The media learning curve: Dec. 12-19

Stuff we've gleaned at the Media Learning Center this week before some of us head home for the holidays and the end of this '08 stanza, trying to figure out just why fruit cake is made (not how, why):

==ESPN.com's facelift should be complete in early January (linked here).

==Why CBS college football analyst Gary Danielson refuses to vote for the Heisman Trophy any longer, as well as the Davey O'Brien Award (linked here).

== ESPN ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber (on her monthly column linked here) wonders whether the network analysts will be "muzzled" since it has a new relationship with the Bowl Championship Series. We asked that same question when the BSC-ESPN announcement was made, and ESPN/ABC Sports chief George Bodenheimer insisted there's a separation between church and state with the networks. John Skipper, the ESPN executive VP of content told Schreiber: "The answer is emphatically no, which is borne out every day on our media right now."

==ESPN loves to give Terrell Owens airtime, then sorta complain about it (linked here). Meanwhile, ESPN reporter Ed Werder doesn't trust T.O. (linked here) as far as he can run to him for a quote.

== CBS and Turner may be scheming together to land the 2016 Summer Olympics (linked here).

== Sports Illustrated reviews the year in sports media (linked here), including a review of the new flick, "The Wrestler," with Mickey Roarke.

==SI.com's Peter King has the background (story linked here) on why NBC would drop the San Diego-Tampa Bay game to show Carolina-N.Y. Giants last Sunday. Which makes some sense, since King works on the NBC pregame show.

==This weekend's college bowl games start, with David Hasselhoff singing the national anthem at the Las Vegas Bowl (linked here).

==Did more people actually watch USA Network last week than ESPN? That's preposterious, screams Billy Simms at the Heisman show (linked here)

== Robert Flores, the Tony Danza of "SportsCenter," in the words of Deadspin, which we wish we thought up (linked here)

== More 3D-BCS rigmarole (linked here)

==Some of the media's sports (and non-sport) boners of 2008, from RegretTheError.com (linked here).

==Dr. J. and his daughter, together on TV Sunday (linked here)

==Pete Carroll's 12-plus minutes on "60 Minutes" (linked here).

==Why Kings' Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Miller needs to update his iPod (linked here)

==And more problems for Lenny Dykstra's media empire (linked here)