This morning, Rush Limbaugh appeared on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. The pair covered a wide range of issues in over 25 minutes of airtime: Obama’s trip to Dover Air Force Base, health care, the 2010 election, Glenn Beck and the state of conservative media, his $400 million contract, his bid on the St. Louis Rams and Sarah Palin. Inside: Limbaugh in his own words.

At least in New York, the biggest single of the summer, and maybe the fall too, has been Jay-Z‘s “Empire State of Mind,” featuring Alicia Keys. Inside: Watch Jay-Z’s performances on September 11 and this week at World Series Game 2, and the official music video.

On Election Day this Tuesday, HBO will premiere By The People, which chronicles Barack Obama‘s campaign to win the presidency of the United States. And what better time to summon the energy and excitement of last fall than Election Day, one year later, as Obama seems increasingly slow to act and his legislative initiatives are slow and stalling.

Sarah Palin can rest assured that somebody is willing to defend her from to the embarrassing comments that are fueling Levi Johnston’s stay in the spotlight. “She moved her daughter to another school to keep her away from this white trash idiot,” said Ann Coulter on Fox’s Geraldo at Large last night before calling for more fact-checking from the media.

Talking Points Memo — the award-winning political blog with a knack for investigative reporting — is the latest news outlet to join the White House press pool. But some conservatives are upset that a progressive blog like TPM would get that kind of access, especially after the recent battle between Fox News and the White House. “Would anyone seriously suggest that TPM, the Huffington Post and Salon are more objective than Fox News?”

Oprah. Lloyd Blankfein. Serena Williams. Michael Jordan. Vikram Pandit. George Clooney. Al Gore. Al Franken. No, not the invite list to the coolest party of all time. Just a few of the characters who have shot the bull (and maybe worked out a few deals) in the Oval Office with President Obama since he took office in January.

As the Obama administration and lawmakers get closer to agreeing on the terms of a Shield Law, investigative reporters might soon be protected from subpoenas and legal pressure to reveal their sources. But even if the bill passes, judges would be left to determine when the public’s need to know outweighs the government’s need to identify a leak.

Last night Countdown guest host Lawrence O’Donnell struck back at Liz Cheney for questioning President Obama’s decision to be photographed while saluting the caskets of American soldiers.

But things turned awkward when O’Donnell stared into the camera and addressed several rhetorical questions to Liz Cheney by name. Video Inside …

For most, his stunt to gain attention (and possibly a TV contract) which put his entire family through a great deal of stress was abominable and exploitative.ut this morning in the New York Times, columnist Frank Rich finds compassion for Heene, painting him in a landscape of deflated economic opportunity where the most dependable job opportunity is the round-the-clock media circus and all the real hoaxers go unpunished.

On Friday evening, Beck was having fun with some mobster movie clips, playing reel of Robert Deniro in the ’80s mafia film The Untouchables, and slapping around a baseball bat while speaking in his Mobsta’ voice. But when he was finished playing Deniro, he invoked the New York Times media critic David Carr.

Howard Kurtz rehashed the recent exchanges between Fox News and the White House on Reliable Sources this morning. Former Fox News contributor Jane Hall extended the debate to cable news at large, saying “The reason I left [Fox News] is because I think they have less debate than they used to but it is a fair point to say how much debate is there on MSNBC … we have a bifurcation of the media.”

The lead-off spot in The New Yorker‘s “Talk of the Town” usually goes to the most serious political item, but this week the first entry plunges into a discussion of Obama and the White House’s recent spat with Fox News, drawing comparisons between Fox News’ audience and Cialis users: “Fox News shows should probably carry a warning: Contact your doctor if you have rage lasting more than four hours.”

Last night’s episode of ABC’s Nightline included interviews about the Church of Scientology, one of which ended when Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis stood up, tore off his microphone and stormed off the set.

Rachel Maddow took time on her MSNBC hour last night to take a closer look at some of Senator John McCain‘s latest legislative activity: his net neutrality bill. Maddow broke it down like so: “The government says the internet should be free — big companies should not be able to rig the Internet for their own purposes. John McCain’s bill says they should.”

Yesterday afternoon, Talking Points Memo ran a story about the White House’s reaction to discussion of an opt-out clause in the Senate’s health care bill. But Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab noticed that TPM was taking an unusual amount of criticism for the story’s use of anonymous sources.

The rapper-turned-actor Ludacris, aka Chris Bridges, might want to ‘l-l-l-lick you’ but, rest assured, he doesn’t want to run for President. Bridges nipped that campaign rumor in the bud before Politico had a chance to get it off the ground while speaking to the National Press Club in Washington D.C. yesterday afternoon.

ESPN’s Michael Wilbon was on CNN this morning to discuss an incident earlier this week where he, like many others in the media, falsely attributed quotes to Rush Limbaugh while reasoning that Limbaugh shouldn’t allowed to purchase a minority stake in the St. Louis Rams. Meanwhile, Limbaugh makes lemonade on the WSJ‘s Opinion page.

White House senior adviser David Axelrod joined George Stephanopoulos to follow-up on remarks that Fox News isn’t really a news station. After a clip Rupert Murdoch about how the White House is actually helping Fox News’s ratings, Stephanopoulos really cut to the bone, asking Axelrod “Are You Worried That Your Strategy is Fortifying Your Enemy?” The enemy, of course, is Fox News.

Almost a year ago, while reporting on the Taliban in Afghanistan for the New York Times, journalist David Rohde was taken captive. Rohde returned home in June, and now he’s telling the action-packed and emotional story of his kidnapping and captivity in Afghanistan and Pakistan on the front page of the Times — a story that was kept totally silent before.

Balloon Boy Updates Here: Sheriff confirms that the flight was a hoax this afternoon in press conference. Richard Heene, Balloon Dad, will be charged with at least a Class 3 misdemeanor, if not federal charges, according to an announcement by Larimer County Colorado Sheriff Jim Alderden last night.

Juan Williams was the guest host of The O’Reilly Factor last night — the perfect chance to embarrass Warren Ballentine and articulate his problem with his ‘house negro’ remark from Thursday’s show uncontested. Meanwhile, Ballentine is asking why he hasn’t been invited back on Fox News to clear up his remarks.

Nobody is safe from the lay-offs at Condé Nast. Not even members of the Advance Publications royal family. Not even Newhouses. Last spring, Gawker reported that Stephanie Newhouse had landed a spot at Self magazine, even as people were being laid off all around the company. But now she too has lost her seat.

Either not everybody at the Washington Post is on the same page about what “off the record” means exactly, or executive editor Marcus Brauchli is a liar: Did he or didn’t he know that the advertised salons would be off the record? That question and others have come to light after a letter from Brauchli to now-resigned Post marketing director Charles Pelton was sent to the Times by Pelton’s lawyer.

Richard Heene, the father of the infamous Balloon Boy, called reporters to his house this morning for a press conference of sorts. The man who has had the media, and frankly everyone on the Internet atwitter, made it seem like a big announcement would be made outside his home this morning. Instead, he only told the assembled reporters “Absolutely no hoax” before asking them to put their questions in a box so he could answer them later.

Yesterday President George H.W. Bush expressed distaste with the lack of civility and “intellectual honesty” running through criticism of President Obama during a radio interview with CBS News. Then again, he also jumped headlong into the White House-Fox News scrum, calling out MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann as “sick puppies.” Isn’t it a little ironic, asks Olbermann. Video Inside …