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Syndicate: Don't Plan on Boondocks Return (WaPo)
After six years — a remarkably short run for a strip that found its way into 300-plus newspapers — Universal Press Syndicate told subscribers yesterday they should start looking for someone to replace political/social satirist Aaron McGruder's comic strip.

Viacom's Redstone Takes Salary Cut (NYT)
In yet another effort to restore investor confidence, Viacom said yesterday that its chairman and controlling shareholder, Sumner M. Redstone, was restructuring his pay to more clearly align it with shareholder interest and to base it on the company's financial performance.

AOL Sued Over Privacy Breach (LAT)
Three AOL subscribers whose records of Internet searches were made available online are suing the company under privacy laws. The lawsuit is believed to be the first in the wake of AOL's release of about 19 million search requests made over a three-month period by more than 650,000 AOL customers.

Watching the Bottom Line, Mags Freeze Hiring (AdAge)
Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., where ad pages through August are down 6.1%, according to TNS Media Intelligence, has a freeze under way. And at Time Inc., where pages are off 2.9% through August, the heads of finance and human resources have gotten together over the past month to look at all open positions.

Treated Dismissively by Zakaria, Glamour Reporter Rises to the Challenge (Eat the Press)
Moderating an event with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria interrupted Glamour journalist Shirley Velasquez, cracking "Blue burqa vs. black burqa?" and implying that an easy question would follow. Undaunted, Velasquez responded with a question for Karzai about the deplorable treatment of women in Afghanistan.

Girls Gone Wild's Joe Francis Pleads Guilty to Breaking Federal Law (LAT)
The founder and chief executive of the Girls Gone Wild empire, pleaded guilty Monday to two felony counts of violating federal record-keeping laws by failing to document the ages of young women in his racy videos. Francis agreed to personally pay a $500,000 fine to settle the charges.

Fox Shuffles Lineup Ahead of Baseball Playoffs (B&C)
Tweaking the fall lineup as baseball playoffs take control of the network's air, Fox is shuffling the schedules of freshman shows Happy Hour and Justice, while two others, 'Til Death and Standoff, are taking a week-long break from production.

New Harvard Mag 02138 Set to Launch (WWD)
The new mag is for and about the "320,000 people who can list Harvard on their résumés. Founder and president Bom S. Kim struck gold with Atlantic owner David Bradley, who said he would back Kim even if he were to launch "a trade magazine on the cauliflower industry."

Poynter Is Journalism's 'Special Ethics Unit' (E&P)
Whether it's an issue of a journalist in hot water over plagiarism or a delicate subject that may offend readers, editors turn to Bob Steele and his comrades at the Poynter Institute for guidance in tricky situations. The institute's number of "Rabbi calls," as he refers to them, has increased significantly of late.

Welcome to Our Photoshopped Future (AdAge)
Simon Dumenco: We've spent the last few years collectively tuning our bullshit detectors; the likes of Jayson Blair and James Frey have trained us to constantly question written "reality." But now the shadiness increasingly bleeds over into the visual realm. You can't trust what you read or see. Life is just one big Photoshop job.

WH Press Secretary to Raise Money for GOP Candidates (AP via Yahoo)
On the job just four months, former Fox News commentator Tony Snow is in-demand on the GOP circuit. He said he decided to help maintain the party's majority in Congress after some consideration of his proper role — and that doesn't include a lot of red meat rhetoric like some speakers offer at partisan events.

Did 'Tattletaling' Mean Kim Hume's Exit as Fox D.C. Bureau Chief? (Rush and Molloy)
Marital sniping may have led to the departure of Brit Hume's wife, Kim, from Fox News last week. Kim Hume's imminent exit as Fox's D.C. bureau chief was announced Thursday and the buzz out of Washington is that she and the anchorman had been tattletaling on each other to Roger Ailes.

The Washington Post's Anthrax 'Rowback' (Slate)
Jack Shafer: For the paper to carry on for 1,300 words about misconceptions in the investigation without mentioning its role in creating them is a kind of "rowback." A rowback is defined as "a story that attempts to correct a previous story without indicating that the prior story had been in error or without taking responsibility for the error."

Even China Can't Stop 'Citizen Journalists' (CSM)
Dante Chinni: The newly launched Chinese site www.molive.cn lets ordinary people gather news with their camera cellphones, posting photos they have taken to their own personal websites with small descriptions of the scenes. Editors comb the postings and put the best ones on Molive's home page.

Couric Throws Condi Softballs (CJR Daily)
Paul McLeary: Anyone holding their breath waiting for Katie Couric to emerge as a hard-hitting reporter should exhale immediately. We weren't looking for her to hammer Condoleeza Rice, but we did have an expectation of seriousness that Couric so far has almost totally failed to deliver.