This is what happens when a sad old CNN anchor embraces wingnuttery in order to try to siphon off viewers from Fox News: The bottom falls out of his Nielsen ratings, very rapidly.

In his on-going quest to relentlessly shame Birther-sympathizing, race-baiting conservative talking heads, Jon Stewart introduced a hilarious new Daily Show competition segment last night called, "So You Think You Can Douche."

Look what popped up on Simon & Schuster's YouTube channel tonight! It's Glenn Beck, imploring the masses, including liberals, to buy his book so he can send his daughter to Obama's alma mater, that noted communist think-tank, Columbia University.

With Glenn Beck running loose spouting all sorts of crazy-talk, you just knew at some point he'd say something to cause enough of an uproar that the Fox News brass would have to address it. Beck finally did that today.

Tonight Bill O'Reilly, apparently oblivious to the fact that others at his own network have contributed greatly to inflaming the Birther madness, attacked Lou Dobbs for pushing the story. He then turned around and defended Dobbs' shameless Birther ratings pandering.

• After two very unsuccessful years as co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, Ben Silverman is finally leaving the company. He's teaming up with Barry Diller's IAC to start some sort of vague media/advertising firm. He'll be replaced by Jeff Gaspin, who headed up NBC's cable unit until now. [NYT, NYT, DF]
• Disney's G-Force topped Harry Potter at the box office this weekend. [THR]
• Remember Friendster? It's up for sale, in case you're interested. [PC]
• HBO is the most "gay-friendly cable network," according to GLAAD. [Reuters]

Yesterday we noticed that Fox News was hyping a Bill O'Reilly "investigation" into the naked Erin Andrews peephole video incident, prompting us to wonder, "Will the ole smut-merchant show the video on the air?" Well, of course he would, duh!

Martha MacCallum may look like just another cutesy blonde anchor on Fox News. But it seems she has a darker side, too. A tipster tells us MacCallum threw quite the tantrum yesterday at a parking garage around the corner from the studios of Fox News when she turned up with her daughter in tow and her BMW wasn't waiting for her with the keys in the ignition. The outrage!

Last week Glenn Beck went utterly berserk on his radio show when a caller challenged his opposition to the Obama healthcare reform plan. Last night Beck appeared on Bill O'Reilly's show to explain his ridiculous on-air behavior. Let's discuss it.

Aaron Bruns, the ex-Fox News producer who pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography, was sentenced to 10 years in prison today by a federal judge. That's 10 more years than an NPR producer got last week for the same crime.

• Janice Min isn't renewing her contract as editor-in-chief of Jann Wenner's Us Weekly. Her No. 2, Michael Steele, will become acting editor in chief. [NYT]
• Condé Nast announced yesterday that it had retained the management consulting firm McKinsey to "develop new perspectives." They sure have their work cut out for them. Condé revealed today that its monthly mags witnessed a 37 percent drop in advertising in September. [Gawker, AdAge, NYO]
• More pain at Condé may be on the way: "Significant cost cuts, including more layoffs and the closing of more magazines" are coming, says Keith Kelly. [NYP]
• Yet more Condé news: The company is closing down Men.Style.com so it can focus on the soon-to-be relaunched websites of GQ and Details. [AdAge]
• The Boston Globe's largest union voted yesterday to approve the new contract that had been proposed by the New York Times Co. [NYT, E&P]
• This can't be a good sign about the state of affairs at CNN: Time Warner Cable is moving it from channel 10 to 78 and replacing it with FX. [MCN]

Bill O'Reilly is so torn up over the death of Walter Cronkite. According to Bill, Cronkite was a liberal, but he didn't let his political views influence his reporting, unlike everyone around today, everyone except Fox News of course.

Glenn Beck went girly-ballistic on a radio caller Wednesday, mustering all the white rage he could to squeak out a high-pitched "Get off my phone!" Naturally, internet people made funny videos. Here's ours, and some of our favorites.

Oh my—Bill O'Reilly is angry. Angry at Newsweek specifically, for perpetrating what he sees as a "growing problem in America...media corruption." What did Newsweek do? They allowed a liberal columnist to criticize Fox News and Sarah Palin!

Stephen Colbert e-mailed Gov. Mark Sanford's office—in character!—last month at the height of the media frenzy surrounding the governor's disappearance, inviting him on the show "for a friendly place to make light" of the story.

Glenn Beck is upset, upset that "as our country burns to the ground," we have Senators who didn't bother questioning Obama's racist Mexican lady Supreme Court nominee at her confirmation hearings today! Um, maybe that's because the questioning begins tomorrow?

Bernie Madoff's only remaining purpose in life is to be exploited by the media. Who will land the first jailhouse TV interview with the villain? We handicap the possibilities, below.

The Fox crew are plain goin' nuts about how Obama has appointed many people whom the media have dubbed "Czars." They will not shut about about the Czars! You know who else hated Czars, guys? How soon we forget!

Shepard Smith was riffing about the latest additions to the Webster's Dictionary today when he suddenly started reminiscing about a deli on 48th street that served great schwarma, crispy pita bread, hummus and, that's right, falafel. Oops!

Remember the election? The dancing of the numbers across John King's magic screen on CNN, as states rose and fell and changed colors before your eyes? Viewers liked that, apparently. Fox is just now figuring that out.