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Lawyer: Rove Spoke About Plame, but Not by Name (WaPo)
Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove spoke to at least one reporter about Valerie Plame's role at the CIA, but Rove's lawyer said his client did not identify her by name. Newsweek: Rove spoke to Matthew Cooper on "double super-secret background." Huff Post: According to documents, Rove did reveal to Cooper that Wilson's wife was in the CIA, writes David Corn. NYT: Pearlstine chose a line that, whatever else it did, helped protect the business interests of Time Warner. NY Mag: An easy reference guide to how the media ended up on trial. Slate: Who owns a reporter's notes? WSJ: Federal shield for journos is no panacea. NYT: The most important difference between the Bush and Nixon eras has less to do with the press than with the grave origins of the particular case that has sent Judy Miller to jail, writes Frank Rich. LAT: The courts have spoken in the Plame case. Why does the New York Times think it doesn't have to listen? asks Michael Kinsley.

Newspaper Holding Leak-Based Stories (NYT)
The Cleveland Plain Dealer is withholding two major investigative articles because they were based on illegally leaked documents and could lead to penalties against the paper and the jailing of reporters. NYT: Most editors say they'd publish articles based on leaks.

Today Milestone (AP via USAT)
Nielsen Media Research should confirm Thursday that the NBC staple has been the top-rated morning news show for 500 consecutive weeks, a Joe DiMaggio-like streak that started in December 1995.

Redstone: Everything Falls Apart (AP via Yahoo!)
"The age of the conglomerate is over," said Sumner Redstone, one of the great empire-builders of the media world, addressing a small group of reporters in Sun Valley. LAT: Media spouses also network at Sun Valley confab.

Mao-Maoing the Mouse-Catchers (Time)
Unfazed by piracy and bureaucracy, Mickey & Co. are betting they can win the hearts of 1.3 billion people. The first step: a new theme park in Hong Kong. Time: Interview with incoming CEO Robert Iger. WSJ: Disney ends dispute with former directors.

VNU to Buy Health Data Company (Reuters)
The Dutch media company will buy healthcare data provider IMS Health Inc for $6.9 billion, strengthening its position as the world's biggest market research company.

Time Warner May Take 30% Stake in ITV (AFX via Forbes)
The media giant Time Warner Inc. could take a stake of almost a third in Britain's biggest commercial broadcaster if a reported bid goes ahead.

CNN 'Brat Pack' on the Rise (US News)
Insiders say Dana Bash and Ed Henry are emerging as top candidates for anchor roles, while NewsNight's Aaron Brown is reportedly on the outs. [Second item.]

Fox News Slammed on Response to London Bombings (Guardian)
Rupert Murdoch's cable news channel is under fire for comments by some of its leading journalists in response to the U.K. terror attacks. IHT: Media access a challenge in U.K. attacks.

The Television Shall Be Revolutionized (Salon)
Al Gore promises that Current TV will be as interactive and democratic as the Internet. But already his restless young audience is wondering whether the network will be another rerun.

'War on Three Fronts' for Media (USAT)
Peter Johnson: From a news standpoint, July is traditionally a slow month. But three major stories in the past week have prompted news outlets to recall some of their reporters from the beach.

WB Kids Block Grows Up (Mediaweek)
The network's execs plan to make use ER and 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter to promote a broader range of programming than it can during the current kids block.

Klein Gets Cold Shoulder From Talkies (WaPo)
Howard Kurtz: Despite the enormous hype surrounding Edward Klein's scathing and hearsay-filled book about Hillary Rodham Clinton, the author has been ignored by all but two television talk shows.

BBC Tops in Web Radio (LAT)
David Colker: Live streams of music, news, entertainment are getting really good, and no one does Internet radio better than the grande dame of broadcast radio itself: the British Broadcasting Corp.

TV 'By the Rich, for the Rich' (Newsweek)
Cable network Plum TV caters to the privileged folk of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts; the Hamptons in New York and Vail, Colorado.

24-Hour Media Embrace the Missing (Fox News)
Stories about missing children, teens, and young adults dominate TV news so much these days that some have suggested creating a missing-persons cable channel.

Random House Plans Fantasy Book Push (WSJ)
The publisher will spend $500,000 to promote Christopher Paolini's Eldest, the biggest ad budget ever for a book in the company's children's unit.

Kelley Gets Real With New Legal Show (LAT)
Lawyer-turned-writer/producer David E. Kelley, known for his fictional legal eagles, sensed that the booming reality genre he so despised would cross into the television world he had created.

HBO Books Mick Mistress (NYDN)
Ben Widdicombe: Some family members of baseball great Mickey Mantle aren't thrilled that his longtime mistress will be featured in a new HBO documentary about the Yankee slugger.

—David S. Hirschman

IN FRIDAY'S MB BLOGS:

Hurricane Dennis: Emails from Viewers [TVNewser]
From a critical e-mailer: "Once again, the cable news channels have made absolute fools out of themselves, first hyping Dennis as the 'storm of the century,' then, when it fizzled as a major destructive force, adopting the meme that it's a 'miracle' that there wasn't more damage.

The Revolving Door, Updated [FishbowlDC]
The blogs are alive today with rumors that William Rehnquist will be changing jobs, perhaps as early as today, but here are some real actual confirmed job changes a foot in Washington.

Hurricanes and Supreme Court Justices Love Karl Rove [FishbowlNY]
Guess what CNN isn't talking about today? We'd never knowingly utter the name but it rhymes with "Schmarl Schmove." No "Reliable Sources" today, or anything else; CNN is all-hurricane all the time.

A Powerful Current [FishbowlLA]
The LAT Sunday Opinion section is now called Current... Anyway, the concierge here at the Ramada Motor Inn in Milwaukee tells me that there's nowhere in town to buy the LAT, so I haven't seen the Current print edition which I'm told is snazzily designed. But I can say that the Current page at latimes.com makes a cool sound when you load it.

Win a Blind Date with GC add Gawky Love from Gawker [Galleycat]
We're having a very hard time coming up with possible matches for this intriguing (double-)blind item from Gawker: WHAT BLOG, full of catty commentary on her publishing-world coworkers, recently got the junior employee who was writing it fired from a major house?

Girls Gone Wild [UnBeige]
In between following Brangelina's baby and Lindsay Lohan's "exercise" regime, we pushed aside the Star s and In Touch s and checked out the September issue of Elle...The cover story "Too Much Stress?" piqued our interest but it was the design chick spread that sealed the deal. Lindy Roy (completely unrecognizable since teaching us first-year studio) shows up on page 154, halfway into the pool at her Times Square Hotel QT (courtesy of Uma's boytoy), while Kazuyo Sejima of Sanaa (currently working on the new New Museum) graces the facing layout.

Ask Cheapie McCheapster [mbToolbox]
Dear Cheapie McCheapster, It makes me so mad that Bill Gates is a billionaire, because I have to keep paying for his software! Is there anything I can do?