Might it help to make it even clearer how little time is left by adding a timestamp to your original post, and/or make some sort of a timer. It would be terrible if part of the crowd decides not to forward this because there's unclarity regarding the remaining amount of time.

What is Huesken asking for? Boil it down: He wants Andrew to code up an "Is my dad dead yet" widget. So unseemly, and yet so typical: Even when dealing with something as horrific as the imminent death of a parent, Internet users just want us to think about them and their needs.

Andrew Baron has denied he knew anything. But troublingly, he also says his dad didn't know about the affair, which strains belief — considering that it was Fred Baron's ongoing financial assistance to Hunter which blew Edwards's cover. I'm inclined to believe that the younger Baron was not, in fact, wise to the arrangement, and it's only natural to stick up for family. Unless you purport to be a news organization, in which case recusal is your best bet.

Because it all makes Rocketboom's original coverage of the Edwards campaign look all the more fawning and uninformed in retrospect. By continuing to toe the family line in public adds fuel to a story that, like Edwards's political career, no longer really matters. While one might be willing to forgive the original faux pas of letting the campaign lead you around by the news nose, it doesn't help perceptions of questionable "new media" journalist ethics to continue to deny, deny, deny.

As long as the younger Baron continues to trumpet his father's innocence in public, the more Rocketboom looks like it traded access for complicity, even if unintentionally. Andrew should probably take his own advice and "take a few days off."

"Who's your daddy and what does he do?"

Andrew Baron's involvement in the Edwards campaign has drawn notice before. The younger Baron failed to disclose that he was getting paid to do campaign videos which he packaged as interviews:

...Edwards tells Rocketboom's Joanne Colan — a former British MTV VJ — that places like Rocketboom.com are "one of the best ways to reach people" as part of his campaign to change America "from the ground up." But in the "interview," neither Edwards nor Colan disclose that there was a financial relationship between the Edwards campaign and Rocketboom.com, as [Washington Post's Howard] Kurtz reports.

But in their outrage over the undisclosed payments, no one stopped to ask how Baron, a relative unknown videoblog producer, got the gig in the first place. The notion that Edwards was buying blogger buzz satisfied even hardcore media reporters like Kurtz. It never occurred to them that the quid pro quo might be working in reverse.

By crowning Andrew Baron a rising star among videobloggers, worthy of a ride in the Edwards campaign jet, Edwards was boosting a business in which one of his backers, Fred Baron, had a financial interest. What a win-win-win! Andrew Baron got a job and a hot interview; Edwards got promotion as the Internet's candidate of the moment; and Fred Baron got two of his causes advanced. The Edwards campaign may have foundered, but the interview gave Rocketboom the kind of credibility that eventually paid off in an exclusive, seven-figure distribution deal with Sony. (To cap it all off, we've heard rumors that the jet actually belonged to Fred Baron, who reportedly loaned his plane out to Edwards from time to time.)

But Andrew Baron's credibility as a journalist is very much on the line now. Robert Scoble suggested that Baron had expressed relief that the affair was "out in the open." Did that mean the younger Baron knew about it at the time? The elder Baron certainly did. It was the money trail that Fred Baron laid which eventually led to Rielle Hunter's outing.

We asked Chuck Olsen, Baron's Rocketboom shooter, who was aboard the blogger plane back in 2006 at the time of the Edwards' campaign announcement, what he thought of this theory. Here's what he said:

"It's certainly possible that Andrew knew about the possibility of the affair. But, I don't think Andrew has been involved with the Edwards campaign since it launched. I'd guess Andrew's face time with his dad concerned Rocketboom business, not Rielle Hunter."

If so, that's too bad. Andrew could have helped out dad by giving Rielle Hunter a gig on Rocketboom. Two birds, one stone.

(Photo by Robert Scoble)

Alas, no luck. We called Scoble and asked if he had any footage of Hunter. "God knows," says Scoble. He filmed Edwards while working for Podtech, the ill-fated online-video startup which was recently sold for a pittance. His raw footage from that period, if any, is jumbled with the rest of Podtech's assets.

But Chuckumentary videographer Chuck Olsen, a contributor to Rocketboom, did catch Hunter in one of his videos of the Edwards campaign. Fast forward to 1:07 and you'll get a quick glimpse of Hunter, earning part of her $114,000 behind the camera. Update: Olsen has sold the video to the AP and taken it off Revver.

He's a leading Dallas attorney who even sued the firm he cofounded, Baron & Budd, and is a regular on blog Overlawyered. More interesting is that Amanda Congdon intervened in order to protect her claim on part of the company. Meanwhile, the younger Baron complains all this legal wrangling tied his dealmaking hands, and that the company nearly went broke twice this year.

