First the Good News, Hillary

"I would not call this a victory," Debat said. "I lost absolutely everything in this affair, and it caused tremendous anguish to my former friends and colleagues . . . for whom I have nothing but affection and respect. But this is a good first step towards clearing my name."

Media Morsels

¿ "We blew it," writes George Rodrigue, managing editor of the Dallas Morning News. He apologized to readers for assigning reporter Katie Fairbank to cover a pay dispute between American Airlines and the pilots' union, even though editors knew that her husband is a pilot at American. "We put Katie in an unfair position," Rodrigue acknowledged after D magazine noted the conflict.

¿ The Staunton, Va., News Leader has fired sportswriter Blair Parker for fabricating at least four stories, including a piece about hunting and fishing that was lifted from several publications and that identified as a Virginia official someone who works at a similar agency in Illinois.

¿ John Podhoretz, tapped as the new editor of Commentary magazine, has drawn some barbs because his father, Norman, a leading neoconservative, held that job for 35 years. But Norman Podhoretz stepped down in 1995 and found out about the offer only after his son had accepted. John Podhoretz, an author and New York Post columnist, was one of the founding editors of the Weekly Standard. Still, since there was no search process, there have been cries of "neo-nepotism."

"It's silly for me to respond because I don't accept the premise," Podhoretz told the New York Times. "I have a professional career that's dated back 25 years. I've started two magazines, worked at three others."

¿ Maria Shriver, who reluctantly gave up her job as an NBC News correspondent after becoming California's first lady, says she's not going back. The reason: the media frenzy over Anna Nicole Smith's death. "It was then that I knew that the TV news business had changed and so had I," Shriver said last week.