Study finds slowdown in newspaper readership dip
Plenty of publicity has been given to the fact that people are relying less and less on newspapers and more and more on the internet for news. But a new Gallup poll indicates the trend may be as less prevalent than the media has indicated. The poll found that twice as many people still use newspapers as a major news source compared to the internet -- 44 percent versus 22 percent. The percentage of people using the newspaper hasn't dropped since 2004. Between 2002 and 2004, that number slipped to 44 percent from 47 percent, but obviously even that isn't much of a decline. Usage of the internet for news gained only 2 percentage points from 2004 to 2006, after increasing 5 points from 2002 to 2004. Local TV news topped newspapers as the No. 1 source used by respondents. Network broadcast, cable and public TV news also outdraw the internet as a source of news, according to the study, with broadcast news tallying 35 percent, cable 34 percent and public TV 28 percent. Radio talk shows registered 20 percent.

First Bush, now Blair: Channel 4's fictional future view
Times are tough for British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Its the year 2010 and, having left office, hes now due to face a war crimes trial. Or so goes the plot of a new TV drama due to air this month. The show, The Trial of Tony Blair, will air on Jan. 15 on British broadcaster Channel 4, the same channel that brought the world Death of a President, the fictionalized tale of the assassination of President George W. Bush. The Trial of Tony Blair, which Channel 4 describes as a feature-length satire, portrays the problems Blair, played by Robert Lindsay, faces once leaving office. In the drama, Gordon Brown, the current finance minister, has taken over as prime minister and Hilary Clinton is president in the U.S. However, despite these changes, death and destruction are still the order of the day in Iraq. In the drama, Blair faces a troubled conscience about leading Britain into the war, and readies himself to face a war crimes trial.

Moroccan government not laughing at magazine joke
It started out as a joke, or at least a retelling of one. Its no laughing matter now, however, as two Moroccan journalists are in trouble for a magazine story headlined "How Moroccans Laugh at Religion, Sex and Politics." The story, which government officials say insults Islam and flouted public morality standards, appeared last month in the Arabic weekly Nichane. The journalists, editor Driss Ksikes and writer Sanaa al-Aji, argued in a Casablanca court yesterday that they didn't mean to insult anyone. "We made no judgment on religion, politics or the monarchy," Aji said to the judge, the Mideast Online news agency reported. "All I did is report to readers a phenomenon Moroccans are seeing in jokes and anecdotes." The prosecutor wants sentences of three to five years for the journalists. Nichane began publishing in September and has attracted many young readers, but some of its journalists have received death threats. Prime Minister Driss Jettou banned it on Dec. 21 after the offending story. Meanwhile, several journalism groups, including the International Federation of Journalists, have rushed to the magazine's defense.

Tabs tattle on Babs and Rosie's pre-'View' snafu
Is Barbara Walters the latest in a growing line of celebrities spatting with Rosie ODonnell? Both The New York Post and New York Daily News today claim that yesterday ODonnell chewed out her fellow View co-host, and show creator, for failing to set the record straight in ODonnells recent feud with Donald Trump. Trump has been telling everyone that Walters dissed ODonnell in private while diplomatically backing her on the show, all while carefully avoiding any criticism of Trump. The tabloids say ODonnell yelled at Walters as the two were in makeup before the show (theyd both been on vacation for part of the last few weeks). ODonnell complained that she was getting roasted in the press and that Walters should have stood up for her. Sure enough, on yesterdays show, Walters voiced her firmest support yet for ODonnell, who again goosed Trump. After ridiculing the real estate mogul for commenting on her weight and saying he had become obsessed with her, ODonnell called him a comb-over bunny. Shes also argued with Kelly Ripa and New York City Councilman John Liu since joining the show in September.

Programming notes: ABC airing Woodruff special
Thirteen months after he was critically injured during a reporting stint in Iraq, former ABC World News Tonight co-anchor Bob Woodruff is back in a February sweeps special. To Iraq and Back: Bob Woodruff Reports will air at 10 p.m. on Feb. 27. Woodruff will take a look at his own recovery from a serious head wound after a roadside bomb injured him and cameraman Doug Vogt in January 2006. The special will also include stories of others injured in Iraq and how theyve recovered. Woodruff had been named co-anchor of ABCs nightly news show, with Elizabeth Vargas, just weeks before his injury. The network, which installed Charles Gibson to succeed Vargas and Woodruff last May, has said he will return but has not specified in what capacity. Meanwhile, in other programming, pilot pickups are intensifying. NBC has ordered one based on Sex and the City author Candace Bushnells novel Lipstick Jungle, while ABC has picked up two: Cashmere Mafia, from Sex executive producer Darren Star, and Womens Murder Club, based on James Pattersons novels.