In your should-be-a-holiday Monday media column: WPIX goes minimalist, Ken Auletta takes on AOL, the Comcast-NBCU merger is almost ready to close, and Piers Morgan will have his first and most-watched episode on CNN tonight.

  • NYC news station WPIX is all fucked up. And it's owned by Tribune, surprisingly! The NY Post today says that the station has cut its entire sports department. LOL. "In additional cuts, the station's human resources, research and community affairs departments have been eliminated." This is truly the glorious realization of Lee Abrams' vision.
  • Oh snap, Ken Auletta has a big new story about AOL in the New Yorker, complete with this dis track: "Much of what AOL publishes is piffle." Ken Auletta has always been unafraid to tell it how it is, in an old-timey way.
  • The merger of Comcast and NBC Universal is expected to officially close on Jan. 28. Stockpile your NBCU letterhead while you still can!
  • Piers Morgan's first show on CNN is tonight. Despite all the publicity, we fear that his battle to gain millions of new viewers is an impossible one.