Glenn Beck really has embraced his fear-mongering moniker. His new book, Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government, features the Fox News man all gussied up as appears to be some sort of fascist. Whee! [Amazon]

Calling Glenn Beck an easy target's calling a spade out by its raw materials. Duck tests of his M.O. are so painfully obvious, even he's openly talking about it now. Contained herein: Psychiatrists, bullies, his Heavenly Father, and attackers!

• The average person consumed 32.2 hours of TV each week this summer. It's a new record. And it's all thanks to the quality programming that cable channels have been putting on the air the last few months, obviously. [NYP]
• The bad news for newspapers is getting worse: Ad sales dropped by 29% during the second quarter, which means newspapers have $2.8 billion less in their (already empty) pockets than they had at this time last year. [AP]
• Related: Please take the time this weekend to read the massive story about Hurricane Katrina in the New York Times Sunday magazine. It cost the paper and ProPublica a record-setting $400,000 to produce. [CJR]
• Because Nightline feels left out of the war between Conan and Letterman, the show is launching a campaign to remind you that it still exists. [AdAge]

If Glenn Beck is, in fact, laying the ground work for Fox News banishment, he's doing so in true, fear-mongering, overwrought style!

Those Fox News folk were on a roll tonight. First there was Glenn Beck's "poor me" soliloquy. And then Bill O'Reilly went on to break the ceasefire between his network and NBC. And totally called out NBC honcho Jeff Zucker.

Poor, sad Glenn Beck. The right-wing Fox News man (redundant?) lost scores of advertisers over his inflammatory rhetoric, was forced into hiding and now seems to be laying the ground work for a swift, shameful exit...

Bill O'Reilly and Spike Lee are very different people. One's white. One's black. One's liberal. The other's conservative. One's a director who touches on controversial topics and the other's a controversial television personality. But they both use urinals. Sometimes together!

Ah, yes: always good for laughs is someone getting tazed and then spontaneously combusting into flames. Okay, maybe not hysterical, but Fox News anchors still can't not giggle at the guy's mugshot, and then, make a joke about keyboard cleaner.

Last night on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart and his staff compiled a pretty amazing takedown of Fox News, branding the network as "the new liberals." Bill O'Reilly was not pleased by this, so tonight he offered a rebuttal.

• Get ready to see commercials appear inside magazines. CBS is embedding tiny screens in an upcoming issue of Entertainment Weekly, which will play a clip promoting the network's fall season. What will it look like? Like this. [WSJ]
• Poor Rupert: The billionaire chairman of News Corp. only collected a compensation package of $18 million for the most recent fiscal year, which is down from $30 million, or 40 percent, from a year earlier. [AP]
• David Letterman continues to beat Conan O'Brien in the ratings. [NYT]
• Did Glenn Beck get yanked off the air after stirring up so much controversy recently, or is he on a regularly scheduled vacation? It's a mystery! [Politico]
• 60 Minutes is planning to air a tribute to Don Hewitt this Sunday. [NYT]
• Meghan McCain is returning to The View as a guest host. How thrilling. [NYP]
• Reader's Digest is one step closer to officially filing for bankruptcy. [NYT]
• What is Jayson Blair, the disgraced ex-New York Times reporter, up to these days? He's a "certified life coach" for a mental health facility. [Gawker, AP]

Every now and again, The Daily Show will do something that just about makes you want to stand up and cheer. Tonight was one of those nights, as the show aired a Fox News takedown for the ages.

• Don Hewitt, the man who invented 60 Minutes, is dead at 86. [CBS, NYT]
• Those McKinsey consultants at Condé Nast have commenced their work. The first order of business: a review of Vogue and Condé Nast Traveler. [NYO]
• Related: Anna Wintour is "said to have told" Condé boss Si Newhouse that "she would welcome McKinsey to her offices." So welcome, guys! [WWD]
• Nine companies are said to be eyeing BusinessWeek, the struggling title owned by McGraw-Hill. The front-runner, according to the Post's Keith Kelly: financier Bruce Wasserstein, who also owns New York magazine. [NYP]
• Is Fox News going to fire Glenn Beck given all his insane comments and all the advertisers who have since abandoned the show? Alas, no. [DailyFinance]

Penis enlargers and egg cookers, that's who. Yesterday we tallied up the advertisers—including Geico and Proctor and Gamble—who have fled the unhinged crybaby's show. Today, we take a look at the cable-news dregs who remain.

The cyclist who says he was dragged around Central Park by a Fox News writer, who won't face any charges in the incident, tells us neither cops or prosecutors tried very hard to investigate the incident.

The Manhattan District Attorney's office is declining to prosecute Don Broderick, the Fox Newser who was charged with leaving the scene of an accident in June after allegedly hitting a cyclist and taking him on a Central Park death ride.

Today, GMAC Financial Services confirmed that it's no longer advertising on Glenn Beck's show. How many advertisers have deserted him now? Let's tally them up:

Rumors have been swirling about Fox courting cancer-stricken, old racist coot Don Imus to be part of their morning lineup, and now it seems they're close to reaching a deal. The question is: What the hell took them so long?

• The next top editor to fall victim to budget cuts at Condé Nast, at least according to Keith Kelly: Architectural Digest editor Paige Rense. [NYP]
• The first guest on Jay Leno's new show on Sept. 14: Jerry Seinfeld. [THR]
• Jay, Conan, Jon, Jimmy, Jimmy, or Craig? Now more than ever, celeb (and their publicists) are being forced to choose between late-night hosts. [THR]
• At least a dozen advertisers have abandoned Glenn Beck's show now that he's established himself as the most vile human being on television. [NYT]
• A big group of media companies—including CBS, NBC, Disney, News Corp., and Viacom—have teamed up to give the Nielsen ratings a run for its money. [NYT]

In January of 2008, just 16 months ago, Glenn Back underwent "ass surgery" to remove a hemorrhoid. The Daily Show dug up video of Beck detailing how horrific his personal experience was, video that contradicts everything he's been saying lately.

Fox News Channel's Major Garrett, expertly using his Wingnut Jedi Mind Tricks, laid a meticulous trap for White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today about David Axelrod's health care spam.