Elliot Spitzer chats up a reporter about his new gig at Slate, and the above is what Huffington Post's front page editor comes up with for a visual? Because if it weren't for that picture of Ashley Alexandra Dupré, Huff Po's enlightened readers would have had no idea who the fuck Elliot Spitzer was? (The defense that HuffPo is jabbing Spitzer and/or Slate for the former's decision to work at a magazine that heralded his downfall doesn't hold water, seeing as no one at HuffPo actually wrote about the dynamics of that relationship–then again, no one at HuffPo writes about anything.)

Stunts like the Spitzer picture should give dead-tree journos everywhere pause. If this is what it takes to be a dominant leader in page views–posting tacky Photoshop pictures and "breaking" news before it happens–maybe a million eyes just aren't worth it.

Then again, plenty of places manage to sustain high levels of traffic without stooping to HuffPo's level, so maybe the question is: How bad do we want to be on top of the web-garbage pile?

Editor's note: An ill-advised paragraph has been deleted from the original post.