The Rocketboom episode neatly explains why the world of online video so resembles film school, a parent-funded enterprise of self-indulgent auteurs with macroambitions viewed by microaudiences (including yours truly). Sony's deal doesn't affirm the potential of online video as a means of creative expression; it simply tells us that the rich, despite themselves, can't help getting richer. (Photos by Eric Skiff and Alex de Carvalho)

In a wonderful piece of linkbait, Vanity Fair produced an illustration featuring a number of popular "blogs" arranged in a cartesian graph from "Scurrolous" to "Earnest" on one axis and "Opinion" to "News" on another. While we're trying to grasp how the 'Wag ended up on the earnest side of the scale, more confusing is the inclusion of Salon and Slate. Apparently, if you're not printed on paper, you're a "blog" — even though both publications predate the term. But where the chart really gets things wrong is in using the disembodied head of Amanda Congdon to illustrate online video program Rocketboom. If the authors or illustrator actually watched the show or read many of the listed blogs, they'd know that Joanne Colan took over as host after a very nasty and public departure from the show by Congdon. Keep trying, guys, you're bound to figure out this Internet thing eventually!

Baron also told us that despite rumors to the contrary, host Joanne Colan will not be leaving the show. "That was just a rumor," said Baron. "Gawker writers these days get paid by pageviews so I think they sometimes just make stuff up." Trust us, if we made up posts for pageviews, they would involve drug warehouse orgies with prostitutes and private jets turned into hot boxes, not a host leaving a low-budget Web show.

It would be silly to just delete this account I have here, especially if there is someone out there that had like interests and had something to say or wanted to get involved in some relevant conversations.

No, it's to leverage Twitter's potential as a generator of links which increase websites' ranking in Google's search results. The good news for heavy Twitter users is that this sets the price of followers at around a dollar each. Maybe following every single account that adds you, spammer or otherwise, isn't such a bad idea after all. The only reason top Twitter user Jason Calacanis isn't selling his account? He's already using it for spam that promotes his business. (Photo by Dummycast.com's JA Donnelly)

In his post, Baron gripes about Calacanis's "aggressive marketing tactics" to promote Mahalo Daily, the site's videoblog with former CNET host Veronica Belmont. But in a reply to Baron's attacks, Calacanis guesses the antipathy stems from Calacanis's public attempt to hire Amanda Cogdon after she quit Rocketboom.

Yeah, it could be that. Or it could be that in Mahalo Daily's launch trailer, Calacanis and Belmont parodied "Rocketboom" on Mahalo Daily and Calacanis said, "Hm. Been thinking about it. Rocketboom just isn't that funny."

There's only one way to resolve this, of course. No, not a catfight between Belmont and Rocketboom anchor Joanne Colan, pervs. Instead: Bulldog love!

ABC can dismiss the failure as an experiment:

It's been a great year with Amanda — a great experiment for both of us. We thank her for her many contributions and know that she's about to embark on new endeavors and expect there will be times in the future that we can again work together.

One thing we can count on: Congdon will bounce back, perky as ever. She has a show in development for HBO — technically, according to HBO's advertising, that's "not television," so we don't know if that will count as a TV comeback. And she seems to have a burgeoning if ethically questionable career as a spokesblogger for advertisers like DuPont and American Express. The only question: Will anyone care? Or has her audience, like ABC, tired of her "experiments"?

Not anytime soon, especially if they keep bickering on the popular videoblogging Yahoo group. This past weekend, Amanda and former Rocketboom partner Andrew Baron let loose on the group's email list. Andrew forwarded several emails, all reprinted after the jump, trying to prove his points.

"It's okay to say what you need to say, get it out and move on, but that didn't happen originally," Andrew wrote on his personal blog. "So this weekend, I finally set out to get it all out and off my chest and I did."

"As you can see, I spent legal fees on the HBO opportunity...but you stole it away for yourself...Lie #2. Resolved." declared Andrew on the Yahoo group, after forwarding a communication regarding a prospective deal with HBO.

"This proves what? That I (not you) had an HBO meeting and that I fired my manager?" Amanda shot back. "The best way to avoid factual statements is to ask questions," countered Andrew.

This caused one of the old guards of the blogosphere, Robert Scoble, to jump in: "This isn't impressing me in the least about either party. I don't really care anymore. You both are polluting this group and it needs to stop, and stop now."

