Too bad Las Vegas Review-Journal Publisher (and “Complete Las Vegan”) Sherman Frederick copied and pasted GOP talking points onto his own blog, instead of someone else’s. Because then he could have earned points in the John McCain campaign’s new rewards program. And if he did it often enough he might score good seats at a McCain rally, an autographed book, maybe even a spin around the block aboard the Straight Talk Express. It’s enough to make a right-winger’s fanny tingle with anticipation.

If you want to AstroTurf for fun and prizes, the McCain people will do (almost) all the work for you. They’ve got ready-made talking points (conveniently categorized from “liberal” to “conservative” to “other” (Shi’ite, maybe?), plus a menu of Web pages and blogs from which to choose. A little “Control C” here, a bit of “Control V” there and — Shazam! — you’re an instant Internet commentator, no thinking required.

But don’t put it on your own blog: That’s for serious endeavors, like just plopping down someone else’s entire column to fill space and then giving yourself a hearty pat on the back.

I didn’t think much of the sectional shifts recently employed by the Review-Journal, a cost-cutting move initiated last week in lieu of pink slips — until today. As some of you may know, the Monday and Tuesday versions of the Living section have been substituted for a lone entertainment-oriented page in, of all places, the Nevada section. The compilation of largely wire stories has been, so far, reflective of mainstream pop culture — if a little random, too. And perhaps no single inclusion has been more arbitrary than today’s AP feature on Spiritualized, whose primary member, Jason Pierce, nearly died of pneumonia during the making of its just-released album, Songs in A&E.

Why is this weird? Spiritualized is a British alternative rock group that, despite its roots in traditional American music, is about as far from the mainstream as any other act you could imagine being written up in the R-J (music writer Jason Bracelin’s interest in local and underground hardcore/metal acts — which usually only get ink in the Living section — aside). The act, most “known” for its 1998 epic, Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space, has never hit local radio stations nor performed in town; I’d be hard-pressed to find many local musicians and scenesters familiar with it. So, with any number of commercial acts and celebrities making headlines for all sorts of reasons, it’s peculiar the R-J editors went with the Spiritualized story, especially in a high-traffic section of the paper.

At any rate, I’m not complaining. It’s good to see they went with a good story as opposed to a cheap headline.

It is, of course, your American duty to have already made up your mind about who should be president, and by now firmly closed it. The only ones still on the fence are the magpies. So we won’t tout New York magazine’s Electopedia 2008 it terms of its usefulness, thank God. We won’t argue that its tidily arranged breakdown of candidate facts, from information you ought to know about the three contenders (Most Egregious Flip-Flop, Never-Altered Core Position, Greatest Private-Sector Liability) to stuff you just want to know (Best Debate Smackdown, Most Spectacular Source of Income) will aid you in the commission of democracy. We won’t even propose it as a source of quick-rebuttal info next the the family gets together and your dad gets on your case about supporting a communist (or maybe that’s just me).

No, we’ll merely suggest it as a form of surprisingly nutritious brain-snacking — like improbably tasty granola bites you can’t stop popping. McCain caught right-wing crap for his Wedding Crashers cameo! Obama gets a weekly trim at the Hyde Park Hair Barber Studio! Hillary is worth an estimated $34.9 million! We could consume this junk all day.

You don’t need an egg-headed study to tell you that Mainstream Media is in the toilet. Hell, turning on your television will show you that much. Gone are the days when a network anchor would deliver the world to your living room in 30 minutes or less. In 2008, you’re lucky to get 15 minutes of hard news before network and cable producers down shift into celebrity “scoops,” mindless entertainment dispatches or vapid “news you can use” segments.

Ironically — tragically — the 24-hour news cycle is now more likely to lull us to sleep than to call us to action. This ominous trend is only spreading.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism knows something really wrong is going on here. On Monday, it released its annual State of the News Media report, and boy, is it damning. According to the findings, the amount of celebrity coverage is up in cable TV news. So is sophomoric, sensational crime reporting (which monopolizes local newscasts here in Las Vegas). So is (and how ironic is this) spot reporting on how well/poorly the media is doing its job. Interestingly, total war coverage is down. In some cases, way down.

If all of this gloom and doom is getting you down, check out the portion of the study that examines cable television. It’s good for a few belly laughs (or crying jags, depending on how you feel about the media in general). Hey, to pique your interest, we bet you can’t guess which cable news network is leading the entire pack of them straight down the toilet. Go ahead, guess!

Under the impression that Las Vegas is some flamboyant, fabulous and fruit-friendly city, The Advocate published its first Vegas Issue recently, and they certainly didn’t skimp on unearthing gay Sin City.

Besides the obligatory — and predictably fawning — Q&A with Bette Midler, several real Las Vegans are highlighted in a nice photo spread dubbed “The Players.” This includes out members of Cirque du Soleil and Le Reve, beloved drag personality/VIP host Hot Chocolate (aka Larry Edwards), young ‘n’ homo power players like Tao’s Mike Snedeger and nightlife marketing whiz Ryan Smith, The Center Executive Director Candace Nichols — one of the few local lesbians found anywhere in the issue — and hunky KLAS-TV anchor Chris Saldaña, also the face of the community, and really, what better face to assign gay Vegas than his?

There are also the typical pieces highlighting where we gays can spend all our so-called disposable income — namely, boutique hotels and gay-friendly tourist spots. It also mentions the death earlier this year of Jahna Steele, a former showgirl who was revealed by a tabloid show as transgendered (The very-visible transgender community here in town probably deserved more coverage in the issue.).

Most notable were the few items exposing the disillusionment and disappointment some LGBT Vegans feel toward their community. Contrary what that famous Strip sign near the airport says, it seems our city is some ways away from being truly fabulous. Kudos to The Advocate for balanced reporting and keeping Vegas honest.