Gawker: valleywag, fox business

Walt Mossberg in a suit? Gotta be Photoshop

Paul Boutin — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:40:00 EDT

It's not just me. The sight of Walt Mossberg, the Big Guy of gadget journalism, in a tie and jacket for an ad promoting his appearance on the Fox Business cable network was such a surprise that even Walt's longtime colleague Kara Swisher blogged about it. Fox has been caught Photoshopping opposition journalists. Did they likewise suit up Mossberg in postproduction? Hope so. A suit is a suit, but a 'shop is a story. Memo to Fox: Computer experts are like Trace Adkins. "Work boots, one blue suit / Size too small, won't wear it at all / Unless somebody kicks or gets hitched / It don’t fit, and it makes me itch." Keep it real, Walt!

Twitter's real problem: explaining itself to clueless business reporters

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:00:00 EDT

You know Twitter cofounder Biz Stone didn't do a very good job explaining what he's created to Fox Business reporter Liz Claman when, after Stone was finished Claman asked, "So, it just pops up on your cell phone — does it make a sound when it pops up?" That fine moment, about 2 minutes and 40 seconds in, and whole lot of describing Twitter messages as "poetry," in the full interview, embedded below.

Fox Business asks: Will Facebook buy LinkedIn?

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:40:00 EDT

Want to see LinkedIn CEO Dan Nye flinch? Do what Fox Business correspondent Liz Claman did this morning and ask Nye if rival social network startup Facebook has expressed interest in acquiring the company. "It just seems like it would be a perfect for say, a Facebook, to join up, to link up with you guys," Claman advises Nye. Suddenly a happy little conversation on camera turned awkward. Did he flinch because Facebook had expressed interest? Or because, unlike Claman, he knew Facebook wasn't even sniffing around — an admission that would call into question LinkedIn's value right when Nye's gunning to take the company public? That moment, above, and the full interview — replete with Nye's nonanswers about acquisitions and IPOs — below.