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Writers Guild Votes Overwhelmingly to Authorize a Strike (LAT)
Members of the Writers Guild of America voted by an overwhelming margin to authorize their leaders to call a strike if they can't negotiate a three-year contract with the major studios to replace one that expires Oct. 31. Of 5,507 members who voted, 90 percent favored granting a strike authorization. Guild officials said the turnout was a record for the union, which has nearly 12,000 members. LA Weekly/Deadline Hollywood: Hollywood moguls are sounding strike happy and see the new TV season as dead already, writes Nikki Finke.

Sussing Out Drudge's Motives (NYT)
Aides in both parties acknowledge working harder than ever to get favorable coverage for their candidates — or unfavorable coverage of competitors — onto the Drudge Report's home page, knowing that television producers, radio talk show hosts, and newspaper reporters view it as a bulletin board for the latest news and gossip.

Charges Against Village Voice Media Execs Dropped (Arizona Republic)
Maricopa County attorney Andrew Thomas dismissed all charges against Phoenix New Times less than 24 hours after two of the paper's owners were arrested for publishing details of a grand-jury subpoena that demanded the Internet records of any person who had visited the newspaper's Web site since 2004. The State Bar Association confirmed that it had received multiple complaints about the case. Slate: I wish I could report that Larkin and Lacey were still in jail or bound for the Supermax prison in Florence, Colo. A pair more in need of correction you'll never meet. Alas, both were sprung after a few hours in stir, writes Jack Shafer.

How Many Site Hits? Depends Who's Counting (NYT)
Online advertising is expected to generate more than $20 billion in revenue this year, more than double the $9.6 billion it represented as recently as 2004. Nobody doubts that the figure will grow — particularly as advertisers hone their techniques for aiming messages to particular consumers — but the question remains how much the clashing traffic figures will hold the market back.

Presidential Cabinet Members Start Blogs (AP via BusinessWeek)
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and Michael Chertoff at Homeland Security are the first two members of President Bush's Cabinet who are blogging. They are among the more than 61 million Internet blogs, according to blogpulse.com, a site that tracks blogs. The State Department has begun a blog, too, although Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is not a contributor so far.

Cookbook Author Says Seinfeld Book 'Deceptively' Similar (USAT)
Could Oprah Winfrey's televised blessing become an embarrassment for recipient Jessica Seinfeld? After the wife of comedian Jerry Seinfeld appeared Oct. 8 on Winfrey's show to discuss her cookbook, Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food, online message boards erupted with questions about the originality of the book's premise.

Maher Helps Security Toss Rowdy Fan on Live TV (NYDN)
Bill Maher can add "security guard" to his job description alongside comedian and political commentator. Maher on Friday night helped security remove a rowdy protester from the studio during his weekly HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher — and it was all captured on live television.

News Corp. Passes Time Warner as World's Most Valuable Media Company (Hollywood Reporter)
When it was all said and done Friday, the list of the world's largest media conglomerates, based on market cap, looked like this: News Corp. was first at $67.79 billion, followed by Time Warner ($67.32 billion), Disney ($65.62 billion), Sony ($45.29 billion), Viacom ($26.98 billion), and CBS ($21.11 billion). Guardian: Rupert Murdoch hosed down a shareholder rebellion Friday as almost a quarter of News Corp.'s investors voted for greater democracy within the media empire. NYT: Ready or not, here comes the Fox Business Network, writes Joe Nocera.

Journalism Morsels Make for Profitable Dish at This Bistro (WaPo)
Howard Kurtz: Laurel Touby credits mediabistro.com's success to the "navel-gazing" nature of the news business: "We make celebrities out of media people. You take regular Joes and turn them into celebrities by writing about them. Once you've made someone's colleague in the next cubicle into a rock star, they want to be a rock star. It's the mediocritization of the media."

Kerrey Dares Candidates to Go on Imus (NYDN)
Bob Kerrey: Just like Freddie Krueger, the terrifying lead character in Nightmare on Elm Street, Don Imus is coming back. And as with Freddie, there is something about the I-Man that is scary but irresistible. But not irresistible to everyone. You can be sure the candidates for President will avoid him like the plague.

MySpace to Air Its First Scripted Show (Variety)
MySpace begins airing its first original scripted production today. Roommates is a faux reality series designed to mimic the success the company had with Prom Queen. Unlike Michael Eisner's Prom Queen, which debuted on MySpace but was not exclusive, MySpaceTV is co-producing Roommates, airing it exclusively, and will retain creative control to respond to plot suggestions from MySpace users.

Linking in to GodTube (LAT)
Last week, GodTube became the first religious Web site to offer the hot-ticket social media trinity: user-generated video (a la YouTube), social networking (a la MySpace and Facebook), and live webcasting (a la Stickam.com). Due to the sheer volume of video watched by its users — 1.5 million hours last month — GodTube is now the world's largest broadcaster of Christian video.

The Gospel According to Mr. Colbert (NYT)
David Carr: There might be those who will suggest that the presence of Stephen Colbert on the hallowed ground of Meet the Press is a sign that paradigms are in the midst of shifting, but it is just a simple commercial exchange of brands: The funny guy who makes a living acting serious talking with the serious guy who was temporarily making a living acting funny.

Brûlé Don't Write Off Newspapers (Independent)
Tyler Brûlé: Print media might be faced with some serious challenges but it's time to stop calling its relevance into question — that goes for newspapers too. In many markets the humble daily has never looked so good, in others there's a bit of work to be done. If it was our money and we were going to launch a daily newspaper, we'd be taking our cues from our favorite Italian broadsheet.

Northwestern J-School Should Keep the Medill Name (Marketwatch)
Jon Friedman: According to a piece by Alison Hollenbeck in the Daily Northwestern campus newspaper, dean John Lavine said, "We're really exploring what the name should be, could be, what people think about it. There will be a process for people to have real input on it, and that's what is important." On the contrary, I don't believe that's what is important.