video Taking a refreshing vacation from the serious issues facing Washington today (tickle fights), the Morning Joe team indulged in some network cross-promotion as Donald Trump crash-landed onto the show to promote the new season of Celebrity Apprentice premiering this Sunday. And what an interview it was: he praised Rod Blagojevich, he called for the retraction of Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize ("I'm not supposed to use hair spray!"), he hit on Mika Brzezinski. It was the best ten minutes in the show's history since a drunken Terry McAuliffe took Bacardi shots on air to drown the pain of Hillary Clinton's primary defeat in 2008. (more...)

While CNN's prime time line-up continues to struggle in the ratings, sometimes finishing in fifth place on cable news behind even CNBC, their day time hours are solidly in 2nd place across the board (way behind Fox News). But how about the three-hour morning block, American Morning? Multiple stories yesterday brought up the idea of changes at the program, and while CNN wasn't talking, maybe it's time for a change. (more...)

video Since taking office as the United States' first black president, Barack Obama has taken pains to maintain the perception that he's post-racial, that he's everybody's President, while taking criticism that he hasn't done enough for black Americans. His meeting today with the Congressional Black Caucus, the source of much of that criticism, was the catalyst for an exchange at today's White House briefing that perfectly encapsulated that tension, as Robert Gibbs fielded literally dueling questions from April Ryan and Lester Kinsolving. (more...)

As time passes, the arguments on both sides of the health care debate are becoming increasingly cloudy and dramatic. And here's yet another sign that America is getting a little too groggy to think coherently on this: a Newsweek story suggesting that the American health care system should more closely resemble the veterinary business. (Headline: "Treat People Like Dogs.") (more...)

video As the Eric Massa story continues to unfold, the media's wall-to-wall coverage of it becomes thinner and thinner. On last night's Countdown, fill-in host Lawrence O'Donnell spent 3 entire segments on the Massa story, alternately cracking wise about the Navy and obsessing over the sexual slang term "snorkeling." Drew Grant points out the offensiveness of some of O'Donnell's treatment, but the show was also guilty of the lesser crime of dullness. (more...)

video 19-year-old Sarah Killen has become America's most beloved celebrity-for-no-reason since Levi Johnston and this time, the love isn't ironic. Killen, whose life changed dramatically when a bored, unemployed Conan O'Brien decided to follow her on Twitter at random, has been making the internet media rounds since last Friday, answering questions about her wedding, her newfound fame, and all the freebies that came with it. Today she made the jump from the internet to national television, sitting down with CNN's American Morning crew to try to explain why tens of thousands of people now want to be in the know about her life. (more...)

Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown will write a memoir scheduled for release next year. The Senator, who succeeded the late Ted Kennedy and is the first Republican Senator from the state since 1972, will be focusing on his “family background” and career leading up to his victory in January’s election. But given that all most people want to hear about is that saucy 1980s photo shoot in Cosmopolitan, how will the memoir keep people interested? (more...)

video It isn't the first time a Fox News commentator has taken on the public education system's assumed liberal bias, but months after the initial release of the Barack Obama indoctrination videos from New Jersey that followed the President's address to schoolchildren last fall, the gears have shifted from the White House to the nature of public education itself. Nearly a week after Glenn Beck's special on the "progressive assault" on children in schools that ended with a plea to parents to get children removed from the public school system, Tucker Carlson followed up on a topic long of interest to him, the distortion of facts in public school textbooks, and in the process mocked opponents of McCarthyism. And while the attack continues, the left responds meekly. (more...)

Despite the absurdity of the Liz Cheney/Keep America Safe "Al Qaeda 7" ad, and the fact that Cheney's group sounds like its mascot ought to be a pee-pants version of Woodsy Owl, the spot has been generating a lot of heat. Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and frequent Countdown contributor Eugene Robinson wrote a scathing op-ed yesterday attacking the fallacy behind the ad, but it could have easily been directed at his friend and colleague, Keith Olbermann. (more...)

