The MediabistroTV crew headed over to Manhattan’s West Side recently to check out the gleaming Frank Gehry-designed IAC building home to Newsweek and The Daily Beast, among other IAC brands. NewsBeast’s Senior Columnist and CNN contributor John Avlon takes you into the belly of the Beast, which is home to the magazine, the website, a daily web series, and a lot of free food.

Lou Dobbs had a lucrative but boring job in commercial banking in Los Angeles. He thought TV news would be more exciting. So he checked in with some LA TV execs and they said, start small. So he packed his bags for Yuma, Arizona and got a job covering crime for KBLU radio and TV — making $75 a week. “There was a certain downside to commercial television that I hadn’t anticipated!”

Almost 40 years later, now an anchor with Fox Business Network, Dobbs credits his days in Yuma for giving him his First Big Break.

BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti was in our mediabistroTV studio today for an upcoming Media Beat interview and he shared his thoughts on Andrew Breitbart, who died Thursday morning. Peretti worked with Breitbart in launching The Huffington Post.

“It’s easy for internet commenters to say, you now, ‘It’s good he’s dead and look at all the damage he’s done,’” Peretti said. “But it’s harder when you’ve met someone to feel that way.”

For more videos, check out our YouTube channel and follow mbTV on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

MediabistroTV debuts a new series today, “My First Big Break” where we talk to media heavyweights about that break that got them to where they are today. Our first episode features Brian Williams, the anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News.” You know what he’s doing now, and you may know a bit about his past. But did you know that early in his career he maxed our his credit cards, had to give up his car, and went bankrupt until, finally, he got that First Big Break? Williams tells us how it came about and how it changed the course of his career.

For more videos, check out our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

If you haven’t been there yet, head over to mediabistro.com to check out our all new — but not yet finished — homepage. We’ve decluttered the place after years of adding links, more links and even some more links.

It’s got a much cleaner look featuring the four main features behind the brand: Jobs, Courses, Events and News, with mega drop-down menus to take you further into the site.

There are more prominent sharing buttons for our Facebook and Google+ pages, our Twitter stream and our YouTube Channel. We’ve enhanced the search bar and simplified the overall experience.

We say it’s not quite finished because this is just phase one. Stay tuned for phase two in the New Year, with even more functionality with the same great content you’ve come to expect.

Sean Duffy, who was a castmember on MTV’s The Real World: Boston and who later married a castmember of The Real World: San Francisco, won his election to the U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday.

Duffy, who’s been District Attorney for 8 years, rode the Republican wave in yesterday’s midterms and will represent Wisconsin’s 7th district in Washington.

Duffy married Rachel Campos from the San Fransisco season (ie. Puck and Pedro) in 1999. They had met on Road Rules: All Stars a year earlier. In true Midwestern style, the couple has 6 kids. Cold Wisconsin nights.

An Walt Disney employee and her boyfriend will be in an LA courtroom this afternoon on charges of trying to sell inside information on the company to more than 30 hedge funds. One tip was that Disney was in advanced talks to sell its ABC TV network.

Bonnie Hoxie and Yonni Sebbag were arrested by FBI agents in Los Angeles.

The criminal complaint filed in New York federal court accuses Hoxie and Sebbag with conspiracy and wire fraud in allegations of illegal insider trading. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if found guilty.

• TVNewser has more on the ABC angle including a statement from the company…

mediabistro.com founder Laurel Touby is in Long Beach this week for TED2009. She’s been Twittering all week, so we thought we’d share the feed here on FishbowlLA. Click here to follow Laurel…

Dan Cox, on special assignment for FishbowlLA, covering the 2008 Sun Valley Media Conference.

On the closing day of the Sun Valley Media Conference, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett held court with individual speeches about — what else — money.

Gates spoke about collecting it for his Gates Foundation, while Buffett discussed how it could be spent to help the country, according to people who listened.

“Bill said amazing things,” said James Robinson III, former chairman of American Express. “He had all sorts of things to say about raising money for such things as medicine and diseases. He was very engaging and interesting, as he is every year.”

About 200 of those left at the conference attended the speeches, which had a ridiculously inordinate amount of security, with every entrance and exit to the speakers’ hall watched by four guards. Mediabistro, which was kept out by at least three different guards at entrances, thinks that’s what billionaire-type money brings.

But a few who stuck around to listen to billionaire mentality included William Morris Agency’s Jim Wiatt, Yahoo!’s Sue Decker, ICM’s Chris Silbermann, Page1Media’s Isaac Lee, Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Starr & Co.’s Ken Starr, News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch, Time Warner’s Richard Parsons, media chef Rachael Ray, Scripps Co.’s Ken Lowe, former Disney chair Michael Eisner, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

Though almost half the invitees departed on Friday night, some stuck around to celebrate host Herb Allen with a special dinner last night. And, as every year, a special outdoors ice show (in the middle of summer!!!) took place behind the Sun Valley Lodge.

Friday night, Murdoch and Parsons were secluded at a table in the Sun Valley Lodge bar, discussing either some pending deal or the mixed drinks they wanted to order.

Parsons, who stepped down as Time Warner chair a few months ago, earlier told a reporter he was happy to be an observer at the conference this year rather than a corporate participant.

Dan Cox, on special assignment for FishbowlLA, covering the 2008 Sun Valley Media Conference.

News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch confirms to mediabistro that he has yet to find his wedding ring, which he lost Thursday, much to his wife Wendi’s chagrin. He would only say it had “some sentimental value.”

For all you treasure hunters out there, the ring is theoretically still in some crevice in the Sun Valley Lodge lobby.