Selected E-Mails, Roughly in Chronological Order

***
Sent By: Andrew Baron

Begin forwarded message:
> From: "Amanda Congdon"
> Date: June 2, 2006 2:20:46 PM EDT
> To: "Thompson, Bryan"
> Cc: "Johnson, Channing" , "andrew michael
> baron" , "Jim Congdon"
>
> Subject: Re: Matthew Lesher, semi-urgent
>
> Bryan and Channing,
>
> Thank you for getting back to me on this so quickly. As it turns
> out, the HBO meeting is now happening on Monday rather than later
> today. The introductory meeting between Ari, Andrew and me is still
> on as scheduled at 3pm Pacific. How does this change the order of
> events, if at all?
>
> Yes, please prepare Matthew's termination letter.
>
> Thanks again,
>
> Amanda
>
> On 6/2/06, Thompson, Bryan < bthompson@...> wrote:
> Amanda:
>
> I spoke to Channing about this. We think that your analysis of the
> situation is spot-on accurate and that it would be appropriate for
> you now to terminate your relationship with Matthew.
>
> Accordingly, we believe that you should inform Matthew, both orally
> and in writing, that your relationship with him is now terminated.
> You should also inform him that he is not to participate in the HBO
> conference call, nor is he to contact or speak with HBO or Endeavor
> concerning you, Andrew, or Rocketboom.
>
> Let me know if you would like us to prepare a letter to Matthew
> concerning this.
>
> In order to assure that Matthew is not on the call, you will need
> to contact him orally before the call. Even if we sent a letter
> right now, he might not actually read it before the HBO call
> begins. When you speak to him you can let him know that a letter
> will be coming.
>
> From: amazingamanda@... [mailto:amazingamanda@...] On
> Behalf Of Amanda Congdon
> Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2006 10:19 PM
> To: Johnson, Channing; Thompson, Bryan; andrew michael baron
> Cc: Jim Congdon
> Subject: Matthew Lesher, semi-urgent
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> I spoke with Matthew Lesher this evening. I asked him why Ari
> Emanuel would be under the impression he was Rocketboom's manger.
> He said he didn't know, that maybe Ari just "assumed" as much. He
> then said, in fact, that both he and Ari had no interest in the
> management of Rocketboom. He also said that because Ari (and thus
> Endeavor) were not involved in the book deal, that he felt Ari was
> being "aggressive" in wanting 10% equity in Rocketboom. I asked him
> why he then jumped on the bandwagon and asked for the same thing
> (on Friday Matthew brought up getting 10% too). He started back
> peddling and saying that we were just beginning the conversation,
> that nothing had been decided. I told him it sounded like he didn't
> have my best interests in mind, and he said no, he was just
> presenting all the options. If he truly had my best interest in
> mind, he would have told me he thought Ari was being aggressive on
> Friday, not now after I pressed him about it. Bottom line is that I
> don't trust him, so I believe the relationship will have to be
> terminated. I would love to hear what everyone else thinks.
>
> The big issue now is that I have a conference call today (Friday)
> scheduled with Caroline Strauss at HBO to workshop show ideas at
> 2:30 Pacific, and I don't want Matthew in on that. Ari is the only
> one that had anything to do with setting that up. Matthew also has
> included himself in an introductory conversation that was supposed
> to happen directly before the HBO meeting, with Andrew, Ari and
> me. Andrew just sent me an email suggesting perhaps the talk with
> Matthew occur very shortly before the HBO meeting is scheduled, so
> as not to give Matthew time to backlash before the meeting. Help
> please!!
>
> Thanks so much for all of your guidance,
>
> Amanda

**

On Dec 16, 2006, at 1:35 PM, Amanda Congdon wrote:

> This proves what? That I (not you) had an HBO meeting and that I fired
> my manager?

**

On Dec 16, 2006, at 6:36pm, andrew michael baron wrote:

> The best way to avoid factual statements is to ask questions.

**

From: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com [mailto:videoblogging@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Digital Buddha
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 10:49 AM
To: videoblogging@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [videoblogging] Re: OOoh, Amanda's Up!

Andrew and Amada, I admire your work both when you were working together,
and now independently of one another. I am embarrassed for the two of you
with your public display. The court of public opinion is not the one to
discuss this. It may not seem like poor judgement today to either of you,
but you may be thinking much differently a year or two from now.

Please, please, please take it off line. You are now at the stage of
"virtual shouting". I am waiting for objects to start to fly. It will just
get uglier. I hope you and your respective legal counsel will be able to
settle this swiftly.

**

Sent By: Robert Scoble

I agree. This isn't impressing me in the least about either party.

I don't really care anymore. You both are polluting this group and it needs
to stop, and stop now.