Dan Rather is responding today to the questionably-worded anecdote ("he couldn’t sell watermelons if it, you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic") - and he's doing so in a decidedly un-140-character way. In a lengthy blog post on The Huffington Post, Rather explains why it's, at least in part, our collective fault. (more...)

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Former John Edwards aide and faux-baby-daddy-for-hire Andrew Young was handed a relatively stiff sentence today, as a judge ordered he and his wife to be jailed for contempt for up to 75 days. At issue is Superior Court Judge Abraham Penn Jones' suspicion that the Youngs have failed to turn over all copies of an alleged sex tape featuring Edwards and mistress Rielle Hunter.

Meanwhile, on Fox News' Your World, host Neil Cavuto waxes poetic about "small people" (like Young) making the "big people (Edwards) feel small." Has Cavuto already seen the tape? (more...)

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Chuck Todd, NBC News Chief White House Correspondent and host of MSNBC's "The Daily Rundown," is immensely quotable, as it turns out (as evidenced by the Drudge-driven preview clip that has been burning up the internet for days now).  Today, we go Inside the White House Press Corps for the rest of our interview, in which Chuck holds forth on the job of the White House reporter, the role of the Press Secretary, and the idea of media bias. He also tells us what he thinks of Fox's Family Guy and 24. (more...)

The Washington Post seems to be under the impression that they are being attacked for some sort of editorial conspiracy involving Rahm Emanuel and his competence as White House Chief of Staff. After a week where Emanuel became the subject of three of the paper’s major stories—two opinion pieces with opposing views and a front-page news item suggesting anonymous Washington insiders were upset Emanuel’s advice was not being taken—the Post has been taking fire from both sides for alternately undermining the President and attacking one of his top advisers. The confusion has brought about one of the more bizarre columns by ombudsman Andrew Alexander defending his paper: the Post is too disorganized and littered with unreliable quotes to have an agenda, so please drop the conspiracy theories. (more...)

“When it comes to going downhill, nobody is faster (than Lindsey Vonn), except NBC.”

(Jay Leno – 3/1/10)

“Welcome to The Late Show. My name is Dave Letterman. Same time, same host.”

(David Letterman – 3/1/10) (more...)

It's been an interesting 24 hours for MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. He let his sense of humor see the light of day on last night's Daily Show Chatroulette satire, and now he's already got another notch in the belt of being more down to earth than evidence sometimes suggests. The target this time is ESPN's Bill Simmons - a.k.a. The Sports Guy - and his far-reaching Tiger-Woods's-Comeback-is-Like-Muhammed-Ali's column that went up on Wednesday on ESPN.com. Update: Simmons responds! (more...)

Launched a mere 7 weeks ago, Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller already has a presence Inside the White House Press Corps, in the person of former Washington Times reporter Jon Ward. A veteran of the Bush administration press corps, Jon brings The DC instant street cred and invaluable experience. In our two-part interview, Jon shares his thoughts about covering the White House, the state of journalism in general, and previews his latest feature.

This was my first meeting with Ward, although we have shared the briefing room for over a year. He's a very engaging, interesting guy. Prior to rolling video for our interview, we talked for about half an hour, and he still had plenty left for the camera. Here's Part 1 of our interview:

Next: Jon discusses his latest feature on the Obama image-making machine, and delivers a wise prediction about the future of journalism.

Part 2

video Comedy Central is debuting its new series Ugly Americans-- an animated series on the monsters that inhabit, create, and propagate Manhattan culture-- on March 17 at 10:30pm. Mediaite was invited to preview the pilot episode of the new series, and if only for its superb navel-gazing it's worth checking out the pilot. Its only roadblock is that a niche comedy about a culture of limited visibility outside itself can only appeal to so many people. (more...)

The internet has made definitive revolutionary changes in the way Americans consume their media and interact with their federal government-- not exactly a shocking statement. But Michael Scherer at Time Magazine is now proposing that the most tech-savvy government in history is being hurt by its inability to control the flow of information (and misinformation) online. (more...)

