In today’s media (bad) news, Condé Nast is facing some very ugly ad-sales tumbles, and the New York Times is running front-page ads for the first time. But Haute Living San Francisco has just been, inexplicably, unveiled. And as always, the media is the first to report on news of its own demise!

If you didn't know it yet, we are gay for Andrew Ross Sorkin. We know that sounds complicated considering the fact that he's straight and married, Intel editor Chris is already gay, and Intel editor Jessica is a girl, but it's just the best way to say it. In fact, if you google "Andrew Ross Sorkin Gay," Daily Intel provides the fifth and sixth results. (Here's hoping that, after this post, we'll be number one.) Anyway, we were delighted to learn that our favorite Times business columnist and DealBook blogger will be getting his own TV mini-series! You're going to see him in living, moving, giggling color. The Adorkable Sorkin will host a new seven-part WNET.com series on Channel Thirteen and WLIW21 starting on Thursday. It'll be called It's the Economy, NY! (we don't really get it, either) and the first episode will feature interviews with Dick Parsons and Steve Forbes. It'll be like Charlie Rose, but with the economy and the sexy, and without all that smug eyebrow action.

It's the Economy, NY! What's Happening and What It Means to You [MarketWatch]

So far, the SEC hearing in front of the House Financial Services Committee on the Madoff matter has been fairly ho-hum. Star witness Harry Markopolos canceled his appearance, because he was sick or chained up somewhere by Monica Noel, and even Barney Frank seems off his game. But now things seem to be heating up. Long Island Representative Gary Ackerman just busted out with: "Whose job is it to protect the investors? Because I wanna tell them that they suck at it." Iced. He also called H. David Kotz, the SEC inspector general, "the Jacques Cousteau of the Keystone Cops," which is some old-person reference we don't understand but sounds nasty and like he spent all night thinking it up. "This is more than a nail in the coffin," he finished. "This is a stake in the heart of the American financial system." Go Team New York!

House Financial Services Commitee [Official Website]
Live-Blogging the House Hearing on Madoff [DealBook/NYT]

Once a week, Daily Intel takes a peek behind doors left slightly ajar. This week: The Struggling British Actor on a Trip to Chicago, 37, male, Williamsburg, gay, single.

DAY ONE
8 a.m.: I woke right at the point in the dream where you don’t want to wake up. I was getting into a sauna, back in London for some reason.
8:03 a.m.: Ignored my morning hard-on, even though a wank always helps me get out of bed.
9 a.m. Thinking about how if I had stayed in London, would probably be living with my ex. He knew my acting dream wasn’t happening in New York. He practically told me to go. Maybe it was his way of getting rid of me. So anyway, here I am, in New York, single, unemployed, and thinking about him a lot. I miss the attention, but I don’t miss him.
10 a.m.: On subway to the Bronx for an audition, check out a cutie, trendy, confident, young. I prefer an older man. He smiles as he exits the carriage. I smile back. Who would want to date a 37-year-old unemployed actor?
4 p.m.: Audition was a waste of time. Subway. Spot a lovely Latino man, rugged, big hands. Nice. Maybe I just need a hug or a slap! Either one would do.
4:10 p.m.: British porn site. Wank. Feel better already.
6 p.m.: Audition in Long Island City. Isn’t quite the Off Broadway I had in mind. But an audition’s an audition.
10 p.m.: Dinner with friend. He had 500 packaged condoms on table (I didn't think sex was on the menu). But hey! He said they’re a long story, but did I want them?
11:35 p.m.: Roommate had boyfriend over, other roommate had girlfriend over, and I had glass of milk and went to bed. Too old to be sharing a flat. Feeling very lonesome tonight.

This morning newspapers told us about Obama's plan to include $300 billion of tax cuts in his $775 billion, two-year stimulus plan. The cuts, for individuals and businesses, are more than both parties anticipated and seems to be designed to make the bill more palatable to Republicans. If so, it's worked: The conservative Chamber of Congress Commerce issued a statement saying it was encouraged by the news and released a statement of early praise. Of course, in that statement they asked for more tax cuts, which is exactly what Paul Krugman predicted Republicans would do. The Times columnist thinks the GOP will never get onboard, even with 40 percent of the plan going to tax cuts. While the Nobel Prize–winning economist thinks that tax cuts are necessary, especially in the first year of the plan, he thinks Obama's might be too large and represent too much of a concession to the right.

Crime may have gone down in New York City in the past decade, but crime against old ladies seems to be one thing that doesn't let up. "You see an old lady go into a dark house [and] if that's the kind of person you are, you see that as a meal ticket," said Kevin Beckles, 33, the grandson of Vivian Squires, who was robbed and slashed in her Queens home the other night. Maybe it's because our criminals have gotten wimpier. And also dumber. Because the one thing criminals don't seem to have learned is that New York grandmas are made of steel. And we don't just mean the bolts in their hip replacements. Squires beat off her attacker when he tried to smother her: He only got a few slashes in before taking off with her purse and, according to the Daily News, "driving off in her gold 2004 Chrysler Sebring sedan." Yeah. Nice score, tough guy. The ladies are going to be real impressed with that ride.

Gritty granny, 86, fights off prowler [NYDN]