Early Wednesday afternoon, the Twitter account of Ebony magazine raised an alarm about a distressing new campaign targeting the magazine:

In your finally Friday media column: Jay Carney is an absolute firecracker, big changes at Ebony and Essence, Michael Calderone moves to HuffPo, Jay Rosen opines at length, and Bill O'Reilly does something good for once in his miserable life.

Former White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers, who earned the enmity of Washington's worst people and resigned after two bozos crashed a White House party, has been named CEO of Johnson Publishing Company—owners of Jet and Ebony. [NYT]

In your value-added Tuesday media column: The Onion shuts down a section, SmartMoney may be taken over by Dow Jones, an n+1 guy gets a book deal, and Magic Johnson's still not a media mogul.

• It's all over for Dan Rather and his long-running legal campaign against CBS. A state appeals court dismissed the ex-anchor's lawsuit today. [Reuters, NYP]
• At least four parties are still in the bidding for BusinessWeek. But Bloomberg LP remains the most likely acquirer of the struggling magazine. [BW, Reuters]
• An "unbelievably conscientious" Sarah Palin has finishing her memoir in less than four months. You can not buy the book beginning on November 17. [WP]
• Michelle Obama will appear as guest on Sesame Street's season debut. [NYT]
• TLC announced today it's dropping Jon Gosselin from Jon & Kate Plus 8. This news calls out for name change, obvs, so it'll be Kate Plus 8 from now on. [THR]

In your trailblazing Tuesday media column: Byron Pitts overcomes hardships, chuckle as a newspaper editor talks trash, Ebony's bound to sell, and The Daily Beast is publishing books, fast!

Newsweek's Johnnie L. Roberts reports that Ebony, which was founded with a $500 loan in 1942, is in "big, big trouble" and shopping itself to Time Warner and Viacom.

• More on the financial difficulty facing Harvey and Bob Weinstein: The studio has blown through $1.2 billion to date and now needs to come up with another $50 million. Or magically produce a string of hits at the box office. [WSJ, LAT]
• Despite rumors to the contrary, Condé Nast may shut down several of its magazines as part of its latest—and steepest—round of budget cuts. [WWD]
• Ebony magazine is struggling and now hunting for a buyer. [Newsweek]
• NBC is "under assault from all sides," opines Jon Friedman. [Marketwatch]
• A series of cast changes are planned for the various Law & Orders. [THR]
• Is the new TV season really buzzy, or it just the Twitter effect? [NYT]
• Warner Music will be putting its music videos back on YouTube. [AdAge]
• Holly Madison of E!'s Girls Next Door is getting her own reality show. And socialite Tinsley Mortimer's CW show is moving ahead. [NYDN, THR]
• Jerry Seinfeld's new reality show is casting neurotic couples in Brooklyn. [DI]
• Jenna Bush's new Today show gig is pretty cushy, apparently. [Page2Live]

Today we learned that Vibe Magazine was folding. Now Vibe founder Quincy Jones is distraught over the news and determined to swoop in and save the magazine. How? "I'm'a take it online because print and all that stuff is over."

Last week Dan Baum ate from the tree-of-temptation and tweeted blaspheme about the holiest of literary-institutions, The New Yorker. This weekend: Slate's Troy Patterson, Eric Easter of EbonyJet, and Emily of Emdashes pass judgment:

♦ Michelle Obama may end up on the cover of Vogue in the next few months: "It's been a long-standing tradition to photograph the new first lady. So needless to say, we are very interested in working with Mrs. Obama." But Ebony may get there first. [WWD]
♦ Shares of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. plunged today following the company's announcement it's revising its 2009 forecast. [Bloomberg]
♦ New York television critic John Leonard has died. [Vulture]
♦ A round of layoffs have hit Hearst, although the exact numbers haven't been released. [Folio]

Johnson Publishing brought down the axe on three of its top-level advertising executives at Ebony magazine. One of the pink-slipped, associate publisher Ed Burns, told Folio that he was "shocked" by the move and floated the theory that all three firings were connected. Hard to imagine why this comes as a surprise to the guy; Ebony's ad revenue was down 8.7 percent this year, according to Publishers Information Bureau figures.

That's according to his wife, Michelle, in Ebony's February cover story on "The Hottest Couple in America" (also the source of this unusually passionate photograph). The article goes on to explain that Obama "lives two lives — one as a powerful lawmaker and another as a doting husband. And he's just fine with that." Obama is quoted as saying that Michelle likes to remind him that he is "still a man . . . she lets me know when I'm not acting right." Hillary, you know you can't compete with this display of connubial bliss. Wait . . . can you? Well, after the jump, the strong-stomached among us will witness your most valiant attempt to date.

RIP John H. Johnson, 1923-2005.

John H. Johnson, 87, Founder of Ebony, Dies [NYT]