Brian Rooney, a 22-year veteran at ABC News, was laid off this week. Just another victim of a financially shaky company? Or is Brian reaping the evil crop sown by his father, Andy Rooney? A reader has a theory!

We hear that Oyster, the high-end travel website that laid off more than a third of its staff in December, has canned its remaining editorial staffers.

In your sober Thursday media column: another round of layoffs hits BusinessWeek, Sulzberger Jr. goes to court, a cop fired for helping a drunk newsman, and Adam Nagourney may be headed to LA.

In your wicked Wednesday media column: Dan Rather apologizes for not understanding the Twitter, looming BusinessWeek layoffs, the Ellies go to the usual suspects, and Jason Mulgrew's book is here.

We're told staffers at Current TV are at this very moment in meetings about a coming round of layoffs at Al Gore's unconventional cable network. Current's Web workers are expected to take the brunt of the cuts, including one microcelebrity.

D-Day is here for ABC News. ("D" is for "Damn, they're taking my job.") The company is reportedly seeking three to four hundred buyouts, which would amount to about a quarter of its workforce. We'll update below with details.

The Wrap has what appears to be a secondhand quote from NYT CFO James Follo about new layoffs: "I think we would expect that to be the case, yes." (It's like playing "telephone.") Bill Keller's December sigh of relief: Premature?

• Jon Stewart will face off against Bill O'Reilly when he enters the "No Spin Zone" tomorrow evening. In somewhat related news, pedicure-loving ex-congressman (and wanna-be Senator) Harold Ford hit Colbert last night.
• Is the magazine industry on the verge of a turnaround? Let's hope so! [AA]
• TV news: ABC is thinking of moving The View to the afternoon; Fox confirms it's had "conversations" with Conan about a late-night show, but hasn't had any real "negotiations"; and Matthew Broderick may be coming to the small screen.
• Layoffs: Big cuts went down at CBS News yesterday afternoon. And Sony Pictures has announced that it's cutting 450 positions at the studio.
• For the first time in a long time, CNN has surpassed MSNBC in primetime. Neither network is close to catching up with Fox News, though. [Politico, LAT]
• A reality show about The Oprah Winfrey Show is coming to Oprah's new cable channel next January. The network will also be home to shows about imprisoned women, "miracle detectives," and workaholic parents. [NYT]
• News Corp. is in talks with James Cameron about an Avatar sequel. [THR]
• Did you catch the New York Post's "prosti-dude" story today? Some staffers at the paper were a little less than thrilled with the PR stunt, it seems. [Gawker]
• Condé Nast's new fraud hotline should make ratting out co-workers (for stealing office supplies, expensing meals with friends, etc.) much easier! [NYP]
• More on this morning's Oscar nominations. [THR, NYT, TE, LAT]
• Meet Hollywood's top 40 moneymakers for 2009. [Vanity Fair]

Fast Company is reporting, in a reed-thin update to their obit for Miramax, that the Weinstein Co. is laying off 30 people today. We're trying to confirm, but people familiar with the firm say insiders were bracing for another round.

In your wicked Wednesday media column: the post-Roger Hodge day at Harper's, real journalists sure don't work in a "coffee shop," layoffs at ABC, and Nancy Grace is bad.

AOL will begin a much-anticipated mass layoff round today, the head of HR wrote to staff. Fired workers — an estimated 1,400 of them — will largely be leaving on Wednesday. Then the internet conglomerate can hire in India. AOL is planing to expand its technical staff in South Asia, according to briefings within the company earlier this month. But first the company, in the midst of a major restructuring under CEO Tim Armstrong, must make major cuts stateside. By spreading the cuts among AOL's offices, the company will avoid having to give costly, lengthy firing notices under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification act. Let's hear it for the bottom line.

Next week will bring a much-anticipated "nuclear" round of layoffs to AOL, insiders believe, part of an internal shift the CEO is describing as a cultural revolution. Indeed, some jobs are literally going to another culture, offshore, we hear.

We hear The Daily Beast's new president Stephen Colvin has sparked layoff fears. Know more?

The dying Washington Times laid off something like 40% of its staff yesterday, including almost all Sports and Metro staffers, most photo staffers, the managing editor, and Wonkette pal Liz Glover. Lean and mean for another decade of domination! [WP]

After buying out or laying off close to 100 staffers, New York Times executive editor has sent out a newsroom memo claiming that no other job cuts are expected and that the pay cut that the paper imposed earlier this year will be rescinded in January.

We've updated our New York Times layoff victims list. If you have info, email us.

Yowza. About those New York Times layoffs everybody's been waiting to hear about: Daily Intel got a partial list of layoff victims, and some surprisingly big names are on it. Including the Seymour Hersh of the Styles section! [UPDATED].

In your arctic Wednesday media column: the NYT freelancers grow restless, News Corp hands out Christmas bonuses, the Miami Herald is sad, fabulous corrections, and layoffs at TNR.

Their point: Yahoo made about 1 million euros per worker from Yahoo France alone last year, and used to hype how "it's important to have [locally] concentrated engineering activities... to innovate" in France, where it would base "one of [its] most important centers in Europe." Yahoo France's engineers will now stop working until Yahoo agrees that they shouldn't have to stop working. At least they're fact checking the internet company's hype along the way.

The New York Times layoffs are supposedly starting today. Know any names? Email us.