeteria food against the competition.

It also makes her ideally suited to poke fun at Facebook for trying to stay cool despite its move from downtown Palo Alto to a fuddy-duddy old HP office park in the suburbs.

Facebook ought to invite Swisher back for a proper lunch review, if only to clear the name of its poor chef.

Quick highlights reel above; full eight-minute tour below.

[All Things D via Business Insider]

Internet mogul Huffington might be difficult to work for, but she's a social charmer. Her performance at the Wall Street Journal's D tech conference was a good illustration of her endearingly saucy approach; asked whether Huffington Post would ever charge a subscription fee, as many newspapers are now contemplating, she said that only works for porn — and, increasingly, only for the fetish stuff.

WaPo publisher Katherine Weymouth clearly admired Huffington, not only for her charisma but also for the Huffington Post's success online. Given a chance to take a swipe at HuffPo, which is entering local markets like hers with $25 million in venture funding, Weymouth instead praised the "amazing" site and thanked Huffington for sending her traffic.

The two "Posts" are linked by more than just traffic: The Nicholas Graham who works as an associate news editor at HuffPo is related to former WaPo publisher Katherine Graham, we're told, making him part of the same family news dynasty as Weymouth.

Not that Weymouth needs a family connection to praise Huffington. Any media scion charged with growing the family newspaper business in the 21st Century would be foolish not to try and pick up some lessons from a publication that's spun huge traffic from free writers.

[video via Business Insider]

The cable network's Silicon Valley bureau chief has been something of a parrot for Apple's public relations flacks, but Bartz found him too antagonistic, at least after Goldman asked a lengthy, tortured question that implied Yahoo has contended itself with its rival's leftovers. See the top clip at left.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Missing were the flashes of humor that had the audience at the D tech conference eating out of Bartz's hand after she cursed Swisher. (All Things Digital has finally posted video of the f-bomb; it's included in the lower clip.)

Goldman didn't seem to take the anger personally; he later laughed that "to call [Bartz] the straight-talking CEO of Yahoo would be... an understatement." Hopefully, if only for their sake, Bartz's underlings are able to take her bluntness in the same good humor.

The headline "Carol Bartz, Live and Uncensored" topped video of the Yahoo CEO's comments on All Things D, the Journal tech website, extending interest in the f-bomb that began when on of its reporters reported the incident on Twitter. The accompanying article referenced Bartz's "much-anticipated f-bomb." Yet the curse had been mysteriously excised from the video.

The paper quickly heard from aggrieved bloggers (including this one, although we weren't too aggrieved — we've seen plenty of Bartz's cursing elsewhere) . All Things D writer Peter Kafka urged patience:

Several hours later, the logistical problem had not been resolved. But the Journal insists it will, and attached a note to its original video to that effect:

But the interest in the "fucking" clip (ahem!) only illustrated the power of Bartz's salty talk, which listeners tend to equate with forthrightness. Her comments, blunt words and all, seem to have gone over well at D and perhaps even turned the Yahoo chief into a full-fledged Valley character ("I'm sorry we're starting late — Carol Bartz just trashed my hotel room," Swisher would later joke).

We have to hand it to Bartz: Any executive who can stage-whisper "fuck you" to a WSJ reporter and come out on top is handling herself admirably.

The more spirited non f-bomb moments of the Bartz-Swisher exchange are excerpted in the video above. We'll update if and when f-bomb video becomes available.

Jill Sobule's dig at Glenn Beck was fun. And one can only marvel at the singer-songwiter's fortitude in conjuring a detailed fantasy date with Murdoch.

It turns out she was prodded into the tune, per her own account, by D co-host Kara Swisher. You have to hand it to Swisher and her D partner Walt Mossberg: This is certainly one of the more creative ways to re-secure your job in a recession.

[All Things D]

Twitter allows its users to mark some tweets they find particularly amusing, insightful, witty, informative, or whatever as "favorites." Rifling through the founders' favorites is a pretty good way to get a sense of what they think Twitter is good for: crude jokes and narcissistic status updates. The below tweets are culled from the Favorites lists of co-founders Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey. Dorsey is the one who faved the frat-boy-ish Calacanis item.

Ideally, from a business standpoint, Twitter executives would be highlighting innovative uses of the service — from hard news to customer support to more creative forms of tweeting — if only to help spread it to more users.

As Stone told the Wall Street Journal today, "we need to make Twitter the product more relevant to more people." Hopefully they'll highlight some ways to do that tonight at D. Because the founders are not always the best at doing so with their own tools.

