Take Thomson's comments at the goodbye party for longtime Journal man Dan Hertzberg, the deputy managing editor pushed into retirement after 32 years. They may have been good for staff cohesion, but we wonder if lead Fox News viper Roger Ailes will take them so cheerfully.

The story as we've confirmed it with three different WSJ staffers, is that Thomson, in praising Hertzberg's newsgathering skills, ended up discussing the newspaper's new "Hub," an area on the sixth floor with loads of flat-screen displays blaring TV news around the clock — the beating heart of the new, multiplatform Journal. Thomson (pictured) was saying Hertzberg is like a human version of that room, or something, with his ability to gather and process news. Whatever.

The line that pricked up reporters' ears was when Thomson joked that the real reason the Hub was built was actually to "double the viewership of Fox Business Network," or words to that effect, making fun of the network's vanishingly small audience. Zing!

Thomson then instituted a "new old tradition" of "banging out" forcibly retired staffers by pounding on the wall as they walk out of the newsroom for the last time. Apparently this is a British thing and, according to one staffer (disclaimer: American), awkward, especially on deadline after many long speeches. Back to the Fox bashing, please; that's the sort of catty backbiting a great many English-speaking journalists can really enjoy!

(PIc: Esther Dyson)

Erin Siegal submitted the same work twice, to two different professors. But she insists she was above board about everything. Both her thesis adviser, Wayne Barrett, and her book seminar professor, Samuel Freedman, knew she would be sharing content between the two projects. The high-achieving scholarship student even made a PowerPoint presentation for Freedman explaining everything!

But now he's saying she took the three-way arrangement too far. Instead of giving him a big ole book and just excerpting 5,000 words for her thesis, she turned in the entire 16,000 words for her thesis at her adviser's urging. This apparently left no exclusive content for the book class, as Freedman had been expecting.

So, in new media terms: Siegal promised her magazine's print editor an exclusive tome teased online, but ended up giving the Web editor everything, at his request, to amplify the buzz (which worked, in academic terms; her thesis passed with honors). Now the print editor is totally pissed and is all, "you're fired," and she's like, "come ON!"

It's a bizarre spat from where we sit, given than Freedman knew there would be some content-sharing going on. Sure, he doesn't have the exclusive. But what he does have is a student who's poised to do quite well in a world where even the traditionalists at Time Inc. have come to believe in the idea of sharing across titles.

Siegal's email (sent to classmates in April — presumably she's "stop[ped] crying" since then):

(Top picture via ErinSiegal.com)

Clusterstock reports that Ritholtz got a sizeable advance, and McGraw-Hill had received 22,000 preorders. The publisher claimed that editors couldn't agree with Ritholtz on how to footnote his sources — a ridiculous-sounding quibble, since Ritholtz says most of his sources are either articles posted online or books available on Amazon.com. It's McGraw-Hill's loss: Ritholtz writes that his contract with McGraw-Hill granted him final edit. If he can keep his advance and take the book elsewhere, it's just another price the company is paying for letting S&P run wild rubberstamping Wall Street's toxic bonds.

As far as she's concerned, Lacy had it all, 'round about May: A book (about Web 2.0 companies like Facebook), a Web video show, a BusinessWeek column (and gestalt-changing cover story), a blog and of course a Twitter stream. Then she realized no medium was helping another much.

After about 10 years of "worked evenings, sleepless nights, sacrificed relationships and any kind of work/life balance," the tech pundit just wrote a long essay concluding that becoming a brand is overrated because "I can't pull fans and readers across platforms." Also: "brand that hits people fast usually doesn't last."

Oh, sure, Lacy admits, she's making more money, is better prepared for the downturn, has greater name recognition, experiences "amazing once-in-a-lifetime experiences," and, hell, people even stop her in the street to tell her she's awesome, but not in the right way, you see:

I'm stunned by how many people read this blog, but never go to TechTicker. Or how many people watch TechTicker, but have no idea I write a BusinessWeek column. Or how many people follow me on Twitter, but still think I'm on staff for BusinessWeek full-time. Or— I swear to God— the number of people who know me from any of those platforms and say, "You wrote a book?" ...Whenever I get recognized and someone asks if I'm Sarah Lacy, I smile and say yes, but then coyly ask how they know me. Because I've learned it's different every time, and it's never all-of-the-above.

