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ABC Anchor, Cameraman Badly Injured By Bomb in Iraq (NYT)
One of the new co-anchors of ABC's evening newscast, Bob Woodruff, and a network cameraman suffered head wounds and other serious injuries on Sunday when a large roadside bomb struck the Iraqi military vehicle carrying them north of the capital. ABC News: They remain in serious but stable condition following surgery at a U.S. military hospital in Iraq and will be treated at a medical facility in Germany. NYT: What happened to Woodruff and Vogt was one of those chilling television moments that mark a milestone. This conflict has shown all too clearly that soldiers, civilians, aid workers, and journalists are all targets, writes Alessandra Stanley. WaPo: "He is one of the bravest and most rugged and curious journalists I've ever worked with," said former ABC correspondent Linda Douglass. USAT: Injury highlights dangers reporters face. LAT: Hard story for ABC to report. TVNewser: Continuing coverage as story develops.

60 Minutes Founding Director Arthur Bloom Dies (NYT)
As director, he oversaw the taping of the in-studio parts of the broadcast and contributed to the development of the program's signature visual elements, including the magazine backdrop used on the set as well as the famous ticking stopwatch.

Dowd: Times to Call Frey's Work 'Fiction' (E&P)
The New York Times influential bestseller list will soon indicate that James Frey admitted fabricating parts of his "nonfiction" memoir A Million Little Pieces, columnist Maureen Dowd disclosed Saturday. GalleyCat: Brooklyn librarians call Frey's book "fiction." NYT: At a time when the publishing business is struggling with the meaning of truth and memoir, Martha Sherrill is in a way the anti-James Frey. NYT: Oprahness trumps "truthiness." WWD: At least one character in James Frey's second memoir, My Friend Leonard, exists in real life, precisely as described. It's Bella, Frey's pit bull. USAT: Frey got a tongue-lashing from Oprah Winfrey last week, but his problems are far from over. Newsweek: Behind Oprah's wrath. Chicago Tribune: Lawsuits against Little Pieces.

Media Buyers: CW Network Should Stay 'Grounded' (Mediaweek)
Media buyers are lauding the merging of financially struggling broadcast networks UPN and the WB into the new CW Network, but cherry-picking the best programming from both networks for one schedule doesn't mean cost-per-thousand rates should skyrocket, they warned. Mediaweek: Could CW lead to a CBS, CNN union?

Gunga Dan: What Journalism Needs Is More Backbone (LAT)
Journalists, said former CBS anchor Dan Rather, must recognize that they have a duty and reconnect with their role in a system of checks and balances. "American journalism needs a spine transplant and we need it quickly," he said.

Disney Shareholders May Seek to Remove Mitchell (NYP)
Last year, the company's Chairman George Mitchell withheld a lukewarm evaluation of Bob Iger— then just a candidate to replace Eisner as CEO—from the rest of the board, a development that could spark major proxy advisory firms to call for his removal.

TV News Vulnerable to 'Dictatorship of the Demographic' (NYT via WhateverAlready, second item)
Ted Koppel: Most television news programs are designed to satisfy the perceived appetites of our audiences. That may be not only acceptable but unavoidable in entertainment; in news, however, it is the journalists who should be telling their viewers what is important, not the other way around. MediaCitizen: The exposure of economic influence on the reporting of major newsrooms—as detailed by Koppel—delivers not just a near fatal blow to the credibility of our "free press" but also to the future of our democracy, writes Timothy Karr.

Google Challenges EU Plan to Regulate Internet (Telegraph)
The Internet search giant plans to lead industry opposition to new proposals from the European Commission to regulate online content. LAT: Web's fate may hinge on ISPs' neutrality.

Time for Tim Russert to 'Do an Oprah' (HuffPo)
"In order to protect his brand as a hard-charging, truth-probing journalist," John Cusack said, "Team Russert needs to do an Oprah: haul back on his show Cheney and Rumsfeld and all the politicians who've lied to him on the set and damaged his credibility and confront them straight out."

Journal Gets Personal (NYT)
The Wall Street Journal is expanding its coverage of people and running a comprehensive index of all the people who are mentioned significantly in that day's newspaper.

History's Warning for Newspapers (Slate)
Jack Shafer: You can make the case that the next entrenched "guild" that technology is likely to bulldoze is the "newspaper guild." I'm not speaking of the union of the same name, but of those who work in the news business—reporters, editors, publishers, radio and TV broadcasters, etc.

Photogs Slam Staged White House Pics (E&P)
While the practice of providing news organizations with staged photos of events involving the president goes back decades, veteran shooters at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue say it has become almost a regular occurrence with the Bush Administration.

New York Mag Critic Dishes on Affairs With Elvis, Clint (Page Six)
In her upcoming memoir, Insatiable: Tales From a Life of Delicious Excess, due out in April from Warner Books, unrepentant hedonist Gael Greene describes steamy nights of passion in between dishing on her favorite haute-cuisine meals.

Police Take Stern Fans Sirius-ly (Lowdown)
Steppin' Out mag editor Chaunce Hayden has learned that you might get death threats if you insult Howard Stern. Stern acolytes threatened Hayden with fatal violence on an online fan site after he took part in Neil Cavuto's Fox News Channel show and slammed the Sirius Satellite Radio jock.

Masters of Manipulation (Marketwatch)
Jon Friedman: Oprah Winfrey, Joel Stein, and Bode Miller should feel very proud of themselves. Last week, each one of them played the media for fools and got away with it. Journalists failed to scrutinize what they said and, more importantly, what they wanted to accomplish in the first place.

How Reality TV Fakes It (Time)
Quotes are manufactured, crushes and feuds constructed out of whole cloth, episodes planned in multiact "storyboards" before taping, scenes stitched together out of footage shot days apart.

Canned Postie Fires Back (Gatecrasher)
Ben Widdicombe: Fired New York Post freelancer Ian Spiegelman is about to drop a juicy roman a clef about his time on Page Six, and I have the first copy.

Blogs Moving Into Video (NYT)
Until recently, bloggers have been heard but rarely seen. But now two popular Web sites, Gawker and PostSecret, are planning to develop and publish original video content.

Protests Over Indonesian Version of Playboy (Guardian)
The magazine has signed a deal to publish an Indonesian edition. It will be the company's 21st international edition, although Walker said publication has been delayed until "both partners are satisfied the product addresses the sensitivities of the marketplace."

—David S. Hirschman