Mediagazer: Madison Avenue ‘Plays Ball’ With Fox (Stuart Elliott/Media Decoder)

Chasing Fox — The loud, cartoonish blood sport that's engorged MSNBC, exhausted CNN—and is making our body politic delirious. — In the spring of 2006, a year and a half after he was hired to run CNN/U.S., Jonathan Klein went to his boss Jim Walton with an idea. CNN was in trouble.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Mediaite, Inside Cable News, Chickaboomer, Romenesko and Washington Post

Discussion: The Wire

Tim Arango / Media Decoder:

Michael Wolff to Lead a Stable of Trade Magazines — Michael Wolff, the Vanity Fair columnist and troublemaker who seems to relish public feuds and collecting enemies as much as chronicling the folkways of the Manhattan media world, has agreed to become editorial director of a group …

Discussion: New York Observer, FishbowlNY, Gawker, The Wrap, Romenesko, The Wire and DailyFinance

David Carr / New York Times:

Film Version of Zuckerberg Divides Generations — At what point does ambition, a cornerstone of American commerce, morph into something darker and less celebrated? Over the weekend, people who saw “The Social Network,” the movie about Facebook and its principal creator, Mark Zuckerberg …

Discussion: Gawker, The Daily Beast, ArtsBeat, Reuters, Vanity Fair, TBD All News, Fast Company and From 416 to 905, more at Techmeme »

Discussion: Jezebel, MTV Movies Blog and Company Town, more at Techmeme »

Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:

The New York Observer Is Close To Buying Dealbreaker, But Bess Levin Is Holding Everybody Hostage — Jared Kushner's newspaper, The New York Observer, is close to buying Breaking Media's Wall Street gossip blog, Dealbreaker. In fact, a source close to the deal tells us people at both companies describe it as “done.”

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter Online:

BGov, New Bloomberg Site, Pairs Analysts & Reporters for Public Policy Coverage — Bloomberg Government, a new subscription-based news site in Washington, D.C., will take a unique approach to covering the federal government when it launches in January. In hiring subject-matter experts along …

Discussion: The Corsair

Jon Friedman / MarketWatch:

Keith Kelly: scourge of media industry — NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Don't mess with New York Post columnist Keith Kelly, the scourge of the magazine industry. — Consider the time that the new public-relations man for a prominent newsweekly magazine called Kelly to introduce himself …

Discussion: Romenesko and Regret the Error

Tom Lowry / Variety:

Journalist Richard Siklos to Time Warner — He joins as VP of corporate affairs, media adviser — Veteran media scribe Richard Siklos is joining Time Warner as a VP in corporate affairs handling external communications and advising on media strategy. — Siklos will report to Gary Ginsberg …

The Independent:

Stephen Glover: The Guardian can't go on like this — Media Studies: The Guardian reportedly fielded 19 journalists at the Labour Party conference in Manchester — This column does not normally take much interest in motoring magazines, which may be a weakness.

Discussion: Press Gazette and Guardian

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:

Kathleen Parker and Eliot Spitzer, CNN's duo of civil dispute — They are, somewhat self-consciously, an odd couple, the Northern pol and the Southern belle, the prosecutor and the journalist, the man trying to recover from disgrace and the woman graciously forgiving his sins.

Discussion: NY Daily News, Chickaboomer and Inside Cable News

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

An Award, Criticism and Perils for Comcast — Criticizing Fox News is a year-round sport for many hosts on MSNBC, the cable news channel, and especially for Keith Olbermann, whose verbal spitballs at the Fox host Bill O'Reilly have occasionally put his parent company, NBC Universal, on edge.

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Free Press and Media Nation

James Hibberd / Hollywood Reporter:

Industry backs Robert Greenblatt to run NBC — Strong belief that ‘beloved’ exec can lead turnaround — Robert Greenblatt is not running NBC — yet — but the prospect of the former Showtime entertainment president taking command of the network has the creative community buzzing with anticipation.

Stuart Elliott / Media Decoder:

Madison Avenue ‘Plays Ball’ With Fox — In another sign of how eager advertisers are these days to sponsor live sports on television, Fox is reporting strong demand for commercials to appear during its post-season baseball coverage. — Fox Broadcasting, part of the News Corporation …

Discussion: The Wire, AdAge and Company Town

Felix Salmon:

How Carlos Slim made $150 million from the NYT — The New York Times is going to pay back the $250 million loan from Carlos Slim three years ahead of schedule. It's very expensive debt, so it makes sense that it should be the first debt to be paid down. But this also turns …

Discussion: New York Observer

Discussion: Telegraph, New York Times, The Wire, Runnin' Scared, Bloomberg and New York Magazine

MIJE.org:

NAHJ Clams Up on Rick Sanchez Firing — Others Compare Lou Dobbs' Fate, Assess Racism Claim — Others Compare Lou Dobbs' Fate, Assess Racism Claim — The board of directors of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists has decided not to comment on CNN's firing of anchor Rick Sanchez …

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:

As Tech Blogs Grow up, Can They Transcend Their Founders? — It's Possible, but for Many the Results Remain to Be Seen — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — They started out as personal obsessions and evolved into agenda-setting news outlets proffering snap judgments on everything from Yahoo's executive drama to Google's new URL shortener.