What is wrong with you internet people? Sarah Lacy is working hard so you can fully appreciate her and you're not FULLY APPRECIATING HER IN ALL MEDIA CONSTANTLY.

At this rate she'll never be culturally immortal!

That's the thing about branding yourself: It gets easier to do all the time, and the potential audience is constantly growing. But you're still on the hedonic treadmill, racing to surpass — or even keep up with — all the competition.

Moonves is counting on CNET to raise CBS' revenue by two points within three years, which would mean that its online growth would have to offset the "flattening out" of CBS' own TV and radio ad revenue. But CNET is basically a tech news brand, and a pretty unexciting one. CBS is a general interest brand, and an unexciting one. So why try to make CNET another unexciting, general-interest brand?

Watching Moonves at a meeting of CNET executives, it's hard to miss the CEO's competitive spirit. The key, he says, is to boost traffic at CNET's dozen or so Web sites, which include video gamer site Gamespot.com, the all-things-television TV.com, and food site Chow.com. Katie Couric was on CNET streaming special shows from the convention. Chow.com's photogenic food editor Aida Mollenkamp is headed to a guest spot on Rachael Ray's show, which CBS syndicates, while CNET reporters are expected to populate every segment possible on its news shows.

It's going to take more than corporate synergy, though. For example, Moonves says TV.com is bound to be "the destination for online TV viewing" once it has shows from all the networks. Eh. It has a good name, but it doesn't even have CBS shows yet.

The basic problem: CBS itself has an increasingly old audience. They're counting on CNET to bring in the young audience. But CNET isn't cool. And if Les Moonves is the man who has to make it cool, its chances are less than average.

[BW; pic from Valleywag]

For instance, this week's episode begins with the girls gathering together for an impromptu table read of the script for House Bunny, the soon-to-be-released Anna Faris vehicle. After pouring through the script, not only do they find out that their appearance is limited to a single page (Page 78, if you must know), but they also bemoan the fact that they've been reduced to bantering about such silly topics as whipped cream drenched pillow fights. Don't worry, ladies; when Brett Ratner finally decides to get onboard with the project he was born to direct, there'll be plenty of time to sleep your way into a role playing someone other than yourself (so long as it's still a Bunny).

• The Girls Next Door [E!]

He will receive the award for his "amazing contribution to Hollywood" and years of entertaining the network's young viewers, MTV announced Wednesday. ... "A 30-something water boy, a brokenhearted `80s wedding singer and a rejected hockey player-turned-pro golfer ... now that's an impressive resume," said Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music, Logo and Films Group, in a statement. Toffler was referring to Sandler's roles in The Waterboy, The Wedding Singer and Happy Gilmore.

Has it really been years? It feels so much... longer. Still, there's plenty to appreciate in the metaphor here — particularly Sandler's clean break from developmentally arrested Jew to hairdresser/lethal Israeli operative — and Defamer salutes the comic for this extraordinary milestone. We only wish Sony would have budgeted for such assiduous product placement when it released Punch-Drunk Love. Was it really Reign Over Me that finally got him over the top?

• Adam Sandler to be honored at MTV Movie Awards [The Envelope]

From: Westin, David L. To: ABCTV News ALL Sent: Wed Apr 02 19:00:21 2008 Subject: The Last Lecture

Every once in a while we come across a person who has something important to say and that each of us will want to take the time to hear. Such a man is Professor Randy Pausch.

Most of you will have seen parts or all of the "last lecture" delivered by Professor Randy Pausch a while ago. You probably saw it first on Good Morning America, which put parts of it on their program. And then Diane went to interview Dr. Pausch, portions of which also appeared on Good Morning America. You know from these that Dr. Pausch is a 47 year-old father of three young children who has been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. And that he has come forward in a truly special way to talk about his life, his family, his disease, and life — not just his life but all of our lives.

Diane and her team have produced an extraordinary hour on Dr. Pausch that will air next Wednesday evening, April 9, at 10p. THE LAST LECTURE: A Love Story For Your Life. Next week, Dr. Pausch's book, "The Last Lecture" will be published by our sister company, Hyperion. It turns out that Dr. Pausch's connections with the Walt Disney Company go back a very long way; he always aspired to be an Disney Imagineer.

Below is the link to a short clip produced from the hour. You can see it as a promo, which it is. But much more, it's a reason to take the time to think about a wonderful man and the profound things he has to say.