Wal-Mart has decided that the best defense is a good offense. The world's biggest retailer says it's fed up with attacks on its labor practices and its effect on competitors. So, it's placing ads in major newspapers to respond to the critics.

Veteran anchorman Dan Rather sent a memo to his CBS News colleagues Tuesday calling for "a renewed dedication to journalism of the highest quality."

Buoyed by football and its suddenly potent Sunday lineup, ABC was the nation's most popular network for the first time this season and had its best ratings week in four years.

When the film industry gathers to toast the winners and losers of the Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton here on Sunday night, the most talked about Hollywood drama could well be the split between Miramax Films co-founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein and the Walt Disney Company. Disney executives and representatives of Miramax, which is owned by the Burbank-based company, are expected to discuss later this week or next which creative projects the Weinsteins, who have been in testy negotiations over their contracts, will be allowed to take with them as they exit Disney.

Havas' Euro RSCG Worldwide today announced it will quit the current $300 million global creative and media review for Intel as competitors from WPP, Interpublic Group of Cos. and Omnicom continue to pursue the business.

The disclosure that a company owned by Armstrong Williams, the conservative commentator and columnist, was paid $240,000 by the Education Department to promote the No Child Left Behind Act is shining a spotlight on a public relations and public affairs agency that is far more comfortable letting its clients bask in such attention.

Television station owner Sinclair Broadcast Group is conducting an internal inquiry into an appearance made on one of its news programs by political pundit Armstrong Williams.

Already under duress from years of budget cuts, poor ratings and reduced influence, CBS News suffered a crushing blow to its credibility yesterday because of a broadcast that has now been labeled as both factually discredited and unprofessionally produced.

After a recent three-day binge of playing the Japanese cult hit video game Katamari Damacy, Los Angeles artist Kozy Kitchens discovered that walking away from the game was not as easy as putting down her joystick. In the game, players push around what amounts to a giant tape ball, attempting to make the ball bigger by picking up any and all objects in its path. Kitchens found that her urge to keep picking things up was not so easy to shake.

As HBO moves ahead with plans to sell edited episodes of "The Sopranos" to a cable television network that runs commercials, the reaction of many advertisers asked to be sponsors will likely be "Fuhgeddaboudit."