If I've done my calculating right, I'm 4 weeks into my new writing gig. I still love it, for all the reasons I listed the last time we talked, but I've learned about The Media very quickly from working here.The big, big thing I've learned is that absolutely everything said on TV isn't said for the sake of being spun - it's already been spun. Not to get political here, but the spin on Sarah Palin, for example, isn't "She's an oil-drilling charmer" vs. "She's an insane, corrupt babymaker." The story came pre-spun - make a VP selection so bad that the world's incredulity monopolizes what's on TV. The result? Barack Obama's face hasn't been seen at all in the last 10 days.I'm not getting political here, I'm making a point that Karl Rove is alive and kicking, and his mastery of The Media is more clever than ever. The last thing I want you to think is that this is just about politics. I'm seeing first-hand how - even in video games - bleeding leads, controversy leads, even on occasion speculation leads because it gains traffic from your own users bitching at each other and at you. It's the tabloid effect in full force. I've already passed up countless interesting articles on great game design, or genuinely interesting news about games that aren't big enough to draw any sort of traffic.All in all, I get the impression that maybe 10% of what we see as 'the news' is the interesting stuff, and the rest is what sells ad banners- I mean, commercials.