No one ever accused pollsters of asking the right questions. A new Associated Press-Ipsos poll is a case in point.

Sizing up the media’s shortcomings is a fuzzy sport. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone came up with a meter you could point at a passing story to get a readout on the velocity and direction of its bias?

Seth Mnookin discusses his recent Vanity Fair article about Judith Miller and the New York Times.

Dan Froomkin’s “White House Briefing” column on WashingtonPost.com has the staff of the paper – and bloggers – in a tizzy.

Robert Novak says people should “bug the president” to reveal who leaked Valerie Plame’s name to Novak, and bloggers happily comply.

Condoleezza Rice goes abroad, political magazines debate torture and Ken Auletta subjects the publisher of the New York Times to an interrogation of his own.

Blogs bash the New York Times for having the effrontery to accuse them of being skillful and effective.

George Gurley sits down in a diner on 9th Avenue to eat a late lunch. By the time his burger arrives, the sun has long ago set, and somewhere across town his girlfriend Hilly is just getting off from work. Gurley thinks there might be trouble ahead.

‘Tis the season for stories about how Christmas is purportedly under attack from politically correct liberal heathens.

The French philosopher Roland Barthes once proclaimed that in the United States “sex is everywhere, except in sexuality.” Recently, the philosophers at USA Today took a stab at supporting Barthes’ theory, uncovering indisputable evidence that sex can be found in unlikely places including … electronic gadgetry.