Two weeks ago, the Boston Globe's newsroom union rejected a $10 million package of (necessary) cutbacks. So management slapped them with a huge pay cut. Now they're ready to accept...what they turned down, basically! What a waste of time.

Scripps—the company that closed the Rocky Mountain News and posted a $220 million loss last quarter—is opening its brand new, $95 million headquarters for the Naples (FL) Daily News. It is the worst newspaper business thing ever.

In your maudlin Monday media column: Magazines fail at drug-smuggling, sad layoffs at Videogum and Boston Magazine, newspaper reporters in Canada may strike(!), the NYT pokes the WaPo, and an update on the Milwaukee journalist-cop affair scandal.

Larry Sabato, the omnipresent pundit and prognosticator who was revealed last week to call races in favor of congressman who send earmarks to his Institute for Politics, says he will work harder at disclosing his relationships with political benefactors.

• New York Times reporter David Rohde, who was held hostage in Afghanistan for seven months, managed to escape on Friday night. The Taliban had reportedly been seeking $25-30 million in ransom; the newspaper, meanwhile, is rumored to have offered $5 million for his safe release. [NYT, AP, ABC, CQ]
• The negotiations in Boston continue: The Boston Globe and its largest union are close to an agreement on wage and benefit cuts. Or so they say. [BG]
• Ratings for The Fashion Show haven't been great (and Project Runway is fast approaching), but Bravo execs say they're pleased with the results. [NYT]
• Disney's The Proposal topped the box office this weekend, pulling in $34.1 million and knocking The Hangover into second place. [THR]

What is today, America? Lo, it's the day when Jon and Kate Gosselin make their big announcement on the reality show they have, with their kids, on the TV. This could save gossip magazines! We rank the possibilities, below.

If there are two things that define angry sex fiend Post columnist Andrea Peyser, those things are being angry (at people, and things) and liking sexy people (free or not). Today she gets to do both, in one paragraph!

You simply cannot turn on your television these days without seeing New York Times editor Bill Keller expounding on something, or explaining something, or being made fun of. He is ubiquitous!

So: someone at a Bolivian television station and someone at a Dutch radio station are sitting around on a Sunday, probably bored. And then, boom: they think they scooped the world with footage from Air France Flight 447.

The St. Petersburg Times is running a massive report on Scientology, focusing on leader David Miscavige and high-ranking defectors spilling on him. Revealed: Miscavige's sadistic temper. Like when he made staffers play 'violent' musical chairs, scored to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody."

After being held hostage by the Taliban for seven months in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Pulitzer-winning New York Times reporter David Rohde escaped from a compound to freedom. He apparently just "climbed over the wall" but still: badass happy ending! [NYT]

Former Huffington Post media reporter and Dan Abrams' henchwoman Rachel Sklar is pissed at her friend, blogger-journalist Jeff Jarvis. Jarvis posted a now-infamous email of hers to his blog and absolutely lit her up in the process. Sklar fired back.

We smelled a story when we read that Bo's favorite food is tomatoes, but we had no idea how deep it went. Not long after we started sniffing it out the whole tissue of lies unraveled.

So you know the Washington Post fired lovable liberal-ish White House blogger Dan Froomkin(!). But there is good news: they are still giving column inches to non-journalist Bush appointees!

Maxim recently folded its UK print version, and it's facing the horrific specter of a world with no cigarette ads. Times are tough. So they're coming out with yet another brand spinoff! It's a full-blown trend now:

In your scandalous Friday media column: a reporter has an affair with a police chief, another reporter's charged with assaulting an old man, Meredith is the new queen of magazines, and Reader's Digest increases its pap quotient.

• It's been two years since Ben Silverman became co-chairman of NBC Entertainment. And what a two years it's been, huh? [LAT]
• The largest union at the Boston Globe will vote on a new contract on July 20, even though it's yet to iron out a deal with the New York Times Co. [BG]
• Reader's Digest's plan to remain relevant: It's going to become even more conservative and old-fashioned, and embrace religion and stuff. [NYT]
• How are some newspaper reporters dealing with unemployment? They're turning to careers as go-kart racers. Just as you suspected. [Fortune]

Larry Sabato is a quote-mongering political scientist at the University of Virginia who's always talking to reporters because he likes talking. And if you're a congressman pal who directs millions in earmarks to Sabato's organization, he'll say whatever you like.

Doug Hampton, the cuckolded husband of Sen. John Ensign's mistress, wrote a letter to Fox News five days before the story broke that Ensign had ruined his life and career. Fox never reported it, and called Hampton an extortionist.

National Lampoon parodied a newspaper back in the 70s, and The Onion was founded in 1988, and last year there was that mildly interesting fake New York Times, but the latest spoof paper is indistinguishable from an earnest lefty, arguing.