“The Job,” a new reality-competition series that debuts tonight on CBS, attempts to take a serious part of life that everyone has been through–the job interview–and turn it into compelling television.

Of course, with unemployment still high, and reports of layoffs at large companies nearly every week, it is not a subject to take lightly.

“All of us have been in competition for a job at some stage of our lives, and we have just taken that real competition that people are in, and present that opportunity to candidates who would not otherwise get the opportunity,” the show’s executive producer Michael Davies tells me. “We were very responsible, and we are very aware of how serious this is, and how much it meant to our candidates.”

Each week the show features a different business; for the first episode it is The Palm steakhouse, and for the second (as we reported a few weeks ago) Cosmopolitan magazine is the featured company. During the show, which is hosted by Lisa Ling, five candidates engage in a variety of tasks under the watchful eye of executives from the featured company, from field training to a quiz show-esque grilling. The grand prize is not a fake job with a big salary, but a real, normal, middle-class gig. At The Palm it is an assistant manager job, at Cosmo it is an editorial assistant position.

Davies says that of the 40 contestants that appeared on the program, 16 landed jobs.

“These applicants had no intention of becoming reality stars, their only objective was to try and secure their dream job,” Ling tells me. “They were all incredibly qualified, and in fact vetted by the various companies HR departments as well. These were all very qualified people, who have been working toward pursuing a job at this company or in the industry being featured.”

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Starting September off strong, Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy‘s Matt Van Hoven had lots of media news to talk about this morning on the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast, including a tasteless ad and imprisoned journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee‘s first statement since their release from North Korea last month.

Yesterday, Matt tracked a story on AgencySpy about a purported ad for World Wildlife Fund, which showed a scene that played off of the idea of September 11. The point of the ad, which depicted several planes nosediving into lower Manhattan, was to illustrate how many more people were killed in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami than in the World Trade Center attacks.

Once the ad became public, WWF denounced it as “offensive and tasteless” and said it never should have seen the light of day. But, now the world — or at least most of New York — has seen it, just a few days before the eighth anniversary of this horrible day in our city’s history.

And speaking of a horrible day, Matt and Jason also discussed Ling and Lee’s harrowing tale of their arrest in North Korea in March. However, Matt was quick to point out that in their statement released today, the journalists were careful to emphasize the reason that they were near North Korea at all, which was to report on sex trafficking and North Korean defectors.

“The story of these two is so compelling, but I think it’s sort of over,” Matt said. “And there is this whole other big issue that I hope doesn’t get lost.”

Also discussed: ad spending dropped more than 15 percent during the first half of the year; Laura Ling’s shopping a book with her sister, journalist and former member of “The View,” Lisa Ling; and an update on the Google book settlement.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

TVNewser: Former “View” host Lisa Ling told CNN‘s Erica Hill that her sister, Laura, admitted that she and Euna Lee did cross into North Korean territory “very, very briefly.” “And she definitely wants to divulge exactly what happened,” Ling went on. “And I think she’s going to write an editorial very, very soon.”

Reuters: Cox Enterprises has taken the Austin American-Statesman off the market. “This is a profitable company, and it just did not make sense to sell it for the prices offered,” publisher Michael Vivio said.

Editor & Publisher: The New York Times has axed actor and business columnist Ben Stein because of this Freescore.com ad. Reuter’s Felix Salmon may be a little too gleeful about this.

Broadcast Union News: The unions are protesting bankrupt Tribune Co.‘s request to pay almost $70 million in bonuses to executives. A bankruptcy court judge will hold a hearing on the matter next week.

Gawker: There are reports that NBC is laying off its creative services promotional teams at local stations around the country.