There’s a bit of a media brouhaha over at 1150 15th Street NW concerning the future of Washington Post television and culture critic Tom Shales. Shales, who has been working on contract for the Post after taking the newspaper’s buyout back in 2006, wrote on Washington Post Co. CEO Don Graham’s Facebook wall that he was up and quitting his job come December 31. Shales reconfirmed late last night with TBD’s Andrew Beaujon that he was definitely leaving. But Washingtonian’s Harry Jaffe reported today that Shales is still under contract for 2011. But is everyone overlooking the most interesting part of this story? As DCist pop culture contributor Chris Klimek points out, Jaffe’s Washingtonian story on Shales says that the critic had been “making in the neighborhood of $400,000 a year” while writing for the Post before the buyout. Holy cow. In yet another incredible twist to the story, Shales told Beaujon that he is “heavily in debt and my house is underwater.”