CBS manages a profit and loss US media group, CBS, has confirmed the size of its non cash cut in the value of its non tangible assets and good will at a massive $US14.12 billion, which gave it an overall loss for the third quarter of $US12.46 billion.

Excluding the writedown and other one-off items, CBS reported a profit of $US290.3 million, which was ahead of analyst estimates, but down 19% on the $US357.8 million earned in the same quarter of 2007. Revenue rose 3% to $US3.38 billion, thanks to the cable syndication of CSI: New York and the purchase the technology news business, CNET Networks.

Looking ahead the company warned that the slumping economy and financial turmoil would see full year 2008 operating income before depreciation and amortisation to decline “mid-teens” (how about just saying, around 14-16%?).

“As announced on October 10, as a result of adverse market conditions, the Company performed an interim impairment test on its existing goodwill and intangible assets for all reporting units during the third quarter of 2008. This analysis resulted in a pre-tax non-cash impairment charge of $14.12 billion.

“As previously announced, the continued economic slowdown in the United States has adversely affected advertising revenues across the Company’s businesses, primarily at the local level, and the effects of the current financial crisis are likely to cause further declines in advertising spending. As a result, the Company expects full year OIBDA and operating income to decline mid-teens from the prior year. The Company’s 2008 business outlook excludes impairment and restructuring charges, stockbased compensation expense, and the impact of the acquisition of CNET and divestitures,” CBS said. — Glenn Dyer

Australian Women Online on ISP Filtering Debate In recent days Deborah Robinson, founder and editor of Australian Women Online, has been dragged back into the torrent of debate about the Government’s plan to introduce ISP filtering. Unlike a number of others talking about this issue, Australian Women Online does not have a broader agenda. We are not part of the civil libertarian, freedom of speech, pro-porn or conspiracy theorist movements, nor are we part of an anti-p-rn lobby, “family-values” or religious group. Our motivation in being part of the debate is simply to say that we believe that as the internet is a shared space, what goes on in this space needs to be negotiated. The apparent unwillingness of some to rationally discuss, compromise and problem-solve over the use of this shared virtual world seems to us a sad reflection of the ever growing sense of individualist entitlement that’s becoming so prevalent in the “real” world. — Danielle Hutchinson, Australian Women Online

HuffPo writer goes postal It was inevitable that the Huffington Post would somehow end up sullied by recruiting such a massive army of unpaid contributors. But few would have imagined something this awful: Valued HuffPo political blogger Carol Anne Burger shot herself Friday, and police now believe she was responsible for the brutal murder of her former lover two days earlier. Burger was a scuba-diving instructor who brought an amateur’s zeal to her work, and in this sense embodied the best of HuffPo’s democratic approach, calling to mind fellow contributor Mayhill Fowler, who broke the “Bittergate” story. But the website will not be eager to associate itself with Burger’s energy in dispatching Jessica Kalish. Kalish was stabbed with a Phillips-head screwdriver 222 times, primarily around the back of her head and across her back, arms and face. — Gawker

Don’t piss the boomers off Some papers are finding that recent efforts to overhaul their daily print product with full redesigns, more “lite” news, cutbacks in story length, pages, and newshole, and even changes to the size or design of the paper’s flag often elicit a backlash. With the mad rush to stem sliding print circulation and to take advantage of the Web’s potential — often with the hope of drawing in younger readers and non-subscribers — newspapers are making some of the most dramatic alterations ever to their print editions. Some dailies look more like their Web counterparts than the print versions of just a few years ago. — Editor & Publisher

Bloggers post election The election is almost over, and if you think you’ll be relieved, imagine the political bloggers who’ve spent the last eighteen months dissecting everything from Obama’s flag pin to Mitt Romney’s Battlefield Earth obsession. If anyone (other than the candidates) deserves a vacation, it’s these guys. We asked prominent political bloggers from Marc Ambinder to Mark Steyn for their plans in the weeks after the election. Not surprisingly, many of them will still be blogging. — Daily Intel Ny Magazine

Electronic Arts Lowers Forecasts and Cuts Its Work Force Electronic Arts, the video game maker, said on Thursday that it was lowering its profit forecast, cutting 6 percent of its work force and moving more jobs overseas, signs that it is struggling to complete a financial turnaround. — The New York Times