Early reports suggested ass-man and CNN "personality" Glenn Beck is finalizing a deal with Fox News, and now confirmation. The silver-haired bigot-y blowhard will snag the 5 pm spot on the "fair and balanced" news network beginning this spring, which pits him opposite Chris Matthews' Hardball (assuming his MSNBC contract gets re-upped next year). Can we try to determine an ass-timate for how much Rupert Murdoch will shell out for the opinionated Republican?

CONTINUED »

"Novel," "unusual," and "complex" are all ways you could describe Fox News personality and black man-maybe hater Sean Hannity's new radio deal that he just inked. It is all those things because it involves an arrangement between Citadel's ABC Networks, who currently broadcasts his show, and Clear Channel's Premiere Radio, which will broadcast the show on stations Citadel doesn't own. Oh, and also: Hannity, the second most-listened to radio personality after Rush Limbaugh, will earn $100 million over five years, plus a cut of profits. A huge payday for a conservative pundit. How novel. [WSJ]

There are two new books out on shelves about Clear Channel.

One is from Alec Foege, titled The Monster That Ate Mass Media, which exposes the radio giant for the steamrolling corporate giant that it is.

The second is Clear Vision: The Story of Clear Channel Communications, by Reed Bunzel, the former editor of the trade magazine Radio Ink. And it was commissioned by none other than Clear Channel, for the sole reason of countering Foege's book.

When execs learned of Foege's book back in 2005, they knew they'd have a public relations matter on their hands — and what better way to counter the report with an officially sanctioned tome dedicated to a friendlier retelling of the corporation?

CONTINUED »

While there are plenty of radio industry insiders who will defend Rush Limbaugh's new $400 million deal — inevitably contingent on ratings delivery and plenty of other factors — one person in particular is pasting a picture of radio giant Clear Channel on his dartboard. It's Vanity Fair's Michael Wolff, who spent the month of May assailing the New York Times and the month of April on the war between John Malone and Barry Diller. On CNBC yesterday, Wolff called the deal "a monster error."

"I know – I’m sitting here saying, ‘What are these people smoking?’ You know, the truth is that Rush Limbaugh has been – he’s ridden the rise of conservatism for 25 years and I don’t, maybe nobody quite, quite has been following the news, but that’s coming to an end. It’s going to be over and Rush Limbaugh in a relatively short period of time is going to look like a really kind of out-of-it kind of oddity and I cannot for the life of me imagine how someone could have made this deal."

CONTINUED »

The Clear Channel sale to a pair of private equity firms will go through, with just $1.9 billion shaved off its original value. [BBC]

Clear Channel issued its most bleak assessment yet of its attempt to sell itself to two private equity firms. In a SEC filing, the radio giant said it cannot guarantee investors a timeline on when it could complete the $19.5 billion deal, thanks to the banks involved suddenly worried over the dilapidated credit market. What is said in the filing – that the deal is in jeopardy – isn't news itself; we've known that all week. But that there was a filing at all with mention of Clear Channel's concerns tips the guessing game to a "deal's off' scenario. [Forbes]

While the XM-Sirius merger is worth either $5 billion or $13 billion, the sale of radio giant Clear Channel to a pair of private equity firms is worth $19.5 billion. Or it would be, if the banks handling the sale don't pull out, as they're threatening to do. If banks like Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and Morgan Stanley do pull out, Clear Channel, and Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners, are threatening to sue to force them to complete this ridiculously enormous transaction. That mortgage market crumbling is their problem.

$19.35 billion later, the company behind craptastic radio programming is now in private hands.

Now, it's not just Jon Friedman reaking havoc at Marketwatch.

• The days of Keith Olbermann bullying may be numbered, now that Rick Kaplan may be on his way out as MSNBC president. After getting passed over to head NBC News when Neal Shapiro announced his departure, his tenure there might not last the year.

• Howard Kurtz is joining Geraldo Rivera's cause, calling for the New York Times to issue an apology to the talk show host for claiming he staged a Hurricane Katrina rescue for the camera's benefit.

• While Rodale couldn't make Organic Style work (though it still appears on the website), the publisher is going ahead with a full-scale launch for Women's Health, the Men's Health spin-off. Finally there will be some David Zinczenko-style loving for the ladies.

• TV Guide president John Loughlin is quitting for the greener (and more stable) pastures at Hearst, taking over as vice president of the publisher late next month.

• Viacom and Comcast are working together to launch a new swatch of super-niche cable channels, because the YES Network and The Food Network aren't specific enough.

• Clear Channel is clearing the way to get song from new artists and unsigned bands into the hands of listeners by debuting tracks on their website.

• Is Men's Vogue an oxymoron all by itself? If Anna Wintour falls out of her seat and nobody there's to see it, did she really skip Diane Von Furstenberg's fashion show?

• Fellow Elaine's patron Elaine Kaufman and Beatte Telle, the model at the center of this all, claim Roman Polanski did none of the thigh massaging Harper's editor Lewis Lapham claimed in a 2002 Vanity Fair article and again on the stand during the libel lawsuit.

• Walter Cronkite is boinking Carly Simon's sister Joanna. That's all we're going to say, because it makes us as ill as you are at this very moment.

• Melissa Gilbert is through with the Screen Actors Guild, actually admitting her decision not to seek a third term as president stemmed from internal fighting.

• New York mag continues exhibiting its personality disorder, finding the show critics hate (The Comeback) and defending it as a guilty pleasure.

• Upon learning even New York magazine staffers get denied from trendy nightspots, we don't feel so bad about the disastrous results trying to name drop Jossip at PM.

• When they're not taking over the radio waves with ubiquitous Top 40, Clear Channel is loading up on the Queer Channel, a new GLBT program debuting August 7. Which is sure to please their conservative investors.

• Jane Fonda gets up on her high war horse again, this time targetting the Iraqi war. You know, since her Vietnam efforts won't so well in the 70s.

• Whee, the teen fashion mags go back to school. This year's challenge: Making 15-year-old girls look more whorish.

• It doesn't take much, but somehow Kathy Griffin continually reminds us why she stays on the D-list.

• Lil Kim lies on the stand — and in her documentary.