In your rumormongering Thursday media column: rumors of layoffs and shenanigans at Viacom and Sesame Street (updated), Felix Salmon jumps the Fort Polio ship, Jay Carney flackery, and a journalism grad is broken:

More fuckery at Viacom? Not hard to believe! We've heard two new Viacom rumors today: First, we hear that another round of staff layoffs at Viacom is happening this week [Email us if you know more]. Second, a tipster tells us that MTV has created a fun new way to stick it to vendors:

MTV Networks is currently withholding millions of dollars from vendors after a debacle with "InvoiceWorks," their new method for third party vendors to invoice. It's a giant mess. They've changed their standard net payment from 30 days to 60 days without giving notice to vendors. All sorts of companies are owed money by MTV. Edit facilities, production companies, on-air talent, office supply companies, caterers, you name it.

Portfolio.com finance blogger Felix Salmon, a recession winner, is leaving the leaky Conde Nast ship for a new gig as some sort of opinion blogger for Reuters. Anybody who can get a job these days must know something about something!


Jay Carney, former Time Washington guy-turned Joe Biden flack, claims in a new interview that he wasn't "swept up in Obamamania." YEA RIGHT CARNEY. Just admit it. Other than that the interview is total fluff.


Success: Kid goes to school, gets a degree in journalism, and finds a job in the journalism field! He's delivering newspapers. Cannot believe we left 'paperboy' off our list.

Heartbreaking rumor of the day: a tipster tells us that Sesame Workshop, "the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street and so much more," is laying off a fifth of its workforce, something like five dozen people. Among the departed are Grover and the "Big" in "Bird." [Not really. Email us with details or denials on this.]
UPDATE: My mistake, this wasn't a "rumor" after all: "The company said Wednesday that it's eliminating 67 of 355 staff positions."