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CNN Correspondent Out After 'Date Rape Journalist' Accusation (Journal-isms)
CNN Africa correspondent Jeff Koinange is no longer employed by the network, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday without elaboration. His departure comes after a blog in Kenya accused him of being "the Kenyan date rape journalist." The Kenyan-born Koinange "is no longer employed at CNN, and we are not commenting beyond that," spokeswoman Christa Robinson said.

Sony Disputes Pirates Record-Setting Sail (Deadline Hollywood Daily)
Sony: "While Disney and the filmmakers of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End deserve their due on a remarkable opening worldwide, there are some irregularities in their claim regarding record-setting. There are at least two territories, Italy and France, where Buena Vista International opened the film on Tuesday — in essence adding a seventh day of grosses into Pirates' 'six day record.'" Variety: $404 million. Daily Mail: Panned Pirates still finds box office treasure.

Chavez Says He Will Sue CNN Over Al Qaeda Link (Agence France-Presse)
Venezuela says it will file charges against CNN for linking President Hugo Chavez to Al Qaeda. It says it will also sue a Venezuelan TV network for encouraging Chavez's assassination. The move comes a day after popular Venezuelan TV network RCTV went off the air after the Chavez Government cancelled its broadcast license. CNN issued a statement strongly denying being engaged in a campaign to discredit or attack Venezuela. The network has acknowledged a video mix-up and "aired a detailed correction and expressed regret for the involuntary error."

FTC To Review Google's Plans To Expand (LAT)
Google said Tuesday the Federal Trade Commission has launched an antitrust review of its plan to buy DoubleClick Inc., an online advertising company, for $3.1 billion. The FTC gave Google a detailed list of questions to answer about the deal's potential impact. Concerned about the implications of marrying Google's vast amount of consumer information with that collected by DoubleClick, public interest groups have pressed the agency to review the deal.

Hasselbeck Hopes To Reconcile With Rosie (E!)
While Rosie O'Donnell, now a former cohost of The View, said in a video posting on her blog that she didn't envision speaking with Elisabeth Hasselbeck any time soon in light of last week's politically-charged dustup, Hasselbeck was back on the air Tuesday suggesting that a reconciliation was still in the cards. "This weekend gave us the opportunity to tackle our most important hot topic yet, and that was the power of forgiveness," Hasselbeck told the studio audience. Forbes: The View without Rosie.

How To Save the Peacock: Reality TV (Forbes)
"It would be a mistake for NBC to try to be all things to all people," says Jack Myers, publisher of Media Business Reports, an industry newsletter. "But they clearly have to broaden the appeal of their programming." More mainstream and more male-oriented fare would be Myers' advice for the peacock network. The fastest and surest way to grab more viewers, he says, is to add more reality television. NYP: Ousted NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly negotiating a severance package with NBC for the 33 months left in his contract. DHD: Will new creative honcho Ben Silverman's production company be a conflict of interest? NYP: Exec change won't cure NBC's "upfronts."

Vanity Blair: Tony's Celebrity Farewell Media Tour (Daily Mail)
Yesterday, as Tony Blair landed in Libya on the first stage of his farewell trip across the continent, his long goodbye was looking more and more like a starstruck celebrity tour. For it emerged that among his entourage are a writer and two photographers from Men's Vogue. And if they aren't enough to capture every fascinating moment of the Blair trip, there are also documentary television crews from Bob Geldof's Ten Alps TV and production company Jupiter. Two weeks ago, the novelist Martin Amis was invited to accompany Blair on his final trip to Washington as Premier.

Truth, Fiction and Lou Dobbs (NYT)
The way Lou Dobbs has handled the 60 Minutes' leprosy controversy, it turns out, is not all that unusual. For one thing, Dobbs has a somewhat flexible relationship with reality. He has said, for example, that one-third of the inmates in the federal prison system are illegal immigrants. That's wrong, too. According to the Justice Department, 6 percent of prisoners in this country are noncitizens (compared with 7 percent of the population). For a variety of reasons, the crime rate is actually lower among immigrants than natives.

Interview On The Block (NYP)
Peter Brant, the real estate developer and art collector who bought Interview magazine with his then-wife Sandra from the Andy Warhol estate in 1989, has decided to put the mini-publishing empire up for sale. In addition to Interview, Brant Publications also includes The Magazine Antiques and Art in America. The company recently retained Allen & Co. to "explore strategic alternatives."

Conrad Black's 'Boxing Day' Drama Shown To Jurors (Reuters)
Jurors at Conrad Black's fraud trial watched videotapes yesterday showing the former media baron and his chauffeur removing boxes from his Canadian offices the same day U.S. securities regulators say they told Black's lawyer he would have to surrender some records. The action was caught by security cameras in Toronto on May 20, 2005, about six months before Black and three associates were indicted on criminal fraud and other charges.

Barry Bonds Snubs New York Media (Connecticut Post)
Chris Elsberry: Barry Bonds, No. 2 on major league baseball's all-time home run list with 746 and No. 1 in the sports' spotlight regarding possible steroid use, normally meets with the out-of-town media on the opening day of each road trip to that city. And everyone was expecting Tuesday at Shea Stadium to be the same deal. Everyone except Barry. Instead of giving the assembled media that numbered close to 100 a few minutes of his precious time — which the Giants had announced would happen via an e-mail — Bonds gave us just another reason why he is one of the most disenchanting figures in the game. DISCUSS: Should the media ignore Barry Bonds?

Dutch TV Contestants Compete for Woman's Kidneys (Guardian)
A Dutch reality television show in which a terminally ill woman is to select one of three contestants to receive her kidneys when she dies is to air this week despite criticism that it pushes the boundaries of the format too far. The government has called for De Grote Donorshow (The Big Donor show) to be dropped because it is "unethical" and "wretched" but the broadcaster BNN said it would go ahead to highlight the difficulties of searching for kidney donors.

Justin Timberlake Launches Launches Record Label (All Hip-Hop)
Justin Timberlake has launched Tennman Records, a joint venture with Interscope Records. Timberlake, who has worked closely with artists like Timbaland, the Black Eyed Peas and others, will serve as Chairman and CEO of Tennman, which is based in Los Angeles and is distributed worldwide by Interscope Geffen A&M.

Media Heir Barbara Cox Anthony Dead at 84 (IHT)
Barbara Cox Anthony, an heir to the Cox media fortune, died Monday following an extended illness, Atlanta-based media conglomerate Cox Enterprises Inc. announced. She was 84. Anthony and her sister, Anne Cox Chambers, inherited the company from their father, founder and three-time Ohio Gov. James M. Cox, in 1974. Forbes magazine in March estimated Anthony's assets and those of her sister at $12.6 billion.

VeriSign CEO Abruptly Resigns (AP via Houston Chronicle)
VeriSign Inc., which manages the ".com" and ".net" domain names registry, said that Chief Executive Stratton Sclavos has resigned for undisclosed reasons. Analysts were startled by the abrupt departure. The company gave little information about the reason for Sclavos' exit after 12 years as CEO.