Fun with reporters desperately seeking sources! Here's a HARO request from Fox News, looking for help for a story that could be big:

18)Summary: Allergic to Wi-Fi?
Name: Karlie Pouliot
Category: Health/Fitness
Email: [Redacted]
Title: Health Producer
Media Outlet: FOX NEWS
Specific Geographic Region: N
Region: New York City area
Deadline: 01:07am EASTERN - 31 July

Query:
Do you ever feel sick, dizzy and confused? You could be allergic to Wi-Fi! Were looking for patients who suffer from Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity and doctors who specialize in treating it.

Journalism in action, ladies and gentlemen.


Here, via Guest of a Guest, is a photo of Thrillist boss Ben Lerer at some Thrillist-sponsored beach party thing in the Hamptons last weekend. Yep.


This story about how Swiffer set up a "lounge" at some convention to attract blogger coverage is a good reminder that we're all just dancing monkeys for corporate America. Write your Twitter about your Swiffer Lounge experience, monkey. Dance.


Navy-besieged Miami Herald reporter Carol Rosenberg's peers speak up: "On a personal note, I had to laugh at Gordon's complaint about "Carol's attempts to bully other reporters and establish dominance" on the base. When I traveled to Gitmo in January for our story on the base's final days, Rosenberg helped me from start to finish with my reporting and asked nothing in return." Conversely, none of the Navy commander's peers have come forward yet to say he is not a crybaby.


The Washington Post has replaced sourpuss TV critic Tom Shales with Hank Stuever. But they're giving Shales a column in the Style section where he will "will illuminate, pontificate and eviscerate, on TV and other subjects" and generally continue being self-important. Michael Calderone has the full memo.

Portfolio media blogger Jeff Bercovici says:

In making his pitch, Kearney clearly violated section 3.iv of Huffpo's user agreement, which forbids bloggers to "post advertisements or solicitation of business." (While bloggers often use Huffpo to promote their books or personal blogs, there's usually at least some pretense that they're writing about a larger topic.)

But maybe Thrillist is a special case, since its co-founder, Ben Lerer, is the son of Huffpo chairman Ken Lerer? I emailed Huffpo editor Roy Sekoff and its head of PR to ask about this but have yet to receive an explanation.

It's not the first time Huffpo has served as a promotional platform for Thrillist. Back in June, Huffpo's Living section editor, Verena von Pfetten, blogged about going on an all-expenses-paid junket to Las Vegas courtesy of Thrillist and JetBlue. Her post failed to mention the Lerer family connection. Rachel Sklar, who covers media for Huffpo, also accepted the junket and wrote it up for Radar. And Thrillist and Huffpo are close in another sense as well: They share office space in Soho.

"There's no way Zuckerberg's out getting drunk with some hot chick," Lerer told my colleague Nicholas Carlson. "He's a nerd!" On that point, we all agree, though we'd like to defend the pulchritude of Zuckerberg's steady girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, whom he met at Harvard and who is, from the photos we've seen, fully hot.

Bottom line: We doubt the drunk-Zuck rumor, too. For one thing, where were his bodyguards? Here's a thought: Zuckerberg's only 23. He's having a tough time at work. Whether or not he did get drunk, he deserved to. Mark, next time you venture out, if ever, we're buying.

(Photo by liooneel)

An email list might seem too 1999 for geeks more apt to find a new nightspot via Yelp or Twitter. But even though most of Silicon Valley has written off email for good, delivering its content over the ubiquitous technology seems to work for Thrillist. As Lerer notes, because readers have to sign up for Thrillist, "advertisers value impressions we deliver much differently." By differently, he means more.

We like Lerer — so much so that we're going to help him move into the 21st century. Any number of services allow you to convert email subscriptions into RSS feeds. Valleywag has signed up for Thrillist SF at one such website, Mail2RSS.org. The feed is here.

(Photo by kyle simourd)