August has a reputation for being a quiet news month, but “the truth is it has never been true,” CBS Evening News EP Rome Hartman says. And that’s especially true this year, USAT’s Peter Johnson writes.

FNC’s Shepard Smith has postponed his vacation twice. NBC’s Brian Williams was off the clock for about five hours before flying to London on Thursday. CNN’s Anderson Cooper is finally taking some time off this week.

And we should shed a tear for ABC exec Paul Slavin, who “planned to be riding a bike from Prague to Vienna this week. Instead, thanks to an intense summer news cycle, he’s on Martha’s Vineyard…”