Read all about it; AOL goes tabloid “above the fold”

“Pics show beauty topless, kissing married TV star”..“Reality show couple calls it quits”…“Star is skin and bones on red carpet”…or if you don’t like that anorexically-inclined headline, try “Skinny actress frumpy in white”…“One busy, hot mama tells how to get in shape quickly”…

At 10:30 p.m. PST on July 15, 2008 – the end of a day that saw more stomach-churning stock market volatility, more violent death in Iraq and Afghanistan and closer poll results in the presidential race – the front page of AOL showed some, shall we say, interesting priorities among those who are making the news judgment calls and authorizing the headlines at this major portal.

Not that Yahoo! or MSN, viewed at the same time, were in danger of being confused with PBS’s “Newshour with Jim Lehrer.” It’s just that AOL seemed to be taking most of its news cues lately from its sister entertainment/celebrity gossip website TMZ.com.