The real loser of last night's presidential debate: Jim Lehrer, who didn't do a whole lot.

Threatening to cut PBS' funding — and therefore Jim Lehrer's job — wasn't the only way ole Massachusetts Mitt was impolite to Jim Lehrer at last night's debate. And the Democratic National Committee (eager to distract you from the President's lackluster performance last night) is already capitalizing.

Poor Jim Lehrer could not keep up with the pace of the presidential debate last night. Here he is, stuttering is way through his moderating gig.

In your peerless Thursday media column: Bill Keller twit-muses, Jim Lehrer is leaving, a National Magazine Award is controversial, more on the NYT's Week in Review revamp, and the internet spawns another millionaire.

• Another ex-Post staffer has filed a salacious lawsuit against the paper. [HP]
• Yet another magazine is no more. Giant gave up the ghost today. [Gawker]
• Rupert Murdoch's son, Lachlan Murdoch, is teaming up with media investor Jimmy Finkelstein to bid on a handful of media trade titles owned by Nielsen, including The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, and AdWeek. [NYT]
• The guy who runs Clubplanet.com says that if Maxim's owners don't sell him the mag, it will go bust by March. Maxim isn't impressed. [P6, AdAge]
• One sector of the magazine biz that's doing well: Airline publishing! [WSJ]
• Did BusinessWeek just replace Maria Bartiromo with Charlie Rose? [BI]
• The good news for Jay Leno: His ratings seem to have stabilized in recent weeks. The bad: More people are watching shows they recorded on their DVRs rather than tune into NBC's misguided 10pm experiment. [THR, NYP]
• New Moon topped the box office once again this weekend, as expected. [THR]

In your maverick Monday media column: A word is preposterously declared to be The Top, Jim Lehrer takes it slow and steady, the Mike Penner vs. Christine Daniels question, and you are invited to a Hooker Pub.

Author, screenwriter and director Nora Ephron turns 68 today. PBS NewsHour host Jim Lehrer is 75. British model Lily Cole is 21. Oxygen co-founder Gerry Laybourne is turning 62. Boston Celtics star Kevin Garnett is turning turns 33. Pete Townshend of The Who is 64. And Grace Jones celebrates her 61st birthday today.

A move "designed to bring it more fully into the digital era, give it a livelier look and nudge it, however slowly, toward the day when its longtime anchor decides to retire." (New York Times)

Tom Brokaw was determined last night that he wasn't going to put up with any crap from presidential candidates or their running mates, who had their way with previous debate moderators Jim Lehrer and Gwen Ifill. So every time John McCain or Barack Obama broke one of the debate rules, Brokaw delivered a verbal slap. The NBC News commentator got increasingly frustrated with infractions as the night wore on, but both candidates seemed to be on their best behavior yet, even when Brokaw rather oddly insisted they yield a heated moment to a question from the entire internet.

Admit it. You've been wondering what John McCain eats for breakfast. The answer? Coffee, cereal, and fruit. (No, not babies.) Barack Obama gobbles down four to six eggs, potatoes, and wheat toast, and occasionally adds fruit, bacon, and oatmeal to the menu. (How does he stay so thin?) We certainly didn't see this one coming, but Tom Brokaw says he's a granola and yogurt kind-of-guy. Maureen Dowd? "I don't eat breakfast. Just coffee." A few other breakfast choices of media and political types after the jump.