In your woebegone Wednesday media column: network news is on the ups, The Source magazine remembered, Harper's Bazaar cuts back, the trickle away from The Daily continues, and ad revenue at the NYT is bad (again, still).

Untalented but successful writer Thomas Friedman has been doing a lot of thinking lately. "I like golf," he thinks to himself, while sitting in his palatial mansion. Then he realizes his next column is due in an hour. "Manservant!" he cries. "Bring me a metaphor! Any metaphor!"

Matthew Winkler was down under last week, and on top of the world. The Bloomberg co-founder interviewed the Aussie prime minister, and gushed in a laudatory Australian profile that "it's really an extraordinary time to be around, to be alive, to be a journalist — to be at Bloomberg News.'' One of his reporters very much disagreed. (Or not — see her statement in the update below.)

The man who built Al Jazeera into a global TV news powerhouse was replaced after Wikileaks released a cable showing he collaborated with the U.S. government. Apparently this did not go over well with the Middle Eastern royal family that actually owns the network.

In your provocative Tuesday media column: the NYT's new Big City columnist gives us hope, Ted Turner vs. Rupert Murdoch, Utah newspaper standards war, the internet won't be free forever, and Cenk Uygur to Current TV.

In your mordant Monday media column: News Corp pays up for Milly Dowler, Janet Robinson tweets in secret, Ted Koppel could head to NBC, Americans think Fox News is "the best," and a Senator's wife finally resigns from a newspaper.

DEADLY DRUG DEATH SHOCKER: As of 2009, more Americans die from prescription drugs than die in cars. Wow. So?

Former KGB agent and billionaire newspaper tycoon Alexander Lebedev decided to spice up his appearance on some boring Russian talk show by punching fellow Russian billionaire Sergei Polonsky in the face. But it was probably justified, because Polonsky was the first to say he wanted to "stick one in the mouth."

The Metropolitan Police knew for years that the Sun had hacked into teen British murder victim Milly Dowler's voicemail, but sat on the information because they were in cahoots with England's tabloids. It wasn't until the Guardian broke the Dowler story that the police finally investigated the hacking in earnest. Now the cops want to know who ratted them out.

Now that Wikileaks has been forced by circumstance to release the full, unredacted archive of its 250,000-plus classified diplomatic cables, we can see what the New York Times voluntarily redacted, at the request of the State Department, from the cables that it published. Among the things it hid: Muammar Qaddafi has a bisexual son, and a Reuters correspondent is a source for State Department intelligence.

In your grudging Friday media column: Jill Abramson is complacent, the WaPo and the Daily Mail bitch at one another, investigative reporters take a hit, job changes at Conde Nast, and Reuters is ambitious.

Jay Shells is the New York guerrilla artist famous for his unofficial subway etiquette posters. For his latest project, he's put up urban etiquette signs across the city. Got himself an interview on Fox News today! You'll want to watch all the way through to the end of this clip, when he tells the Foxbot about his aborted plans for a "Fox News Lies" sign. She is miffed! Jay, how could you??

In your workmanlike Thursday media column: Megan McCarthy to the NYO, Ana Marie Cox and Nick Davies to The Guardian, a new EP at ABC News, Jon Meacham to Time, and ruthless morning news bookers.

October, 2010: lifelong media grenade-thrower Michael Wolff is appointed as the top editor of advertising industry trade magazine Adweek. April, 2011: the new Wolff-ified Adweek debuts. Our prediction at the time: "It'll go along just fine for a month or three, until the publisher starts getting calls from the advertisers, who say, 'I find all of that media reporting very interesting but by the way, we are in the advertising industry. Not the media. So I'm, you know, taking my business over to Ad Age, which really, let's be honest, covers this industry that I'm in (advertising) better than you guys do.' And that will be the end of the great media-reporting-heavy advertising trade magazine experiment!"

In your even-keeled Wednesday media column: masthead changes at the NYT, women vs. men in journalism, the WSJ loves video, Shep Smith's pad is for sale, and News Corp paper analyzes James Murdoch's future.

The Drudge Report linked the above headline to this Washington Post article on Catholic conservative Bob Turner's victory tonight over Democrat Dave Weprin in the race for Anthony Weinergate's old (and hopefully shampooed) Congressional throne. Looks like "angry blacks" have company!

The Boston Globe rolled out a handsome new website, and it's exemplary: No confusing mess of links, no upchuck of annoying ugly ads, and, best of all, no special crippled version for the iPhone or iPad.

In your departing Tuesday media column: Sam Sifton says goodbye to the NYT restaurant critic gig (with memo!), Nancy Franklin quits as NYer TV critic, more News Corp scandalism, and Mashable expands.

In your mute Monday media column: the internet is for porn, Brian Williams gets a new prime time show, Dr. Phil's exclusive is completely ethical, dead body dog collar weatherman resigns, and The Hairpin hires.

If you had to think of one thing that stood out on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, you would probably say there was a lack of television tributes, right? Funny, because that's how the New York Post sees it, too. Fact-based reporting from the paper: