Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has agreed in principle to pay $580 million for Newsday in a deal with the Chicago-based Tribune Co. that would reshape the New York City tabloid world.

You’re in trouble. You want a lawyer. And not just any lawyer. You want a scary lawyer. Pick up the phone and call Bertram “Bert” Fields, who is known as “L.A.’s scariest lawyer.”

There’s no question that the $100 million defamation lawsuit filed Tuesday by former books publisher Judith Regan has news value.

But the 70-page complaint also has literary value, as well.

Though it’s bogged down in places with legal terms, it’s still a Judith Regan style page-turner, complete with scenes of betrayal, confrontation and deception.

Natalie Bancroft, meet Viet Dinh.

Proving it can cover its own corporate owners with energy, the Wall Street Journal yesterday gave a full account of the latest bumbling and stumbling of the Bancroft family.

Earlier this year, the family, after great indecision and internal debate, agreed to sell Dow Jones & Co., which owned the Journal, to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Bad times for newspapers can be good times for newspaper lobbyists.

Major publishers, which often cover K Street as a hotbed of corruption, spend thousands each year to advance and protect their own interests.

Yet one issue that has fueled the Washington media lobby for years may soon disappear. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin has drafted a plan that would abolish rules forbidding companies from owning both a newspaper and broadcast outlets in the same city.

CEO Rupert Murdoch earned a salary of $8.1 million in
News Corp.’s most recent fiscal year and total compensation of about
$25 million, according to the company’s proxy statement issued Thursday. That total jumps to $32 million if you count the “theoretical” increase in the value of his pension.

But perhaps the most interesting item in the document is shareholder proposal No. 4, expected to be introduced at News Corp.’s annual meeting next month.

Stephen Mayne of Templestowe, Austrailia, holder of 150 “B” shares, wants the company to create a single class of stock, possibly giving holders of “A” shares full voting rights. The move, the proposal estimates, would reduce the Murdoch family’s holdings from 39 percent of voting stock to less than 15 percent.

It’s not a good time to be a member of the board of directors of Dow Jones & Co., owner of The Wall Street Journal.

One director resigned Thursday because of the board’s decision to
approve a $5 billion buyout offer from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. A second director is under investigation by the SEC because of insider
trading allegations related to that buyout offer.

The board of directors of Dow Jones said late Tuesday night that itw as “prepared to approve” a buyout offer from Rupert Murdoch, which would give the conservative press baron control of The Wall Street Journal.

Fine, but the real news is that Al Gore says Murdoch is a man of his word who supports independent voices, according to The New York Times.

It’s not often that the Times buries a lead, but this is one of them. The newspaper acknowledged that Gore’s support is an “unlikely endorsement,” but put it at the very end of its main Murdoch-Dow Jones story, posted to its Web site late Tuesday night.

There’s no doubt that Ron Burkle loves newspapers.

In the past year or so, he has explored buying the Tribune Co. and several former Knight Ridder papers. Today, the California billionaire
is scheduled to meet with directors of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

None of Burkle’s previous media flirtations has led to anything and some analysts don’t give him much of a chance with Dow Jones. Some members of the company’s controlling Bancroft family, though, are desperately seeking an alternative to a takeover by Rupert Murdoch. Burkle is a Democrat with strong ties to the Bill and Hillary Clinton.

As the Times notes today, Rupert Murdoch’s media empire gives him an array of tools to advance his interests.

Starting with one newspaper in Australia, he has built and acquired a vast network of newspapers, broadcast companies and web sites.
Murdoch has shown increasing sophistication in getting his way regardless of the political climate. News Corp. employs a battery of lobbyists, including the very connected Anthony Podesta.

To the surprise of some, Murdoch’s sizeable political donations in the U.S. favor Republicans only slightly. The Times reports that Republicans received 56 percent of the $4.76 million contributed since 1997 by the Murdoch family and related PACs.