You may have noticed that an economic recession, plummeting ad sales, and the whole Internet thing has made media the new Wall Street. But it’s difficult keeping track of which media outlets are dead, which are ailing, and which are merely being frugal. Thus, we shall round up the casualties daily until — well, until there's nothing left, or no one left to do it. Today’s list of the departed and departing is after the jump.

New York Times opinion columnist William Kristol is not unaware that the Internet is speculating about his future at the paper. But he says he's had "zero issues" with the editorial staff of the Gray Lady. "Despite all the dramatics in the blogosphere it's been a very undramatic experience for me," he said at an Independent Film Channel panel this morning, according to the Observer. "You gotta talk to [the Times] about that. It's been a lot of work and I'm kinda stretched a little thin. I'll see."

Kristol was asked about Elisabeth Bumiller's story (in his own paper) on the McCain campaign, in which she seemed to out one of his own sources. "It was a little weird," he said, assuring listeners that reporters don't coordinate with the editorial board, and that he cooperated with her as he would any journalist. Thankfully, the election aftermath has held one nice treat for Kristol: He got to see Sarah Palin again. "I met her for the second time in my life," he said, attacking the notion that he was somehow her best friend and shill during the campaign. "I barely know her!" Oh, Bill. It's the admirers from afar who are the most crazy — everybody knows that.

Times Columnist William Kristol Is 'Not Such a Fan of the Mainstream Media'; Says of Sarah Palin 'I Barely Know Her' [NYO]
Earlier: Attacks Heighten on Sarah Palin From Inside McCain Campaign
William Kristol Eyeing Role As Palin PNAC Puppetmaster?

Washington lawyer Eric Holder will be picked as Barack Obama's attorney general, Newsweek reports. Holder was a deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration and is a partner at the elite firm Covington & Burling. He also headed up Obama's vice-presidential selection team with Caroline Kennedy, but the best part is, he's a New Yorker, born and raised! He went to Columbia for his undergraduate and law degrees. Oh, and he's black, which would make him Obama's first second African-American appointee and the first ever black attorney general of the United States. According to Newsweek, Holder was hesitant about the position because he worried that his confirmation hearing would revive controversy over his role in the Clinton pardoning of financier Marc Rich. That Bill Clinton, always causing problems for the Obama administration! But according to the magazine, Obama has offered Holder the position and he's accepted it.

FYI, that picture is from 2001, but he totally still has the 'stache. Rock on!

Obama's Attorney General [Newsweek]

It took five years of nudging, but preservationists finally got their wish today when the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to landmark Silver Towers, three IM Pei–designed, sixties-era residential buildings near NYU, and the massive Picasso sculpture that fronts them. The ruling likely puts the kibosh on the university's plans to build a 40-foot tower in the green space adjacent to Silver Towers, says Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which has been lobbying for designation for years. In an interview this morning, Berman said the ruling wouldn't "provide absolute protection of the green space, but it makes it pretty clear [it's] integral and should not be messed with." He added that the Morton Williams site nearby was not included, however, which means it could still be vulnerable for development, and GVSHP will be "watching closely." NYU, consider yourself warned.

Earlier: NYU’s Pei-Designed Silver Towers Probably to Get Landmark Status Today

When Ed Westwick appeared in ads for K-Swiss shoes making ridiculous kissy faces, we had to wonder if his castmates gave him any shit for it. So when we saw Penn Badgley last night at Skylight Studios for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards, we asked what he thought about Ed pouting it out for sneakers.

"You mean like [puckers] that?"

Yes, that's exactly what we mean, we told him, while staring longingly at his lips.

"Yes, I suppose he's known to do that."

Would he ever do a similar promotion?

"Yes. The only thing I wouldn't do is a car."

Why not?

"I could go on a whole philosophical rant, but I just don't agree with cars," he said. OMG that is so Dan of him! we squealed inside our head, but asked out loud how it was that he didn't "agree" with a car.

"No, no, no. That sounds ridiculous. I just wouldn't want to encourage anything that isn't a hybrid, and at the same time, I wouldn't want to encourage the production of more cars. It's just, you know, being ecologically conscious." So. Dan. We were swooning. Then, suddenly, one of Anna Wintour's Vogue magazine minions swept over.

Play, the New York Times quarterly sports magazine, died yesterday at the age of two. It is survived by its freelance editor, Mark Bryant, who is looking for a job; editor Bill Brink, who will be reassigned within the paper; and a host of freelancers. Play was born in Logan airport in 2006 to New York Times Magazine editor Gerry Mazaroti, who was waiting for a delayed flight, as one often is at Logan. Like the athletes it covered, Play led an active life, with marquee writers like David Foster Wallace and Michael Lewis regularly crowding into its salon. But, all along, it was quietly engaged in a long battle with solvency, which was compounded by the recent economy. Despite a massive Olympics ad buy from Nielsen last year, the magazine, having lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, finally succumbed to its illness. "There were no numbers that we could turn to to make it viable," Mr. Mazaroti told the Observer. "Frankly, it breaks my heart."

