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Cablers Jump On McCain Lobbyist Story (TVNewser)
MSNBC's new content-sharing relationship with The New York Times meant the network was first to report the news of Sen. John McCain's ties to lobbyist Vicki Iseman who, early in McCain's 2000 run for the White House, "had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices, and accompanying him on a client's corporate jet," the Times reports. DrudgeReport: Flashback to December, when McCain pleaded with the Times to kill story about his special treatment for Iseman. E&P: The McCain camp released a statement calling the Times article a "smear." HuffPo: Why did the paper hold the McCain-lobbyist story?

Fox Calls NBC Upfront Plan 'Smoke and Mirrors' (B&C)
Fox executives on Wednesday blasted NBC's recent announcement outlining a revamped upfront and scheduling process. "It's kind of humorous that [NBCU chief Jeff] Zucker makes an announcement that pretty much describes our strategy and approach over the last few years," said Fox programming and scheduling chief Preston Beckman. "It is total smoke and mirrors; if anyone should be getting credit it is us." Variety: Departing from tradition, Fox won't announce a midseason schedule at its May upfront presentation.

Journalist Sentenced to Death in Iran, Accused of Terrorism (NYT)
Iran has sentenced a journalist to death, accusing him of being a member of a terrorist group in the country's southeast. A judiciary spokesman, Alireza Jamshidi, told reporters that the journalist, Yaghoob Mirnehad, had been sentenced to death on charges of "membership in the terrorist Jundallah group as well as crimes against national security."

News Corp. Eyes MySpace Music Service (AP)
News Corp. has approached the four major record labels to discuss launching an online music service through its popular MySpace social networking site, music company executives familiar with the talks say. The media conglomerate envisions a one-stop music service that offers content in various ways, including via free digital streams, as MP3 downloads, and through a subscription plan.

InStyle Executive Editor Stepping Down (WWD)
Martha McCully is packing it in after almost six years as executive editor at InStyle — at least, her full-time gig. She claimed Wednesday that she was giving up her desk so she could "pursue other opportunities" outside the Time Inc. title. McCully said she is looking forward to pursuing other interests in the beauty, wellness, and entertainment worlds, both online and on television.

Viacom's BET to Launch in U.K. (Reuters)
Viacom Inc's BET Networks will launch in the United Kingdom next week as the Black entertainment network expands its global reach. BET will make its debut in Britain on February 28 to more than 8.8 million digital satellite homes on BSkyB, with a roster of U.S. shows.

Naked Lindsay a Web Home Run for New York (Portfolio)
You may have heard that New York's nude shoot with Lindsay Lohan generated so much Web traffic, it crashed the Web site. But how much traffic is that, really? For starters, more than 20 million page views on both Monday and Tuesday, a 2,000 percent increase over the same time last year, according to DART and Omniture.

Details of Rove's Newsweek Deal (NYO)
The terms of Karl Rove's contract with Newsweek: It's a two-year-deal, eight columns per year and 16 overall. A Newsweek spokeswoman confirmed this; editor Jon Meacham had let it slip out on Feb. 7, when a Columbia j-school student asked him about Rove.

Marketers Losing Faith in TV (AdAge)
Whether traditional TV advertising has truly lost its power, marketers and advertisers are already eager to find alternatives. The Association of National Advertisers and Forrester Research's fourth biennial TV and Technology survey shows a dramatic loss of confidence in the medium as the industry gears up to explore new ad formats and forms of video commercials.

News Networks Bump Clinton Out of Picture (WaPo)
Howard Kurtz: Hillary Clinton was seven minutes into her speech Tuesday night, shortly after being projected to lose the Wisconsin primary, when Obama bounded onto a stage and all the cable news networks cut away from her to him. The freshman senator proceeded to speechify in a Houston arena for 46 minutes, hijacking the television spotlight and upstaging his Democratic rival.

CBS Greenlights Two Reality Pilots (Hollywood Reporter)
The network is adding divorce and crime to its reality development slate. The network has greenlighted two pilots: Splitsville, executive produced by Jamie Kennedy, and an untitled project from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition creator/executive producer Tom Forman.

Online Columnist Sues NYC Over Press Passes (NY Sun)
An online columnist who is widely read within the police department and frequently critical of its top officials discovered a year ago that the department would not renew his press pass. Now the columnist, Leonard Levitt, is suing the city over its refusal to lay out its policies for issuing the passes. Levitt's Web site, nypdconfidential.com, bills itself as "an insider's view of the department that the public rarely sees."

Monocle's Eagle Eye on the Lives of the Jet Set (Independent)
A year ago the Canadian style commentator and Wallpaper* founder Tyler Brûlé launched a new magazine. As stocky as a car-repair manual, the 10-times-a-year publication was aimed at polyglot businessmen who cared about pan-global trends in aviation and knew the difference between a Salvatore Ferragamo and a Santiago Calatrava. Well, a year later, Brûlé's dream is still alive.

Media Vulgarians Gone Wild: How Low Can the Press Go? (The Phoenix)
Adam Reilly: Nasty presidential races are nothing new. What is new, though, is the Fourth Estate's distinctive contribution to the unsavoriness of the current campaign season. You don't have to be a prude to think that, when it comes to national politics, the reliance on a junior-high vernacular is a mite troubling. Pointed commentary is all well and good. But how about some rhetorical restraint, too?

Why Does the Press Use 'Populist' Rather Than 'Liberal?' (CJR)
Dean Starkman: Before this gets out of hand, big media needs to stop using the word "populist" to describe Democrats' economic programs and their appeals to voters. The question of what is and isn't "populist" is not a nit. Reporters and headline writers don't need to be historians-on-deadline to know that the word "populist" has no widely agreed-upon definition, but plenty of negative associations.