Deadline: The third quarter was a lousy period to own media stocks. The sector fell 11 percent in the three months that ended Sept. 30, based on the Dow Jones U.S. Media Index. That wiped out the 3.4 percent gain in the second quarter and the 1.1 percent lift in the first. Investors never recovered from the shock they felt on Aug. 4 when Disney said that it would fall short of a financial estimate for cable due to bigger than expected sub losses at ESPN. That seemed to confirm nascent concerns about cord cutting, and the growing sense of malaise about pay TV.