Viacom Splitsville? (NYP)
Viacom's controlling shareholder Sumner Redstone said yesterday he is considering breaking up the media giant into separate publicly traded companies. NYT: Question raised whether, after a decade of building media conglomerates, companies will now start breaking them up. LAT: The proposed breakup underscores the challenges facing the entertainment industry as it realizes that acquisitions have in many cases done as much harm as good. Ad Age: Concept would group CBS, Infinity Broadcasting, and the outdoor advertising division into one company, and Viacom's cable assets, including MTV, Nickelodeon and VH1, into another.

Wire Story (E&P)
The Associated Press will now offer two different leads for many of its stories: the traditional "straight lead," and another "alternative approach" that attempts to draw in the reader through imagery, narrative devices, perspective, or other creative means.

New FCC Head a 'Deal Maker' (NYT)
Kevin J. Martin, a telecommunications lawyer known for his pragmatic and independent streak as a Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission, was selected by President Bush on Wednesday to become the agency's 26th chairman. LAT: Martin takes the reins at a tricky time for the agency.

Men Quiet on Female Pundits? (Slate)
Dahlia Lithwick: There are at least a dozen ways to parse and think through the acknowledged underrepresentation of women opinion writers, and yet—to the extent that we are having a national conversation on the topic—it is a conversation so far almost wholly lacking the voices of men. National Post: If a woman needs finding and nurturing, she's wrong for the job of columnist, writes Barbara Kay. City Journal: In her column about female columnists, Maureen Dowd reveals her confusion between genuine insight and clever sarcasm, between tough criticism and Mean Girl attitude, writes Kay S. Hymowitz. WaPo: Post columnist Anne Applebaum writes that she is a token.

Circ Watchdogs Eyeing Crackdown (NYP)
After a string of circulation scandals, the watchdogs of the publishing industry said they expect changes in the way newspapers and magazines account for problems in one category used to calculate readership.

King's Ransom (Variety)
CNN has inked a contract extension with Larry King, keeping the iconic interviewer at the news network through 2009.

Mary Elizabeth Cronkite Dead (NYT)
Former editor Mary Elizabeth Cronkite, known as Betsy, the wife of the former CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite, died on Tuesday at her Manhattan apartment at 89.

Rice Evades Blogger Stasi (WaPo)
Tina Brown: We are in the Eggshell Era, in which everyone has to tiptoe around because there's a world of busybodies out there who are being paid to catch you out—and a public that is slowly being trained to accept a culture of finks.

Enron the Patron Saint of Bush's Fake News? (NYT)
Frank Rich: The enduring legacy of Enron can be summed up in one word: propaganda. And like Enron's stockholders, American taxpayers are paying for the production of the administration's propaganda, even if its message misrepresents and distorts the scheme being sold.

USAT Eradicates Anonymice (Slate)
Jack Shafer: The idea that the enthusiastic slaughter of anonymous sources will somehow bring quality journalism to a standstill is disproved five days a week by USA Today.

Martha Movie May Muss Makeover (LAT)
Martha Stewart is planning multiple TV projects to continue repairing her battered image. But she might not like what CBS, her onetime broadcast partner, is cooking up.

FrankenEisner's Iger=Igor? (LA Weekly)
Nikki Finke: You'd hardly know from the overwhelmingly obsequious media coverage that, in reality, the Disney board's promotion of president Robert Iger was a monstrous move. Newsweek: Disney critic Stanley Gold is far from assuaged by Michael Eisner's upcoming departure.

Jacko Coverage Spike (USAT)
Both print and electronic media have stepped up coverage during testimony from Jackson's chief accuser, following an incident when Jackson emerged from his SUV dressed in pajamas.

Media Violence a Myth? (Salon)
Andrew O'Hehir: Contrary to the moralistic claims of Hillary Clinton and others, bloody video games and movies are not a major cause of crime. But they are a powerful drug we don't understand.

Reporters Not Shying Away (USAT)
Judging from President Bush's news conference Wednesday, an uproar that followed a question he got in January hasn't made reporters shy about asking potentially controversial questions.

Advice for New Affair (Page Six)
Maury Povich, who hosted A Current Affair for most of its 10-year run on Fox starting in 1986, had some fatherly words of advice for Tim Green, the host of the revived edition debuting Monday.

Al Jazeera Reporter Released (Guardian)
Tayseer Allouni, a Syrian-born Spanish citizen, faces terrorism-related charges in Spain and will remain under house arrest.

Investigator: CBS Reports Shouldn't Stain Rather (Boston Globe)
Mark Jurkowitz: Louis D. Boccardi, who co-authored the postmortem report on last September's flawed 60 Minutes Wednesday story on President Bush's military record, suggests Dan Rather deserves better.

Tabloid Valley Vanishes (New Times)
Later this month, the National Enquirer, which came to sleepy Lantana in 1971, will move to New York City, leaving behind a long history in South Florida.

Eying the Elite, After a Fashion
Yesterday, IMG's The Daily launched The Daily Front Row Extra, an oversize glossy that will compete with Women's Wear Daily's WWDScoop, which launches next week.

—David S. Hirschman