Take it onto your blogs where, if we care, we can read your slings at each
other.

Robert

**

Sent By: Andrew Baron

I only ever made one demand in the history of Rocketboom; only once
did I ever put my foot down.

The last letter to Amanda before she quit:

Begin forwarded message:

Chuck's letter to Amanda:

Hey Amanda,

I just talked to Andrew and he's basically ready to take control of
Rocketboom.
I think no matter what, he's exercising his 51% and taking control of
the business.
He wants to know what you want to do.

Everyone wants you to be the face of Rocketboom.
Would you be happy producing shows in the next month while figuring
out a way to get you to LA and decide what happens next?

Given the state of things, right now Andrew wants you to be talent
and talk to the press,
and probably produce shows, but no more involvement beyond that.

I told Andrew you guys really need to make a clean break and not have
some inbetween state.
Nobody knows what that looks like, still, but this buys a month of
time for everyone to plan for
life beyond that.
............

Here is Amand'a response:
http://panther.video.blip.tv/uploadedFiles/Unboomed-
amanda_unboomed_s509.mov

Then, she went on to hang up the dirty laundry on her blog:
http://www.amandaunboomed.blogspot.com/

**

The full thread is available in the Yahoo group archives.

[Photo of Andrew: Hamletphase on flickr]

1. Amanda and Andrew go ballistic: "I apparently have been unboomed," said Amanda Congdon, host of Rocketboom, outing a behind-the-scenes feud with her producer Andrew Baron (video below). Critics (including me) thought the whole ordeal, with both Amanda and Drew slinging accusations and legal threats over the show's ownership, made these Internet stars a laughingstock. But at least it bought them some publicity while Baron found a more experienced host (who quickly won converts) and Amanda chatted with media companies and landed at ABC.
2. Google buys YouTube: 1. Start site for cool legit reason. 2. Let a bunch of people use it to post Family Guy clips. 3. Pants dangerously close to being sued off. 4. Hop on Google's white horse, cut deals with those who almost sued you, hint at paying users in the future. Profit!
3. HP promotes Mark Hurd: Hewlett-Packard tapped the CEO as chairman, replacing Patricia Dunn, dumped for her involvement in a spying scandal. Hurd quickly forgot all he'd learned before that point.
4. Dave Winer quits blogging: Enemies cheered the promise that technologist and RSS innovator Dave Winer would stop blogging at Scripting News. But so did friends, who knew that if Winer stepped back from his constant updates and the fights they sometimes bring, he'd finally be able to return to the important work of — sorry, wait, he's staying until April. Turns out he does this all the time. And maybe that's clever, since it always fools those of us who haven't spent the last ten years reading this Armchair Everything.
5. Mike Arrington throws a party: The TechCrunch founder threw parties before, but this year they finally broke the capacity of his ranch house. Arrington says he pulled in over $50k from TechCrunch 7, a long schmooze held at the offices of investment firm August Capital. Good thing his parties are so profitable, because that blogging thing ain't working out.
6. Jason Calacanis ruins Netscape: AOL put the cocky Weblogs, Inc. founder in charge of its dying Netscape.com portal. No one's been able to keep the site's traffic from falling. Neither has Calacanis, say outside reports (which he and employee C.K. Sample dispute), but that's not what matters. Calacanis turned Netscape into a clone of social news site Digg and paid top users with AOL's money, thus turning a failure into a high-profile failure (did anyone know Netscape.com was even still up?). The gig kept Jason on the radar long enough to let him prepare his next project — outside AOL.
7. Craigslist stays poor: "Poor" here means "raking in millions." Craigslist's founder and CEO have said (again and again and again and again) that they're not selling the company or milking the site for ad dollars. Instead they'll pull in mere tens of millions for their 22-person operation. After all, the billionaire life is for the fake humble, not the truly humble.
8. Yahoo keeps Terry Semel: The CEO looked so close to retirement that when Valleywag heard the company was announcing something big, our publisher posted an obit for Semel's career. Too soon, it turns out, as Semel is still in charge of the newly reorganized Yahoo. Or at least he'll stick around until the changes are made. It's a lot smarter than putting a new CEO (read: CFO Susan Decker) in charge while the company's still on shaky footing; by the time Decker rises to the top, the exec team (including Decker, who will oversee one of the company's three divisions) will have sorted things out.
9. Apple doesn't reinvent the iPod: Every time Steve Jobs stands in front of more than five people at a time, he's expected to finally introduce the iPhone or the full-screen iPod. The time may come for those products, but this year the iPod only gained a few gigs, went micro on the low end, and dropped the glassy look — nothing that renders a pod from January obsolete. Why wait? To give Microsoft's Zune some time to wallow before crushing sales with a new player early next year.

