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David Chase Talks About Sopranos Finale (Newark Star-Ledger)
"I have no interest in explaining, defending, reinterpreting, or adding to what is there," Chase says of the final scene. "No one was trying to be audacious ... We did what we thought we had to do. No one was trying to blow people's minds, or thinking, 'Wow, this'll [tick] them off.' People get the impression that you're trying to [mess] with them and it's not true. You're trying to entertain them." NY Sun: Nothing will ever beat The Sopranos as fodder for critical confusion and excess — not even Shakespeare, who would have loved the Monday morning quarterbacks who tried to figure out its meaning, writes David Blum.

Rather Bashes Couric for 'Tarting Up' Evening News (MSNBC via Newsbusters)
"You know, she tried to change networks, which is always difficult, and change the programs at the same time," said Rather. "I do want to say that, I think, under Rick Kaplan, that they have tried to harden up the broadcast in recent days, but that is a relative phrase, harden it up. That, you know, the trend line continues, as I say, dumbing it down, tarting it up, going to celebrity coverage rather than war coverage."

Hustler's Flynt Says He's Received 200 Responses to Call for Political Dirt (Political Wire)
Flynt told the Examiner "that the newspaper ad he took out last week offering a million-dollar bounty for evidence of illicit sexual activity with lawmakers has yielded about 200 tips so far. He said he'll let them continue to trickle in over the next two weeks or so before his team begins to follow up on them." Said Flynt: "We'll be lucky if we get 2 to 4 percent hard leads that could yield a payout." WaPo: "My reaction to [Flynt's] ad: Yuck!" writes Post ombudsman Deborah Howell. "It made me cringe. But The Post has a First Amendment right to publish the ad, and what Flynt is doing is not illegal."

AP Photog Shoots From Vietnam to Paris (NYDN)
Phan Thi Kim Phuc was crying because napalm — black, oily blazing jellied gasoline — was burning the skin off her back. Paris Hilton was crying because she had just been told she had to serve her 23-day jail sentence in jail. These tears, it turns out, had something in common: Exactly 35 years apart, they both ended up in the lens of Nick Ut's camera.

More Editors Quit in Shuffle at Top Publishing Houses (NYP)
Following news that Random House's Daniel Menaker was leaving the imprint, it was also announced yesterday that Scott Moyers, the editor-in-chief who co-founded Penguin Press with Ann Godoff four years ago, has jumped to the agency side as a director at the Wyle Agency. Moyers is being replaced by Eamon Dolan, who was a vice president and editor-in-chief at Houghton Mifflin

O.J. Simpson Slams Coverage of Celebrities (E&P)
Joe Strupp: When I called O.J. Simpson for a comment about longtime AP courtroom reporter Linda [Deutsch], he confirmed his admiration and appreciation for her fair reporting during his 1995 murder trial, but that tribute to her turned into a lengthy commentary about the media, with Simpson claiming celebrity coverage has only worsened since he went to court.

Former CBS Producer Hartman Joins BBC to Develop Newscast (Mediaweek)
Former CBS Evening News and 60 Minutes producer Rome Hartman has signed on with the BBC, where he'll develop and executive produce a new 7pm newscast that will run on BBC America and BBC World News. A 24-year CBS veteran, Hartman served as the executive producer of the nightly newscast from November 2005 through March 2007.

Mocking the Olympics Logo, But Loving the Attention (NYT)
Eric Pfanner: Has any marketer ever gotten more for its money than the London Olympics organizers when they introduced a new logo for the 2012 Games? All right, some of the descriptions in the British tabloids — a "toileting monkey," a "broken swastika" — were less than kind. But for the most part the logo introduction was a textbook example of marketing in the Web 2.0 era.

CNN the TV Channel Is No Match for CNN the Web site (AdAge)
"I worry about CNN more than I do about CNN.com." Many news junkies already feel the same way, but when the person expressing concern about the state of the 24-hour TV news network is Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons, the guy who ultimately runs both properties, it's pretty telling.

IHT Readies International Edition of T: Style Magazine (WWD)
As in its Stateside introduction, the international edition of T is expected to shore up the Paris-based newspaper's luxury advertising, aimed at what Times senior vice president for advertising Alexis Buryk called its "affluent, engaged readership." The first issue with European and Middle East distribution will appear at the IHT-sponsored Fashion and Luxury Industry conference in November.

Brown's Diana: The Height Of Gossip (WaPo)
Tina Brown has been called a lot of contradictory things over the years. She has been lauded as a magazine genius who rescued the musty old New Yorker from irrelevance and she's been denounced, at the same time, as a buzz-crazed hack who did her best to destroy it. But she's never been criticized for lacking ambition. And The Diana Chronicles is no exception to this rule.

ABC, USA Today in Election Coverage Deal (Los Angeles Business)
The Gannett paper and ABC News have agreed to share stories and resources for the 2008 elections. USA Today will give ABCNEWS.com political stories and blog updates for its Web site. ABC will give USA Today election coverage video for its online arm. The two also plan to collaborate on political stories.

Peaceful Coexistence: Glamour, MSL, and Cosmo Style (MIN)
Glamour's 50th-anniversary-celebration of its "Top 10 College Women" brought editor-in-chief Cindi Leive together with Cosmo editor-in-chief Kate White, who is a "College Women" alumna. So, too, is Martha Stewart. In this circumstance, Stewart looks like the mediator, resembling ex-President Jimmy Carter in the middle of warring factions.

Veteran Journalist Testifies in Support of Conrad Black (Reuters via LAT)
A journalist who once worked as a special advisor to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher took the stand Monday to testify for Conrad Black in the former media baron's fraud trial. The $62,000 party for Black's wife, Barbara Amiel Black, at La Grenouille was "a business event masquerading as a social occasion," said veteran editor and columnist John O'Sullivan.

Reader's Digest Probes at Normal Folks' Nutty Center (WaPo)
Peter Carlson: One reader compulsively twirls his hair. Another can't bear to drive next to a car going the same speed. Another stays awake at night worrying about being captured and tortured by insurgents. After a while, I couldn't help thinking: If readers of the staid, old Reader's Digest are this nutty, just how wacky are the folks who subscribe to, say, Penthouse or Ms. or the Weekly Standard?