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Big Media Join Push to Limit Anonymice (NYT)
Concerned that they may have become too free in granting anonymity to sources, news organizations including USA Today, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, NBC News, and The New York Times are trying to throttle back their use.

Study: Media Ignore Women (Newsday)
Cable news and the PBS NewsHour ranked lowest in terms of percentage of stories with at least one female source, at 19 percent and 17 percent respectively. Network TV came in at 27 percent, morning shows at 34 percent , news websites at 36 percent, and print newspapers at 41 percent.

When News Items Attack (Time)
Newsweek's "Periscope" section, which features newsy tidbits, is scrutinized less closely than the rest of the magazine. Because those items are short and often develop late in the week, "there are one or two layers of editing and review that are not there." Newsweek: It now seems clear that we didn't know enough or do enough before publication, and if our traditional procedures did not prevent the mistake, then it is time to clarify and strengthen a number of our policies. NYT: Believe it or not, media's credibility headache gets worse. WaPo: The bashing of Newsweek over its horribly handled item on Koran desecration has mushroomed into a sweeping indictment of the media, which some conservatives now accuse of deliberately slandering the military, writes Howard Kurtz. New York Mag: Newsweek apology not in the edition of the magazine that's actually printed in Arabic. NYT: Station suspends Newsweek program. NYT: The administration has been so successful at bullying the news media that it now believes it can get away with pinning some 17 deaths on an errant single sentence in a 10-sentence "Periscope" item that few noticed until days after its publication, writes Frank Rich. Marketwatch: As the Washington Post Co. grapples with its problem at Newsweek, the media empire could find guidance from examining how it handled another journalistic crisis three decades ago, writes Jon Friedman.

Not to Beeb (The Times)
Broadcasting unions expect up to 10,000 BBC staff to participate in the first of four days of strike action called in protest over plans drawn up by Mark Thompson, the BBC Director-General, to cut 3,780 jobs. Guardian: The 24-hour strike ends at midnight tonight, followed by a 48-hour stoppage next week. Guardian: Brit campaign grows for TV workers' rights. Independent: In his approach to industrial relations, Thompson appears a classic archetype of the life-long insider who rises to lead a media business, writes Matthew Norman.

Reality Bites, Written Shows Come Back (NYDN)
David Bianculli: Last fall, a staggering 21 reality shows were on the network schedules, compared to six the year before. This fall, the number has fallen to 14, a significant and welcome reduction. Shows written by writers and acted by actors, meanwhile, have rebounded. NYT: As they try to keep viewers from defecting to cable and other media, the networks are aggressively shaking up their prime-time lineups. USAT: A network-by-network preview of the fall TV season. Mediaweek: There's a feeling of sameness across all the networks' schedules that left buyers largely unimpressed, writes John Consoli.

GMA Closes in on Today (USAT)
Executives at NBC and ABC are keeping a sharp eye on the morning race, in which a showdown appears to be in the making between the onetime NBC juggernaut and ABC's surging competitor. (Third item.)

CBS Consults Entertainment Execs for News Revamp (NYT)
A meeting last Tuesday at the headquarters of the network's parent company, Viacom, suggests that the network is canvassing opinions from people well outside the news division.

In Tabs Ye Trust (Guardian)
Much of the British public goes to the source it trusts least—tabloid newspapers—for its most crucial everyday information on politics and society, according to a study.

Saddam, Where the Sun Does Shine (AP via LAT)
The British tabloid Saturday published more surreptitious photographs of Saddam Hussein in U.S. custody, a day after it ran a front-page picture of the former Iraqi leader in his underwear. CSM: For Arab press, Hussein photos reinforce view of United States.

Sexy Ads Bagged (NYP)
Ads for an upcoming reality TV series, Beauty and the Geek on the WB network, were rejected by two weekly magazines at Time Inc.—People and Entertainment Weekly—apparently because they were too sexy and provocative.

Paper Builds a Blog for Success (LAT)
The local newspaper of Greensboro, NC, the News & Record, which has a daily circulation of just under 100,000, has embarked on a journalistic experiment that could change the way readers approach and digest the news. NYT: According to the first rigorous look at the influence wielded by political blogs during the 2004 presidential campaign, bloggers are not always the kingmakers that pundits sometimes credit them with being, writes Tom Zeller Jr. WSJ: All you masters of the new-media universe, beware. You only need to look at the established players to understand how easy it is to trip and fall, writes Robert Guth.

Comedy Central Scrambles in Chappelle's Wake (NYT)
The public flameout of the comedian Dave Chappelle midway through production of his hit show's third season has prompted some quick moves at the cable network.

How Old Media Can Survive in a New World (WSJ)
The digital revolution threatens to push the traditional newspaper, television, radio, music and advertising industries into the dustbin of history. Here's what they might do to avoid the fate.

New Look for Budget Living (Mediaweek)
Although the magazine is all about affordability, it's digging deep into its own pockets for a slightly richer design in upcoming issues.

LAT Beats WaPo in Own Backyard (Washingtonian)
Harry Jaffe: In coverage of ethics questions at the National Institutes of Health it may be too harsh to say the Post is in the tank for double-dipping scientists. But a comparison of the coverage between the two papers makes the Post look like a small-town paper trying to protect a big local business.

NYT Op-Ed Columnists Rated (Slate)
Timothy Noah: The New York Times will soon start charging to read its op-ed columnists online. The paper is offering its columnists as an all-or-nothing deal, but I asked Slate readers to rate each columnist according to his or her value. Paul Krugman came out on top.

13 Things Okrent Meant to Write About (NYT)
Daniel Okrent: When I began as NYT public editor, I had a list of about 20 topics I knew I wanted to address. In the ensuing months, I got to about half of those, and devoted the rest of my time and space to issues that exploded out of the pages of the paper and my email in-box.

TV Advertisers Spurning Demographic Goldmine? (LAT)
Editorial: CBS announced the cancellation of four prime-time shows simply because they appealed to a just-over-50 crowd. The network is dumping the baby-boomer demographic bulge, though these graying heads will be alive and spending accumulated wealth for decades to come.

Celebrities Doth Protest too Much? (WaPo)
Hank Stuever: Why can't celebrities manage to take a vacation someplace that the paparazzi can't discover? You want real privacy? It's called Courtyard Marriott. It's called Oklahoma City. It's called Southwest Airlines.

A Room of One's Own (New Yorker)
In Queens, recently, an artists' collective called Flux Factory commissioned architects to design three writers' "habitats"—human terrariums, essentially, into which writers would move for a month's time, as part of a "living installation" called "novel."

Franken Joke Bombs at Reporters' Dinner (E&P)
Jesse Oxfeld: The evening's least successful joke at the gala celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press was delivered by Al Franken, who turned toward NYT writer Judith Miller and said "Maybe you can find some WMD in your cell."

Enquiring Minds Want to Know (Radar)
When American Media kingpin David Pecker imported U.K. editor Paul Field and his crack squad of Fleet Street-ers to take over the Enquirer, he didn't count on one thing: good ol' fashioned Yankee litigiousness.

Russian Protesters Demand Media Freedom (Moscow Times)
Some 1,500 protesters demanded greater press freedom and more access to state-dominated television networks at a Yabloko-organized rally Sunday near the Ostankino television tower. IHT: Russia rises to top in ad world as fastest-growing market.

Google and China (Open Democracy)
Becky Hogge: On May 11, Google announced it would set up shop in the People's Republic by the end of 2005. What can this mean for the citizens of China, and the citizens of the Internet? The Chinese effort to censor the internet is a feat of technology, legislation, and manpower.

—David S. Hirschman