"I thought all these egos would be bouncing off of each other," said Marianne from Treasure Island, "but this has been so warm and supportive. It's not about awards, it's more about celebrating new technologies." She was referring to the Vloggies, held Saturday night at the Swedish American Hall, and she was right about the atmosphere.

Going into this videoblog award show, I braced myself for an evening of cinematic navel-gazing, expecting clip after clip of disembodied faces staring into the camera, focused on their own reflection in the lens instead of communicating to an audience. I was pleasantly surprised. To me, the Vloggies clearly illustrated the varied world of internet video and, in a way, brought rationality to a medium easily construed as ridiculous.

On the other hand, Marianne was dressed as a fluffy yellow duck.

Jerry Zucker: "You like these jokes? I got a hundred more that we cut from "Naked Gun 33 1/3." [Laughing Squid]

In a sign of the vlogosphere's influence, actual famous people attended the show. Jerry Zucker, creator of Airplane! and The Naked Gun opened the night with a great speech (recorded here) about the beginning of his moviemaking career, drawing parallels to the world of vlogging. Daniel McVicar from The Bold and the Beautiful (and the McVlog) and Irina Slutsky from the vlog Geek Entertainment Television (who also organized the event for podcast company PodTech) very capably co-hosted the red-carpet affair.

Daniel McVicar shows his "doh" face while Irina Slutsky spies a cute guy in the audience. [Laughing Squid]

The usual group of internet celebrities showed up in support, including Scoble Show namesake Robert Scoble and Diggnation vlogger (and digg.com founder) Kevin Rose. Conspicuously absent from the ceremony were a few familiar Vlogerati, like ex-Rocketboom queen Amanda Cogdon and Favorite Male Vlogger Ze Frank (who sent Marianne the duck in his stead).

Big check, little prize. [Laughing Squid]

Alive in Baghdad was the big winner. This fantastic site - which takes a look at daily life in a war zone through interviews with Iraqi citizens - won a total of 7 Vloggies, including Judges' Favorite Vlog. Along with Josh Wolf, People's Choice winner for Favorite Male Vlogger, Alive in Baghdad demonstrates the capacity for internet videos to go beyond entertainment into true journalistic inquiry. In honor of its win, the Intel Corporation presented vlogger Brian Conley with a scant $2,000. It was enough to fund one Intel Core2Duo laptop, true, but the ridiculous size of the novelty check made the donation look meager in comparison. Given the state of the Iraqi power supply, I hope that Intel can cough up, at the very least, a solar battery charger and satellite internet connection, and throw in a couple flak jackets for the journalists.

Ask a Ninja co-creator Kent Nichols shows off his unstoppable "double-fisted statues" maneuver. [Thomas Hawk]

Slight snafus haunted the night. The audio went out on Ze Frank's taped acceptance speech and the dubbing was delayed all night, making every video look like a 1970s kung-fu movie. Patrons at the open bar talked over Brian Conley's moving speech, and an overabundance of hungry party guests picked over scant appetizers at the afterparty at Café du Nord. On the whole, however, the hosts and presenters kept the show moving and the crowd entertained. One person at the mike even offered to tap dance for the audience when a clip refused to play.

Andrew Baron tries to show the ducky what traffic really means. [Chuckumentary]

One thing that struck me as odd: Andrew Baron, the producer of Rocketboom, accepted the Judge's Favorite News Vlog with a dark-haired beauty by his side - curiously, Rocketboom host Joanne Colan was back in New York working on some "TV stuff." Baron won the Ego Prize of the night for invoking Woody Allen in a condescending speech that managed to accept the honor while assuring the audience that he was really superior to all this nerdy stuff. Later on, he continued his pissing contest with Ze Frank by pretending to vanquish Marianne the duck in a tasteless photo op.

Valleywag party score: This event's ready for its close-up.

The "Vloggies" re-used statuettes from the "Goatses." [Laughing Squid]

Unless noted, photos are by Scott Beale of Laughing Squid. See his photo gallery: The Vloggies: Photo gallery [Laughing Squid]
Also see Thomas Hawk's gallery: Photos from the 2006 Vloggies [Zooomr]

Let's recap, ZeFrank posted on October 24th a hilarious video berating Rocketboom's stated audience numbers. The Baron responded later in the day explaining how those audience numbers are derived, with a 3rd party verifying said numbers and ending with a snide remark about ZeFrank being Web1.0 (gasp!).

