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LA Times Apologizes for Tupac Shakur Story (AP)
The Los Angeles Times apologized for using apparently fabricated documents in a story implicating associates of Sean "Diddy" Combs in a 1994 assault on rapper Tupac Shakur. "The bottom line is that the documents we relied on should not have been used," editor Russ Stanton said in a story on the paper's site. "We apologize both to our readers and to those referenced in the documents ... and in the story." TSG: How a federal inmate duped the Los Angeles Times, fabricated FBI reports, and linked Sean "Diddy" Combs to 1994 ambush of Tupac Shakur. NYT: The article used what it called summaries of Federal Bureau of Investigation interviews with an informant to implicate Combs.

Equity Firms Sue Banks Over Clear Channel Funding (NYP)
In the clearest sign yet that the global credit crisis is destroying deep-pocketed relationships across the financial landscape, buyout firms Bain Capital and THL Partners sued a cadre of giant Wall Street banks yesterday to force them to finance the $27 billion takeover of radio company Clear Channel Communications. Forbes: With Clear Channel's stock trading well below its buyout value, lenders to the private equity consortium now face the prospect of lending far more than the current market value of the target company, and at a time when banks are already nervous about making loans.

Thomson-Reuters To Be Official April 17 (Forbes)
Competition in the wire service world has just been slashed. Shareholders of The Thomson Corporation and Reuters Group have agreed to the acquisition of the latter. The two companies will officially join forces on April 17 given that courts in Canada and the United Kingdom approve the $17 billion sale. Shareholders gathered on Wednesday, approving the acquisition with "overwhelming" enthusiasm.

Richard Johnson: PageSix.com 'Missed the Boat' (FishbowlNY)
At The Atlantic's panel, "The Britney Show: The Rise of the 24/7 Celebrity News Cycle," held at NYU yesterday, Richard Johnson, Page Six's irrepressible leader admitted the failed attempt to turn the NYP's gossip column into a standalone Web site was too little, too late. "PageSix.com didn't work because it wasn't around two or three years earlier. It missed the boat," he said. Portfolio: Feel bad for us, not Britney, say gossip mongers.

CNET Lays Off 120 (Valleywag)
Newly former CNET employee Robert Balousek reports that he was one of 120 U.S. employees (10 percent of the workforce) laid off by CNET, the online tech publisher, yesterday. On Wall Street, the company is trying to fend off a takeover attempt by hedge fund Jana Partners. On the Web, the company is trying to stay vaguely relevant as a swarm of tech blogs silence whatever buzz it once had.

Atlantic Names Jay Lauf New Publisher (NYO)
Justin Smith, the president of the Atlantic, has a new right-hand man. He's Jay Lauf, the publisher of Wired since 2006. The release boasts that he was "recruited" from the Condé Nast magazine. Lauf, who will assume the role of vice president and publisher, will work out of the magazine's newly relocated sales offices in the city.

Finding Political News Online, the Young Pass It On (NYT)
According to interviews and recent surveys, younger voters tend to be not just consumers of news and current events but conduits as well — sending out emailed links and videos to friends and their social networks. And in turn, they rely on friends and online connections for news to come to them. In essence, they are replacing the professional filter with a social one.

Is Yahoo The Right Fit for Newspapers? (E&P)
Wall Street calls Microsoft's bid for Yahoo Inc. a "bear hug" — but will it be newspapers who get squeezed? Some of the newspaper industry's new-media gurus think so. No matter who wins, they say, the fight will distract Yahoo at a crucial time in the rollout of its next-generation online ad tools for the 600-plus papers in the newspaper consortium.

YouTube to Offer Users 'Insight' (Mediaweek)
Google has introduced a new, free tool to YouTube that will provide those who post video clips on the popular site with deeper insights into when, where, and how often their video clips are viewed. Using YouTube Insight, publishers are able to analyze the viewing patterns or individual videos far more thoroughly than in the past.

Nets Swing and Miss in Midseason (Hollywood Reporter)
Scripted TV hits are slowly coming back from their strike-imposed hiatuses. The return couldn't have come soon enough for the broadcast networks, which have struggled with the launch of 10 new comedies and dramas during the past three months. From NBC's Quarterlife to Fox's Canterbury's Law, the midseason battleground this year is strewn with programming casualties.

FX Network Inks $100M Deal With Universal Pictures (AP via USAT)
News Corp. cable channel FX Network says it has inked a deal to buy the basic cable television rights to more than a dozen movies released by Universal Pictures this year. The deal is estimated to cost about $100 million and cover about 15 movies, but those figures may change depending upon how the films fare at the box office.

WGA Honors David Chase (Variety)
Sopranos creator David Chase will receive the Writers Guild of America West's Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television, honoring lifetime achievement for outstanding writing. Previous recipients include Steven Bochco, David E. Kelley, Susan Harris, Stephen J. Cannell, and last year's honoree, John Wells.

Should You Steer Clear of Jim Cramer's Stock Picks? (ABC News)
He may be the most celebrated stock picker on TV, but many say Jim Cramer got it wrong, and some have renewed an older criticism of the host: Small investors who follow Cramer stand to lose big. Cramer has taken serious heat after urging viewers to stay with Bear Stearns stock right before that company's shocking collapse. CNBC's defense of Cramer has not insulated its heavily promoted star.

Dominick Dunne Battling Cancer, Finishing Book (Page Six)
Liz Smith: Dominick Dunne, covering crime coast to coast and continent to continent, remains a VIP. Now mediabistro.com's Diane Clehane has interviewed this master of investigating evildoers. She reports exclusively that he is battling bladder cancer and has taken a leave from Vanity Fair to finish his next novel A Solo Act.

The Education of a 9/11 Reporter (Slate)
Eric Lichtblau: Coverage of 9/11 and its aftermath consumed all else for reporters in Washington. As federal officials scrambled to avert the much-feared "second wave" of attacks, reporters likewise scrambled to follow any hint of the next possible attack and to put it on the front page.

Las Vegas Life 'Transitions' Online (FishbowlNY)
Greenspan Media's Las Vegas Life will publish a yearly "Best of" issue and transition the rest of its content online. "We are not able to serve the great residents of our city in print alone and find that the online medium presents the most engaging way to deliver content, applications, and services that truly meet the needs of our audiences," Michael T. Carr, Greenspan's president said in a release. Folio:: Greenspun has said it is planning to launch a "category crushing" Web portal for Las Vegas on Memorial Day weekend.