The president of beer giant Anheuser-Busch said at an industry conference yesterday the company contemplated buying its way into the spirits business, according to executives who attended the meeting.

With a forward earnings multiple approaching four digits, shares of Martha Stewart Living seem to anticipate a bonanza when its founder gets out of jail. But beware, says one market research company. Just because most of the country will tune in to coverage of Martha Stewart's release doesn't mean shoppers want her back in their kitchen.

CBS chief Les Moonves, says that Dan Rather might have stuck around behind the anchor desk for a 25th year, had the newsman not been at the center of "Memogate" last fall. "Maybe, but he made the choice [to step down]," Moonves told the latest edition of Playboy magazine about the possibility or Rather spending another year at "The CBS Evening News."

CNN posted steep viewer losses during the month of February, slipping 21% in primetime and 16% overall, according to Nielsen Media Research. Fox News was the only cable news network to see gains in primetime during February and beat all other cable news outlets combined for the sixth straight month.

CNN is to become the first national cable television news network to accept commercials for distilled spirits, by running a spot for Grey Goose vodka. The spot was to have run last night during "News Night With Aaron Brown," but did not appear.

I love television as a marketing medium - pure and simple. It has sight, sound and motion. It has terrific reach, great entertainment value and a captive audience. For years, television was the Great Brand Builder - the foundation of most integrated marketing communications plans. The growth of existing products was hitched to this powerful steed. The success of new products depended on mass distributed introductory TV ads. This was terrific& exciting& and easy! Indeed to marketers, Television was the best friend we could ever have. But we're killing the damn thing - and here are the culprits:

Hollywood's big night on Sunday was beamed to the world with a five-second time delay, and broadcaster ABC ordered some controversial quips cut before the show, sparking debate about how far political correctness should go and freedom of speech controlled. Comedian Robin Williams said it all when he walked on stage with a piece of white tape over his mouth. Williams was to have performed a song lampooning conservative critic James C. Dobson, whose group had criticized cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants for appearing in a video it branded "pro-homosexual."

Target broke its first original Spanish-language creative yesterday with three TV spots by independent Hispanic shop Ole of New York, and a relaunch of target.com/espanol.