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<p>A deal has been reached with kidnappers for the release of two CBS journalists, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's office in Basra said Wednesday.</p>

BAGHDAD — Two CBS News journalists were missing in the predominantly Shiite southern city of Basra, the network said Monday. CBS said all efforts were under way to find the journalists, who were not identified by the network. It requested "that others do not speculate on the identities of those involved" until more information was available. Iraqi police said the journalists were taken away Sunday after masked gunmen entered the Sultan Palace Hotel in central Basra. The police spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. "CBS News has been in touch with the...

Anyone else watching? Incredible Carrie Underwood opening. HOLY SMOKES SHE IS BEAUTIFUL.

A book publisher that bought an ad on Don Imus's radio show is suing the shock jock and his former bosses at CBS Radio for more than $4 million, saying Imus insulted the book he was paid to promote. It was the latest controversy to follow the radio personality, who was fired by CBS Radio in April 2007 for insulting a women's basketball team with a racial slur. He has since returned to the air with another network. Flatsigned Press said in a New York state court lawsuit filed late on Wednesday that Imus' show had agreed to a script...

In the latest fallout from the writers strike, CBS has trimmed its development slate, letting go of about 20 projects, most of them dramas. On Friday, the network contacted the reps for the projects, most of which hail from CBS' primary supplier, sister studio CBS Paramount Network TV. Also affected are scripts from Sony Pictures TV, 20th Century Fox TV and ABC Studios. The list of terminated projects is said to include CBS Par's drama "Brothers Grimm," from writer Stephen Carpenter and Sean Hayes' Hazy Mills Prods., and a 20th TV-produced comedy from writer Barbie Adler. "Due to the ongoing...

Fortunately, most people will likely be watching the Giants-Packers game Sunday evening, and will therefore miss the one-sided hysteria. However, for those that mysteriously don't switch channels after the Chargers-Patriots game, CBS will offer a special about global warming this Sunday instead of "60 Minutes." How marvelous. The CBS News website hysterically described this installment of "The Age of Warming": Nowhere is the evidence of global warming as striking than near the earth's poles. CBS News correspondent Scott Pelley's report brings him to the top and the bottom of the world, where scientists point out the effects of the warming...

excerpt - NEW YORK - A judge said Wednesday that he was leaning toward allowing Dan Rather's $70 million lawsuit over his being fired by CBS to proceed. "I concluded there was enough in the complaint (by Rather) to continue with discovery (pretrial research)," state Judicial Hearing Officer Ira Gammerman said at a hearing on CBS' motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The judge did not issue a final ruling on CBS's motion, but he suggested the parties try to agree on the scope of pretrial discovery _ just in case _ and told them to return to court Jan. 23...

A judge said Wednesday that he was leaning toward allowing Dan Rather's $70 million lawsuit over his being fired by CBS to proceed. "I concluded there was enough in the complaint (by Rather) to continue with discovery (pretrial research)," state Judicial Hearing Officer Ira Gammerman said at a hearing on CBS' motion to dismiss the case. The judge did not issue a final ruling on CBS' motion, but he suggested the parties try to agree on the scope of pretrial discovery -- just in case -- and told them to return to court Jan. 23 for a conference. Rather, whose...

AS Katie Couric puts a wrap on her first calendar year as anchor of the last-place "CBS Evening News," she's staring at some sobering stats: more than 1.1 million viewers have tuned her out over the last 12 months. That's as if 100 percent of the households in Los Angeles had watched her last year and every last one of them shut their sets off last week. And that's really not that funny because the embattled newscast does particularly bad in the City of Angels. It is, by a wide margin, the largest drop of any network newscast over the...

The Patriots are seeking to be the first team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins to go undefeated for an entire season. Until now, it appeared that millions of cable viewers would miss the game because Time Warner, Charter and Cablevision have refused to carry the NFL Network, which has the rights to the Patriots-Giants broadcast. The cable operators say the network is demanding unreasonable terms to carry it. But a league spokesman tells the New York Times that the network, which is owned by the league, approached CBS and NBC to carry the game and they agreed. It will be...

Confederate Yankee catches Roger Simon of the Politico making a Fred Thompson visit to an Iowa firehouse sound like it went much worse than it did. Simon describes Thompson's "sour expression" on his face, and suggests that Thompson offended the firefighters when he mentioned his "silly hat" rule. CBS News - you know CBS News, that longtime friend of bloggers - offers video, that shows a lot of laughter and good spirits all around. Come on, man. Thompson apparently makes a reference to this botched story in his latest little video from the road: "Remember, we don't raise our hands...

