Click here to receive mediabistro.com's Daily Newsfeed via email.

Larry King's Paris: At Least He Didn't Call Her George (FishbowlNY)
Early returns on last night's Super Bowl of pop culture interviews: Larry asked the questions he had to. Not the tough ones, of course, but he was serviceable, in the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't spot King dealt himself. At least he didn't call her George. CNN: Transcript. TVNewser: Video. Hollywood Reporter: It was such an obviously scripted performance and so at odds with everything that has ever been reported about Hilton that there is a temptation to believe that no one in their right mind could buy it. But that's not so. LAT: Hilton reveals little in interview. Salon: Aside from the blond hair, there is no one on the planet more unlike Diana than Paris, writes Tina Brown. WaPo: It was also hard at times to determine which had less depth: King's questions or Hilton's answers, writes Tom Shales.

Newspaper Legends Fire Away at Murdoch-Dow Jones Editorial Plan (E&P)
If Rupert Murdoch succeeds in buying Dow Jones & Co., will the unusual editorial-independence provision in the deal — which would apparently limit his involvement in the Wall Street Journal newsroom — really work? And for that matter, should it? Ben Bradlee: "Jesus Christ! The idea that an owner, whoever it is, has nothing to say about editorial? What the hell?" NYT: A tentative accord on the editorial independence of the Journal would leave Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. with the sole power to hire and fire the paper's top editors. WSJ: News Corp. awaits reply from Bancrofts. Time: Murdoch: "Why would I spend $5 billion for something in order to wreck it?"

MySpace to Add Amateur, Pro Video Site (LAT)
MySpace plans to expand its video offerings this week with a new site that combines amateur and professional material. The new pages, available at MySpaceTV.com, will be the first MySpace spinoff accessible to those who don't register with the main site. But the new site is also intended as a gathering spot for the wide array of videos that get posted to personal profiles and viewed there.

Whitaker Off to a Rough Start at NBC News? (NYP)
A little over a month into his job as second-in-command at NBC News, Mark Whitaker is already ruffling feathers. Known in the print world for his impeccable journalistic credentials and deep Rolodex, the former Newsweek editor has sparked tension almost from the beginning for both his editorial calls and resistance to getting involved in recruitment efforts, according to a half-dozen sources inside the news division or close to it.

Reality TV Does Ugly Betty (Radar)
VH1 is developing a new show called America The Ugly, said to be inspired, in a roundabout way, by ABC's hit sitcom (itself a copy of the Spanish-language show Betty La Fea). The premise: What happens when unattractive women are thrown into the high-glam environment of the fashion and modeling industries?

Beeb Apologizes for Cutting Off Final Blair Speech (Guardian)
The BBC has apologized for cutting off the prime minister's final speech to parliament today, saying it made the "wrong decision." "It was an operational mistake and we would like to apologize to the viewers," the BBC said in a statement.

Hefner to Bring Playboy Mansion to China in 2009 (AP via USAT)
Hugh Hefner is planning to open a Playboy Mansion in the burgeoning gambling mecca of Macau. The 40,000-square-foot Playboy Mansion Macau, scheduled to open in late 2009, will give Hefner's company a key foothold in China after a failed attempt several years ago to build a club in Shanghai, which some blamed on the Chinese government's conservative line on public morality.

Music Mags Spawn Record Labels (East Bay Express)
Vice Records, an offshoot of culture and music publication Vice magazine, now releases music from Bloc Party, the Streets, and Charlotte Gainsbourg. The Fader magazine's Fader Label has released albums by hip-hop poet and emcee Saul Williams and U.K. rock band Editors. Filter magazine's Filter US Recordings boasts a low-key, impressive roster that includes Icelandic indie darlings Sigur Ros.

Time Inc. Hopes to Prove Value of Its Brands Online (AdAge)
In a day when young gossip sites such as TMZ can shoot to prominence seemingly overnight, do big legacy brands like People still have extra allure for readers and advertisers? Time Inc. president-CEO Ann Moore says so: "The smaller gossip sites think they're big and powerful, but get out of the way," she said this month. "The People editors have arrived."

Conrad Black's Fate With the Jury (NYP)
The jury at Conrad Black's fraud trial yesterday began poring over more than three months of testimony to weigh whether to put the dethroned press baron behind bars or set him free. Black, 62, could spend the next two decades in prison if the largely blue-collar jury decides he is guilty of plundering millions of dollars from investors in his Chicago newspaper empire Hollinger International.

Nielsen Adds to Cellphone Tracking (NYT)
Nielsen said yesterday that it had agreed to acquire Telephia, a private company based in San Francisco, for an undisclosed amount. Since its founding in 1998, Telephia has become one of the most respected sources of data about cellphone use — tracking consumers' phone calling, mobile Web surfing, video viewing and just about everything else.

Julia Allison to Be Six-Figure Star Commenter (Eat the Press)
Rachel Sklar: Star magazine has hired dating columnist/ETP contributor/Gawker fodder Julia Allison as editor-at-large to replace Jill Dobson, who was recently snapped up by Fox, for a reputed pretty penny. Allison personifies the media "triple threat": Someone who can write, looks good for the camera, and can think quickly on her feet.

Post-Print Media, Paper Will Survive — But Will Print Journalists? (SFBG)
Annalee Newitz: I live in a world where corporations care more about the future of paper than the futures of people who have made their living turning paper into a massive network of vital, important communications. This is not how technological change should work. You cannot discard a person the way you discard a market niche. That's because people revolt. Especially journalists.

Do the Printing Press Progressives at Mother Jones Have Any Kind of Grip? (PressThink)
Jay Rosen: All the old hands have woken up to the Internet and through embrace and extend they have tried to exert control over that department, colonizing it for the kind of command and control, push-the-message politics where (boomer) knowledge is ancient and decisive.

Ex-Vice Columnist Confronts Her Demons in New Book (VV)
Former nightlife fixture Lesley Arfin isn't the first or the last to write about addiction, of course. And rehab — she went twice — isn't the focus, either. The book builds on the entry-and-update format of her Vice column (entries date from 1990) by adding interviews with many of the stories' major players: ex-boyfriends, family members, girls who were total bitches in the sixth grade, etc.