Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that the SEC has launched a preliminary inquiry into Pixar, the as-yet untainted animation studio run by Apple god Steve Jobs. It concerns the way in which the studio accounted for sales of its hit theatrical cartoon “The Incredibles.” It comes six weeks after comparable news about its main competitor Dreamworks Animation.

As the Journal went about its reporting yesterday, Pixar pulled a disappearing act. It did not acknowledge the inquiry nor did it offer any comment to The Journal. (For what it’s worth, nor did the SEC.) Did Pixar’s communications counselors have the wherewithal to urge management to go public with the news at the time the company knew it? Perhaps they were thwarted by Pixar’s general counsel or the sometimes thin-skinned Mr. Jobs?

Hey. It’s August. Why ruin a few summer vacations?

I may be late to the dialogue on this story, but blogger and media pundit Jeff Jarvis’s viral campaign against Dell Computer raises some very important questions for our industry. In fact, Business Week blogger Stephen Baker wonders today whether the tumult Jarvis has caused Dell falls in the domain of the customer service or media relations department at the world’s largest seller of PCs.

Already, the PR pundits have looked at this every which way but up. Personally, I am more interested in the power the loudest voices in the blogosphere now find themselves with. On Sunday, another highly linked-to, i.e., influential, blogger Mark Cuban turned the tables on a journalist he didn’t like by posting the raw content of his interview with that journalist.

Granted, Jeff Jarvis had some very legitimate complaints about Dell. But who’s to say that other newly empowered bloggers won’t abuse their lofty position in the blogosphere or use it for their own aggrandizement?

Whatever the personal or professional motivations of the few but growing number of online “influencers,” PR practitioners need to be cognizant of the biggest bloggers’ ability to impact reputations — both online and off.

In a place where the fabulous and fabulously connected work, it’s no small feat to manage the regular leakage of news and gossip. This is especially true at Conde Nast, home to glam glossies like Vanity Fair, Vogue, Glamour, Architectural Digest, GQ, and sister pubs W, The New Yorker, HG, etc. Case in point: the big news today on the defection of the highly regarded Joanne Lipman from the Wall Street Journal to Conde Nast to start a new business magazine. The news comes just prior to next month’s launch of Lipman’s baby, the Wall Street Journal’s Weekend edition.

I was trying to figure out just how this story evolved. Based on the reports in today’s Times and NY Post, it appears that Conde Nast played a back seat role to Dow Jones, which issued a news release focusing on Ms. Lipman’s replacement. There didn’t seem to be a news release from Conde Nast, so the company’s PR honcho Mauri Perl comandeered CEO Charles Townsend to avail himself to reporters. (Conde Nast, a private company, does not post news releases on its site. Most of the publicizing is done at the magazine level.)

The take-away, much to Dow Jones’s relief, honed in on Conde Nast’s foray and less on the future vitality of the company’s flagship newspaper’s new weekend edition, which Ms. Lipman has agreed to head only through its Sept. 17 intro.