Every news organization makes mistakes. But when Fox News makes mistakes, they seem to tilt in a suspiciously consistent direction, favoring Republicans and conservatives over Democrats and liberals.

It happened again Wednesday, when host Gregg Jarrett, introducing a segment on Happening Now, described the "huge crowds" that were turning out to greet Sarah Palin on the promotional tour for her book, Going Rogue. "These are some of the pictures just coming into us," Jarrett said as images of Palin surrounded by throngs of supporters flashed across the screen.

AOL after Time Warner will be a substantially smaller company, at least in terms of the number of people it employs. The Internet pioneer, which is the parent of DailyFinance, revealed the rough outlines of a long-anticipated downsizing Thursday, saying it plans to reduce its global workforce by one-third, or 2,500 people, following its spin-off from Time Warner (TWX) next month.

To achieve that figure, the company is offering enhanced severance packages to volunteers who step forward between Dec. 4 and Dec. 11. (The spin-off will take place Dec. 9.) If the reduction can't be achieved solely through voluntary departures, the remainder will take the form of layoffs, with those workers receiving less-generous severance pay and benefits.

What on earth was Sarah Palin thinking when she posed in a pair of teeny-tiny gym shorts for a photograph that ended up on the cover of Newsweek -- a cover she has called "sexist"? Perhaps she was thinking that her image would only appear in the magazine she was posing for, Runner's World, and nowhere else, at least not for months and months. If so, she had good reason -- since, as DailyFinance has learned, the photographer who shot the picture violated his contract by reselling them to Newsweek.

That photographer, Brian Adams, could not immediately be reached, and his agent, Kelly Price, declined to comment, saying, "I keep all of my clients' business private." But a spokeswoman for Runner's World confirms that Adams's contract contained a clause stipulating that his photos of Palin would be under embargo for a period of one year following publication -- meaning until August 2010. "Runner's World did not provide Newsweek with its cover image," the spokeswoman said. "It was provided to Newsweek by the photographer's stock agency, without Runner's World's knowledge or permission." The spokeswoman declined to say whether Runner's World intends to respond to Adams's breach of contract with legal action.

As I've written, it's all but inconceivable that News Corp. (NWS) will block Google (GOOG) from indexing the stories produced by its various online news outlets, but try telling Rupert Murdoch that. In an interview on his own Fox Business Network Tuesday, the owner of The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post continued to hint that he's willing to resort to the nuclear option unless Google starts cutting publishers in on the billions it's making off their content.

"They have devised a brilliant search engine that scrapes all the material published in the world, and on the back of that they sell search, but they don't pay for the raw material," said Murdoch. "We have to do something about that."

In case it wasn't perfectly apparent that it's a new day at BusinessWeek, the magazine's new owner, Bloomberg LP, cleared things up Tuesday with its appointment of a new editor in chief. The job will go to Josh Tyrangiel, who, as deputy managing editor of Time, had been overseeing the newsweekly's fast-growing online presence. He replaces Stephen Adler, who resigned after McGraw Hill's sale of the title was announced.

Tyrangiel represents fresh blood in more ways than one. At 37, he's younger than many of the longer-serving editors and writers on BusinessWeek's masthead (although it's not yet official which of those editors and writers will be sticking around). And his background is in general news and entertainment, not business, unlike others who were reported to be possibilities, such as former Fortune editor Eric Pooley and former Portfolio editor Joanne Lipman.

I grew up in Milwaukee, the smallest city with its own Major League Baseball team. During my summer vacations from high school and college, I worked as a vendor at Milwaukee County Stadium, where the Brewers played before it was torn down and replaced by Miller Park. Not once during that time did the Brewers make the playoffs. In fact, starting in 1982, they went 26 years without a post-season appearance.

Finally, last year, the Brewers sneaked in as a wildcard team, largely on the strength of C.C. Sabathia's superhuman pitching. Then the season ended, Sabathia (pictured) signed with the Yankees, and the Brewers, who couldn't come close to matching the Yankees' seven-year, $160 million offer, resumed playing their usual sub-.500 ball.

About a year ago, media critic Michael Wolff predicted that Newsweek would go out of business "sometime around the fourth quarter of next year" -- i.e., right around now. That doesn't look like it's going to come true. But nor does it look as far off the mark as Newsweek's parent, the Washington Post Co. (WPO), might hope.

Last week, the magazine laid off a dozen employees in its third round of staff downsizing in less than two years. But Newsweek is shrinking in other ways as well: Ad pages are down 29% year-over-year, while the circulation guarantee is slated to be reduced to 1.5 million in January, down more than 50% from its pre-2008 level.

Lou Dobbs knows the world is watching him closely now for clues that might explain his sudden resignation from CNN. So it's probably safe to read some meaning into the choice of the anchorman's venue for his first big post-CNN interview: He's going on Fox News.

The network is set to announce that Dobbs will be a guest on Monday night's edition of Bill O'Reilly's show, DailyFinance has learned. Warm feelings between the two men goes back to last summer, when O'Reilly publicly defended Dobbs against critics who wanted him fired for repeatedly showcasting the claims of "birthers" who allege President Obama wasn't born in the U.S. Dobbs offered to be interviewed on The O'Reilly Factor then, but quickly backed out, prompting speculation that CNN had ordered him not to appear on a competing network.

For Chase Carey, News Corp.'s new president and chief operating officer, the math in the media business is pretty simple these days: Getting paid one way is good. Getting paid two ways is better.

Whether it's broadcast television, newspapers or Internet video, the key to survival is supplementing advertising revenue with subscription fees and other revenues derived, directly or indirectly, from consumers, said Carey in an interview Thursday at the Dow Jones/Nielsen Media & Money Conference.

Lou Dobbs's replacement may not draw the same kind of ratings as his predecessor, but he won't cause the same kind of headaches, either.

The network announced Thursday that John King will be getting a new show at 7:00 p.m., following the sudden departure of Dobbs, a long-time fixture whose increasingly strident politics have made him an awkward presence on a channel that strives for a middle-of-the-road image.

A former White House correspondent with impeccable straight-news credentials, King now hosts the Sunday morning show State of the Union, which will remain on the air for the time being. His new show will also focus on politics -- although presumably not on the sort of angry immigrant-bashing and conspiracy-mongering that reportedly caused CNN president Jon Klein to order Dobbs to tone down his rhetoric or find a new perch.