• Keith Kelly gets the "exclusive": Time Warner is selling its Time 4 Media properties to the Bonnier Group for a sum considerably less than the $300 million they wanted. Tough break for AdAge, which had the story yesterday but pulled it. [NYP]
  

Tribune's been having a hell of a time selling off its assets, reports Crain's Gregory Meyer:

• What with everyone and their assistant editor decamping to that Allbritton online venture, the Times takes a closer look. And, at a quarter of a million dollars going to the two top slots, who wouldn't jump? [NYT]
  

• The DEA—yes, that DEA—has a top-10 list of their very own this year. [Complex]
  

As you might have started noticing about four weeks ago, this is the time of year that every media outlet in the universe recaps the year that's passed by ranking the most memorable, important, funny, or otherwise relevant books/movies/celebrity paternity suits, etc. hierarchically. But this week, as all the Best Best Best coverage reaches its apex, the options can begin to seem a bit overwhelming, like trying to figure out which Christmas-released Oscar bait to see with your parents at the multiplex tonight. That's where we come in, with our expertise and ability to read. We've sorted through a bunch of Best Of lists for you, so that you'll be able to decide which stuff to pretend to have seen/read/known about. Our five faves of the moment are after the jump; expect more as we trudge towards New Year's.

• Ron Burkle and Eli Broad getting more details about Tribune, LAT. [LAT
  

• Apparently, what finally got Judith Regan canned was making anti-Semitic comments. When are people going to learn that you cannot fuck with the Jews? Also, if anyone out there knows what she said specifically, get in touch. We'll pay top dollar to either of you Jew lawyers who were on the other end of the phone. [NYT]
  

Entertainment mogul David Geffen, a longtime suitor, has made a $2 billion cash offer for the Los Angeles Times. This complicates not only owner Tribune Co.'s attempt to sell itself as a whole (rather than individual papers or assets), but also the hopes of fired LAT editor Dean Baquet for an eventual return. No formal offers for Tribune Co. have materialized, despite vague interest from various parties, including billionaire duo Eli Broad and Ron Burkle. Baquet supposedly wants to meet with Broad and Burkle to pitch himself as a valuable addition to their hypothetical team, even as speculation grows that he'll take a job at The New York Times rather than wait around much longer. Castle drama alert: Will Baquet scheme with NYT publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. to defenestrate current NYT editor Bill Keller? (Check that dry mention of Keller's retirement age.) But assuming no formal offer gets made for the whole enchilada, Tribune Co. probably can't afford to leave Geffen's gay mafia money lying on the table for long.

We get letters. Specifically, we get cc'd on letters alleging journalistic shenanigans. Late last month we mentioned a Nick Paumgarten New Yorker article about the db who wrote The 48 Laws of Power. Comes now correspondence from Chris Lee, an L.A. Times reporter who has what the hip hop community calls a "beef" with Paumgarten.

The mess that the Tribune Company is trying to extract itself from in Los Angeles has a long-ish history, we learn from today's Wall Street Journal. Almost immediately after buying the Times Mirror Company in 2000 (former owners of the LAT, Newsday and the Baltimore Sun), Tribune found itself up shit's proverbial creek, and has been trying frantically to right things ever since.

• Morgan Stanley continues to slap Sulzberger around. [NYP]
  

Official Friend of Bill, Enemy of Jared, Models & Bottles Aficionado, Supermarket Magnate and Radar Teaser Ron Burkle (pictured, straight-teethedly, at right) has submitted a bid to buy the Tribune Company, according to a story in the Tribune-owned Los Angeles Times. According to the LAT, Burkle's in cahoots with "billionaire philanthropist" Eli Broad, who's known for—besides his billions and his philanthropy—buying a $2.5 million Roy Lichtenstein painting at auction in 1994 with his American Express card. Maybe the Tribune Co. takes Amex, too.

• So, important election results: Which anchor won? The general consensus seems to be Charlie Gibson, although Tom Shales gives it to Brian Williams, with Katie Couric getting an "affably in command." Meanwhile, the kids at Fox News were kinda bummed. [WaPo]
  

Wow, why can't this stuff happen on days when there's no news? In an news shocking only for its lack of predictability, LAT Editor Dean Baquet is

• Will Kristine Johnson replace Roz Abrams as weekday anchor on WCBS News? Yeah, us either. [NYDN]

So you are Los Angeles Times. You have a rotating door of editors and your readership has declined steadily in recent years. The Tribune Company wants to cut your ass. Kurt Andersen of New York mag has some advice for you: stop pretending you're from New York.

• The genius Ogilvy & Mather suicide bomber PSA has been pulled. [Guardian]
• Why don't Jack Shafer and Michael Isikoff hang out any more? [Slate]
• LAT rearranging the deck chairs. [NYT]
• Howard Kurtz loooooves Tony Snow. [WaPo]

• What will the effect of Jeffrey Johnson's ouster from the LAT be? Well, for one thing, it will allow every media outlet to print articles like this one, which speculates about the effect of Jeffrey Johnson's ouster from the LAT. [WSJ]
• Nikki Finke thinks Dean Baquet is a big pussy. [DHD]
• Carly Fiorina wants credit for H-P's turnaround. H-P's spying? Not so much. [NYT]
• Jack Shafer is bullish on Bloomberg News, even though its news "has all the mouth-feel of a cup of talc." Yeah, it took us a while to get that one out of our heads too. [Slate]
• Now you can be bored by twelve full years of Charlie Rose. [WWD]
• Even when Jon Friedman admits to spouting the conventional wisdom he's spouting the conventional wisdom. [Marketwatch]

Remember Jeffrey Johnson, the publisher of the Los Angeles Times who stood by his paper's editor against ownership's demand for staff cuts? Well, apparently ownership (The Tribune Co.) remembered him as well: He was fired this morning.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Paris Hilton filed a police report claiming that Shanna Moakler, ex-wife of Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker (whose face Hilton was recently seen licking), punched her in the jaw at Hollywood nightclub Hyde. Moakler told officers that she was pushed down the stairs by Hilton's ex, Stavros Niarchos. Does it really matter who did what? Talentless bitches are fighting, and for a serious paper like Los Angeles Times, that means an opportunity for serious journalism. So where shall we go with this? An exposé on club safety? Perhaps an in-depth report on the secret world of violent females? No, no — the LA Times is going to dig deeper, asking its readers to "walk a mile with us in Paris' Manolo Blaniks [sic]." Ah, so a sociological exploration of the most hated pop cultural phenomenon in recent history? Again, no. They're thinking more like a 10-picture slideshow, with publicity stills from The Simple Life and some other widely released paparazzi photos. How news-y. No wonder the paper is such a Pulitzer farm. We can't wait for tomorrow's photo collage of Nicole Richie's weight loss.