Love is in the air at Andrew Breitbart satellite blog Big Journalism, where ACORN gumshoe Hannah Giles (the "prostitute" to James O'Keefe's "pimp" and woman who exposed Max Blumenthal's booger problem) is exhibiting some strangely moderate behavior. After a light-hearted crash course in the early life of a future CPAC superstar, Giles explains that she is not alone in being a young journalist out to find the big story, but she wouldn't mind being a little less lonely at dinnertime. And she's willing to reach across the aisle to find her Prince Charming. Ezra Klein, sounds like you have some cooking to do. (more...)

Before blogging became a profession with people bickering over font size and appearance, there was a world of largely unknown bloggers — many of them struggling journalists — who helped create the blogging art form that was less about politics and celebrity than about good writing, interesting ideas, and great satire.

One of the most artful was Jon Swift, an anonymous blog that satired conservative thinking and culture.  He was the blog version of Stephen Colbert, before Colbert even existed, as James Wolcott eulogized in Vanity Fair. Swift — who was anonymous even to other sites where he contributed--has died and news of his death comes in the most fitting way: in a comment on his blog, from his mother. (more...)

Part one of my interview with WorldNetDaily correspondent and radio host Les Kinsolving was really just the tip of the iceberg. In parts two and three of our interview, Les opens up about some of the touchstones of his extraordinary career, including his experiences as the first Jim Jones whistleblower, his place in the history of the AIDS epidemic, and his quest to see the President's birth certificate. Amid a host of seeming contradictions, he also talks about being pro-choice and anti-death penalty. (more...)

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has officially become the Washington Post's Apple of Discord, tossed into the op-ed section and starting a civil war. After running a piece by Dana Milbank suggesting that most of the current problems facing the Obama Administration were a product of the president not listening to his Chief of Staff, it published a counterpoint by David Broder suggesting that the piece and rumors that begot it are a product of some social maneuvering on the part of Emanuel-- who "likes to win"-- and his friends in Congress, and suggesting Obama could have avoided his problems by listening to his adviser is directly undermining his authority. Matt Yglesias chimes in with a column of his own at the American Prospect proposing a novel approach to the debate: what problems, exactly, are the Democrats trying to blame on each other at all? (more...)

video The Daily Show's Jon Stewart set out last night to prove FNC anchor Megyn Kelly was not as "fair and balanced" as she is purported to be, and in fairly convincing 10-minute segment they made the point loud and clear. But the Daily Show was edited to prove that point - so we watched the full two-hour America Live today, and frankly, Stewart has a point. (more...)

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WorldNetDaily correspondent and radio host Lester Kinsolving is, without a doubt, the most colorful member of the White House press corps. His questions are designed to delight WND's right-wing readers, and if Press Secretary Robert Gibbs doesn't call on him, Lester will often just shout them out anyway.

As I found out in our interview, Lester's unsubtle style masks a complicated career, and a man who's tough to pigeonhole.

What follows here is the first part of my interview with Les, in which we mainly discuss the ins and outs of the White House briefing room. Be sure to watch for the rest of our talk, in which he reveals his feelings about Jonestown, the President's birth certificate, the AIDS epidemic, and his surprising positions on abortion and capital punishment.

It’s been way too long since the Hollywood community has taken the opportunity to congratulate itself, don’t you think? Many of you have probably spent the past few weeks since the last major televised award show (for the record, that would be the Grammys, held way back on January 31) suffering withdrawals, craving those oh so meaningful thank you speeches. Now, I know we have just witnessed 2 plus weeks of sports competitions of the highest caliber held in some far away exotic place (kind of), but please, let’s be real, the most important race for gold is the race for that golden statuette named Oscar held in the most glamorous place possible – the Kodak Theater on Hollywood Boulevard (okay, I’ll admit to a bit of sarcasm there). Sarcasm aside, who can dispute that the Canadians’ efforts to own the Olympic podium pale in comparison to Harvey Weinstein’s efforts to bring home Oscar gold? Well, James Cameron or Kathryn Bigelow may have something to say about that last one. (more...)

Tucker Carlson's 'Daily Caller,' the newly-launched conservative answer to The Huffington Post, promised lightning-fast updates with their "every seven minutes" motto. Judging by the current Daily Caller headline, they may need to check their dial-up connection or something, because their lead story is literally yesterday's news: a report by Jon Ward, about Charlie Rangel's refusal to step down, that was filed last night.

