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The Morning Fix: Murdoch intrigue! Turner rants! RIP Davy Jones.

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After the coffee. Before figuring out what this March Madness thing is all about.

The Skinny: Is it finally March? I thought February would never end. Thursday’s headlines include more drama at News Corp. and Ted Turner once again finds the cloud in the silver lining. Also, an appreciation of Davy Jones and a review of NBC’s new drama ‘Awake.’

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Daily Dose: Chicago television station WFLD said Rosie O’Donnell, host of a talk show on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN cable channel, is quietly shopping her house there. That means one of two things. Either O’Donnell’s going to move her struggling talk show to New York (she’s already overhauled it, fired most of the staff and got rid of the the studio audience, much to the chagrin of her bosses at OWN), or she’s gearing up to throw in the towel completely.

Place your bets. James Murdoch’s resignation from as executive chairman of News Corp.’s News International unit started off another round of the media’s favorite game -- guessing who will succeed media mogul Rupert Murdoch. While James Murdoch is still deputy chief operating officer of News Corp. and the third highest-ranking executive at the global media giant, his status has been damaged by the ethics scandal at the company’s British tabloids. Coverage from the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Reuters and Wall Street Journal.

The mouth roars again. Ted Turner, once known as the Mouth from the South, still has no internal censor. The founder of Turner Broadcasting (CNN, TNT, Cartoon Network) who saw much of his fortune and stature diminish after Time Warner’s botched merger with America Online, sat with the Hollywood Reporter to gripe about the past. His wallet is thinner but he does have four girlfriends and a lot of homes so things can’t be that bad.

Is it a TV show or a health drink? ABC’s new series ‘GCB’ is a soap set in Texas about a bunch of catty women who present one face to their neighbors at church every Sunday and another to each other. ‘GCB’ used to be called ‘Good Christian ...’ well, you can probably figure it out from there. Then ABC wanted to call it ‘Good Christian Belles’ but that didn’t work either, most likely because of the C word. Now they’re stuck with ‘GCB,’ which can’t be easy to market. The New York Times visits with the show’s creator, Robert Harling, who used to write for the big screen but now can have more fun on television.

Playing ball with Redbox. While several studios are pushing for longer windows between when DVDs go on sale and when Redbox rents them, Comcast’s Universal is apparently sticking with the 28-day approach. Details from Deadline Hollywood.

Fuggedaboutit. It’s been five years since Tony Soprano ate some onion rings as the TV screen went dark, and people are still obsessed with HBO’s mob series ‘The Sopranos.’ Vanity Fair revisits the cast to talk about the show’s ups and downs and what they really thought of that ending. I loved ‘The Sopranos,’ but in my opinion ‘The Wire’ was superior and stands up better over time.

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Crazy for John Carter. As uncertainty continues to grow around Disney’s new epic science fiction thriller ‘John Carter,’ the folks at Vulture present 25 burning questions about the film. The best one had to do with whether the film might appeal to women more if Carter was from Venus.

Inside the Los Angeles Times: An appreciation of The Monkees’ Davy Jones. Robert Lloyd on NBC’s new drama ‘Awake.’

-- Joe Flint

Follow me on Twitter. I’m worth my own hash tag. Twitter.com/JBFlint

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