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Vieira Debuts on Today (USAT)
Robert Bianco: Good morning, Meredith. Not a great morning, mind you, but Meredith Vieira's first day on the Today show easily was good enough to make you think NBC chose wisely when it picked her to replace Katie Couric on this signature broadcast.

Air America Denies Bankruptcy Rumors (NYP)
Left leaning radio network Air America is denying rumors that it will declare bankruptcy this week and attempt to reorganize to stay on the air for the November elections. A high-level source says that Rob Glaser, the Real Networks founder who rescued the network from its first financial crisis, "walked away" last week.

AOL and Survivor Producer Burnett Create Online Game (NYT)
America Online and Mark Burnett, the best-known producer of reality television, have kicked off an ambitious online game called Gold Rush, which they hope will become a national sensation. The game promises to give away $100,000 in gold twice a week for seven weeks, and will culminate in a $1 million contest.

Novak Accuses Plame Source of Distortion (WaPo)
Columnist Robert Novak, who first revealed Valerie Plame's employment by the CIA and touched off a lengthy federal leak investigation, is accusing his primary source of misrepresenting their conversation to make the source's role in the disclosure seem more casual than it was.

Local Leaders in L.A. Urge LAT to Avoid Cuts (LAT)
Twenty Los Angeles civic leaders, including former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, sent a letter of protest to the Chicago-based owners of the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, saying that continued staff reductions threatened to seriously erode the quality of journalism at the paper.

NYT's Eichenwald Joins Portfolio (Eat the Press)
More acquisitions for Condé Nast's Portfolio, which keeps hiring in anticipation of having an actual magazine and website launch seven months from now: Yesterday they announced the hiring of Kurt Eichenwald as a senior writer and investigative reporter, effective October 1st.

Considering the Possiblity of AOL's Dick Parsons as NYC Mayor (NY Press)
The chairman and CEO of Time Warner, a Brooklyn native, born and bred in Bedford-Stuyvesant, is a businessman from outside of the political mainstream with considerable Republican credentials Mayor Michael Bloomberg himself has reportedly reached out to Parsons as his potential successor.

Two Journalists Killed in Iraq (Guardian)
Two journalists have been killed by unidentified gunmen in Iraq, just three days after an editor at the country's state-run newspaper al-Sabah was murdered. The deaths highlight the fact that journalists continue to be targeted in Iraq simply for doing their job of reporting the news.

Fired NYC Radio Host Sues Clear Channel (Metro NY)
Morning radio host Star (real name Troi Torain), who was fired in May after he threatened the wife and young daughter of a rival during on-air rants, is seeking $10 million in damages from his former employer for breach of contract, alleging his comments did not breach acceptable decency standards.

Surfing the Internet for Spoken Words (WSJ)
Identifying spoken content of audio and video clips results in more-relevant results when using a search engine to look for a particular item or topic. From there it is only a short step to also use the new technology to match related advertising with the search results -- much as Google Inc. and others do for searches of text-based material.

New News Is Bad News (WaPo)
Art Buchwald: I am not blaming Couric for the new news that CBS believes the public should have. The suits have so much invested in her that they're calling the shots. The danger of all this is that the other networks will start playing catch-up.

Chinese Newspaper Suspends Cartoonist for Drawing of President Hu Jintao Crying (Reuters)
Depicting national leaders in cartoons is considered politically incorrect in China, although it is periodically done without repercussions. But artist Kuang Biao's cartoon of a teary-eyed Hu replying to a letter from the daughter of a university professor who died from overwork was regarded unacceptable.

Radio's Dr. Laura: Average American Female Is a 'Slut' (Page Six)
Despite the skeletons rattling in her own closet, acerbic radio gabber Dr. Laura Schlessinger slams today's women in a new book, claiming the typical American female is a slut. "Men see women as sex objects when women act like unpaid whores..."

Moonves: Internet Can't Beat Network TV (Hollywood Reporter)
"The network TV business in the last 10 years has been denigrated first by (the growth of) cable and then by the Internet," CBS chief Les Moonves said in an interview at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. "I'm a big proponent of network TV. We're still the best game in town."

Commercials Find New Life on Web (NYT)
These days, a stint on TV is only the first stage of a commercial's life. A typical trajectory takes it from its original run to video-sharing Web sites like YouTube and Google Video, or to sites like AdvertisementAve.com and Adcritic.com that collect and archive commercials.