Is it over? Thankfully, no. Every blogger knows that online cat fights drive up the numbers for both sites (just ask Digg's Jay Anderson and Netscape's Jason "J.C." Calacanis), so of course ZeFrank came back swinging with some harsh, nasty...uh...chart and article citing Rocketboom's success.

Nerdfight [ZeFrank]
The Baron Responds [Valleywag]
ZeFrank Slaps Rocketboom [Valleywag]

RocketBoom creator Andrew Michael Baron, shown here, responded on his blog Dembot to ZeFrank's swipe at Rocketboom's suspect viewer stats, as reported on Valleywag yesterday. Even Marshall Kirkpatrick from Techcrunch called Andrew to discuss the numbers.

He was pretty skeptical at first but I gave him logins for the various servers and spent an hour on the phone going over everything. He confirmed my numbers.

Well that settles it for me.

After the jump, Andrew wasn't done, oh no, he hit below the belt.

Ze has been doing online video for a very long time, but he uses 1.0 means of distributing his show (e.g. no links out of his site, no off-site distributions or redistribution partners) and he only started to identify with "videoblogging" once videoblogging defined him.

Ba-Zing! Take that you Web1.0 hack!

Just looking at my stats today, I noticed we have over 15,000 phone distributions of each episode alone. That's half Ze's total daily audience on the phone. Lets not get into TiVo which accounts for more than the other half, our daily Japanese version, TVTonic type aggregators, home made aggregators, my goodness, my rant -> .mov files, .wmv, full_.wmv .3gp, .3gpp, .mp4, .mpg _hd.mov just for each episode to accommodate everyone.

And don't forget Rocketboom being used in baubles, beads, gewgaws, bibelots, curios, gimcrack, novelties, objet d'art, trifles, trinkets, whatnots, curious goods, souvenirs, odds-and-ends, bric-a-brac, antiques, semi-precious jewels, and handmade shiny objects crafted in time-honored native style deftly displayed on the fireplace mantle.

Ze Errors [Dembot]
ZeFrank Slaps Rocketboom [Valleywag]
vb #2 [ZeFrank]

photo credit: Mac Steve

[ZeFrank]

I'm sitting in front of Andrew Baron...he's the keynoter for this. He was asked by Chas Edwards of Federated Media.... "Since Amanda has left.. have you seen any change in the audience?"

He hemmed and hawwed and said it's grown a bit and now people are coming back for the content and a "sense of integrity" (whatever that means). I guess that's sort of like "people read it now for the articles..."

Earlier: Divorce Court: Rocketboom stars to go at it [Valleywag]

• Is it that big a deal that Netflix offered a million-dollar bounty for anyone who improves its movie recommendation engine by 10%? Wait, how do you even measure the accuracy of movie recommendations? Who cares, the media's eating it up as if they get a finder's fee. (If you win this contest after reading it on Valleywag, you do owe us a finder's fee: a lifetime subscription to "Netflix: Porn Edition." [NY Times]
• Rocketboom video blog founder Andrew Baron (pictured) sells another week of ads for $80,000, says he sells $4,000 a month in t-shirts alone, then does some classic "If only we got a fraction..." math to justify a possible subscription model. A fine business model, but didn't Drew spend the last year decrying "Old Media?" Ads and pay-per-view are as old as Cable TV. [MarketWatch]
• Aw, nobody likes PayPerPost, a service so mercenary that even blog network exec Jason Calacanis called it "stupid and evil." BusinessWeek calls the company "unrepentant" when it announces that the company (which pays bloggers to write about products and services) just took a $3 million venture capital investment. The bright side: There's no way this company will earn enough to satisfy its investors, so at least it'll get as screwed as the bloggers whose reputations it ruins. [BusinessWeek]

— Beth Gottfried

• Phone fraud offender Hewlett-Packard takes another giant leap towards becoming even more of the class bully, this time with news that they actually conducted feasibility studies to figure out how to plant spies in news bureaus. To be continued tomorrow. Don't worry, by then we'll find out the government was involved in the conspiracy. [NY Times]
• Ex-Rocketboomer Amanda Congdon finds a new gig touring America. This time around the vlogger is honing her chops on the road to L.A. We just hope blogger Robert Scoble stops propositioning her. [Scobleizer]
• The Baltimore Sun got tired of writing about the ethics involved in snitching and gang violence so now they just interview bloggers like Sean Bonner of the Metroblogging network. We know how they feel. [Baltimore Sun]
• Google Co-Founder Larry Page and I have something in common. Unfortunately for me it isn't making wads of cash or being business-minded, but an affiliation with the University of Michigan, where Google just opened up a new AdWords office. [Michigan Daily]
• Al Gore's pet project Current TV finally launches their own public portal with Yahoo. That's an inconvenient truth for Google, which has Gore on its board and plays content-maker to Google Current, a semi-hourly show based on Google searches like thong girl. [Current TV]

— Beth Gottfried

Her offensive and horrible treatment that is apparent in her emails to me and b-roll footage (and of course all of her public slandering) is all going to court now because thats what she wants.

