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Kidnapped Reporter Jill Carroll Tells Her Story (CSM)
Jill Carroll: They'd given me a new hijab, a new name (Aisha), and tried to convert me to Islam. At night I'd fall asleep and be free in my dreams. Then I'd wake up and my situation would land on me like a weight. Every morning, it was as if I was kidnapped anew.

News Corp. to Sell Films on MySpace (FT)
News Corp.'s Internet properties, including MySpace.com, are to start selling Fox films and television content on a download-to-own basis. The service, which will charge $19.99 for new feature films such as X-Men The Last Stand and $1.99 for TV series episodes such as 24, will be available in October.

Fox News Priest Tricked Us Into Talking, Says Brit Imam (Guardian)
Representatives of a mosque used by several of the terror suspects reacted angrily to a "sick stunt" by Fox News Channel. The imam of the mosque complained that he and others were tricked by a rep from the cable channel, a priest who said he was working for the Vatican and wanted to talk peace.

Is August Really a Slow News Month? (USAT)
The events of this summer — the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the war in Iraq, a new war between Israel and Hezbollah, and now a suspected terrorist plot in London to blow up U.S.-bound aircraft — have kept news outlets especially busy, ruining or postponing vacations for many journalists.

China Bans Simpsons From Prime-Time TV (AP)
China has banished Homer Simpson, Pokemon and Mickey Mouse from prime time. Beginning Sept. 1, regulators have barred foreign cartoons from TV from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. in an effort to protect China's struggling animation studios.

In Wars, Quest for Media Balance Is Also a Battlefield (NYT)
Wars in the modern media age come complete with their own journalistic difficulties. Particularly vexing for news organizations is the struggle to determine how and in what proportion images of civilian dead and injured should be displayed when one side's casualties greatly surpass the other.

Leaked Videos Give Fans Early View of New Shows (WSJ)
Networks have been experimenting with giving viewers early looks at coming shows on their official sites, as well as on iTunes and through DVD rentals. But at least 10 unaired pilots have been leaked to peer-to-peer networks that allow users to download files stored on each others' computers.

Conflict of Interest or Legitimate Punditry? (WaPo)
So how does Labor Department deputy assistant secretary Karen Czarnecki, who has worked in the Reagan and Bush I administrations and at the Heritage Foundation, appear on Fox News as a "conservative strategist?" Opining on intelligent design doesn't run afoul of ethics violations.

C-SPAN To Air Full Interview With Iranian President Tonight (B&C)
C-SPAN has agreed to air the Mike Wallace interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in its entirety tonight, following CBS' edited piece on 60 Minutes last night. CBS News told C-SPAN the request came from the Iranian leader himself. Reuters: Ahmadinejad launches blog.

Web Ads Test the Limits (LAT)
A French clothier is testing the limits of the maxim that sex sells with online commercials that use hard-core pornography to hawk $100 T-shirts. The campaign by Shai clothing depicts French porn stars frolicking on a circular bed, clothed, at least initially, in the brand's latest styles.

Meredith Vieira's Morning Shift (NYT)
The new Today show co-host rejected the high-powered world of TV news 15 years ago to spend more time with her family. Now she has landed one of the most coveted jobs in television journalism on her own terms.

Fashion Magazines Bulk Up for September (NY Sun)
Fashion advertising is vigorous in magazines this year. Leading the pack is Vogue with Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette on the cover. Vogue, the perennial heavyweight champion, boasts a hefty 625 ad pages, which is not the mag's best, but good enough to keep it the industry leader. Gawker: Weighing the September issues — literally.

Ease of Alteration Creates Woes for Photo Editors (NYT)
While editors for print publications commonly rely on editing systems that track each change made to an article, photo editors have fewer tools at their disposal and often rely simply on experience and instinct. As a result, the most skilled manipulations can be difficult to catch.

If a Mag's List Doubles in Size, Is That Inflation? (NYT)
Magazines used to be satisfied with making lists of 50. People had its top-selling 50 Most Beautiful People issue. Vanity Fair picked 50 power players for its annual New Establishment, a list of people who were rarely new and usually well-established. Now the paltry list of 50 has given way to 100.

AOL's Data Disclosure Reveals How People Search the Web (Slate)
Paul Boutin: Using the third-party site splunkd.com, I've parsed the AOL data to create a typology of AOL Search users. Which of the seven types of searcher are you?