Seattle sportswriter arrested for ignoring campus cop
While rushing to use the bathroom after covering a Saturday game, Seattle Post-Intelligencer sportswriter Angelo Bruscas ignored an officer's request to stop and was later cuffed. 'I've never encountered anything like this in 20 years of reporting,'' the reporter says. "It's the equivalent of being arrested going into City Hall to cover the city council meeting.''

Worcester paper to NYT? The Times won't say
The Boston Herald reported that The New York Times outbid several rivals trying to buy The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, a Chronicle Publishing property. A Times flack declines comment on the Herald story, which says the Times will pay nearly $300 million for the paper.

Defunct baseball mag's editor found dead; murder suspected
Ronald Bianchi, a former Phoenix Gazette columnist and co-founder of Diamond Magazine, which highlighted baseball lore, was found shot to death. Bianchi was recently mired in financial and legal woes, say police.

INDIANAPOLIS NEWS BOWS OUT: A seller on the streets shouted: "50 cents -- and it'll be worth more than that."

Report: Political scribes don't like Bush's flack
Washingtonian mag's "Capital Comment" says George W. Bush press secretary Karen Hughes doesn't dish off-the-record dirt, and thus, doesn't get good reviews from reporters. "All we get is the party line," says one newsie. (Fourth column item.)

Cincy pressmen: Enquirer won't bargain in good faith
The Cincinnati pressmen have worked for six months without a contract, and no settlement is in sight. Says a union boss: "They (Gannett) want us to agree to being paid less for overtime work and to hand off some of our overtime work to others. Deciding how much overtime we work is the only control we have left." The company's not commenting.

Gwen Ifill is ready for "Washington Week"
The preacher's daughter says editors often told her, "You're not ready." Her black friends got the same line, too, she says. But now Ifill's ready for her Friday debut as host of "Washington Week in Review". Howard Kurtz notes she's the first black woman to host a major political talk show. Ifill's plans: "We're going to tweak the format . . . The challenge is to be smarter and more thorough but not bore people to death."

Kovach quits Nieman post; makes way for "upgrade"
Bill Kovach says he's resigning as curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University for "personal and practical reasons." The journalism business has changed significantly, he notes. ''I have struggled to keep abreast of this change ... but I grow distant from direct experience,'' he says. ''It makes me less able to anticipate or appreciate their practical needs. The university and future fellows are, as we say these days, ready for an upgrade.''

Jonathan Alter says no-thanks to George editorship
"I just decided I like my jobs at Newsweek and NBC News -- I like the way my life is balanced right now," Alter tells Keith Kelly. To that, a George spokesman notes that Alter never got an offer from the magazine.

The Times says: Maybe Exner and JFK did have that fling
The Thursday editor's note on Exner came after Mickey Kaus tackled the obit issue. "Kausfiles.com gets results!" he notes. PLUS: A Miramax flack keeps up his Talk TV show denials.

Denver papers said no to debunking "Yes" myth
Colorado reporters knew that Cassie Bernall's widely reported "declaration of faith" in the Columbine High library was wrong, yet they didn't bother to set the record straight until other media -- including Salon -- disputed the account of "She Said Yes." Says a Denver Post-ie: "Maybe we are erring too much on the side of concern and sympathy, and [Salon] sort of forced the issue."

New Atlantic owner might start another magazine
In another profile that reveals David Bradley to be a gentle, nice, thoughtful man, it's disclosed he might start another magazine -- but not for the purpose of speaking out. "My own gift is finding gifts in other people," he says.

Book editor quits to join NYT wife in online venture
Arthur Samuelson will team up with his wife, New York Times food columnist Molly O'Neill, to produce @Table.com. He was editorial director of Schocken Books, the Jewish imprint owned by Bertelsmann.

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