At CNN, News That Plays to the Ratings (NYT)
David Carr: After dumping the yelling heads of Crossfire, Jonathan Klein, president of CNN's domestic operations, said that the network was doubling down on straight reporting: "We are not about fomenting an agenda." That seems to depend on who is doing the fomenting. At 6 p.m. every night on CNN, Lou Dobbs bangs the gong of anti-immigration until one's ears bleed. And last Tuesday, Anderson Cooper gave his program to Angelina Jolie for a two-hour infomercial fomenting an agenda — saving Africa — in a way that more closely resembled a late-night plea from Sally Struthers than a news program.

Writer Murray Waas Sat on His Own Life-and-Death Story (WaPo)
National Journal investigative reporter Murray Waas learned he had "incurable" colon cancer in 1987 but remained mum until recently because he says he believes cancer survivors face workplace discrimination.

Calacanis Goes Corporate (New York Mag)
Jason Calacanis' decision to stay at AOL isn't all that hard to grasp. As Google, Yahoo, and the other Web powers take their place as the big kahunas of advertising and marketing, they're increasingly the repository of the strivers and climbers who used to flock to broadcast and print.

Remembering NYRB Founder Barbara Epstein (NYer)
David Remnick: For all the seriousness of Barbara's work, and for all the time she put into it, her friends knew her as perhaps the least self-serious serious person imaginable. Personal warmth and oblique suggestion was her editorial technique.

More Newsfeed here...