"I would trust citizen journalism as much as I trust citizen surgery!" said the "60 Minutes" great Morley Safer. This was from a speech discussing bloggers and why they might possibly cover breaking news in the world's streets just as well as professional journalists.

I thought of this when reading the story in the new Vanity Fair of the epic struggle between Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal and Arthur Sulzberger's New York Times.

I have to agree with Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter's opinion that New York City is big enough for both newspapers and we need them both.

Yesterday, in my local Bon-Bon Hair Salon on 3rd Avenue, my stylist Lolita was humming and singing along with Lady Gaga and told me how talented and wonderful this showbiz phenomenon really is.

Be that as it may, my own admiration for Lady Gaga increased when I learned from watching "The Rachel Maddow Show" that Gaga had several "dates" the night of the MTV Awards. She was accompanied by at least four former members of the Armed Services, men and women who had been dismissed under the disastrous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" debacle.

Even before I went down to Barnes & Noble in Tribeca the other eve to introduce the veteran writer Glenn Plaskin and discuss his new book about the dog that took Manhattan, I realized I was just a small oarsman in the big boat of Glenn's PR. I asked Glenn questions about why his cocker spaniel "Katie" had won more media space already than the search for someone to play Scarlett O'Hara back in 1936.

Dogs are mighty popular these days and "Katie" has been read and lauded by Betty White, Joan Rivers, Judge Judy and Mary Tyler Moore. "Katie," it seems, brought an entire apartment complex together, teaching everyone the meaning of dedication, loyalty and friendship. Her death in old age caused more tears than were shed over Princess Diana.

But I do urge you to read the compelling story of "Katie" because if you don't, Glenn Plaskin will hunt you down (like a dog!) and you'll pay for missing the experience. No kidding; very touching book.

When President Obama said recently, off the cuff, that the GOP talked about him like he was a dog, maybe he should have just let himself have the compliment. After all, there are "dogs" and there was "Katie" who has been complimented to the skies.

SPEAKING of dogs, I was sitting in the sidewalk table at Swifty's on Lexington and 73 and I thought once again how much I love the cafe's logo, which shows a pug named "Swifty" with a spoon in his mouth.

This fetching drawing is the art centerpiece promoting the Fete de Swifty, which will be raising money for The Mayor's Fund to Advance NYC happening in a tent with a big cocktail blast on Sept. 29. (The Fete and the cafe have no connection other than that Swifty's supplies lots of our goodies at the party. Glorious Foods helps us too. This is a community effort.)

We have raised several million dollars for Mayor Bloomberg's Fund in the past few years, just eating, drinking, out-cocktailing others and having a convivial social party. With the proceeds, we have built a number of safe service centers against domestic violence in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.

Our chairmen are dedicated important people -- all fighting for victimized women and children. They are Nicole Kidman, Tim Gunn, Mariska Hargitay, Mary J. Blige, John Starks, Steve Stoute and Malik Yoba. There are spiffy items up for grabs on our auction site www.charitybuzz.com/fete. For instance, you might bid for a dazzling lunch with Liz and Tim Gunn. For tickets to the actual event, call 212-788-7794 or try www.nyc.gov/fund.

The mayor and I will be there and we'd love your support for battered families that need legal, criminal, social help from the city.

EVERYWHERE I turn I see the name Florida -- TV shows, documentaries, hurricane reruns, oil spill reactions, and vacationland, so with all eyes on Florida, how about a fiction from newcomer Sue Wells Kirwan. She has included her historical forebears plus a modern mystery and tales of life in Northeast Florida and its many islands -- San Marco, Jacksonville, Dames Point, Fort George, Big and Little Talbot Islands, Fernandina and Mayport to name a few. The book "Hurricane" is a rousing mystery with lots of real-life ancestors, history and geography. (Frankly, I could have used a map!) But writer Kirwan is a comer and brings Florida closer.

I love the Brits. Some of them are up in arms over the idea that Meryl Streep might play Margaret Thatcher in a film set about the time of the Falklands conflict.

One Rupert Christiansen questions the choice, saying, "I can't think when she (Meryl) has appeared in a seriously good film."

Hmmm, what in the world, I ask you then were the following: "Doubt," for which she was Oscar-nominated; likewise "Julie and Julia," in which she so delightfully played Julia Child; and then there was her turn before those movies as an Anna Wintour-like character in "The Devil Wears Prada," one of the liveliest, funniest comedies of our time. It wasn't a "serious" film but she certainly deserves credit for the blockbuster results of the musical "Mamma Mia!" in which she sang, danced and behaved like a mad woman. This was a bonanza for the British film biz.

I imagine Meryl could assay Maggie with her hands tied behind her back. But who would play Ronald Reagan?

(E-mail Liz Smith at MES3838@aol.com, or write to her c/o Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207.)