The Chicago White Sox are currently dealing with criticism—separate from their 0-6 road trip—over having blow-up dolls in the locker room, the Associated Press reported. Two dolls were set up as a shrine, or slump-buster, in the clubhouse on Sunday, and reporters noticed the display.

“The presence of those dolls creates an uncomfortable situation for any female journalist who enters the White Sox locker room simply trying to do her job,” said Jenni Carlson, the president of the Association for Women in Sports Media, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

“I don’t view this as a boys-being-boys type issue,” said White Sox general manager Ken Williams, according to the AP. “This is, you know, boys being a little bit careless, a little bit irresponsible on this front.”

Several players have apologized, but manager Ozzie Guillen said, “If people think we did something wrong, wow. I’m not going to apologize, I’m not going to say I’m sorry,” the Seattle Times reported.

Though the slump-busting shrine didn’t work right away, the Sox eventually won at home against the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday, only to lose 1-13 last night.

Few fanatics of Comedy Central staple The Daily Show watched the program as much as researchers from the Project for Excellence in Journalism, who tuned in for all of 2007.

In addition to improving their political punch lines, researchers found that the show, in some ways, isn’t all that different from its straight-faced contemporaries. For instance, although the show devotes 8% of its content to segments about the media – double most newscasts – it spends about the same amount of time (47%) as the traditional newscasters “covering” Washington politics.

The show also balances its guests evenly between the two major political parties, but Republicans tend to be on the receiving end of jokes more often than Democrats, according to the organization. And while the show has an undeniable impact on its viewership, it is a comedy, after all, and the authors’ noted that tragedies such as the shootings at Virginia Tech and the Minneapolis bridge collapse were barely mentioned.

Many commuters, mostly in urban areas, enjoy free daily newspapers during the morning commute thanks to a proliferation of publications. News consumers elsewhere might soon benefit from this as well, according to a recent poll.

More than half (56%) of 704 senior news executives from around the world said they believe news will be free of charge in the future, according to a Zogby International Survey.

The caveat is that in “emerging newspaper markets,” such as South America, Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East, and Asia, 61% of news decision-makers thought news should be free, compared to 48% in Western Europe and about half in North America.

It’s also worth pointing out that only 45% of those surveyed thought the quality of journalism will improve during the next decade.

In researching this PRWeek article on video games as an art form, I got some great responses from video game and PR professionals alike. You’ll find full interviews with several sources here.

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In this week’s issue, I wrote about Dillard University in New Orleans hiring H&K to lead a rebranding effort. To follow-up on that news, the university has introduced a new logo. Compare the old and new logos below.

Project Runway recently switched networks, from Bravo to Lifetime for its sixth season, and now the original producers are leaving the show to stay with NBC Universal. Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz of Magical Elves signed an exclusive pact with NBC, causing Project Runway, The Weinstein Company, and Lifetime to start the search for new producers. They are downplaying the search.

“It’s the nature of television that outstanding series change some of the producers over their run,” Lifetime said in a statement, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Project Runway’s success has been a collaborative process among many brilliant ‘designers,’ and that will continue.”

Alex Bruell and I recently had the opportunity to speak at a BU PR class (we were in the area for a digital roundtable) that was titled PR and New Media. Many of the students unsurprisingly had blogs, but it was refreshing to see some were very skeptical about the new media environment. I told them that the PR industry leadership did not expect them to have a mentality that pitched new media above all else. I said - the industry expects them to be able to translate the value (to their peers) of the tools PR professionals. Today’s marketing executives know that young people are hanging out on Facebook, IM. But few know exactly why. That’s just one thing you will be expected to bring to your employers. What else is the industry expecting?

Although LinkedIn has not yet confirmed which agency it has selected as its new AOR, several agencies that pitched for the account have confirmed they are out of the running. These include: SparkPR, Fleishman-Hillard, the Horn Group, and Shift Communications. Hill & Knowlton and the Dowd Agency also pitched for the business.

Last week, PRWeek reported on how Rockstar Games kept the media on something of a need-to-know basis before its mega-hit Grand Theft Auto IV hit stores.

One tactic that game manufacturers commonly use is to dole out exclusive reviews to a publication of their choosing. The strategy, for obvious reasons, is not popular with titles that don’t get the exclusive report.

Gaming journalists interviewed for the PRWeek story indicated that, while commonplace, exclusive reviews make up an ethically gray area. IGN got the scoop on GTA IV.

Libe Goad, AOL GameDaily editor-in-chief said, without identifying manufacturers, that some companies seem to want a quid-pro-quo relationship in exchange for an exclusive review.

“Something I will tell you, and I won’t name names, but when you ask for an exclusive at times, some people, before they consider, will ask you what you think you’re going to give it,” she said. “Sometimes you may not get an exclusive if you say you’re going to give it an 8.”

Jeff Green, PC gaming editor-in-chief at 1up.com, said that the relationship between magazines and manufacturers can sometimes feel “a little close for comfort.”

“I don’t know what options the press really has, because they don’t really have any cards in this,” he said.

Leisha Hailey, of The L Word, has signed on as the spokeswoman for Olivia, a lesbian travel and entertainment company. Hailey will be featured in print ads, commercials, online media, and at events promoting Olivia, said Steve Kauffman, SVP and global co-chair of FH Out Front, Olivia’s AOR. The agency will also oversee Olivia’s launch of Olivia Fling trips, aimed at under-35 professionals.