Like President Bush, Yahoo admits its relationship with China is "complex." So many millions of wired Chinese, so many government restrictions, and so much money on the table.

Already wearing scarlet letters for voluntarily censoring its Chinese search results and aiding Chinese authorities in identifying journalist Shi Tao (who was jailed for 10 years in 2005 for "divulging state secrets"), the search giant now stands accused of posting some 19 photos of Tibetan protesters on its website, essentially identifying rioters for Chinese authorities eager to punish the opposition.

On Friday, the homepage of Yahoo China – which is operated by the privately held e-commerce Alibaba Group, which Yahoo owns 40 percent of – ran a "most wanted" poster that promised rewards for anyone who could help officials track down protesters. (Other sites, including MSN's Chinese page, are said to have published similar content.) But that notice disappeared once French news outlet Observers fired off a mass email blast about it.

But now Yahoo says it did not post the photos of the Tibetan crowd, which were distributed by Chinese officials. (The photo here is of a protest in Rome.)

In a statement, Yahoo claims, "We are a company founded on the principle that promoting access to information can fundamentally improve people's lives and enhance their relationship with the world around them." The 13 Tibetans who have so far died the upheaval would have to agree.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether saying "fuck" on the air should earn a FCC fine. [AP]

If Hugo Restall, editor of Dow Jones' Far Eastern Economic Review, really never intended to embarrass bossman Rupert Murdoch by even mentioning the book Rupert's adventures in China: How Murdoch lost a fortune and found a wife, why did he commission a review for it? Might the sequence of events we've been led to believe BE SUSPECT? [Guardian]

"Enjoy your blog," writes a tipster, who then adds, "Thought you might be interested to know that you are being censored at DIA [Denver International Airport]." And she's right—we are interested!

Although we can't say we're exactly surprised.

CONTINUED »

A "Get Fuzzy" comic scheduled to run Sept. 14 in the Chicago Tribune was replaced with a note that advised that the comic "did not meet the Tribune's standards for taste," reportedly because the strip had the audacity to refer to mobsters as "goons."

And while many readers are protesting the Trib's seemingly arbitrary application of censorship, we're predicting this trend of preemptive self-editing will actually catch on big-time.

In which case it won't be long before Garfield's pulled on the basis that it promotes childhood obesity, Dilbert is yanked for characterizing corporate execs as boring people who have no soul, Cathy is scratched after offending the delicate sensibilities of overweight chronically single women and The New Yorker is required to start publishing explanations to make each cartoon more "accessible."

Fox defends its decision to drop “goddamn” from its Emmy broadcast on Sunday night, and issued a statement yesterday that said:

Some language during the live broadcast may have been considered inappropriate by some viewers. As a result, Fox’s broadcast standards executives determined it appropriate to drop sound during those portions of the show.

Thanks for your consideration! By the way, most versions of Microsoft Word come with a thesaurus, which can be helpful if you ever need to use appropriate and inappropriate in a two sentence span.

The New York Times sympathizes with Fox’s reserve. The paper runs its own blind item for the curse Katherine Heigl mouthed:

CONTINUED »

• Elisabeth Hasselbeck begrudgingly admits that things aren't exactly "Rosie" with her former co-host.

• CNN precludes us from making fun of their model-hot (and dumb as a brick!) anchor people by doing something nice for everyone.

• Carl Bernstein's biography of Hillary Clinton is really about…Carl Bernstein.

• Overprotective parents (who have already censored their children from harmful television, internet and video game content) search for new and more inventive ways to ruin their kids' lives.

• Finally! Men's Health shows us how to resist our strongest temptations, like that "tremendous" food on Air Force One.

• Meanwhile, Details EIC Dan Peres to make like Dave Zinczenko. Or, in other words, "to become annoyingly ubiquitous and offer free blow jobs to anyone who will help promote his book."

Despite the fact that they took the effort to adopt new rules governing soldiers' email and blog usage (read: they must get permission to click "Send" or "Save" on virtually anything), the U.S. Army insists it won't crack down on troops' personal communications, nor will it punish them for not following the rules. According to an Army fact sheet released yesterday, "In no way will every blog post/update a Soldier makes on his or her blog need to be monitored or first approved by an immediate supervisor."

Funny, 'cause that's not what their new rulebook says.

CONTINUED »

Well that whole military blogging thing was fun while it lasted. But those earnest updates from the troops about the latest IED explosion in Karbala or the anger building against the president will likely be no longer, thanks to the U.S. Army's new set of rules demanding soldiers get permission from a supervisor to publish a blog post, or even send a personal email, or post comments on message boards. Should a solider fail to follow orders, she's looking at a court-martial. So essentially, don't bother signing into Yahoo at all.

With Saddam Hussein having already posted his farewell letter on the Internet, there's nothing left to do but kill him. But how – in this era of all things YouTube and the posting of insurgent murder videos all over BitTorrent, or something – are the media going to treat the assassination of this year's most hated man?

The execution could take place as early as today – Iraqi officials say they want Saddam hanged before a Muslim holiday begins on Sunday – which means John Reiss and his like rushed to reach policy decisions about what, if anything, they'll be showing American audiences. You know, 'cause the whole thing is going to be videotaped.

ABC and CBS said they wouldn't air the full execution if the video became available and might not air anything or show a brief, nongraphic portion. NBC and ABC plan to break into regular programming to announce that Saddam's sentence had been carried out. NBC News said it still was discussing what it would do, but it's clear it also won't run graphic footage.

