WaPo gossip reporter Mary Ann Akers reports that Condi Rice bought an expensive purse for a friend for Christmas. Seriously. That’s the extent of her report. Except she uses four graphs to say it.

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The commenters have not been kind to WaPo’s The Sleuth blogger since the debut of her column just over a month ago. Some critique-filled gems over the past week alone:

Is this the new WaPoo strategy, reporting on the irrelevant, irreverent and inane fringes of the real news? Say good-by to the rest of your dwindling circulation, both in print and online editions.

and

For a column called Sleuth this is pretty pathetic. Just what exactly is interesting, informative or investigative in the article?

and

This kind of writing is better suited for a gossip site like Perez Hilton, not a legitimate news source!

and

Are you kidding me? Great sleuthing, madame Akers. Excuse me while I try and hold down my lunch.

and

It’s ‘wacky,’ my sister, not ‘whacky.’ If you’re going to serve it, you’d better be able to spell it.

Cheers!

Well, Mary Ann, at least they’re not being passive aggressive about your writing (unlike some of your colleagues).

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The Hill newspaper’s Betsy Rothstein has proven that she’s more than willing to milk a cow to death by asking our pal Perez Hilton to provide a quote on the recent non-mysteries surrounding Mary Ann Akers’ e-mail source lists (see last item). Despite being told by Akers that she didn’t accidentally reveal sources in an e-mail she sent before leaving Roll Call, Rothstein decided to forge on, asking Hilton what he thinks about a reporter revealing her sources.

The gossip king (er, queen) told Rothstein that he would never e-mail all his sources in a way that their names would be revealed. “No, of course not,” he told her on Monday. “Never! I would never do that in the first place. There is no reason to e-mail all your sources. If I did, of course you’d BCC everyone. It’s pretty bad.”

Not wanting Rothstein to further encroach on our relationship with the gossip gansta, we quickly contacted him about her column. We wanted to know whether she gushed over him and if he’s thinking about pointing his gossip lens toward Washington more often. While he wouldn’t kiss and tell on Rothstein, he did note that he’s “always peppered my Web site with political items I find of interest.” Hmmm. Perhaps we should be expecting more Washington sightings of the normally LA-based blogger. Stay tuned.

Earlier Report: Wonkette Admits Error

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Yesterday WaPo’s Mary Ann Akers got put through the ringer, now Wonkette’s Alex Pareene is picking on Karen Feld yet again via a thinly veiled “blind item,” no less — without getting her side of the story:

His commenters are now fueling the hate, calling her names and making up lies about her work. It’s just plain irresponsible. Why on Earth does Pareene despise Karen and her awesome pooch, Campari, so much? Do you think he’ll ever pick on his pal Patrick Gavin, despite a plethora of REAL snafus made by that Washington gossip?

Stay tuned for the real story…

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Well, it turns out that the infamous Mary Ann Akers’ e-mail that Wonkette was begging for earlier was hiding in an ultra-secret spot: the editor’s inbox! 

“Due to a hilarious sitcom-style bicoastal mix-up, one of your editors in fact HAD received this email, but ignored it due to the fact that we get e-mails from people who forget to BCC pretty much daily,” Wonkette’s Alex Pareene explained in an update to the original post.

His humor aside, Mary Ann was obviously pretty pissed off. She sent him the following e-mail:

Alex, i’m sure YOU were among those who received my farewell letter. I sent the email to friends and colleagues and, well, anyone whose email address I had, either from direct correspondence or from joint emails. That wasn’t my source list! I think most of those email addresses belonged to people who emailed me statements, press releases, other public documents. I was in a huge rush to leave Roll Call, move into my new house, get married (which I did last weekend), and start my new job as a columnist at washingtonpost.com (which i did on Monday, after returning from Barbardos on Sunday). I would NEVER reveal any of my secret sources on a mass email list. But I apologize and really feel terrible if anyone who received my farewell email felt that I had double crossed them. I just had too much going on at once. I should have realized that it could be wrongly interpreted as something it was not. So, to everyone who received my farewell email — hello! And to all my sources who weren’t on the farewell email in question, I love y’all, keep those tips coming to maryann.akers@washingtonpost.com.

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