News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), a media conglomerate that competes with Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), Disney (NYSE: DIS), Viacom (NYSE: VIA), CBS (NYSE: CBS) and Sony (NYSE: SNE), reported third-quarter earnings Wednesday, and they were pretty interesting, to say the least.

I mean, revenues increased 16% to about $8.8 billion, but earnings per share went up like crazy, coming in at $0.91 per diluted share versus $0.27 per diluted share a year ago -- that's more than three times as much as the comparable period's results! As you can imagine, there's a little catch. The stellar appreciation is due to a gain in a transaction with Liberty Media. According to a piece at CNBC, News Corp. earned $0.30 per share after adjustments, which was a penny shy of Wall Street's expectations.

So, News Corp. kind of had a so-so quarter. I think the top-line growth was pretty good even if bottom-line performance wasn't as nice as that special gain made it seem on the surface. Plus, News Corp. is working with some cool assets. Cable programming continues to score thanks to the strength of Fox News Channel, an important platform for the conglomerate which contains valuable brand name pundits such as Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. News Corp. leverages the channel to drive growth in its other cable properties; in fact, Fox Business Channel is trying to make a name for itself and it definitely benefits from synergy with Fox News.

Overall, the cable programming segment delivered a 17% increase in operating income while Fox News saw its operating profit go up by 11%. The television segment increased its profits by over 50%, and the Fox network just about doubled its bottom-line base. Other parts of News Corp. didn't do as well, such as filmed entertainment -- this segment's profit took a dive to the tune of 36%. However, don't blame one of my favorite shows, Family Guy -- DVD sales of this hot property was a positive driver.

Those are the highlights that stuck out at me. As for the stock, I don't see a compelling reason to buy at the moment. News Corp. should do well over time, but it wasn't like these were blowout numbers or anything. I'll wait and see how the company is doing when it reports its fiscal-year stats.

Disclosure: I own shares in Disney; positions can change at any time.

Liberals from the coffee houses of Cambridge to the wine bars of San Francisco cackled with joy when they learned that Fox News had shelved the 1/2 Hour News Hour, the News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) channel's clone of The Daily Show.

As TV Newser points out, Fox Senior Vice President Bill Shine told staff in a memo that. "There is still a chance you will see the program at some point in the future." The Web site pointed out that the program had its fans, winning its timeslot all but once.

So, why cancel it then?

The anonymous folks on TV Newser's discussion boards certainly didn't find it amusing and suggest that its ratings plunged after an initial spike. The clip I heard on Fox's Web site, which doesn't provide any links to the show on its home page, didn't tickle my funny bone. Neither did the clip on YouTube featuring the always amusing Rush Limbaugh as president and Ann Coulter as vice president.

Jon Stewart probably didn't lose too much sleep worrying about this show.

Fret not conservatives, comedy hasn't died completely on Fox News. Those hysterical cutups Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly aren't going anywhere. I'm sure that Neil Cavuto will keep the laughs coming on the yet-to-be launched Fox Business Network.

Maybe Fox will replace 1/2 Hour News Hour with Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld. Red Eye routinely wins the coveted 2 a.m. drunk/insomniac timeslot. Gutfeld is conservative, goofy and at times pretty funny. His program deserves a spot in your DVR though it too isn't on Fox News' home page.