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CNBC Defends Anchor Bartiromo (WSJ)
CNBC moved to defend its star anchor Maria Bartiromo amid increasing questions about her relationship with a former top Citigroup executive. "Bartiromo ... works tirelessly around the world in the service of business journalism," CNBC said in a statement. "Her travel has been company-related and approved, and involved legitimate business assignments." NYT: Of the 46 appearances Bartiromo made in 2006, the CNBC representative said, only three were on behalf of Citigroup. The list of other companies with events at which she appeared last year included Google, Schwab and Dow Jones. Jossip: "Englewood has become a gossip scene ... [usually] this sort of thing is what happens at 30 Rock." FishbowlNY Poll: Did "money honey" commit an ethics violation? Vote!

Former NBCU Treasurer Arrested for Theft (TV Week)
Victor Jung has been arrested and charged with stealing more than $800,000 from his former employer. The indictment alleges Jung created a phony account named much like a real NBCU company and used it to receive wire transfers of money. He is accused of using the money on private jet flights, lavish dining in flight, as well as a summer rental in the Hamptons. AP via USAT: If convicted, Jung could face a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Was the Time Inc. Sale a Done Deal Weeks Ago? (Folio:)
"You could see six to eight weeks ago that Bonnier was the lead horse and we kept asking, 'should we be in it?'" said one source Thursday. "And they kept saying it wasn't and we should stay in it. But to have six people go through the expense and the time that its takes to complete the due diligence when you know that you've already picked someone is wrong." NYP: Bonnier paid $225 million.

Job Cuts in 2006 Painful — But Fewer Than in 2005 (E&P)
The crises at massive newspaper companies, the drought of advertising revenue, plunging circulation, barren foreign bureaus, withered news pages, a torrent of pink slips, the wrath of Wall Street — and yet, for all that, the number of jobs lost in 2006, at least at the larger metro dailies, was somewhat less than those lost in 2005.

WSJ to Offer 'Rub 'n Sniff' Ads (AdAge)
And you thought the "Small Street Journal" was a new experience. The Wall Street Journal is on the verge of offering scented print-ad units that will appear on the regular pages of the paper. The technology takes "scratch 'n sniff" to a more refined level — think "rub and sniff."

Us Weekly's Baker Named Editorial Director of Usmagazine.com (Mediaweek)
Ken Baker, Us Weekly's West Coast executive editor, has been named editorial director of Usmagazine.com, a newly created position. He will oversee Us' digital content, and will also be responsible for the mag's new "Celebrity Channel," which will offer branded video content culled from celeb parties, events news, and staff features.

New York Mag to Publish 'Look Book' Book (WWD)
The 150-page book set to hit shelves in mid-September is being produced by Melcher Media, the company behind Spy: The Funny Years and Glamour's Big Book of Dos & Don'ts. A spokeswoman said the book would offer "many of our best-loved 'Look Bookers,' many new faces, plus quite a few never-before-published detail shots of both."

MySpace Set for China Launch (Reuters)
News Corp. is finalizing a deal with partners, including private equity heavyweight IDG, to launch a networking Web site venture in China within a few months, financial and Chinese government sources said today. News Corp. plans to take less than 50 percent of the venture, which will establish a localized Chinese version of the popular MySpace.com site.

Big Momma's House: Branding Atoosa (BusinessWeek)
Jon Fine: In certain mediacentric precincts of Manhattan and Los Angeles, a striking and charismatic young woman named Atoosa Rubenstein moves from handshake to handshake, from meeting with advisers to pitching potential financial backers. She resembles a Presidential candidate testing the waters in Iowa. But her campaign is to build the next big multimedia brand around a person. This person happens to be named Atoosa Rubenstein.

Conservative Talker Glenn Beck Puts His Own Failings Up Front (WaPo)
While most sermonizing conservatives wait for a public debacle to expose their failings, Beck is constantly introducing his inner demons to viewers. "I'm just trying to live the best life I know how to," he explains. "I'm an alcoholic. If I have one drink, my life will spiral out of control. But man, if you can have a few drinks and not end up at a Denny's in Tijuana, God bless you, brother."

CNN Execs Hit the Tropics (FTVLive via Page Six)
"CNN claims that they exceeded their financial budgets so instead of putting it back into the company and giving some much deserved raises, they decided to break their arms by patting themselves on the back ... [There are] a lot of unhappy people in Atlanta."

10-Year-Old Filmmaker Sues for Creative Control (LAT)
Most 10-year-olds are happy with an allowance and some video games. Budding filmmaker Dominic Scott Kay wants creative control, along with a shot at the Sundance Film Festival. And, as often happens in the entertainment business, to get what he wants he's headed to court with one of Hollywood's top litigators in tow.

Norman Mailer Defends His Castle (Rush and Molloy)
When it comes to rumbling with the New York Times, Mailer still has all the spunk of an angry punk. He can't complain about the front-page rave freelance critic Lee Siegel gave his new novel, The Castle in the Forest, in the Times Book Review. But the reverential piece only cements Mailer's hunch that Michiko Kakutani is still gunning for him — as is her "clone" Janet Maslin.

Media Execs Paying Lip Service to the New, Investing in the Old (Variety)
Peter Bart: The CEOs of the giant media companies are out there every week at investor conferences hammering home the same message: "We are hip to the emerging new platforms, we understand the nirvana of anywhere/anytime media, we know the old media's doomed." But this summer these very same digital prophets will spend vastly more money on "old media" than ever before.

Why Is Bill Kristol Still a Media Darling? (The Nation)
Eric Alterman: Because Kristol is so smart, it's all but impossible to believe that he believes many of the things he says and writes. But if one looks for a consistent pattern to Kristol's perpetual wrongness, it's not hard to discern. For Kristol is less interested in being correct than in advancing his side's interests. He's not a journalist; he's an apparatchik working undercover as a man of the press.