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.

TV can be a goofy business, but this couldn’t be the script the boys in Hearst Tower had in mind when they offered $600 million a few weeks ago for the small piece of Hearst-Argyle Television they don’t already own.

A special committee of Hearst-Argyle directors advised against the deal last week, calling it “inadequate” and saying it is “not in the best interests” of stockholders, other than Hearst.

Tom Scott, already half of a business-world power couple, is bringing new focus on the affluent through his broadcast network, Plum TV.

Scott is a co-founder of Nantucket Nectars, the beverage company bought by Cadbury-Schweppes in 2002. His wife, Emily Scott, founded J. Crew.

Fred Thompson’s long-awaited announcement that he is running for president finally came last night, on The Tonight Show.

“You’ve been in the water for a while now,” host Jay Leno observed. “Are you starting to get a bit wrinkly?”

Thompson, 65, said his wrinkles did not come from water. “We’re where we need to be right now, and that’s one of the things I need to talk to you about,” he said. “I’m running for president of the United States.”

Florida investor Bruce Sherman finds himself in the midst of another media company buyout. This time it’s Hearst-Argyle Television, which received an offer from majority shareholder Hearst Corporation.

Hearst, a privately held publisher of newspapers, magazines and Internet properties, already owns more than 73 percent of the broadcaster’s shares. It is offering $600 million for the remainder.

The affair between Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and a local TV reporter may become an issue in a proposed real estate development in the city.

Telemundo, owner of KVEA-TV, is weighing the fate of journalist Mirthala Salinas, who reported on the mayor while she was romantically involved with him.

At the same time, NBC Universal, owner of Telemundo, has proposed a $3-billion development in Los Angeles that includes 2,900 new homes and 1.6 million square feet of commercial space. The project would require city approval.

Fred Thompson, who is fashioning himself as the folksy, outside-the-beltway candidate for president, is coming under increasing scrutiny for his family’s lobbying activities.

Before being elected to the Senate, Thompson was a lawyer-lobbyist whose clients included the deposed government of Haiti, the Teamsters Union pension fund and Westinghouse. He resumed his dual careers as lobbyist and TV actor after leaving the Senate in 2003.

Thompson’s lobbying disclosure reports, filed with Congress, show that he received $360,000 in fees between 2004 and 2006. His client was Equitas Ltd., a British reinsurance company that handles asbestos liability for Lloyd’s of London.

All is not what it seems on the island.

The survivors of the crash of Ocean Flight 815 have untold connections that viewers of the hit ABC show Lost glimpse in strobe-like flashbacks.

The astute viewer (addict would be more appropriate) knows more than the characters. Jack and Claire, for example, have no idea that they’re step-siblings. Nor has Jack learned that Shannon’s father was in a car accident with Sarah, Jack’s future wife. Jack, the physician on duty, chose to save Sarah but not Shannon’s father.