TVNewser reports that, according to documents filed in a Florida court today, ABC News paid $200,000 to the family of accused toddler-killer Casey Anthony in exchange for photos of the toddler she allegedly murdered.

The following email was sent out to the Columbia Journalism School new media alumni email list today. We post it not to mock the unfortunate sender, but rather to gently question just how well they're teaching "new media," over there.

In your laughable Thursday media column: Roger Ailes calls for unity, Brandon Holley lives the lonely life online, W's editor is leaving, and so are some editors at Harper's.

Toyota's general counsel is calling on ABC News president David Westin to retract and apologize for a cocked-up story by America's Wrongest Reporter, Brian Ross. UPDATE: ABC News' response is below.

How do you make a standard "self-described DC 'power players' and the journalists who cover them are all best buddies" story interesting? Have all the subjects be naked. Hence: "The Diplomatic Finnish Sauna Society of DC" in today's Washington Post.

In your energizing Wednesday media column: ad spending is rising towards an inevitable deadly explosion, Yahoo hires some good writers, AOL enters the food blog wars, and a Cleveland reporter is a wanted man.

In your bulleted Tuesday media column: the TV industry is mean to women, Jeff Goldberg escapes the PLO, Justin Rocket Silverman's new job, and Rupert Murdoch loses hundreds of millions, haha.

AOL hired an army of underemployed music lovers to interview bands at South by Southwest. But the citizen journalists, paid $50 per story, are missing their deadlines, so AOL sent a panicked mass email (below).

In your rainy Monday media column: God tries to kill celebrity news using the weather, the New York Times is a totally great newspaper!, and USA Today arrives in Starbucks.

The New York Times reported this morning that an off-the-books intelligence operation may be assassinating people in Pakistan with the help of a sketchy former spook—the same guy that the Times hired to save reporter David Rohde's life.

Here's a totally friendly memo from the New York Times that went out to all their freelancers, apropos of nothing in particular, reminding them to please not accept free stuff. Looks like someone is in trouble!

That is the only conclusion a reasonable person can reach reading this new Pew Foundation report. Paywalls are anathema. Nobody clicks on ads. The value of news is zero dollars and zero cents. The future of news is awesome.

Today was ABC White House correspondent Jake Tapper's birthday! He got a Dora the Explorer cake. And then he made mean jokes about Robert Gibbs, who was just trying to have some fun.

In your sober Thursday media column: another round of layoffs hits BusinessWeek, Sulzberger Jr. goes to court, a cop fired for helping a drunk newsman, and Adam Nagourney may be headed to LA.

In your wicked Wednesday media column: Dan Rather apologizes for not understanding the Twitter, looming BusinessWeek layoffs, the Ellies go to the usual suspects, and Jason Mulgrew's book is here.

Joshua Newton, the director who thought a $400,000 Oscar campaign in Variety would buy his movie a positive review, has made good on his threat to sue the Hollywood trade.

Tribune Company CEO Randy Michaels decided to micro-manage in the weirdest way possible — by banning words like 'authorities', 'diva' and 'manhunt' from the mouths of reporters or anchors at flagship news/talk station WGN-AM (720) in Chicago.

In your tribute-laden Tuesday media column: John Roberts in follicle change caper, the Supreme Court hates reporters and death row inmates equally, Rupert Murdoch's birthday, and MSNBC is made of air.

In your magical Monday media column: Masshole-on-Wellesley media violence, the internet finally beats print forever, going deep into Glenn Beck, and people find jobs, miraculously.

Since 2005, semi-automatic news aggregator TechMeme has become a front page for Silicon Valley and its leaderboard rankings a status obsession for writers. Now comes Mediagazer, the similarly cyborg compilation of media news. Egos are already trembling.