No, that's what everyone else wants. What it does to both of you is make you a spectacle, and that's much more fun than watching your show.

So what's in the B-roll footage? Amanda cussing out Drew from the news desk like Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone in Anchorman? What do you think happens in the footage that'll make the best court evidence ever?

Rocketboom back on track [Dembot]

• Video blog Rocketboom wants an intern and a Final Cut Pro video editor. You'll be working for show producer Andy Baron. Interns, see if you can get him to accidentally give you three percent of his share, giving ex-host Amanda Congdon a controlling interest. [Hidden Work]
• MySpace needs a Creative Services Manager, who directs the making of fake-o advertising profiles (like the Honda Element profile). The CSM "develops and enforces style guidelines internally and externally to ensure all creative meets established quality standards." The CSM also cries into a bottle of gin after realizing that their job is making MySpace pages look pretty. [CrunchBoard]
• And in the "sketchiest posting" category, a three-line posting for game programmers says "there is no minimum time commitment" for the job. Sure, sure, that's Electronic Arts's pickup line too. [Craigslist]

Drew:
You were working as an actress playing coat-check girls
When I met you
I placed an ad, put you at a desk, and spun you around
Got you into media (new)
Now two years later on you've got the world at your feet
Success has been so easy for you
But don't forget it's me who put you where you are now
And I can put you back down too

After the jump, sing along with the chorus. "Don't! you! vlog! me! oh!"

Chorus :
Don't, don't you vlog me?
You know I can't believe it when I hear that you won't film with me
Don't, don't you vlog me?
You know I don't believe you when you say that you don't need me
It's much too late to find
You think you've changed your mind
You'd better change it back or we will both be sorry
Don't you vlog me baby? Don't you vlog me oh
Don't you vlog me baby? Don't you vlog me oh

Amanda:
I was working as an actress playing coat-check girls
That much is true
But even then I knew I'd find a much better site
Either with or without you
The two years we have had have been such good times
I still love you — um, actually, I don't —
But now I think it's time I filmed my life on my own
I guess it's just what I must do
(Chorus)
Don't you vlog me baby? Don't you vlog me oh
Don't you vlog me baby? Don't you vlog me oh

Joanne Colan: What the !@#$ are you two still going on about?

Photo by Eddie Codel

Just like Christmas in July, New Year predictions deserve a mid-year refresher — especially since Valleywag wasn't here for New Year's. Valleywag predicts that by the end of 2006:

• Rocketboomers Andrew Baron and Amanda Congdon finally give into the sexual tension and get hitched. Media critic Jeff Jarvis reprises his role from "Moonlighting" by appearing on Rocketboom to explain it all. Rocketboom's ratings tank.
• Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, feeling threatened by a tidal wave of journalists predicting that he'll step down by December, barricades his office in November and insists on running the company from within. Sharp-eared employees can hear him urinating into bottles, wiping down his keyboard with sanitizer, and muttering, "The way of the future. The way of the future."
• Oracle founder Larry Ellison rediscovers his giving spirit and pledges a $200 million donation to Stanford, one week before the deadline for Forbes' next "Most generous billionaires" list.

The rest is after the jump.

• "Long Tail" breaks free of its scare quotes by Halloween.
• Blog mogul Jason Calacanis, realizing that AOL has given him the entire budget left over from the Access department, starts paying his circle of friends for "doing what they already do." Competitor Nick Denton starts eating lunch with Jason for $80 an hour.
• Three hours after YouTube and Facebook merge, the entire student population of America walks out of class in a rush to update their FaceTube profiles.
• After Lloyd Braun greenlights three expensive shows against everyone's advice, the Yahoo Media Group head finally gets fired. Weeks later, the shows go live, and Braun's "Puppet News Nightly" quickly becomes America's favorite Internet show.
• Dave Winer joins the Black Panthers, changes his name to Faqih, and leaves blogging for the promising medium of hand-out flyers.
• The Valley goes carb-counting-crazy when portly Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak loses 120 pounds and publishes his diet book, "Slim Down the Woz Way."

Photos: Amanda and Andrew by Scott Beale, Jeff Jarvis by Mary Hodder

Everyone's acting like Rocketboom's producer and ex-host have gone their separate ways, as if the fight is over. But it's just about to begin.

