In your finally Friday media column: Haaretz gets poetic, the Boston Globe gets profligate, Tim Russert gets remembered, and the newsy porn magazines get downsized:

Respected Israel newspaper Haaretz did something different on June 10: they had their reporters take the day off, and they "sent 31 of Israel's finest authors and poets to cover the day's news." How'd that go?

The TV review by Eshkol Nevo opened with these words: "I didn't watch TV yesterday." And the weather report was a poem by Roni Somek, titled "Summer Sonnet."

As expected.

The Boston Globe is spending up to a million bucks on an ad campaign to promote itself, even as it's cutting tens of millions from its budget. Yea, ad people will tell you it's an investment that will pay for itself, blah blah. We're not so sure. How about running a million bucks worth of ads in the Boston Globe, then? Bigger news hole, too! Oh and more Boston people are interested in maybe buying it.

Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of Tim Russert's death. Read some reminiscences from his pals, here. He was not so bad compared to the current menu of options.

AVN Media, the king of porn industry trade magazines, is consolidating four of its six monthly magazines into one. Let's hope Novelty Business Magazine is not finished—in these times, Americans need novelty more than ever. Especially the children.