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New Contract for Moonves Links Pay to CBS's Results (NYT)
The new contract, which extends CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves's employment by two years to 2011, lowers his base salary to $3.5 million from $5.9 million, but stipulates that he will also receive a large one-time stock option grant to purchase five million shares, as well as a large grant over four years of restricted shares worth $7.6 million a year.

House Passes Media Shield Bill (AP)
The House on Tuesday strongly backed the right of reporters to protect the confidentiality of sources in most federal court cases, saying that the right was crucial to a free and effective press. The White House, warning that the media shield bill would encourage leaks of classified information, threatened a veto.

Key Departure at Time Leads to Shake-Up by Stengel (NYP)
Time managing editor Rick Stengel once again is shuffling the deck among the magazine's top brass now that Priscilla Painton, one of his three deputy editors, has opted out. Painton was the highest-ranking woman ever in the history of the magazine. She said the decision to step away — which was announced to staffers yesterday in an internal memo from Stengel — was a voluntary one.

Producers Drop Key Demand in Talks With Writers (LAT)
Extending an olive branch to restless TV and film writers, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said Tuesday that it had withdrawn an unpopular proposal on residual payments that had threatened to derail contract talks. The action doesn't bring the two sides much closer to making a deal, but it helped propel progress Tuesday in talks that have been stymied since they began this summer. LAT: Deadline dilemma worries screenwriters.

Murdoch To Times: I Will Bury You! (NYO)
Rupert Murdoch and his top lieutenants appear to have one eye on the coming struggle with The New York Times. The paper represents that the media ignores Murdoch's particular blend of conservative populism, tabloid exuberance, and capitalist cheerleading, and now he is gearing up to use The Wall Street Journal to further that viewpoint — and in the process, knock the Times off its pedestal.

Controversy Over Page Six Grigoriadis Item (Radar)
Even former Sixers are shocked at the personalized Post hit piece, having taken away from the item what any logical reader would: that Page Six editors Richard Johnson and Bill Hoffman (the male half) would teach Vanessa Grigoriadis a thing or two by way of assault, except she's just not hot enough. Radar: Johnson's veiled rape threat against Grigoriadis has several insiders buzzing about a frightening incident at Johnson's own $50,000, four-day bachelor party thrown by Girls Gone Wild's Joe Francis.

BBC Faces Strike Over Thousands of Job Cuts (Telegraph)
A strike at the BBC was said to be inevitable last night as Mark Thompson, the director general, prepared to announce the largest number of compulsory redundancies in the corporation's history. Thompson will tell the BBC Trust today that 2,000 employees — almost a tenth of the workforce — will be fired in an attempt to find over $4 billion in budget cuts.

'Obama Girl' Group Signs With Next New Networks (Hollywood Reporter)
Next New Networks has acquired BarelyPolitical.com, the site behind the viral-video hit. BarelyPolitical was founded in June by Ben Relles and quickly rose to prominence thanks to the 2008 presidential election sendup, "I Got a Crush on Obama," which has been viewed millions of times and featured on news shows on networks from ABC to al-Jazeera.

Public Radio Station Halts Planned Parenthood Spots (NYT)
A public radio station in Pittsburgh stopped running underwriting messages from Planned Parenthood and returned its $5,000 donation after the station's license holder, Duquesne University, decided the organization was "not aligned with our Catholic identity." The decision came in the midst of the station's fall pledge drive, and it appears to be costing the station contributions.

For Fox Business, Big Government Is Enemy No. 1 (NYO)
Felix Gillette: In recent months, much has been made of Rupert Murdoch's assertion that while CNBC is geared towards Wall Street, FBN would appeal to Main Street. But lately, FBN executives have tweaked that claim, suggesting that FBN will seek to appeal to both camps. How to pull it off? Economist: Seeing these two well-financed channels go to war is likely to be a perfect illustration of why competition is such a wonderful force in business.

Small Steps at Yahoo Bear Fruit (NYT)
Jerry Yang's plan for reviving the fortunes of Yahoo, the company he co-founded and now runs, does not involve the kind of shock therapy for which some investors had hoped. Yang's measured strategy got a slight lift on Tuesday as Yahoo surprised Wall Street by reporting financial results for the third quarter that were better than expected. NYP: Yang outlined three key strategic objectives. Among Yahoo!'s goals are to "become the starting point for the most consumers on the Internet, to be the must buy for the most advertisers, and to deliver open, industry-leading platforms that attract the most developers."

Facebook Agrees to Shield Minors (LAT)
Facebook Inc. on Tuesday ended an investigation by New York's attorney general by agreeing to changes designed to shield minors from pornographic images and improper advances from adults. The fast-growing social networking Web site promised to respond to complaints within 24 hours and to follow up within three days.

YouTube Copyright Protection Move Doesn't Impress Viacom (NYP)
Google has launched a new technology that claims to keep unlicensed clips of TV shows, movies, and music videos out of its YouTube viral video service. But entertainment industry observers are skeptical that the move is enough to convince Viacom and music publishers to give up outstanding copyright infringement lawsuits against the company.

Caruso Out at Portfolio (WWD)
Former Men's Journal and Details editor-in-chief Michael Caruso signed on last year as a contributing editor-at-large at Portfolio and came back as planned from a two-week vacation on Monday, but by the end of the day, staffers were told his contract hadn't been renewed.

NBC's Matt Lauer, Making the Least of an Opportunity (WaPo)
Tom Shales: One thing, at least, was made painfully clear by Matt Lauer's interview with Sen. Larry Craig on NBC last night: Matt Lauer is no Mike Wallace. Lauer was anything but hard-hitting or confrontational with the Idaho Republican, arrested in June for alleged homosexual solicitation in a Minneapolis airport men's room.

Loosen Up Brian, It's Saturday Night (Marketwatch)
Jon Friedman: Brian Williams, the anchor of NBC Nightly News, is scheduled to host Saturday Night Live on Nov. 3. Already, you can practically hear the media purists grinding their back molars in despair of yet another breach of faith in the television biz. I say, it's about time that Brian Williams tried to let his hair down on TV.