Here's the headline:

Launched 7 months late, Daily Caller is already undergoing a redesign that makes it look like a bicentennial edition of HuffPo. It's likely that a glitch in that redesign is causing the nostalgic look of the front page.

Update: Since writing this post, The Daily Caller has updated its front page to reflect Rangel's announcement that he's temporarily stepping down.

Update 2: Daily Caller's Jon Ward informs me that the site was updated with a completely new redesign the previous night but there were server issues that caused old stories to show up on some people's .

Who: Lorne Michaels and Seth Meyers, interviewed by Ken Auletta What: Newhouse and the New Yorker’s “Live from New York” Where: W Hotel - Union Square When: March 2, 2010 Thumbs: Up For many Saturday Night Live writers, the gig is their first real job. And that makes Lorne Michaels their first real boss. Contrary to what you may have heard, Michaels actually sounds like a supportive and understanding boss, setting aside the pressures of producing a weekly comedy show in favor of focusing on how to help his young talent get better at what they do. Michaels said that to make the show great, it takes the right mix of many ingredients: talent, on- and off-camera; a fresh approach and new insights; patience with young writers to allow them to reach their potential (he says it takes two to three seasons); and that there are no bad ideas in comedy. It’s the last point that head writer Seth Meyers really agrees with. Meyers has to navigate through roughly 50 different sketches each week to determine which will make the final cut. His selection process, he said, is eased by rehearsals that, based on the laughter or lack thereof, make the decisions easier on him. At a certain point, he added, there’s just no more room to fight for the nobility of the piece. Both Meyers and Michaels were entirely upfront about the process they go through to put the show on the air. Michaels says that his show requires a certain precision and camera timing to put together that doesn’t allow for improvising, despite the comedians’ proficiencies and wishes. However, when Michaels was asked about the way NBC handled the Leno-Conan handover, he quickly silenced himself. It showed how disciplined Michaels is, and prefers his show to be. The best performers can do the most with the opportunities they are given. Michaels points to Dana Carvey who he says did a better George H.W. Bush than Bush himself. Michaels frequently mentioned past cast members like Carvey as examples, showing that even after all these years none of them have ever truly left him. He says that’s the great thing about the show – each separate cast means something to viewers. Most often, people will claim the cast that appeared on the program when they were in high school as the “hey day” of “SNL.” Michaels believes that those formative teenage years are when people begin to take in the messages of the show and it stays with them for the rest of their lives. What They Said “We deal in the world of perception - it’s not real - and we deal with what’s on the surface.” - Lorne Michaels says that the first thing his staff has to do is find what’s funny about certain people "Lorne goes about getting the best writing out of somebody by pointing out that the current writing could (long pause)... be better.” - Seth Meyers indicates that he’s been on the receiving end of his share of writing critiques “If you feel the audience is ahead of you, you’re losing.” - Lorne Michaels recognizes his important it is in comedy to out think your viewers “It survives because fresh voices come in on both the performing and writing sides and have free reign to do things.” - Seth Meyers on why the show has lasted so long on the air, with so many new casts of characters “If I wasn’t more engaged, I would have left. If I hadn’t figured it out, I would have left.” - Lorne Michaels explains why he’s still at it, 35 years later What We Thought Ken Auletta did a great job asking questions and then staying out of the way. When you have a star like Michaels at the helm, it’s best to let him control the conversation. Even Meyers realized it, looking on in awe for much of the evening. We liked Michaels’ comments about how it’s the cast’s job to figure out how to use the weekly hosts in sketches. With such diverse hosts, this task can be particularly onerous at times. We can’t imagine how difficult it must be to write for Zach Galifianakis this week. PANEL RULES! Some audience behavior seems to repeat itself panel after panel. We’ll be updating a running list of “PANEL RULES!” that will help ensure that you are not the dweeb of the Panel Nerds. Panel Nerds don’t like…Overreachers Early on in the panel, Michaels refused to select one cast member or full cast as his favorite. So what makes you think that he’d be willing to indulge the reverse? Asking Michaels to identify which actors failed in their stints at “SNL” is disrespectful and gossip-mongering. If you want to know who didn’t work out, check the archives. There’s a record of who has lasted and who has teetered out. This isn’t the right forum to research that question.

