With hearings on the horizon, FCC's Martin takes heat Kevin Martin has been accused of a lot of things during his tenure as Federal Communications Commission chairman, including participating in an indecency witch hunt, murkying the fleeting expletive standard, and, as everyone in Washington is suspected of doing from time to time, pandering to special interests. But the latest accusation by the House Commerce and Energy Committee trumps all. Has Martin “broken” the FCC? That’s the charge in a memo obtained by The Washington Post, as the committee pushes forward with a hearing on FCC practices to take place in June, months after the agency moved forward with yet another controversial proposal on media deregulation. “The bottom line is that the FCC process appears to be broken and most of the blame appears to rest with Chairman Martin,” says the memo, written by committee staffers to committee chair John Dingell and oversight subcommittee chair Bart Stupak, both Democrats from Michigan. More than 30 current and ex-FCC employees have spoken to the investigating committee since it began looking into the agency last year, but the Post says this is the first time any indication has been given that there’s evidence to support anti-Martin complaints.   Channel change: New owners nix TV Guide top editors TV Guide in recent years has had major changes in how it looks, growing to a full-size magazine, and its focus, less on TV listings, and now some behind-the-scenes changes are in store. Macrovision is set to takeover Gemstar-TV Guide International after shareholders at both companies approved the acquisition earlier this week, in a deal that should close tomorrow. But word is some major layoffs will accompany the new ownership. TV Guide has confirmed there will be job cuts, but it’s not saying who or how many. Now Mediabistro’s FishBowlNY is reporting that editor in chief Ian Birch, managing editor Lois Draegin and executive editor Steve Sonsky are among the casualties. The cuts come despite the fact that the magazine had a healthy first quarter 2008, as the bulk of the print industry struggled. Ad pages in the magazine were up 11 percent during first quarter compared to the same period in 2007, according to Publishers Information Bureau data, while revenue was up 22.2 percent.   Hey Paula, what happened on 'Idol' Tuesday night? “American Idol’s” ratings may not be what they once were, but Paula Abdul remains reliably loopy as ever. After Tuesday’s gaffe, in which she critiqued two songs performed by contestant Jason Castro when he’d actually performed only one, Abdul yesterday defended her actions on “Idol” host Ryan Seacrest’s radio show. She claimed a last-minute format change confused her and led to the error. According to her account, the judges were asked to hold comment until after all of the performances were complete in order to save time, but during the broadcast producer Nigel Lythgoe changed things up and asked the judges to critique the five contestants’ first-song performances. Abdul said she got confused, as she had seen some of Castro’s dress rehearsal performance, leading to the error. That all may be true, but TMZ.com says that some of its spies spotted Abdul having a lunchtime cocktail on Tuesday, which it suggests may have compounded her confusion.   Cablevision heats up Newsday bids with $650M offer Like the Bancroft family’s collective temperature when they heard about Marcus Brauchli’s resignation, the battle for Newsday is heating up and with it the price of the nation’s 11th-largest newspaper. Since news broke that News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch was in talks with Tribune Co.’s Sam Zell to obtain the Long Island paper, there has been no lack of would-be suitors. New York Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman has reportedly matched Murdoch’s $580-million bid in what has become a battle of the tabloids for control of Newsday. Now Cablevision is expected to make a $650 million offer for the 379,613 daily circulation newspaper by the end of the week, Newsday.com reports. If the bid, which is expected to come from Cablevision and a yet-to-be-named partner, comes through, it adds a $70 million premium to Murdoch’s original offer. No one from Cablevision, Tribune Co., News Corp. or the Daily News is commenting on the deal that would, like the deals offered by Murdoch and Zuckerman, reportedly leave Tribune with a roughly 5 percent stake in Newsday for the next 10 years. Industry watchers say they believe Murdoch will top Cablevision’s and any other offers if they come through.   Nielsen: The 2009 February sweeps will be in March The digital TV changeover isn’t just wreaking havoc with consumers’ televisions. It’s also toying with Nielsen’s calendar. The company said yesterday that the February sweeps will take place in March next year, to account for potential problems when the digital changeover occurs in February. The company has forecast that 3 percent of its sample households will have at least one non-functioning television once the digital deadline has passed. Survey after survey has found that many Americans are not prepared for the switch, and so the sweeps period that is used to set local TV ad rates will be delayed by a month, meaning that the Super Bowl and Academy Awards will air outside the sweeps period. This might have caused more of an outcry a few years ago, but with the adoption of local people meters in larger markets across the country, giving stations quicker data, sweeps has lost some of its importance.