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Discussing His Lawsuit Against CBS, Dan Rather Is Sticking to His Story (WaPo)
He's not giving up. He feels he has been wronged. He wants to prove it. And he is determined to stick it to CBS executives in the process. "The only punishment they understand is the money," Dan Rather said yesterday, explaining why he filed a $70 million lawsuit this week against the network he called home for 44 years. CBS Public Eye: Without getting enmeshed in the legalities/technicalities of his case and re-fighting old media battles, it's tough to understand the rationale behind the lawsuit, writes Matthew Felling. Marketwatch: Dan Rather's $70 million lawsuit against CBS is a mistake. It will tarnish his legend and make him look foolish — again, writes Jon Friedman. Page Six: "It will just remind the public of the dark ending to his career," said venerable publicist Michael Levine. "Time has a way of softening the public's collective memory. This suit will just bring an aroma of negativity back to Rather at a time when the scar was starting to heal." Portfolio/Mixed Media: Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS is all about redemption. But has he even read it? In many ways, the 32-page complaint reflects worse on the former anchor than the Memogate saga itself ever did, writes Jeff Bercovici.

Spielberg and Geffen Looking to Leave Viacom? (LAT)
Less than two years after Steven Spielberg and his partners sold DreamWorks SKG to Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, a divorce appears to be inevitable. Spielberg and partner David Geffen have felt slighted that they haven't received more credit within Viacom. Internal power struggles, backbiting, perceived snubs, and accusations of credit grabbing have also marred the marriage. NYT: Speaking by telephone on Thursday, Brad Grey, Paramount's chairman, was eager to calm the waters stirred up by one of his bosses. "I have the greatest respect for the creativity of Steven Spielberg and the entire DreamWorks team, as well as the immense entrepreneurial business skills of David Geffen," he said.

Time Inc. Gives In to Issue-Specific Guarantees (AdAge)
Time Inc., breaking with long-held conventions of the magazine industry, has agreed to report circulation sales figures in nearly real time and give advertisers circulation guarantees for each issue in which they buy an ad. It's a sign of the power that marketers have accrued; there are simply too many options beyond traditional advertising for media owners to set the agenda any more. Mediaweek: Proponents envisioned getting 250 of the biggest-circ publications signed up, but to date, fewer than 100 have signed up. Buyers also have stressed that all the magazines in a given category, as well as newsstand-heavy titles, need to be participants for the service to be useful.

Americans Giving Up Friends and Sex to Spend More Time Online (Reuters)
Surfing the net has become an obsession for many Americans with the majority of U.S. adults feeling they cannot go for a week without going online and one in three giving up friends and sex for the Web, according to a survey. 28 percent admitted spending less time socializing face-to-face because of the amount of time they spend online. 20 percent said they spend less time having sex because they are online.

Fox and Apple Will Offer Premieres of Seven Shows for Free (LAT)
Beginning this week, season premiere episodes of seven Fox Broadcasting programs will be made available for free through Apple's iTunes store, a move that highlights the TV industry's race to harness the Internet and try out potential business partners. The Fox-Apple deal is designed to expose iPod users to the upcoming season of new and returning primetime shows.

New Yorker Vet Becomes Portfolio's Managing Editor (NYP)
The new man on the scene is Jacob Lewis, a 14-year veteran of The New Yorker, who will become Portfolio's managing editor. Meanwhile, Blaise Zerega has worked out a deal to go to San Francisco for Portfolio and become a new deputy editor — at least on paper — filling a masthead spot that has been vacant since August, when Lipman fired Jim Impoco. [Second item.] NYO: Staff memo from editor Joanne Lipman.

Bush Denounces MoveOn.org Ad Mocking General Petraeus (NY Sun)
With a harsh denunciation both of a MoveOn.org ad mocking General David Petraeus and the Democratic leaders who stood by it, President Bush is wading into the campaign to succeed him and setting off another flurry of political maneuvering over the Iraq war. "I thought the ad was disgusting," Bush said yesterday morning at a White House press conference. Examiner: "What's disgusting is that the president has more interest in political attacks than developing an exit strategy to get our troops out of Iraq and end this awful war," Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org's Political Action Committee said after the press conference.

FactCheck.org, St. Pete Times, Washington Post Smoke Out Political BS (Slate)
Jack Shafer: Although newspapers have always reported the prevarications of politicians, two new fact-checking columns hand out harsh grades to fabricators. They do what journalism has always done — sort fact from fake. But too often, newspapers wait until the 17th paragraph of a he-said, she-said to announce their findings of fact. WSJ: While the media covering the race often incorporate a degree of fact-checking into their coverage of candidates' speeches and ads, sites like FactCheck.org focus solely on verification.

Al Gore's TV Power Play (BusinessWeek)
Current TV may not seem like CNN to you or me. But to Al Gore, who has made it a post-Presidential-campaign mission to turn the media back to the people, it's important that the network is getting notice. Gore says he intends to delve deeper into participatory journalism on Oct. 15, when Current will launch a new, improved Web site that he says will change the way folks use the Net.

Hearst Going Deep on Digital (WWD)
Like every other conventional publisher, Hearst is gambling on the Web. But unlike most, it's also on one serious shopping spree. It's only September, but Chuck Cordray, vice president, general manager of Hearst Magazines Digital Media, said it has already "accomplished much of what we wanted to do" in the digital space this year.

Kid Nation Lets Kids Run Rampant — Is That Really So Bad? (Salon)
Linda Perlstein: Anytime a minor is put in front of a camera, something exploitive is occurring. Americans seem to have accepted children on-screen anyway, from the bratty child brides and emotionless grooms of Engaged and Underage to the grating know-it-alls on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? The Kid Nation gang comes across no worse, and in some ways far better. WaPo: For all the talk of precocious moppets left in the wilderness to forge their own society — 40 kids, 40 days, no parents, blah, blah, blah — the show played a lot like an episode of Survivor, writes Lisa de Moraes.

A Shopping Network Wants to Own the 17th Letter of the Alphabet (NYT)
QVC, the leading home shopping channel, is making a bid to rebrand the often-overlooked letter, betting that it can make the sight of the letter Q elicit not a laugh nor an immediate search for a U, but a feeling of delicious anticipation. "We'd really like to own the 17th letter of the alphabet," said Jeff Charney, the chief marketing officer for QVC.

Time for Newscasts With Opinion? (The Nation)
Marvin Kitman: I've decided to volunteer my services to the Save CBS Campaign. Here's what I would do: First, I would dump the Walter Cronkite school of reporting, of which Katie Couric is the latest practitioner. The objective that's-the-way-it-is style they use at all the network evening news shows is so old, so over. What the evening news shows need is less "objectivity" and more analysis.

Study Finds Oprah's Obama Endorsement Doesn't Have Much Effect (B&C)
The endorsement of stars like Oprah Winfrey, Jon Stewart, or even Tiger Woods would not translate to any more votes and — somewhat curiously in the case of Stewart, Woods and several others — could actually hurt their chances. That's according to a telephone survey of more than 1,000 people by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

A Case Against 'A Case Against The New Yorker Festival' (Emdashes)
Emily Gordon: According to Rose Jacobs's Voice piece, the Festival is "an audiovisual review of what they've read in The New Yorker over the past year." I imagine the cast of characters at a given New Yorker Festival is loosely affiliated with the magazine for a reason — it's a chance for audiences to meet not just arts and culture stars but the magazine's own team of writers and editors.