The finalists for the Online Journalism Awards were announced today, and the Globe/Boston.com got the nod in two categories. The big Ted Kennedy series is one of three contenders in Multimedia Feature Presentation, Large Site. Also, Tony Massarotti's "Mazz" column is a prospective winner for Online Commentary/Blogging, Large Site.

One of Dick Cheney's big arguments against US attorney general Eric Holder's CIA-interrogation probe is that the Justice Department has already closed the book on interrogation practices at the agency. Here's how Cheney put it in yesterday's Fox News Sunday interview:

[Holder's investigation] is based upon the inspector general's report that was sent to the Justice Department five years ago, was completely reviewed by the Justice Department in years past.

Moderator Jon Keller of WBZ reports that Boston's mayoral candidates, who were supposed to do rhetorical battle this evening, have instead rescheduled for Wednesday, September 2, from 7-8 pm, with the proceedings broadcast live on WBZ-TV (Channel 4) and WBZ-AM (1030).

Very good news. With three full weeks before the preliminary election, there'll be plenty of time for the debate's outcome to impact the mayoral race.

Via Romenesko, here's Editor and Publisher's run-down of where papers put Chappaquiddick in their Ted Kennedy obits.

For those keeping score at home: the Globe put it in the fifth paragraph, the Herald in the tenth. Which isn't that odd, given the considerable attention paid to the fatal accident in the Globe's recent Ted Kennedy bio, and the Herald's recent love affair with Kennedy.

Like a lot of other people, I couldn't wait to hear Howie Carr's gloss on Ted Kennedy's death today.

Carr's been on the WRKO airwaves for about 20 minutes now, and here's the Cliffs Notes version: he's warned his callers to keep the discussion civil, but has no interest in trotting out a Mitt Romney-type profession of admiration for someone whose politics he condemns.

Like the Weekly Standard, Rush Limbaugh seems to be turning a blind eye to Ted Kennedy's death, at least on the web. So I tuned in to WRKO to see what Limbaugh is saying on air--only to discover that WRKO has bumped him, due to Kennedy's passing, and is instead running local programming from Tom Finneran and Avi Nelson.

It's not clear what other changes might be in store today at WRKO.

That would be the Weekly Standard's Web site, which has seven Wednesday blog posts as of this writing--and nary a mention of Kennedy's death.

And yes, that includes a conspicuous non-mention of Kennedy in the "The Daily Grind," the Standard's wrap-up of today's headlines.

Fun fact: back in June, when Rupert Murdoch sold the Standard to Phil Anschutz--the staunch conservative and would-be Michael Jackson promoter--editor Bill Kristol promised a "stronger Web presence."

UPDATE: Anschutz's Clarity Media Group also owns the Examiner.com web sites. At Examiner.com's Boston iteration, you have to hunt for any Kennedy reference--but you can find one if you try! (Clue: it's not in the widget; that's taken by "Nothing Good to Eat," "Cross Trainers Vs. Treadmills, which is better for you?", and "Arthritis and multisport.")

Still stumped? Scroll down, keep your eyes on the left-hand side of the page, and you'll find it: "Ted Kennedy dies at 77 locals [sic] saddened, but questions remain," written by the Middlesex County Libertarian Examiner. Here's the closing paragraph:

 As is typical of socialists good intentions do not justify the ends.  Failure of socialism is the inability to correctly consider all individual needs and ill effects of a one-fit-all approach.  Kennedy may have created numerous incidents of people benefiting, but ignoring the broader consequences of such policies clouds judgment and loses sight of reality.  We must learn from mistakes of such broad legislation, ask questions and avoid being blinded by benevolence.

So writes WBZ spokeswoman Ro Dooley-Webster:

Dear Media Colleagues…

In light of the death of Senator Kennedy, tonight’s live Mayoral debate has been postponed. Jon Keller is in touch with the campaigns, and they are working to find a date when the debate can be rescheduled. Once a date is set, we will be back in touch with all of you.

Via the National Review--which, in contrast to Fox News, seems willing to give Ted Kennedy's death a blatantly political gloss, or to damn Kennedy with faint praise--here's an unequivocally laudatory Kennedy tribute from Mitt Romney:

The loss of Senator Ted Kennedy is a sad event for America, and especially for Massachusetts.

Just watched the start of Fox News's 9 AM newscast, which was (as you'd expect) devoted to Ted Kennedy's death--and I was pleasantly surprised at how ideologically neutral Fox's handling of this story was.

The top-of-the-hour coverage lasted 13 minutes, and Chappaquiddick--which, as the Globe notes today, is a key point in the arc of Kennedy's life and career--didn't come up until minute 9.

John Freeman thinks so, obviously, or he wouldn't have whipped up this lengthy essay for the Wall Street Journal (which is adapted from a forthcoming book, but still).

In a couple places, Freeman is too hyperbolic. I don't think I email to avoid reckoning with death, for example. And when ducked into a nearby park to read Freeman's piece, I didn't just see people hunched over their laptops, pulled out of their physical environment.

Like the Globe's Alex Beam, I'm not entirely convinced that the new Huffington Post-Facebook partnership represents the "future of journalism." But in his run-down of former "future of journalism" nominees that failed, Beam takes his curmudgeonly shtick a bit too far.

Here's the problematic quote in question:

This CBS obituary describes the "60 Minutes" creator as a "TV news giant"--a characterization which, it seems, is completely hyperbole-free.

Like his colleague Walter Cronkite, Hewitt had a key role in TV's coverage of a seemingly endless array of historic events. But he also played a pivotal part in creating the genre of TV news itself: