Remember when Matt Drudge was implying that certain Bush-bashing books were selling only because of an evil plot to use CBS as a shill for corporate cousin Simon & Schuster? Well, I guess Viacom's sinister plot to sell Viacom books worked so well that now Viacom is hatching a sinister plot to sell books for one of its competitors, Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Bertelsmann's Random House. Merciful heavens, what new horrors will these fiendish non-Murdoch media evildoers unleash next?

Bill Clinton is set to hit the talkradio waves with a live special promoting his new book -- one that CBS has ordered a "must carry" directive for all of its news affiliates, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

Each and every one of CBS's news and talk stations will be required to take the Clinton book special, now scheduled for next 6 PM ET Thursday -- whether local programming management wants it or not!

"It's going to be like one big commercial for the book! Why didn't Mr. Clinton's publisher just buy an hour," one angry executive for a CBS news station said late Monday. "This is not news, this is marketing. I already feel dirty!"...

Why didn't Knopf buy an hour of airtime? Because Viacom thinks radio saturation will sell TV ads for next Sunday's all-Clinton 60 Minutes. It's called capitalism -- doing whatever the hell you think will make you money just because you're the boss. And in the wake of Ronald Reagan's death, shouldn't a good right-winger like Matt Drudge be celebrating stuff like that?