Remember that Amanda Congdon says she still owns 49% of the popular video blog, and that this deal is in a written contract "registered with the bank." Andrew Baron seems to hold that she forfeited her 49% by leaving the show.

Andrew Baron blogged that any dispute over the show's ownership is "a case for a professional mediator or a case for the courts."

After the jump, Amanda and Andrew both tell me their case is the winning one.

I asked Amanda how she would respond if Andrew took the case to mediation or court. "I won't wave [sic] any of my rights," she replied. "I am moving forward. I hope Andrew will too."

Then I asked Andrew if he indeed meant to use a mediator or court to determine Amanda's share of Rocketboom. His reply: "Not sure. Amanda has not made any claims and I'm a bit busy to deal with it right now. I know what to expect legally from this and its no big deal; this is just a minor glitch."

She won't waive her rights, he sees her as a minor glitch. Yep, these two are headed for a showdown. If Rocketboom pulls in more $80,000-per-week ad deals, that contested 49% will be worth fighting for. And then we'll need to add a track to the Rocketboom mix CD.

Earlier: Holy media bubble! Amanda Congdon hits TIME Magazine, CNET, and MSNBC in one night

Armed with that knowledge, check out, say, this archived Rocketboom episode with Amanda Congdon, and compare to today's episode with new host Joanne Colan. Now,

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

Yes, yes, they're both so wonderful. Pick one.

Earlier: Rocketboom wants Amanda Congdon back

Can anyone explain how such a busy Internet rockstar has time for all these interviews? This week, she's talked to CNET (saying, "For this to be very public is kind of jarring"), MSNBC primetime ("As of Monday, Congdon said, she had received job offers that included "E" and every major network except CBS"), and TIME ("I've been approached for everything.") Sure must be tiring! But who will she take to the prom?

10 Questions for Amanda Congdon [TIME]

• Om Malik, who believes companies don't do anything once, polls his readers: Who will Wired buy next? [GigaOM]
• Hey look, it's Six Apart co-founder Mena Trott playing the banjo and swearing! Ha! Ha! We Valley types sure know how to have fun! [Abazab]
• Reporting Time Warner's falling stock is always tougher when that stock is your retirement fund. [CNN Money]
• Mysterious social network company Socializer says it's been around since 2002 — and invites you to join its private beta. [Socializer]
• the front page at Ookles.com, which used to say "coming soon," is now an empty page. The site isn't stillborn, it's just prepping for public release, says the founder. [Ookles]
• The exec producer of VH1's "Best Week Ever" tells Rocketboom's ex-host, "Get to work - the clock is ticking and 90 days from now, it's going to be 'what the fuck happened to Amanda Congdon?'" [BuzzMachine]

Last night, Amanda told CNET that she could return to Rocketboom if Andrew accepted her terms (a role in production, correcting the "misinformation" he spread, and letting her move to L.A.). But, she added, "I don't think that we could ever be friends."

So Andy wants to know, are he and Amanda still on for drinks tonight?

Behind Rocketboom's breakup fireworks [CNET]
Earlier: Rocketboom wants Amanda Congdon back [Valleywag]

But that doesn't mean producer Andrew Baron has forgotten about his recently-lost partner. He writes on the front page, "best wishes amanda you will always be welcome back," linking to her "Amanda Unboomed" weblog. Drew, babe, it's okay to beg her to return. But don't do it in front of the whole world, 'kay?

Rocketboom, July 12 [Video blog episode]
Earlier: Rocketboom hires host from MTV [Valleywag]

Slate writer Troy Patterson makes Amanda's chest a running gag throughout its latest Rocketboom story: "Her main mandate was to jiggle." "Over time, Congdon became more confident, more polished, more thoughtful about how to deploy her chest." He even says Amanda "redefined the role of the bimbo."

Troy says this got her past the show's bad writing and her awkward presentation style. So he's not being sexist — just calling it like he sees it.

On the other side are Amanda's supporters, like blogger Robert Scoble, who earnestly believes that her skill as a presenter earned Rocketboom its 250,000 views-per-episode. He's not saying Amanda isn't pretty — just that she's actually a great presenter, and that thousands of Internet geek-boys wouldn't be swayed by a busty woman talking about technology.

So who's right? The cynics or the idealists?

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All the News That's Fit To Vlog [Slate]
Photo: Rocketboom [archives]

Rocketboom [Video blog]
Earlier: Rocketboom dies on the launchpad
Earlier: UnBoomed: Rocketboom breaks, and it's all Andy's fault