60 Minutes throws another curve ball at the U.S. commander in chief. When Colin Powell outlined America’s case for invading Iraq before the United Nations Security Council in February 2003, he relied on an eyewitness account from an Iraqi chemical engineer who knew about Iraq’s mobile production program—a wmd factory on wheels, so to speak. On Nov. 4, 2007, cbs’s 60 Minutes exposed Powell’s source, code-named “Curve Ball,” as a fraud. “Did Saddam Hussein have weapons of mass destruction?” correspondent Bob Simon asked at the top of the program. “No, he did not. We’ve known that for some time now....

A source just told me: "People’s Choice Awards ceremony is cancelled. They are trying to tape winners giving 'Thank you's with clips to air January 8th on CBS. No press allowed. No red carpet." Posted by Nikki Finke on Wednesday, Dec 19th, 2007 at 01:28PM | Permalink |

Date/Time: 12/17/2007 3:45:55 PM Title: Felling out at CBS Public Eye Posted By: Jim Romenesko 12.17.07 3:46pm (EST) Good afternoon and I beg your pardon for the mass e-mail: It's with mixed feelings that I share the information that -- effective as of mid-afternoon last Friday -- I have been let go at CBSNews.com in a "restructuring" of the Interactive division. ('Restructuring': the "downsized" of the new millennium.) Why the mixed feelings, then? Well, to paraphrase Mark Twain, one should write while angry and disappointed, but edit with a bit of remove. So with a weekend of simmering, I'm able...

In her “60 Minutes” interview with New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez Sunday, Katie Couric asked the third baseman about steroids in baseball, the home run record he is poised to break eventually, and his own upstaging of the 2007 World Series. But most surprising were Couric’s questions about A-Rod’s record-setting salary. "Your new contract is worth $300 million-plus,” Couric told Rodriquez, asking, “Are you worth it? Is any player worth that kind of salary?” The Yankees announced this month that they had resigned Rodriguez in a deal ESPN estimated to be worth $275 million over 10 years, with another...

In what may be the first break in the entertainment writers’ strike, David Letterman is pursuing a deal with the Writers Guild of America that would allow his late-night show on CBS to return to the air in early January with the usual complement of material from his writers, even if the strike is still continuing. Executives from Mr. Letterman’s production company said Saturday that they were hopeful they would have an interim agreement in place with the guild as early as this week. That could potentially put Mr. Letterman at an enormous advantage over most of his late-night colleagues....

From an anonymous emailer: "Surprise major layoffs at cbsnews.com. Number unconfirmed but more than five. This after unpublicized hiring freeze over past few months. Layoffs include mix of veterans and newbies. Already low morale said to now be even lower." When asked for a response, CBS Interactive gave TVNewser this statement: "During 2007, CBS Interactive acquired three companies, invested in 11 more, and grew its workforce by hundreds of employees, including the formation of a new senior management team. Along with the core success of CBSsports.com, new online sites from Last.fm to Dotspotter have infused invaluable DNA into the division,...

If any definitive evidence to the contrary of our story is found, we will report it. So far, there is none. — CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never! — Former Iraqi Minister of Information Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, better known as “Baghdad Bob” A coordinated effort Outflanked by the new media tactics of the anti-Kerry veterans groups, much of the establishment media now prepared to focus with laser-like intensity on the military service, not of John Kerry, but of George W. Bush. That decision would lead to the sharpest single confrontation between the...

Latest Ads More Cronkite Than Katie as Newscast Continues to Trail Rivals NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- With Katie Couric's perky personality and "Today" background at the ready, her arrival at CBS to anchor the evening newscast was billed as a chance to reinvent the program in a way that would attract more women and younger viewers. That hasn't exactly worked out. Now CBS is promoting the show as if Walter Cronkite still sat behind the desk. "Experience You Can Trust," under a picture of Ms. Couric, was the slogan in an ad for the CBS Evening News that ran in...

LOS ANGELES — Roger M. King, the CBS and King World Productions executive who helped bring stars including Oprah Winfrey, Alex Trebek and "Dr. Phil" McGraw to television, died Saturday of a stroke, a CBS spokesman said. He was 63. King was stricken at his home in Boca Raton, Fla., on Friday and died Saturday at a hospital, CBS spokesman Chris Ender told The Associated Press. At the time of his death King was chief executive officer of CBS Television Distribution. He joined the network in 2000 when his groundbreaking company, King World Productions, merged with CBS. "Television has lost...