The Ticker: Edwards, O’Reilly, Tropics…

> Newsbusters’ Matthew Sheffield writes the John Edwards scandal is one reason viewers are leaving traditional news outlets and getting their information from the Web: “In far too many newsrooms, the question is no longer about serving the public’s right to know but protecting the public from things it wants to know. No wonder they’re looking elsewhere.”

> Wired’s Listening Post blog reports another hip-hop act is singing about Bill O’Reilly…in a not-so-nice way.

> The cable nets are keeping an eye on the tropics. (Check out CNN’s spaghetti model below, seriously, that’s what they called it). A low pressure system near Puerto Rico could organize into the next named storm by this weekend. > Update, 4:41pmET: make that, ‘by today’ Tropical Storm Fay has formed off the Dominican Republic.