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Journos Testify in Shield Law Hearing (NYT)
Opponents said such a law could interfere with the government's ability to "enforce the law, fight terrorism and protect the national security." WaPo: Fitzgerald's inquiry has become a weather vane for corrosive changes in the political and journalistic cultures of the nation's capital, writes Jim Hoagland.

Google Hit With Second Lawsuit Over Library Project (MacWorld)
The Association of American Publishers has filed suit against the search company over the Google Print Library Project, which involves scanning library books without seeking copyright holders' permission.

Times Co. Earnings Tank (WaPo)
The New York Times Co. said its third-quarter earnings fell more than half from the comparable quarter last year, days after the Boston Globe told employees that the paper's national staff is being trimmed to save money. E&P: The Boston Globe slipped dramatically with daily circ down 7.7 percent and Sunday circ down 7 percent in September.

Boob Tube (NYDN)
The Parents Television Council yesterday released its annual list of the 10 best and worst shows for family viewing. Fox earned the distinction of having six of the shows on the "worst" list.

Guardian Reporter Kidnapped in Iraq (Guardian)
The Guardian's Iraq correspondent, Rory Carroll, was kidnapped by gunmen in Baghdad. Carroll had been conducting an interview with a victim of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Mo' Millions for Buffett in Book Deal (WWD)
Financial wizard Warren Buffett's book with former Wall Street analyst Alice Schroeder sold to Bantam on Wednesday for just above $7 million.

News Corp. Investors Plan 'Poison Pill' Protest (WSJ)
The investors are unhappy that News Corp. extended its so-called poison-pill takeover defense plan without holding a shareholder vote, saying it breaks a promise made to shareholders last year.

Newsrooms' Inadequate Media-Culpas (WaPo)
Tina Brown: The age of the blogosphere has produced a new genre of mainstream journalism: fake transparency. The New York Times has become its foremost practitioner. Huffington Post: How long is Tim Russert going to remain silent about his role in the Valerie Plame investigation, asks Eric Boehlert. Huffington Post: Bill Keller should learn that war is no a "loose end," writes Arianna Huffington. BusinessWeek: Coming soon to a theater near you: Plamegate (casting by Jon Fine). Newsweek: Miller's story inadvertently provides a revealing window into how the Bush administration manipulated journalists about intelligence.

Court TV With Pink Flamingos (LAT)
Taking a half-step from real courtrooms to Law and Order-style dramas, Court TV plans to air a new half-hour series this winter about true-crime domestic murder mysteries hosted by iconoclastic film director John Waters.

AOL to Cut 700 (AP)
America Online is laying off more than 700 employees in response to the ongoing decline in subscribers for its dial-up Internet-access services.

NBC Wants Its Must-See Thursday Back (NYT)
The night that defined NBC's dominance in prime-time television for two decades is now a CBS principality. Now execs have been thrashing over possible changes on the night, including a return to a Thursday comedy block. USAT: Can Leguizamo pump life into ER?

So You Want to Be a TV Weatherman... (Slate)
You'll need to send in a weather resume, along with a video that shows off your personal forecasting style. Some aspiring weathermen put several forecasts on the same tape to show they can handle all of the seasons.

Spain's Case Against the Al-Jazeera Reporter (LA Weekly)
Taysir Allouni, a veteran Al-Jazeera war reporter and the only journalist to have interviewed Osama bin Laden post-9/11, was sentenced last month by a Spanish court to seven years in prison for collaboration with Al Qaeda.

Gaming Grannies (BusinessWeek)
Older people make up a sizable, though often overlooked, segment of the video-gaming market. And they're just as quick on the trigger as teens.

The Not-Quite-Ready-for-A-List-Players (AdAge)
Simon Dumenco: Elsewhere in this week's issue of Advertising Age you'll find the annual "A-list" of magazines, which is all very well and good—but just a bit too exclusive for Media Guy's tastes.

Howard Stern Losing Listeners (WaPo)
The shock jock won't jump to satellite radio until January, but in the meantime, some of his listeners already seem to be heading for the exits.

Big Bucks From Blogs? (Red Herring)
Blogs will play an important role in the future of advertising, entrepreneurs said, but for now the bulk of ad dollars from these web journals still appears to be flowing to search engine Google.

Journalists as Hotties? (Seattle Weekly)
Brian Miller: Never has our profession been more handsome. I, personally, am getting better looking by the day. I work in an office full of exceptionally attractive people. Think I'm bragging? Just look at our peers.

—David S. Hirschman

IN YESTERDAY'S MB BLOGS:

Limited Commercials, Single Sponsor On Sunday's 60 Minutes [TVNewser]
"60 Minutes will have closer to a full 60 minutes worth of content this Sunday night," Broadcasting & Cable says. On Tuesday night's Colbert Report, CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl said the program "would be a single-sponsor broadcast -- Philips -- with limited commercial breaks (about half the normal number)."

Getting Libby With It [FishbowlDC]
If you take a stroll on the streets near Washington Post headquarters, you'll notice that there's a lot of graffiti that reads, "Libby Copeland Writes Lies." As if journalists weren't already under attack, now they have to worry about their name being spraypainted somewhere if an article displeases someone (and each article is bound to always displease someone).

The Three Faces of Judy [FishbowlNY]
It's Wednesday, which means that the New York Observer gets to publish even more on Judith Miller, in addition to the scoops and updates of the past two weeks. On paragraph in particular really crystallized the conficting versions of Miller that have emerged from the whole sordid affair...

Illegal Wiretapping: The New Pilates [FishbowlLA]
The NYT looks at the Anthony Pellicano case, reporting that all sorts of agent and lawyer types have been called before the grand jury and/or questioned by prosecutors investigating Pellicano's illegal wiretapping activities...

Major Chains Take a 3Q Hit [Galleycat]
You'd have thought that the July release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince would have been a tremendous boon to America's bookstores, but the way the market works, all those revenues were already applied to the second quarter of the fiscal year. Three months later, things aren't looking so hot.

If She Can Illustrate A Grammar Book She Can Do Anything, We're Guessing [UnBeige]
You ever seen Elements of Style? You ever seen Elements of Style...Illustrated??? Turns out that someone has managed to take Strunk and White's oh-so-classic Elements of Style and drawn some pictures and made it all make coherent sense. That someone is Maira Kalman.

Op-Education [mbToolbox]
You've got good thoughts, you're good at getting them down on paper: now how to get newspapers to include them in their op-ed sections? Journalist and author Catherine Orenstein has contributed to the op-ed pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Miami Herald. Her opinion pieces on women's politics, popular culture, and Latin America have run on the Knight-Ridder newswire and have been published in anthologies. She'll be teaching mb's "Op-Ed Master Class: Opinion Writing for Authors, Journalists, Scholars, and Activists", and has a few tips for you...