Rule:

Don't recruit friends or family to promote or defend your work.

Tech editor Julia Angwin retweets fans of her new book, Stealing MySpace.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Rule:

Never misrepresent yourself using a false name when you're acting on behalf of your Dow Jones publication or service.

Gadget columnist Katie Boehret may use her ink-dot portrait, but she goes by the highly suspicious "kabster728" on Twitter.

Rule:

When soliciting information from readers and interview subjects you must identify yourself as a reporter for the Journal, Newswires or MarketWatch and be tonally neutral in your questions.

Let's hope writer Mary Pilon was being rhetorical. If not, she really botched this one!

Rule:

Base all comments posted in your role as a Dow Jones employee in the facts, drawing from and citing your reporting when appropriate. Sharing your personal opinions, as well as expressing partisan political views, whether on Dow Jones sites or on the larger Web, could open us to criticism that we have biases and could make a reporter ineligible to cover topics in the future for Dow Jones.

Amy Schatz reveals a career-killing bias against Uhura on Star Trek.

Rule:

Don't disparage the work of colleagues or competitors or aggressively promote your coverage.

Who's going to tell WSJ.com life and style editor Marisa Wong to ease back on spamming Twitter with headlines?

Rule:

Don't engage in any impolite dialogue with those who may challenge your work — no matter how rude or provocative they may seem.

Sharp-tongued AllThingsD mommyblogger Kara Swisher must have carved out an exemption in her contract on this one.

Rule:

Business and pleasure should not be mixed on services like Twitter.

WSJ.com Europe editor Neil McIntosh reveals entirely too much about his outside interests.

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet (at the Journal or otherwise)? Please email us your favorite tweets — or send us more Twitter usernames.

Timesman-in-chief Bill Keller shilled for the Gray Lady.

Mahalo funtrepreneur Jason Calacanis offered a metaphor for his career.

AllThingsD daddyblogger Peter Kafka experienced technical difficulties.

Rachel Nixon discovered there are media jobs to be had in Canada. (Let's all move north!)

Videoblogger talent rep George Ruiz blended in with the suits better than he thought.

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets — or send us more Twitter usernames.

The editor, Robert Thomson, has been brutal; amplifying the views of his boss Rupert Murdoch, the Journal chief Tuesday called aggregators of newspaper content like blogs and Google "parasites or tech tapeworms in the intestines of the internet" whose "cynicism... about so-called traditional media is only matched by their opportunism in exploiting the quality of traditional media."

The aggregators were making money off content "created by others" and "shamelessly" undermining the brands that originally created that content. Stealing, in short.

Within two days, the so-called parasites were themselves upset: Why was the Journal's AllThingsD technology website excerpting several paragraphs from their blog posts and posting it a Journal website without permission?

Not being the types to attend or obsess over newspaper conferences, they seemed unaware of Thomson's earlier comments. But judging by Andy Baio's roundup of reactions, they were as taken aback as Thomson, if a bit more genteel in responding:

• "What the hell is this," Delicious founder Joshua Schachter wrote after his story was copied onto Journal servers.
  
• "I sure wish they asked me first," wrote Metafilter creator Matt Haughley. "That's a hell of a lot of ads on my 'excerpt.'"
  
• "Deliberately confusing and deceptive," productivity publisher Merlin Mann told Baio.

(Baio has other responses, including two positive ones, at the link above.)

Kara Swisher, a former Journal reporter and coproducer of AllThingsD, responded quickly and sensibly. She trimmed some of the longer excerpts Baio showed her and explained she'd take down any content if asked. She indicated she'd add a disclaimer to make clearer the origin of the content.

Some might say AllThingsD.com still violates copyright law (it still takes several sentences, even several paragraphs); others would point out its practices are identical to what sites like the Huffington Post have been doing for some time; still others would say it's helping other sites by sending traffic.

But it's hard to argue with the observation that Swisher responded reasonably. And her critics, despite their initial shock, seem happy to reason back in all fairness and good faith. If only the Journal would do them the same courtesy when the shoe starts out on the other foot.

[Waxy.org via Daring Fireball]

New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones displayed a "fondness" for "air" "quotes."

Erstwhile checkout-aisle influence-peddler Bonnie Fuller was disappointed in Sarah Palin.

BusinessWeek's Spencer Ante cozied up to some Beatles.

