New York Times television scribe Tim Arango, until recently last seen here but whose scandal was drummed up again by his own colleague David Carr, is reporting from Sun Valley's annual power orgy alongside girlfriend (not fiance, right?) and New York Post photographer Victoria Will.

Does this mean Times' Dealbook blogger Andrew Ross Sorkin is bunking with the Post Peter Lauria?

David Carr did something very brave. The Times media columnist and reformed crackhead – with his new book detailing his druggy past, that description will carry on at length – dared confront the Fox News publicity machine and call it out for what it is: Another mouthpiece for Roger Ailes & Co.

That Carr would publish an article like this — lots of finger-pointing, zero niceties — is very interesting, and potentially very game changing. Undoubtedly, it's a piece he's been wanting to pen for months, if not longer. But for somebody working an industry beat to so deliberately slam the garage door down on one of the niche's major players is a bold move; the gossip that spills out from the item today will not be even close to the sum of the fall out.

The real gauge of this article's effect will be determined only months, perhaps years, from now, as Carr continues reporting on Fox News, the network's PR division continues it's aggressive defense tactics, and countless more reporters engage in a tug-of-war with Ailes' spirited charges.

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How to get Fortune magazine to pen a puff piece on you? Complain that they did the same for the competition.

The Time Inc. business title is said to be working on a softball story on CNBC, hitting in the April 14 issue. This comes after Fortune published, in October, a blowjobby piece on the just-launching Fox Business Network, penned by then-staffer Tim Arango.

When that article hit, Kevin Goldman (then the VP of CNBC publicity and a former Wall Street Journal reporter) fired off an angry three-page letter to Fortune's editors, we're told, complaining about the rival network receiving such gratuitous coverage just out of the gate and demanding "better treatment" for CNBC.

Now, it could be argued, Fortune is offering a make good: The GE finance network is set to receive its own lauding coverage in the magazine.

We're told Jessi Hempel is penning the piece and, according to cable industry sources she spoke with, promised the article will be "extremely positive." After all, relays a source, Hempel says she was "told to write a positive piece about CNBC" and has declared she's a fan of CNBC chief Mark Hoffman.

When asked about the situation, Fortune chief Andy Serwer responded in a statement: "This article is an in-depth snapshot of CNBC, the only one that has been written in the last 5 years, with the kind of reporting, fact-checking and honesty that readers have come to expect from Fortune."

Is Tim Arango gunning for a job at CNN? The praise he lavishes on CNN today in the New York Times may have been warranted – they get credit for 7.6 million people tuning in to a February debate, and they finally beat Fox News at something – but Tim has a habit of writing very favorably about potential employers.

When he was a Fortune, he gave the Fox Business Network grand cover story treatment, though the network wasn't exactly on solid footing, and even said CNBC was "running scared" from the competition. Did the CNBC elbow come from sour grapes? While Tim was at the New York Post, he printed blowjob pieces about CNBC execs, where he was hoping to become an on-air employee. It never happened, and he ended up accepting an offer from the Times.

Though it's a cushy gig, it's no secret Tim has always longed for an on-air spot.

But potential employers might be wary: We hear he just returned to the Times after two months of "medical leave," which many allege may have been a stint in rehab. (Arango didn't return our multiple calls for comment.)

Indeed, many in his circle of story subjects, colleagues, and sources report his looking "scruffy and scrawny." He "didn't look right," says one source who saw him at the end of '07, which is one way of saying "the smoke smelled funny" when alleging somebody was smoking weed.

We're told he doesn't resemble anything like the hottie in the photo here, taken during his days at the Post.

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It seems every time Tim Arango switches jobs, or wants to switch jobs, we hear about it.

The Fortune reporter who may have hinted at wanting a job at Fox Business Network, and definitely hinted at wanting out of the New York Post, has landed a position at the Times.

Arango will take over the corporate media beat for the Times, which has been vacant since Richard Siklos left the paper for Fortune this summer. At Fortune, both Arango and Siklos covered corporate media.

Seems like the two of them just pulled a Dan Patrick-Rick Reilly on Fortune and the Times. Sadly, their switch was probably not as profitable.

Is CNBC sweating through its Old Spice High Endurance because of the Fox Business Network, as Fortune magazine claims? After the biz channel's mostly unimpressive debut, perhaps not. And that's the same sentiment Fortune has about Portfolio.

At last night's "meet the new staffers" (you know, the ones they've been lapping up) cocktail party at Porter House, Fortune chief Andy Serwer could be spotted blowing smoke off his finger gun and making jabs at Joanne Lipman. Machismo!

Si Newhouse may still care about Portfolio's future, but his Time Inc. rivals certainly don't. Or at least that's the face they're wearing in public.

Bringing together the whole meta evening was the Fortune cover story on the Fox Business Network from former New York Post-it Tim Arango, who, it's worth noting, was shopping himself to TV networks not too long ago.

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Former Post-it and TV hopeful-cum-Fortune scribe Tim Arango is on the case of Rupert Murdoch's Fox Business Channel today. He's chock full of details – $100 million budget for launch; October debut; 300 new hires for the network – that will likely be shot down by News Corp. as inaccurate and premature.

There's much focus on the $100 million budget, however, deemed not-very-large by on-lookers. After all, News Corp. spent $400 million to launch FNC. And Conde Nast spent more than that just to launch a magazine.

And what's new on the Bid For Dow Jones front? Supposedly, if the deal goes through, the business channel could use the Wall Street Journal's name, but reporters couldn't appear on the channel until after 2012, when the arrangement with CNBC expires. And when we'll have concrete evidence whether the channel is a success or faces the fate of Trio.

Tim Arango is the one guy at the New York Post – who isn't Michael Starr – that media types care about. Sure, he might pick up Starr's scraps, but it's Arango who's breaking Time Warner, Viacom, and Microsoft scoops like Jeff Bercovici does Conde Nast. But after a storied Post tenure spanning almost four years, we're hearing Arango is ready to take the next leap: television.

He's having talent rep agency NS Bienstock (which reps some ABC folks, among others) shop his ass to the various cable news outlets. So far, no takers, though his agent will have you know that CNBC is "hot" after him. How hot, exactly? So hot that he's lunching with CNBC disaster Michael Eisner (and then plugging him) and filing blowjob pieces for his potential new boss, Jonathan Wald. Actually, a blowjob with ball play: Arango gives CNBC credit for $250 million in annual profits "despite the ratings drop" (read: nobody's watching) and "thanks to its audience of wealthy investors." That is, CNBC's profitability has nothing to do with, say, its weekend infomercial marathons.

Arango has been making the pitch rounds for about a month, though his options seems limited: CNN is overstaffed as it is. ABC, which barely has a market for new talent, may not be too friendly to a guy who dines with Disney's ex-boss. MSNBC is a clusterfuck of talent-management spats. And just because Arango is a News Corp. peon doesn't mean Fox News is letting its revolving door usher in a TV nobody.

So what's Col Allan's media bitch got going for him? If nothing else, the guy is hot, and a good looking mug should never be trapped behind a byline. Isn't that why we've got Hud Morgan starring in Tabloid Wars?

EISNER QUERIES IRK PAT [Tim Arango, NYP]
CNBC SHIFTS GEARS [Tim Arango, NYP]

Bonus: After the jump, a high-res image of Arango (via IWM) that makes it painfully obvious where his TV image handlers will start with the mini makeover.

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