Top Stories for the Week of Oct. 26 - 30, 2009

Deadspin, the blog that rubs dirt on everything that hurts in sports (to make us feel better), is at war with ESPN. The conflict's seeds were planted last month when Deadspin got a tip that ESPN baseball analyst Steve Phillips was about to be fired for an inappropriate relationship. ESPN's publicity folks denied, denied, but weeks later Phillips indeed was suspended for having an intra-ESPN affair. Outraged, Deadspin editor A.J. Daulerio "unloaded on ESPN for denying any impropriety," says Fanhouse Back Porch and then dropped its usual courteous manner and started running scurrilous rumors about all kinds of other employee sexual shenanigans at ESPN. Fellow bloggers have rallied to support Deadspin, right? Well, a blog called With Leather says Deadspin is "doing the Lord's work" and must be "getting all of these tips [from within ESPN] for a reason." Others -- not so much. "Daulerio's an embarrassment," says MGOBlog. "As someone who runs a sports blog for a living, his wanton flouting of common decency makes me look like an a**hole by proxy, and I don't appreciate it." The Sporting Blog crucifies Deadspin: "A.J. openly declared that Deadspin no longer cares whether anything it posts is true, and did so in a malicious manner." Ouch.

Mediaite says Deadspin "has worked hard to be recognized as a legitimate sports news outlet by ESPN and others. Now, this will damage that reputation [and] turn those who oppose the practices of blogs even further against them." YouBeenBlinded says AJ overreracted but : "If somebody lumps all sports blogs together because of the actions of one sports blog, they're an idiot" (that ought to restore harmony.)

Elsewhere in blogland, Halloween is coming so HuffPo helpfully lists the nine (nine?!) worst kinds of candy to give kids, including pumpkin candy corn, Necco Wafers and circus peanuts. A Forbes blog post runs down the celebrity masks that might terrify neighbors, including Roman Polanski, Kanye West and Kate and Jon Gosselin. Boing Boing highlights an image from radio host Peter Sagal's nativity scene of evil. David Spade defended his ghoulish TV commercial with dead colleague Chris Farley. CelebTV has a video of the 10 scariest movies. And NotMartha has the recipe for a truly gross hand made out of meatloaf.

Also in the holiday spirit, there's a spooktacular killer on the loose in tech. The Motorola Droid is officially official, says Android Central. "And it is sweet," Engadget gushes (and has video). The Android 2.0-based unit is "incredibly slick and solid....Moto claims that this is the thinnest full QWERTY slider on the market, and we're apt to believe it." CrunchGear is thrilled to report the absence of Verizon's usual "bloatware" that slows its phones and celebrates the Droid's minimalist iPhone aesthetic. But is Droid a (iPhone) killer? "It's pointless to call any phone an iPhone killer," Technologizer reasons. "If you could kill the iPhone through trumping its specs, it would already be a goner.") Then the blog meticulously compares the two phones' specs.) Billshrink compares total cost of ownership for the Droid on Verizon and the iPhone on AT&T--over two years it's the same! (the chart has the Palm Pre on Sprint at about $500 less). The real loser? Says GigaOM: "We were wondering if Motorola's release today of its Verizon-focused Droid handset killed the BlackBerry Storm2, the new version of the touchscreen device which also launched today."

And of course, that means a deluge of apps for Android 2.0 is coming including the first killer one, a new free mobile GPS based on Google maps (with Street View). Google Navigation is really going to turn an entire industry upside down," says Phandroid. "The world has been used to obtaining their GPS needs through a select few methods: 1. Paying for a dedicated GPS unit. 2. Paying for GPS software/service on a smartphone You can throw both of those models out the window." Why? Because, Gizmodo explains, the Google app is "free, and ass-kicking."

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