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Oprah Fries Frey (NYT)
In an extraordinary reversal of her defense of the author whose memoir she catapulted to the top of the best-seller lists, Oprah Winfrey rebuked James Frey, the author of A Million Little Pieces, on her show for lying about his past and portraying the book as a truthful account of his life. Gawker: Best. Television. Ever. NYDN: The dramatic showdown came as a surprising turnaround for the TV talk queen, who had touted A Million Little Pieces on the air, helping make the book last year's second-biggest seller, after Harry Potter. WaPo: Oprah throws the book at herself. LAT: Frey gets humiliation, absolution from Oprah, writes Paul Brownfield. NYT: Oprah takes Frey to TV woodshed, writes Virginia Heffernan. NYT Editorial: In a remarkable moment of television, Winfrey did what we have so often waited for public figures to do: she admitted openly that she had made a mistake in supporting Mr. Frey. Galleycat: The Random House division that published A Million Little Pieces finally issued an apology. Salon: The daytime queen didn't just expose the lies in James Frey's "memoir." She publicly shamed him—and it was a little creepy, writes Hillary Frey. Slate: The ritual cleansing of a talk-show host.

Libby Targets Reporters in Plame Defense (WaPo)
Attorneys for Vice President Cheney's former top aide urged a court yesterday to force prosecutors to turn over all the information they obtained from reporters about their confidential conversations with Bush administration sources in the course of a two-year CIA leak investigation. NYT: Libby's lawyers sought to find out "the identity of all reporters who knew that Ms. Wilson worked for the C.I.A., and to discover when they learned such information, from whom they learned it and whether they disclosed it further after learning it."

Police Official: Abducted Reporter Jill Caroll May Go Free (AP via ABC News)
A top Iraqi police officer says he thinks kidnapped American reporter Jill Carroll will be freed, and today's release of five Iraqi women from U.S. custody could help. Officials have said the release had nothing to do with the demands by Carroll's kidnappers. CSM: Hope in captivity: How kidnapped journalists coped.

Heather Graham's Sitcom Axed Too Late to Halt Mag Cover (E&P)
Who'd a thunk the highly-publicized new TV comedy series starring movie cutie Heather Graham would get axed in record time: one week? Certainly not the folks at Life magazine, which features her on the cover of its widely-distributed newspaper supplement this weekend.

Moonves Says CBS Will Sell Theme Parks (NYT)
The chief executive said the company's theme parks division did not fit with CBS's content-driven business, which includes the television network, television and radio stations, an outdoor advertising business, and a publishing business.

Pixar's Creative Chief Will Greenlight Films at Disney (LAT)
When Walt Disney Co.'s $7.4-billion acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios closes this summer as expected, Pixar's creative chief, John Lasseter, would be empowered to "greenlight" all feature animated movies at both studios.

Auto Ads Abandon Newspaper Pages for Web (WSJ)
The decline adds to the woes of the newspaper industry. For years, fat sections of car ads were a dependable source of business for newspaper publishers, accounting for 30 percent of the industry's total classified ad revenue of $16.6 billion in 2004, the last full year for which figures are available.

Big Tobacco Payola for Fox News Writer? (TNR)
FoxNews.com science columnist Steven Milloy has been affiliated with FoxNews.com since July 2000. On March 9, 2001, he wrote a column attacking a study by researcher Stephen Hecht, who found that women living with smokers had higher levels of chemicals associated with risk of lung cancer.

MPA Honors Buckley, Black (Folio:)
Dylan Stableford: For a couple hours, at least, publishers paused from e-media posturing to reflect on swinging, retro era of magazines, when women named Steinem fought for publishing equality and literary lions named Wolfe defined an era.

Matthew Perry Signs on for New Sorkin Drama (Guardian)
Perry is returning to NBC, the home of Friends, to play a comedy writer called Matt Albie in Aaron Sorkin's new drama, provisionally called Studio 7. The new show is set behind the scenes of a fictional long-running comedy sketch series, in the tradition of HBO's The Larry Sanders Show.

Dow Jones Profits Up (Reuters)
The publisher of the Wall Street Journal, posted a 16 percent rise in quarterly profit on Thursday after a tax gain, and said its critical business-to-business advertising was on the mend.

In Reality-TV Era, Only Remaining Taboo Is Acting Boring (WWD)
The E network has hired Isaac Mizrahi to conduct red-carpet interviews on its Academy Awards pre-show on March 5. Mizrahi's recent outrageous behavior at the Golden Globes generated a wave of critical articles, but also helped the network reach an average of 1.6 million viewers.

TV Nets Switch Ad Firms (NYP)
ABC yesterday became the latest TV network to shake up its advertising duties as the major broadcasters continue seeking fresh ways to promote new prime-time shows that haven't captured big audiences. Mediaweek: Wieden + Kennedy won media planning and buying duties for ABC TV network and the ABC Family cable channel.

Aaron Brown: Truth Doesn't Matter on TV News Anymore (Palm Beach Daily News)
"Television is the most perfect democracy," Brown said. "You sit there with your remote control and vote." The remotes click to another channel when serious news airs, but when the media covers the scandals surrounding Laci Peterson, the Runaway Bride or Michael Jackson, "there are no clicks then."

Queen of the Tabs (Forbes)
James Brady: Bonnie Fuller isn't a member of "the club." She's not an insider, not one of the Condé Nast boys and not a Time Inc. smoothie. She's the U. of Toronto rather than the Harvard. Let's put it this way: She and Graydon Carter of Vanity Fair do not travel in the same circles.

Condé Alums Come Back Home (NYP)
As most of the Fairchild operation continues to be dismantled and crunched into Condé Nast, at least two key people who resigned when the division was still a separate fiefdom run by former Fairchild president Mary Berner are returning to their old homes.

How Bush Ducks Questions at a Press Conference (Slate)
Dealing with delicate issues on camera, Bush keeps his mouth shut. The pause to think gives him away. When he doesn't punch out a response, he's not puzzling out the answer. He's puzzling out the spin.

Sulz: NYT Newsroom 'Not in Turmoil' (Marketwatch)
Jon Friedman: As his fellow attendees this week at the annual Davos gathering in Switzerland are presumably discovering, he's never dull. Arthur Sulzberger Jr. is not only the most youthful-looking media titan around, but he's one of the few who welcomes critiques.

'Little Russ' Fusses Over HuffPo Jibes (Lowdown)
Lloyd Grove: Celebrity blogger Arianna Huffington regularly attacks "Meet the Press" moderator Tim Russert as a Washington insider who gets chummy with the powerful. Usually there's no response. But now Huffington has really gotten under Russert's skin.

Editor Puts Dictators in Their Place (WaPo)
Parade assigned its annual World's Worst Dictators issueto contributing editor David Wallechinsky, author of the Book of Lists series and a forthcoming volume about tyrants. He observes the evildoings of evildoers, "like some people follow American Idol," he says.

For Those About to Rock... (BusinessWeek)
Jon Fine: Rock radio is increasingly a victim of fragmenting demographics. The sole genre posting sales gains last year was Latin. Arena rock shows that once promised spectacle for less than a sawbuck have bloated into elite affairs resembling closed corporate events.

More Media Owners Needed (The Nation)
Maurice Hinchey: It will not be easy to reverse our recent history of media consolidation. But unless we do, another dangerous trend will continue: the dumbing down of America.

Plenty of Media Folk on 'Most Loathsome' List (Buffalo Beast)
Geraldo Rivera, Michelle Malkin, Martha Stewart, Rita Cosby, Kenneth Tomlinson, and Judy Miller all make the top-50 list, along with many other media notables from around the country.

—David S. Hirschman