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Iraqi Times Journo Murdered in Iraq (NYT)
An Iraqi journalist and photographer working for The New York Times was found dead in Basra after being abducted by armed men wearing masks and claiming to be police officers.

Emmys Draw 18.5M Viewers (AP via USAT)
The awards ceremony drew its biggest audience in three years, with a 35 percent increase over last year, according to preliminary estimates from Nielsen Media Research.

Dan Rather Blasts Modern Journalism's 'Climate of Fear' (Hollywood Reporter via Yahoo!)
The former CBS anchor said politicians have gotten better at applying pressure on the conglomerates that own the broadcast networks. He called it a "new journalism order."

TNR's Katrina Cover Transgression (MIN)
The unwritten rule of not showing casualties on magazine covers (dating back to World War II) was breached with a photograph of a New Orleans drowning victim from Hurricane Katrina. B&C: How one New Orleans station stayed on the air. NYT: ABC's attempt at hurricane relief during Monday Night Football was poorly executed, writes Richard Sandomir. WaPo: I'm a print-media guy to the bone, but I have to give props to the way my colleagues in television have covered Hurricane Katrina and the devastation of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, writes Eugene Robinson. MSNBC: NBC rethinks timeline of on-air breakdown.

New York Post Names New Publisher (Reuters via NYT)
The News Corporation announced yesterday that it had named Paul V. Carlucci as publisher of the metro tabloid, succeeding the corporation's chairman, Rupert Murdoch. Bloomberg via LAT: Court okays deal on Fox Entertainment buyout. Forbes: Murdoch calls Chinese authorities "paranoid."

Will Everyone Love a Raymond Spinoff? (NYT)
Brad Garrett, who played Ray Romano's serially unappreciated brother, said that he and the creators of Raymond had made substantial progress toward a deal with CBS for a spinoff in which he would star.

CNBC Chair Bolts for Claiborne (NYP)
Pamela Thomas-Graham's announcement did not come as a surprise. She had been replaced as president of the channel in February, and ratings have never recovered to those of the dot-com boom.

Grim Reality (Boston Herald)
A lawsuit details the story of a jilted Extreme Makeover contestant and her loved ones, who were allegedly coaxed into criticizing her pre-makeover looks by producers for the ABC reality show.

Sprint Nextel to Offer Radio, Podcasts on Phones (Reuters via LAT)
Rhapsody Radio will cost $6.95 a month on top of what Sprint users pay for the wireless company's mobile Internet package. It features stations devoted to alternative, pop, country, R&B and hip-hop.

Must-See or Must-Flee TV? (NY Sun)
David Blum: My Name Is Earl engineered an emotional response in me so rare that I barely believed it possible that a by-the-numbers programmer like NBC's Jeff Zucker had approved it. WaPo: The NBC sitcom amounts to a character study of a character not worth studying, writes Tom Shales. USAT: Take the time to really get to know Earl, writes Robert Bianco.

Fla. Student Newspaper Flap Over N-Word (Inside Higher Ed)
Since an offensive cartoon ran there have been rallies against the paper, the president of the university has condemned it, and some on campus have had students grab the paper away from them.

Ververs in the Public Eye (B&C)
As the helmsman of CBS News' Public Eye blog, Vaughn Ververs is putting his experience navigating the Wild West to good use. The site debuted last week. Jupiter Research: CBS News co-opts the tactics of its enemies.

Project Klebnikov Investigation Findings (Mediachannel)
The death of Paul Klebnikov, the slain Forbes magazine editor, was a blow to press freedom in Russia. That his killing remains a mystery is a challenge for investigative journalism worldwide.

For Every Season, Turn, Turn, Turn On (Slate)
Daniel Engber: TV shows have come out on a seasonal schedule for almost as long as there have been televisions. Debuting new content in the fall makes sense because fewer people tend to watch during the summer.

Semicolon-oscopy (FT)
Trevor Butterworth: Americans see the semicolon as punctuation's axis of evil; but part of its mystique is the way that it wantonly gives itself to great writing without offering a clear rule for lesser writers to follow.

Strike a Pose, Gents (Ad Age)
Simon Dumenco: Who is Men's Vogue going to put on the cover now that they've done George Clooney? There just aren't that many sophisticated, rakishly handsome male stars that are worthy of the Vogue brand.

Editors and the Fashion Industry (NYT)
Editors have long given designers advice, but today editors exert an influence not only through their magazines but also Web sites and endowment funds like the CFDA/Vogue Fund.

Journo Burn Rates (Newsweek)
An assistant professor of journalism at Ball State University has found high levels of emotional exhaustion and cynical attitudes toward sources, especially among young sportswriters at local dailies.

Go West, Young Media (SiliconValleyWatcher)
Tom Foremski: Our media industry is growing like gangbusters while New York's is not. Our media industry is hiring like crazy while New York's media industry continues to cut jobs and budgets. [Fourth item.]

U.K.'s Media Mafia (Guardian)
Despite government assertions that media policy is increasingly transparent, a new report argues that it is centralized, opaque and controlled by a small number of advisers and media experts.

The New Yorker Sells Out (Miami Herald)
Ed Wasserman: The overall effect of the magazine's recent issue dominated by Target ads was the sense that it had been hijacked by a gang of art school seniors.

—David S. Hirschman

IN YESTERDAY'S MB BLOGS:

Pamela Thomas-Graham Leaving CNBC [TVNewser]
Not surprising: "CNBC's Pamela Thomas-Graham will leave the company for a job as Group President for Liz Claiborne Inc," B&C says.

Is Campbell the New Katie? [FishbowlDC]
Paul Bedard's Washington Whispers column today has an interesting
nugget: Thanks to her "gutsy and heartfelt reports" from the Hurricane Katrina zone as well as her casual dress, Campbell Brown, the coanchor of NBC's Today Weekend Edition has "cemented her position as NBC's top choice to replace the Today show's Katie Couric."

Browsing the site, not asking the questions [FishbowlNY]
MSNBC: Onscreen bridesmaid, online bride? Today the NYT's Alex Mindlin points out the discrepancy between MSNBC's online numbers versus their relatively paltry TV viewing audience (Tucker, oh Tucker).

Does David Geffen want the LAT? [FishbowlLA]
David Geffen once produced a film called 'Risky Business', a perennial Movie Night favorite at FishbowlLA HQ. (By the way, if anyone else wants to come to Movie Night, please email me. It gets lonely.) Anyway, now he's reportedly interested in an even riskier business-the Los Angeles Times.

I'll Buy That for a Dollar! [GalleyCat]
I'd like to be able to suggest I was the first to comment on the Suicide Girl gracing the "summer fiction" edition of Fence, but Josh Corey beat me to it.

One Last AIGA Anecdote [UnBeige]
Our nail in the AIGA coffin was the last mainstage talk, courtesy of self-mutilator Stefan Sagmeister and a touchy computer. Recreating the glory below...

Crit Chat [mbToolbox]
You have an opinion on everything, so naturally, you'd be a great critic, right? Well, maybe. It's hard to know where to begin: literally. Troy Patterson, art and entertainment writer and former Entertainment Weekly critic has some thoughts on the many ways to lead into your cultural criticism piece.