Or, in a more likely scenario, the video clips will make their way to blogs, which will have a field day with the gruesome content, attract scores of new readers, and in the days and weeks to come the networks will have no choice but to show more graphic details of the execution. All in the name of meta media coverage of this whole blog phenomenon, of course.

Though Fox may end up getting fined up the wahz for airing Nicole Richie and Cher's usage of "fuck" and "shit" during last year's Billboard Music Awards, there's nothing wrong with broadcasting the conversation about Fox's wrong-doing.

The oral arguments in broadcasters challenge to the FCC's March profanity rulings against Fox Billboard Awards broadcasts will be allowed to be televised.

That's according to the docket of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York. The court has informed the attorneys involved that on December 11 it granted a request from C-SPAN to televise the December 20 arguments.

Arguments by broadcasters and the FCC are scheduled for 12 minutes per side, but could and probably will go longer.

The televised coverage is "uncommon but not unprecedented," said Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project, which is representing intervenor Center for Creative voices.

It's time like these when we hope C-Span's producers pull a CNN-Kyra Phillips, muting their audio and letting the bad language fly.

With hotels in East Peoria, Moline, Quincy and Galena, Ilinois, you can see the Stoney Creek Hospitality Corp. has a lot of power. So much power, in fact, that they've gone and yanked CNN from its meth dens hotel rooms after the news network on Oct. 18 aired portions of a tape CNN said came from the rebel group Islamic Army of Iraq. Company president James Thompson calls the decision "a moment of conscience" and says he won't be putting CNN back in the line up, ever. Guests will be pleased to know, however, that they'll still be able to access MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC, and Skinemax.

• "Paris is a cunt." Said often, but not by Lindsay Lohan.

• Unable to give her a win, Fox gives American Idol contestant Kellie Pickler her own show.

• The networks still don't really "get" bloggers. Not that there's anything to get.

• Courtney Love stripping down for a magazine spread is actually something we're less interested in seeing than Anna Nicole stripping down for a magazine spread.

• CNN gets scaredy-fraid about letting Bill Maher out politicos on Larry King Live.

• News Corp. profits surge, Viacom not so much — giving new chief Philippe Dauman an excuse to dismiss CFO and Tom Freston hanger-on Mike Dolan.

Jeff Zucker's cuts aren't only affecting a gob of 700 NBC employees; they've reached Madonna. After what's being called "weeks of negotiations," the Peacock and Madge have agreed to cut her controversial crucifixion scene from her Nov. 22 concert telecast. Hoping not to offend advertisers and Mark Foley sympathizers, NBC now says the TV version has been "revised." Which means no mirror-plated cross to hang from, no Jesus crown of leaves to wear — and one more Halloween idea the gays will flock to.

MADGE CROSS-CUTTING AT NBC [Page Six]

From Sunday night's 60 Minutes:

I called him a little-dick white boy," she said, laughing. "And how he couldn't get it on his own and had to pay for it. So, he was mad. And it ended with him callin' me the n-word. And it echoed, so you heard nigger once, and then you heard, nigger, nigger, nigger.

From Sunday night's 60 Minutes web story:

I called him a little [expletive] white boy," she recalls laughing. "And how he couldn't get it on his own and had to pay for it. So, he was mad. And it ended with him callin' me the n-word. And it echoed, so you heard n….. once, and then you heard, n….., n….., n….. .

Nah, it wasn't Ice-T's wife Coco reminiscing about their wedding night. That was Kim Masters, one of the dancers who performed the night of the alleged Duke lacrosse rape, speaking to Ed Bradley. So why the two renditions of the same conversation: The on-air version, filled with expletives, and the text version, filled with elipses? Says a CBS flack: Simple error on the part of a CBS employee, who assumed – incorrectly – that Masters' language would trigger CBS's censors. Or, as we like to say, "Who knew it'd take a rape allegation to get the term 'little-dick white boy' on the air?"

Why Did 60 Minutes Censor on the Web But Not on the Air? [CJR]

• Lindsay Lohan doing anything at midnight but carousing at a club? Odd. But Lindsay Lohan trying to smuggle something to a rehabbing Brandon Davis? Inexplicable. [The Awful Truth]

• Italy headbutts France out of first, but France squeezed in a shot of their own. And Little Italy's celebrations were curbed by cops cutting the power. [NYT]

• Jeremy Piven has no problem smoking pot with twentysomethings. But tobacco? It ages you, brah. [Page Six]

• Brigitte Nielsen marries Guy No. 5 twice, because of that tiny little problem with the first wedding. You know, where she was still married to Guy No. 4. [People]

• Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow lucks out again. Too bad those Chinese kids won't ever get to see him/ [AP, LSE]

• Despite the fear of getting the clap just by looking, Paris Hilton's crotch is on full display. [MollyGood]

• Madonna and Kabbalah parting ways? So much bottled water gone to waste. [Dlisted]

Now that even Yahoo is getting in on the "blogging from the war zone" craze, it's about time someone put together a formal guide on how to survive when venturing into those peligroso regions just so you can run your mouth on a website.

Enter Paris-based Reporters Without Borders' Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents, a handbook that gives tips on remaining anonymous and under the radar from Internet censors in countries like China in Iran.

In a bid to inspire budding Web diarists around the world, the 87-page booklet gives advice on setting up and running blogs, and on using pseudonyms and anonymous proxies, which can be used to replace easily traceable home computer addresses.

Whew, and just in time. Our Mexican government-sponsored border crossing guide is already so ratty.