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Bashir, Moran, McFadden to Co-Anchor Nightline (ABC News Release)
Correspondent Terry Moran, reporter Cynthia McFadden, and a newcomer from British TV, Martin Bashir, will make up the threesome that will replace Ted Koppel, expanding the show's format to multiple news topics each night. Fox News: ABC rewards Bashir's bad behavior. NYT: The network declined to say how long that news program would have to prove itself a success.

Imagine the Best Magazine Cover (BBC)
An Annie Leibovitz image of a naked John Lennon curled around Yoko Ono, taken on the last day of his life, has been named the top American magazine cover of the past 40 years by editors, artists and designers. NYT: The second best was the August 1991 cover of Vanity Fair featuring a naked and pregnant Demi Moore, also photographed by Leibovitz.

Inside Judy (VV)
James Ridgeway: Among the revelations in Judith Miller's account of her activities was an admission that she had been given a security clearance while embedded with a military unit in Iraq. E&P: Sulzberger says it's time to put the Miller affair behind the paper. AP via Yahoo!: Inaccurate information from Libby to Miller may help leak investigation. Huffington Post: Miller's reporting 'a cancer' on the Times, writes Arianna Huffington. WaPo: After Miller testimony, Vice President Cheney's office is focus of investigation. WaPo: The people who are mad at Miller are mad because they feel she was a conduit for the administration's erroneous WMD claims, and is still protecting Libby, writes Howard Kurtz. AJR: The scandal is about the Times, not Miller, writes Rem Rieder. Reuters via Boston Globe: Some media observers call Times leak report insufficient. Chicago Sun-Times: Miller could be called to testify for beating suspect in separate case. Raw Story: Senior democrats want to know about Miller's WMD clearance.

Baltimore to Get Free Daily (Baltimore Sun)
The Baltimore Examiner, scheduled to be distributed free in the spring, will be a Monday-through-Saturday tabloid concentrating on local news while running international and national stories.

ASME Revises Editorial Guidelines (Folio:)
With product placement in the minds of more and more marketers, the American Society of Magazine Editors updated guidelines addressing the "church and state" separation of advertising and editorial content.

Paranoid Falafel-Rubber: Evildoers Everywhere (Newsday)
Gauging the animus against Bill O'Reilly has always been a rough art, but by his own estimation "it's gotten worse. Now it's so bad that I spend an enormous amount of money protecting myself against evil."

Paris, Still Simple (AP via Yahoo!)
Paris Hilton says she isn't giving up The Simple Life just yet. "We're shooting Nov. 1," said the 24-year-old hotel heiress. "All the networks are fighting over it."

Herald Investors Want to Cash Out (Boston Herald)
Chief exec Patrick Purcell told staffers he aims to recapitalize Herald Media. The move comes as three minority equity investors, Audax Group, Weston Presidio and Halyard Capital, look to cash out of their investments.

ASME's New Regime (WWD)
Hachette Filipacchi Media's chief executive officer, Jack Kliger, formally took over from Reader's Digest CEO Tom Ryder as chairman of the Magazine Publishers of America.

Vote Rupe (Bloomberg)
News Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch will stand for election to the company's board of directors for the first time in 2007, complying with U.S. regulations after shifting headquarters to New York. Fortune: Murdoch's web rules. New York Mag: Barry Diller's foxy web strategy.

Media Buyers Fret Over Friday Primetime (Mediaweek)
Just one month into the 2005-06 broadcast season, media buyers are expressing concerns about soft Friday-night ratings and that the networks may consider letting repeats rule the night.

Examining Editor's Letter Photography (Radar)
Brenda You: I scoured the magazine racks and studied each editor's picture for peep holes into his or her psyche. They obviously want us to look at them; they want to convey something to us, the gentle reader.

Caruso to Be Next Chapter of Ex-Wenner-Exec-Does-Good? (MIN)
This is a saga that dates back at least to year-end 1989, when John Skipper was let go as US publisher. Didn't work for him at what is now Wenner Media, but he's doing fine as the just-promoted ESPN executive vp/content.