Ashley Dupre may not be the only big winner of the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal. The madam that helped set the governor up with prostitutes for five years, Kristin Davis, is now running for the state's top executive job herself as a right-leaning independent. Davis, who released a statement last month declaring her candidacy and was profiled by The Daily Beast, has ties to the New York Libertarian Party and is still deciding whether she will run with them or as an independent, either way she already has a platform: "legalization, regulation and taxation of prostitution, marijuana, and legalizing gay marriage." "When was the last time a candidate put forward this kind of honest, radical platform?" she asks. It's a good question. The Daily Beast profiles a strong but shattered former sex worker with a legitimate bone to pick with New York's prostitution laws, which, by declaring her a sex offender for her work in the prostitution business, forces her to interact with some of the more insidious elements of the criminal justice system. "I'm the only woman in a facility with 80 men who are there for Class 3 sex crimes. I'm sitting in this room with sex offenders who tell me how they stalked little children, horrible, atrocious things. They see me and they follow me," she explains. Reforming prostitution laws is at the cornerstone of her campaign, although she has faced some opposition from within her own ranks for supporting regulation of the business rather than outright legalization, which she believes helps keep the workers safer. Author Tracy Quan notes:

Although would "settle" for decriminalizing it, her favorite models—Nevada's licensed brothels; Sweden's anti-john laws—are viewed by many as authoritarian. Her stance presents a problem for sex worker activists who want to support her, but she insists it makes fiscal sense: "Taxation of pot and prostitution would bring in about $2.5 billion." She likes the fact that, while buying sex is a crime in Sweden, selling it is not.

As for campaign organization, Davis says on her website she is counting on significant manpower from "supporters as diverse as Northern California Pot farmers, Hip-Hop artists, Gay and lesbian friends an even some conservative businessmen. My friends at G-Unit, Penthouse magazine and High Times have both encouraged me." She is confident in her fundraising ability, and even more in her campaign team. She counts libertarian Republican and famous Spitzer enemy Roger Stone among her consultants, and her communications director Andrew Miller brings some political weight to the team with his experience in the Tea Party movement. The news comes just as Governor David Paterson, caught up in an over-hyped, underwhelming corruption scandal, announced he will not seek reelection. As Paterson is not the first (nor probably last!) governor to pseudo-step down in disgrace, New Yorkers' attitudes towards their government and the people they elect are leaving the field wide open for anyone, from the most conservative Tea Party activist to a registered sex offender, to give it a shot-- think California in 2003. And as Davis herself concludes her candidacy statement, this year "New York voters will have a chance to vote to legalize prostitution, pot and gay marriage next November. What could be more exciting?"

video On last night's Countdown, Keith Olbermann made a special appearance to update his viewers on his father's medical condition, and to respond to critics of his "Life Panels" Special Comment from last week, singling out Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. As is often the case, much of the criticism has been focused on how the message was delivered, rather than the substance of it. Keith gave his critics more credit than they deserved, and took on what little substance they offered. (more...)

video Harold Ford, Jr., the former Tennessee Democratic Congressman whose non-run for US Senate in New York ushered in the definitive return of the word "carpetbagger" to American political vernacular, appeared on Morning Joe today to reiterate his reasons for not running and expand upon the comments he made in the New York Times op-ed published yesterday announcing his decision not to run. The short version is that he is such a party loyalist that he wants nothing less than a Democratic victory in New York, and while he believes he could have won the primary, it would have been such a tough race that the Republican candidate would have cruised to victory in November. He was surprisingly laid back, believable, and, with a supportive Joe Scarborough on his side, confident. Which begs the question: where was this Harold Ford for the past three months? (more...)

