• Charlie Gibson is retiring as anchor of ABC's World News Tonight at the end of the year; he'll be replaced by Diane Sawyer, who is stepping down as anchor of Good Morning America to take the job. And now Brian Williams will soon be the only man anchoring a nightly network newscast. [NYP]
• The 66th installment of the Venice Film Festival kicked off today. [THR]
• Thanks to the success of Royal Pains and Burn Notice, USA has scored the highest summer ratings in the history of cable television. [B&C]
• Current TV's Laura Ling and Euna Lee have broken their silence and are now describing some of what happened when they were captured in North Korea. Not all it, though. You'll have to buy their book to read the rest. [LAT]
• Is Jared Kushner looking to unload the Observer? That's the rumor. [Gawker]

• Cable news ratings: Per usual, Fox News was No. 1 in August; MSNBC edged out CNN in primetime for the coveted 25-54 year-old demo. [B&C]
• David Simon, the creator of The Wire, thinks that advertising is totally destroying TV! Of course, you'd probably feel the same way, too, if you were paid millions by HBO to do whatever you damn well pleased. [BBC]
• Why does an old photo of Jackie Kennedy appear on the cover of the new issue of Vanity Fair? Because the Kennedy family sells, that's why. [WWD]
• Vanity Fair's photo and video shoot with Levi Johnston is now online. [VF]
• If you're a Times photographer, the paper's editors would really appreciate it if you didn't doctor your pics before turning them in. Thanks! [E&P]
• 40% of sports reports gamble on sports, according to a new poll. Heh. [E&P]