Liberal Host Tuned Out at Armed Forces Radio (WaPo)
Ed Schultz was eagerly anticipating his debut yesterday on Armed Forces Radio, but at 7 a.m., Schultz's producer got a call from the Pentagon saying without explanation that the show was canceled.

Once a Cliché, Always a Cliché (CJR Daily)
Paul McLeary: Sure, it's tempting to recycle some ideas or rely on the crutch of cliché. Still, it's hard to take when a writer for a major publication lazily tosses a weak cliché into one of their pieces.

Lights, Camera, Oops (Public Eye)
Vaughn Ververs: Brian Williams led his Nightly News Thursday by discussing the "staged" discussion between President Bush and soldiers, but NBC's Today yesterday also showed something that looked suspiciously like staging.

China Dissident Slams Yahoo! Over Jailing (FT)
A leading Chinese advocate of internet freedoms has issued a scathing denunciation of the web portal for its role in helping Communist authorities to prosecute an independent-minded local journalist.

Boston Reporter Drops Charges Against Aide to Ex-Mayor (Boston Globe)
WGGB-TV's Jim Polito agreed not to pursue his case against Anthony Ardolino, who allegedly said "It is a good thing that you own a gun because you are going to need it after the way that you reported last night."

—David S. Hirschman

IN YESTERDAY'S MB BLOGS:

Can Stunts Stop This Gap From Closing? GMA Just 150,000 Away From Today [TVNewser]
"Another morning, another stunt on the Today show," an e-mailer says: "Katie Couric interviewed Dakota Fanning about her new film while riding horseback in Central Park. They had WNBC's helicopter overhead taking shots, and two cameramen riding horses backwards to catch the oh-so important interview with the starlet. The dual-camera shots were horrible, bumpy, ineffective use of the zoom lens, etc."

McClellan Yellin? Or Just Gellin'? [FishbowlDC]
As if he didn't have enough on his plate already this past weekend Howard--Somebody Stop Me Before I Write Again--Kurtz wrote up a piece about the increasingly tense White House press briefings. It's no surprise that, as any president's troubles increase, so, too, do the briefings become more tense. But, what's notable about recent spats between Scott McClellan and reporters is that they seem to be taking on a more personal tone.

Judith Miller: Clues in "Hard News" [FishbowlNY]
On August 18th, Arianna Huffington quoted "a source familiar with both Judy and the inner workings of the Times": "Every big decision that comes out of the Times comes directly from the top. Nobody does
anything there without Arthur Sulzberger's approval. It's the larger untold story in all of this -- that he now runs the newsroom.

FishbowlLA presents: Lunch at Michael's, or not at Michael's, but still 'at Michael's'in a conceptual sense [FishbowlLA]
My spunkier, more popular sister in New York runs a regular 'Lunch at Michael's' feature about all the bold-face dining that goes on at the most media-centric restaurant in the world. In the hopes of launching our own 'Lunch at Michael's' franchise, several FishbowlLA operatives descended upon the Santa Monica branch of Michael's on Friday.

I Just Wanna Hear Girls Talk [Galleycat]
When San Francisco author Josie Brown (left) started promoting her first novel, True Hollywood Lies, she convinced her publisher, Avon, to round up three more of its chick lit writers and send them all on a four-city tour at venues she'd already lined up through her contacts in the Hard Rock Café chain.

More Design Competitions, This One For The Next Generation [UnBeige]
As much as it's the season for middling movies until the Oscar contenders start getting rolled out, it's also the season for design competitions. We're psyched for this one, though. Metropolis Magazine's Next Generation 2006 competition is ramping up.

Please, Typecast Me! [mbToolbox]
Often we think of good writing as plot, plot, plot, but when it comes to selling scripts, it's character, character, character. Marisa D'Vari at the Writers Store has some thoughts on improving the characters in your screenplay in order to better sell it.