Roger Friedman, a showbiz columnist for FoxNews.com, failed to persuade Fox News head Roger Ailes that he should keep his job after downloading a pirated copy of Wolverine and angering 20th Century Fox studio executives.

• The New York Times Co. says it will shut down the Boston Globe within a month unless the paper's unions agree to $20 million in concessions. [BN]
• Fox News gossip columnist Roger Friedman got axed after he reviewed a pirated version of Fox's new X-Men movie, Wolverine. [DHD, NYT]
• Vanity Fair is scrapping its annual "green issue." [Independent]
• Michelle Obama may be beloved by the media world, but she isn't a sure thing when it comes to selling magazines on newsstands, apparently. [AdAge]
• Playboy's former fashion director is suing the mag for discrimination. [NYP]
• Hearst's Country Living is launching a line of products. [MW]
• Michael Crichton died last November, but two more novels by the best-selling author will be published over the next year and a half. [NYT]
• Eliot Spitzer was on the Today show this morn, in case you missed it. [Jossip]
• Fast & Furious was No. 1 at the box office this past weekend. [THR]

There was a tragic shooting in Binghamton, New York, as the shouty 24-hour news channels all hastened to tell us. One brave Howard Stern fan stood up against the strictures of seriousness and good taste.

• All those layoffs at Forbes yesterday? They continue today, sadly. [NYP]
• Times executive editor Bill Keller has a few words for Marc Bowden, who wrote the Vanity Fair piece about Arthur Sulzberger Jr. Also? He thinks VF should really beef up its factchecking department. [Romenesko]
• The biggest media company in America? That would be Disney. [BN]
• Nine of the top 10 cable news programs belong to Fox News. [HP]
• The winners of the 2008 Peabody Awards were announced today. [AP]
• Wanda Sykes is getting her own talk show. [B&C]
• Video from Bill O'Reilly's chat with David Letterman last night. [MM]
• Guiding Light is done. The final episode airs Sept. 18. [THR]

• Mark Bowden's 11,000-word profile of Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. for the May issue of Vanity Fair is now online. And it ain't pretty. [VF]
• In other Times news, the paper is scrapping its "City" section and has shut down the International Herald Tribune website. [NYO, E&P]
• For the first time, CNN will finish March behind MSNBC and Fox News. [AP]
• He's only been on the air two months, but Glenn Beck's "conservative populist anger" has already put him right behind Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. [NYT]
• Adweek, MediaWeek and Brandweek may be folded together. [NYP]
• News Corp. is hiring ex-AOL CEO Jon Miller to lead its digital division. [WSJ]
• The Huffington Post is launching an investigative journalism site. [AP]
• MTV is bringing back music videos! Sort of. [NYT]

Nicole Kidman and Woody Allen join forces, cable ratings are up, the Kennedys get a conservative treatment, Ian Somerhalder is back, and, just maybe, so is Jesus.

Keith Olbermann has offered Bill O'Reilly's latest stalking victim sanctuary in his studio for tonight's show.

On the March 17 edition of Red Eye, a "comedy" show Fox News puts on for insomniacs and media narcissists, Gutfeld said Canadian soldiers do yoga and made fun of a Canadian lieutenant general's name (Leslie!) and said we should invade Canada because the country's military is contemplating a one-year "operational break" from Afghanistan.

Bill O'Reilly's standard method of public discourse is to have people ambushed by cameramen and producers vetted for their shouting ability. Try to find one single difference between O'Reilly's guys and a psychopathic stalker:

• Further evidence CNN's Jon Klein should start polishing his resume: The network continues to trail Fox News, MSNBC, and Headline News. [Portfolio]
• Obama's performance on The Tonight Show will keep people talking for awhile (and not in a good way, clearly), but the ratings were huge. [Time, THR]
• The April issue of Portfolio is the slimmest in Condé Nast's history. [NYP]
• Charla Lawhon is stepping down as managing editor of In Style. [WWD]
• Your prayers have been answered: VH1 is reviving Behind the Music. [NYP]
• Bob Pittman says the ad industry should get a bailout, too. [Fortune]
• Fox News's Greta Van Susteren is denying her husband is a paid adviser to Sarah Palin, but she admits that he gives her advice and "helps" her. [HP]
• SpiralFrog, the glitzy music site that launched in 2006, has gone bust. [PC]
• Broadway dimmed the lights last night in honor of Natasha Richardson. [THR]

Bill O'Reilly foolishly recorded an audio version of his crappy old novel, and now his sexiest quotes are all over the internet. "Cup your hands under your breasts and hold them for ten seconds."

In your socialist Tuesday media column: Nancy Pelosi helps newspapers (symbolically), Courtney Friel says "OMG," rumors of cheapskatism at Interview, and naptime for Jim Kelly:

Less than a week after Shep Smith's cruel on-air mocking of his colleague Glenn Beck, Dennis Miller last night told Bill O'Reilly that Beck "makes Howard Beale look like John Wayne."

We have no idea why the Hooters on 56th and Broadway would be thriving amid the recession. But we're pretty sure it has nothing to do with Hooters being a "family-friendly" restaurant that appeals to "parents with their four and five-year olds," as the restaurant's extraordinarily creepy manager tells a reporter from Fox News. You will, however, be pleased to hear that according to a Hooters waitress, comforting men who have been laid off due to the downturn is "her duty." The video is below!

• Fox News remains in first place in the cable news ratings race. MSNBC is showing modest gains, while CNN is dropping like a lead balloon. [NYT, MM]
• Cablevision says it plans to charge readers to access to Newsday.com. [NYP]
• Hearst is launching an e-reader for magazines and newspapers. [Fortune]
• The Times is launching several local "citizen journalism" sites. [E&P]
• Sony CEO Howard Stringer has pushed aside two senior execs. [WSJ]
• Old Navy's newest ad campaign resembles a celeb tabloid. [Jossip]
• Peter Scarlet has resigned as the Tribeca Film Fest's artistic director. [THR]
• Take a tour of the White House with Katie Couric if you'd like. [YouTube]
• Denver's Rocky Mountain News says goodbye. [RMN]

Aaron Bruns, the Fox News producer arrested on child porn charges earlier this month, had a softcore side gig. He posed naked for The Complete Idiot's Guide to Supercharged Kama Sutra Illustrated.

Hey everybody, turns out this clip was doctored, so please make a note: "John Gibson never compared Eric Holder to a monkey with a bright blue scrotum." Okay? [HuffPo]

The Stimulus Package: Obama signs it tomorrow and oh my freaking god, the cable networks will totally talk about it. CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC each have their own promo; they grow increasingly insane:

This isn't entirely surprising: Aaron Bruns, the Fox News producer who was arrested for possession of child porn, has been fired after an initial suspension without pay.