Barry Diller Admits Buying Newsweek Was A Mistake (FishbowlNY)
The “Most Honest And Unintentionally Depressing Answer Of The Day” award goes to Barry Diller, IAC’s chairman. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Diller admits that buying Newsweek was a mistake, and even adds that the all-digital NewsBeast isn’t likely to succeed: “For a news magazine, which is a bit of an odd phrase today, it was not possible to print it any longer. We said we will offer digital products. We have a very solid newsroom. We will see. I do not have great expectations. I wish I had not bought Newsweek. It was a mistake.” Bloomberg Businessweek IAC doesn’t officially disclose financial figures for the Newsweek/Daily Beast unit. A person with direct knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News in July the business would probably lose as much as $22 million in 2012. The publisher cut editorial jobs in December in an effort to hold down expenses.

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MSNBC rings in the holiday season with the Doc Block, but don’t expect any heartwarming programming about Toys for Tots campaigns or shopping-mall Santas with incurable diseases.

Meredith Viera hosts MSNBC Undercover: Sex Slaves in America. Dec. 3, at 11 p.m.

Gladiator Days: Anatomy of a Prison Murder Dec. 12 at 11 p.m. and examines the stabbing of a black inmate by a white supremacist in the Utah State Prison.

Discovery Times Channel becomes Investigation Discovery (ID), which makes sense as there’s no Times part left. The network will offer more fact-based investigative reporting to its current affairs content (meaning The FBI Files and Most Evil). Alas, no more Amanda Hesser and her painful delivery.

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Meredith Vieira must regret the day she agreed to do the cocktail playdate segment. Based on a NY Times story about mothers who have a glass of wine while their kids play, the segment included a field piece, shot in Encino, with Stefanie Wilder-Taylor, author of Sippy Cups are not for Chardonnay. The in-studio guests were Dr. Janet Taylor, a pyschiatrist, and blogger Melissa Summers, inventor of the momtini.

Once in the studio, Vieira really went after Summers, who responded with a lot of eye rolling–she sounded fine, but looked pissed. Dr. Taylor, quite the professional guest, told the folks at home that moms who drink in front of their children are raising alcoholics. We exaggerate, but you get the idea. Vieira really should be ashamed of herself–not just for sandbagging Summers, but for doing such a feeble segment.

Producer Alicia Ybarbo, as well as Vieira, had worked on The View, where yelling and screaming spell tv magic. (Come to think of it, mommies who tipple would be a great show for The View.) Vieira, a founder of ClubMom.com, asked Summers if she’d let a baby-sitter drink while on the job. Remember when Meredith Vieira used to be a journalist?

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