TechCrunch editor Erick Schonfeld spatted with sharp-tongued AllThingsD mommyblogger Kara Swisher.

And Swisher responded in kind.

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets — or send us more Twitter usernames.

Ann Curry of the Today Show accused Matt Lauer of being on drugs.

New Yorker writer Susan Orlean had a drink.

Technology Review fauxmosexual-in-chief Jason Pontin kept up the appearance of working.

Gawker alumnus Alex Balk learned something new.

AllThingsD blogger Peter Kafka tried to keep the music industry afloat.

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets — or send us more Twitter usernames.

Xeni Jardin, Boing Boing's sci-fi-tastic blogueuse from another galaxy, cheated on Hollywood.

Jewnadian Web-video comedienne Heather Gold lost her hat.

Political Lunch videoblogger Rob Millis smelled.

Jeff Jarvis, the world's most annoying new-media pundit, faked it.

AllThingsD blogger Peter Kafka stuck Rupert Murdoch with a recession-what-recession bill.

Smith is replacing Google.org's current chief, Larry Brilliant, who's getting put out to pasture with some vague job involving "philanthropy evangelism." (In Hollywood, they give retiring executives producer deals; in Silicon Valley, they make you an "evangelist," a flowery marketing title which really means you get paid to give speeches at conferences and have lunch with people who also don't matter.) She'll now oversee do-gooding investments, like Google's push into renewable energy and disease tracking. That's on top of her day job wrangling deals with Google partners like MySpace (a relative success) and Facebook (an abject failure). She's close to founder Sergey Brin, a source of considerable soft power in the supposedly unhierarchical company.

Meanwhile, her spouse, Swisher, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, gets most of her power in the industry from running D, an annual tech-CEO conference she organizes with Walt Mossberg, the paper's powerful gadget reviewer. Mossberg gave Swisher away at the couple's first, unofficial wedding; the couple later got officially married before the passage of Proposition 8, California's gay-marriage ban.

Swisher has a lengthy disclaimer about the relationship on her AllThingsD tech blog, and the couple have wrapped up Smith's Google holdings in trusts so Swisher can reasonably claim she doesn't control them. People in the industry still look askance at the relationship, questioning how Swisher might have an ulterior motive when she's tough on Google competitors like Yahoo and Microsoft. As Smith's ambit grows, those questions will rise in volume.

But Swisher causes as much trouble at work for Smith as Smith causes for Swisher. The latter's savage reporting on the antitrust implications of Google selling ads on Yahoo helped derail an agreement between the companies, and almost got Google sued by the government. Smith's job makes things difficult for Swisher as a reporter; Swisher's reporting gets Smith's bosses in hot water with the feds. If these two are still together, it must be love.

(Photo by Lane Hartwell)

Despite the marriage, Swisher's disclosure statement still claims that Smith's wealth in Google shares is not Swishers' as well:

A substantial amount of her income from Google is in shares and options, some of which she has sold and some of which she still holds. Megan makes all her own decisions related to these shares and options, and I do not own or control any of them.

Swisher explains to me that Smith's Google shares are going solely to their kids through living trusts, an arrangement which predates their marriage.

But really, does it matter? I've always felt that Swisher's claim that she doesn't own or control Megan's shares was a bit of a fudge on the real situation; Swisher and Smith share a house and raise children together, and their lives and fortunes are thereby entwined. And their relationship, whatever its legal status, will continue to raise eyebrows as long as Swisher covers the industry. Marriage won't change that. Nor, as much as Google executives, Smith included, might wish otherwise, will it soften Swisher's savage coverage of the company.

(Photo by Lane Hartwell)

How to wear it: Soccer mom meets Castro lesbian, with a denim shirt and blue jeans. Oh, and a Pure Digital Flip camera.

How to scare them: Find a tech-company executive. Insist on interviewing them. Blurt out the most annoying questions you can think of. If they flinch, threaten to disinvite them from your exclusive Wall Street Journal tech conference.

CrispyGamer Must Be Running Out of Money

- If you’re not paying attention, it may seem as if the cratering economy ...
- CrispyGamer, a newish videogame site, has raised $8.25 million from J.P. Morgan’s Constellation Ventures.
- But CrispyGamer also says it has a staff of 20 people, including five full-time writers (what does everyone else do there?). That’s an awfully big staff to keep afloat on $2 CPMs–and it’s hard to imagine that CripsyGamers’s backers imagined that’s what they were getting into earlier this year.