Criticizing the American public for the role its own immaturity plays in political gridlock is all the rage lately. Jacob Weisberg did it in Slate early last month, (rightly) pointing out it's unrealistic to expect government to tackle the biggest issues facing the country while also getting smaller. And Evan Thomas does it in the latest Newsweek, similarly blaming a "culture of entitlement." (Still, Weisberg and Thomas might allow that there's a bit more those in Washignton could be doing to work together and get things done.) But the most...interesting "cultural immaturity" critique also comes from this week's Newsweek, in the person of George Will. Will's argument: that men are getting more and more immature and less and less, well, manly. Now, Will might even be right about this, but his methods in making his point leave something to be desired. (more...)

While many people were yawning their way through the news networks' coverage of the White House's Health Care Summit, a government transparency advocacy group turned the event on its head and used social media and streaming technology to possibly become the next C-SPAN, PolitiFact or Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight.com. (more...)

video The subject of Republican obstructionism came up at yesterday's White House briefing, as Helen Thomas asked Robert Gibbs to explain why the GOP, along with a small minority of Democrats, oppose everything the administration tries to do. Gibbs shied away from criticizing conservadems, but when asked if he could shame elevator cop Jim Bunning, Gibbs said "I'm trying as best I can!" (more...)

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Senator Jim Bunning (R-Ky), coiner of awesome new GOP slogans, pulled a pretty weak move this morning when he fled for the elevators to avoid talking to ABC News cameras. According to Jonathan Karl and producer Z. Byron Wolf, Bunning also flipped them the bird before the cameras were rolling.

Still, I like to believe that what unites us is greater than what divides us. To that end, I'd like to point out that, at least when it comes to fleeing reporters, Congress has managed some bipartisan action. (more...)

video At today's briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs fielded many questions about the President's checkup on Saturday, which revealed a slightly elevated LDL cholesterol level. Gibbs confessed that the President could use a little more "party of no" when it comes to the dessert tray, and got a big laugh when he invoked the politically inconvenient salad green arugula. Check out the clip, and find out who, shockingly, is eating arugula these days. (more...)

audio Keith Olbermann is going through some tough times: his father is dying, and his father wanted to die. It was a powerful statement Wednesday, replete with details and emotion and just the right amount of political grandstanding that makes Olbermann one of the most powerful left-wing talents on cable news. Most were driven to compassion. Glenn Beck was mostly disgusted. (more...)

It took a few decades, but Amtrak has finally given Vice President Joe Biden the opportunity to be the company's semi-official mascot. Biden, famous for having taken Amtrak to work as senator “over 7000 times” from Delaware to Washington, has penned a piece in the January/February issue of the Amtrak-owned Arrive Magazine about his love for the travel medium and its importance in the American economy. The reasoning that Biden the private citizen has a right to his opinion is valid, especially when he is praising something his government has a stake in. But there is something improper about the Vice President of the United States writing a commercial for a government-owned company, especially in the context of the General Motors bailouts that brought many to accuse the Obama administration of corporate micromanaging. (more...)

Last week's health care summit was largely the result of outrage over the lack of promised transparency in health care reform. While that criticism focused on conference negotiations over the health care bill, the true failure of transparency occurred in the spring and summer of 2009, as the White House met with leaders from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries. I asked Robert Gibbs about it Friday. Listen carefully to what I asked, and to his response: (more...)

At today's White House briefing, the subject of Senator Jim Bunning's obstruction of an extension of unemployment and COBRA benefits came up several times. Bunning held up the bill despite the fact that his own leadership doesn't support his objection, and when a Democratic Senator implored him to drop it, replied "Tough shit." Hey, it fits on a bumper sticker!

Bunning also complained when his own tactic caused him to miss a basketball game. While Gibbs responded to questions about the objection, and the basketball game, I followed up by asking about Bunning's new slogan. (more...)

video On MSNBC's Morning Joe today, I heard one of the strangest critiques yet of President Obama. In discussing yesterday's healthcare summit, Meet the Press host David Gregory said that the President's ability to debate his opponents is both a strength and a weakness. Why is it a weakness? Because while Americans like their leaders to be fighters, they also want them to "stand back and achieve." What? (more...)