Times' Gerry Marzorati on Play: No Options to 'Make it Viable' [NYO]

Quite possibly. The Post reports today that Marbury, Donnie Walsh, and a rep for the Player’s Association will resume buyout talks as early as tomorrow, and could have a formal proposal by the end of the week. The sticking point all along has been Marbury’s refusal to accept anything less than the $21.9 million he’s currently owed, but he’s apparently not concerned with trying to total more than his current salary, which seems like a pretty reasonable compromise. The Knicks, for their part, stand to save at least $300,000 automatically if Marbury signs elsewhere.

At last night's Tisch on Stage gala at the Time Warner Center, 30 Rock actor Alec Baldwin made a very brief stop on the red carpet and hurried away, but not before we leaped over the velvet rope, ran across the room, and cornered him. Sort of like how Jennifer Aniston, who played Liz Lemon's "Crazy Putty" friend, pursued Jack a few weeks ago on the show! Once we had Baldwin backed up against the wall, we asked what it was like to make out with Aniston, obviously. "It was painful," Baldwin sighed. "I mean, every man who's had to make out with her in TV and movies — I don't know how they do it."

But did he believe in the episode's premise that unstable women are better in bed? Baldwin, who has a famously intense relationship with ex-wife Kim Basinger, guffawed and wagged a finger at us. (Phew — we were half expecting he'd yell.) "That's assuming I've been with crazy women," he said. "If I answer that question in the affirmative, that would type a woman I've been with as being crazy, which I don't really feel like doing. But I hear it's true. I hear from my friends it's true." These same "friends" also told him the theory might not hold for dudes, so insane men may not make better lovers, he speculated. "I will say this on the record," he said before fleeing. "I've never slept with a crazy man."

Earlier: Alec Baldwin Has a Pretty Decent Sarah Palin Impression
Alec Baldwin on How the Financial Apocalypse Will Affect Jack Donaghy

Lewis Lapham, oil heir, former Harper's editor, and founder of the wonderfully pretentious journal Lapham's Quarterly, will be on Bloomberg TV tonight. During the interview, a portion of which was e-mailed to us, he is asked about whether he thinks Barack Obama is an elitist — we guess in the same spirit that interviewers asked Jesse Jackson and the Reverend Al Sharpton the black questions. Lapham gives a kind of awesome, elitist response:

“He’s an elitist, but he’s an elitist in the same way that the founders of the American Republic were elitist. Washington, Jefferson, Adams … these were elitist and recognized as such. There was no down connotation. The whole use of the word elitism is a little confused. We usually use it as a pejorative. In the last quarter of the 18th century, it meant accomplishment, it meant capacity, it meant the ability to learn and that is a distinguishing feature of Obama. Here is a man who can learn.”

Lapham Says Education is `Only Hope' for the Future [Bloomberg]

The Democratic Senate caucus gathered this morning to finally decide the fate of Joe Lieberman and his beloved chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee. It's the position he prizes above all else — he had told Harry Reid that losing it would be "unacceptable." And so the Democrats, feeling mighty beneficent as they bask in the glow of Barack Obama's victory, decided to let him keep it. But these Democrats are no wimps. This ain't the Mommy party anymore, no way. There must be repercussions. So as punishment for campaigning on behalf of John McCain, speaking at the Republican National Convention, musing that it's a "good question" whether Obama is a Marxist, and saying that Obama hasn't always "put the country first," the Democrats ruthlessly stripped away Lieberman's seat on the less prominent Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection subcommittee. Ouch?

Governor Paterson has finally filled a senior and long-vacant position in his inner circle, appointing lawyer Peter J. Kiernan to serve as his chief counsel, according to sources close to both. As chief counsel, Kiernan becomes a top adviser to Paterson and one of the most powerful figures in the executive chamber, which faces an unprecedented budget deficit this year and has seen an unusually high amount of turmoil in recent months. Paterson's first pick of chief lawyer, State Supreme Court justice James Yates, accepted the gig but bailed shortly after, apparently because he couldn't get along with the governor's bullyish top adviser, former priest Charles O'Byrne. Now that O'Byrne finally resigned over his tax flap, the power structure of the governor's inner circle has changed, and Kiernan is set to become a pivotal force. So who is he? He's a trustee on the Citizen's Budget Commission, and a former lawyer for the Mayor's office, the Cuomo administration, and the State Senate Democrats. He was most recently counsel in the public-finance department of the law firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP. He’s also a big contributor to Democrats, giving $21,000 to Eliot Spitzer’s campaign in 2006 and $7,000 to Spitzer’s reelection campaign in 2010, which never materialized.

We've been frustrated by Henry Paulson's flip-flopping on strategies for dealing with the financial crisis, because, God damn it, we want him to have a plan so that everyone can feel safe. But the Washington Post's long feature on the Treasury secretary today, in which he is kind of disarmingly honest about how his mind-set has changed ("My thinking has evolved a lot to the point where I've seen regulation up close and personal … I've realized how flawed it is and how imperfect, but how necessary it is") reminds us that elasticity is not a bad thing. After all,

"These are unprecedented times," said Sheila C. Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., who has worked closely with Paulson and occasionally clashed with him. "He doesn't have an ideological bias one way or the other. He's tried to be receptive as he developed responses, and to his credit, he is willing to go where folks have dared not to go in terms of regulation."

But with due respect to Bair, it does seem that there is one thing guiding Paulson these days.