On Friday, the Morning Joe crew took a look into their crystal ball (sponsored by Starbucks) and glimpsed ahead into what the future may hold for big-name Democrats. Is current Vice President Joe Biden gearing up to run for another presidential run? Would President Barack Obama do well to tap Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be his 2012 running mate? Would either stand a chance if Boo were to seek the nomination?

Over the course of 2011, we covered an array of politicians, authors, entertainers, media mavens, and others as they discussed their crafts and their industries. (Here’s last year’s list.) We enjoyed most of the panels, lectures, and debates we took in, while some of them fell short. Here, a rundown of our 5 favorites, followed by the 10 quotes that defined the year in New York City media panels:

It’s a new day at the New York Times, and for the first time ever, there is a woman’s name at the top of the masthead. Today marks the beginning of Jill Abramson‘s reign as executive editor of the Grey Lady. She’ll take the helm from Bill Keller, who announced in June that we has stepping down from the position he’s held the since 2003 in order to spend more time writing.

New York Times editor Bill Keller‘s column on religion didn’t go unnoticed by “culture warrior” Bill O’Reilly on his program today, but after a segment decrying its arrogance, O’Reilly came face to face with a guest that “totally agreed” with Keller that religious ignorance should come into play in politics. Somewhat shockingly, it was media critic Bernie Goldberg, who used Keller’s logic to justify the outrage against Pastor Jeremiah Wright.

New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller‘s column for this week’s Sunday Times magazine, “Asking Candidates Tougher Questions About Faith,” is getting angrier buzz than a beehive at a piñata party. Most of the outrage centers on Keller’s clunky comparison of religion with a belief in space aliens, and the sense that he’s picking on Republicans. What does the Bible say about all of this, are candidates’ religious views fair game, and is Keller’s column just another excuse to highlight Mitt Romney‘s Mormonism?

Bill Keller will fold his New York Times Magazine column this September, the same month that sees Keller hanging over the reins to incoming NYT executive editor Jill Abramson. Keller will continue at the paper as an op-ed columnist.

Bill Keller, who remains the New York Times‘ executive editor until this coming September, chatted with Reuters’ Anthony DeRosa about, among other things, his issue with Twitter (a social media platform that may or may not render its users utterly stupid) and his issue with editing rather than reporting. Also, his issues with the Huffington Post. Kind of. Issues! Let’s discuss them!

Who: Gay Talese, David Carr, Andrew Rossi, moderated by Bill Keller
What: “Page One: Inside The New York Times”
Where: Times Center
When: June 14, 2011
Thumbs: Way Up

I suppose Vanity Fair readers might be the sort to be interested in the family life and personal musings of Bill Keller and his wife, as well as the type of readership for whom someone like Keller is something of a celebrity, his personal life being as newsworthy as his professional choices.

I’m not a Vanity Fair reader so, while I understand, somewhat, the interest, I find Gilbey Keller’s piece indicative of something that trouble me in media, even though, by covering it, I’m a part of the problem. The angst!

The fact is that Gilbey Keller’s piece, while interesting and moving, sure, isn’t just one wife’s look at her husband’s work and its impact on their family. It’s a piece about a well-known man with a well-known job whose family is, now, also known.

Fox News anchor Shepard Smith says it’s insulting for outgoing New York Times executive editor Bill Keller to call Fox’s “Fair and Balanced” slogan “cynical,” as he did back in March. In an interview at the New York Press Club, Smith was asked about those comments. “I don’t enjoy being insulted by people who talk in generalities,” Smith said to journalist Rich Lamb. “My guess is that the people on his opinion page don’t get that kind of broad and sweeping review.”

Huge news in the world of print, and kitten videos: Jill Abramson has been named as The New York Times‘ new executive editor, taking over for Bill Keller, who is stepping down to become a “mere” writer at the paper.

Bill Keller, New York Times executive editor and, like, world’s strictest dad ever, took to the paper to vent a bit about Twitter and other forms of social media. Keller doesn’t like Twitter too much, it seems. You see, he and his wife – who is herself an avid Twitter user – just permitted their 13-year-old daughter to open her own Facebook account, much to Keller’s personal dismay. Keller wonders whether the toll we pay for so much access to one another online, and to many time and energy-saving applications found on the internet, ultimately ends up being a piece of ourselves. Heavy.

In case your day has yet to been made completely miserable, allow us to remind you that it happens to be “April Fools’ Day.” Yeah, we know: Blegh. The Huffington Post decided to get in the holiday spirit, as it were, by telling readers about a brand new feature they’ve just introduced: digital subscriptions to HuffPost especially for New York Times employees. (This is the part where you go “Teehee!”)

The New York Times has announced that four of its journalists are missing in Libya, where they were working, covering the conflict that has roiled the country. According to a post on the paper’s Media Decoder blog, editors in New York lost contact with the journalists on Tuesday, and have since received “second hand reports” that the reporting team “in the port city of Ajdabiya had been swept up by Libyan government forces.”

Arianna Huffington decided to respond to Bill Keller’s claims yesterday evening, calling his piece an “exceptionally misinformed attack.” Huffington echoed the snarky tone of Keller’s article in her response, and even managed to get in a dig at News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch in the process. Now that’s multi-tasking

“The world conspires to convince me of my significance,” writes The New York Times executive editor Bill Keller, running through the numerous “most influential” lists he’s made.

Keller elects to use this influence to weigh in on The Future of Journalism in a much-discussed op-ed piece, tackling a specific issue that keeps popping up in discussions on what tomorrow might hold for those who report on – and make – the news: Content aggregation. And he sets his sights squarely on a name that has become synonymous with this “style” of presenting news online.

In an interview with The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz, NY Times Executive Editor Bill Keller defended the NY Times ability to cover Fox News objectively, despite comments he made that were critical of the cable news network and the people that regularly watch Fox News. Speaking specifically about his media reporters, Keller claimed “they are professionally indifferent to that fact that Fox maintains a stable of commentators who make a good living bashing the Times.” But did Keller compromise the editorial objectivity of his staff and paper by openly attacking an entity so often in the news?

It seems that no one at Fox News is particularly amused by New York Times editor Bill Keller‘s comments calling FNC views “the most cynical people on the planet” and mocking the slogan “Fair and Balanced.” After a fiery comment by Liz Trotta last Saturday where she called the Times a “throwaway newspaper,” Bernie Goldberg came up to bat on tonight’s Factor, chiding the paper for “living a bubble” and looking down on “Middle American conservatives.”

The seemingly organic feud between the New York Times and Fox News took the forefront once more this week when the newspaper’s Executive Editor Bill Keller called Fox viewers “among the most cynical people on planet earth” and blamed Rupert Murdoch for the agitated tone of today’s media. If you thought Fox was going to take this lightly, you’d be wrong. Fox News contributor Liz Trotta came out swinging today, thanking Keller for the “cynical” label and accusing him of “doublespeak” on the Murdoch matter.

Call it a tale of two media break-ups. Shortly after the New York Times’ Bill Keller penned a scathing (and shockingly personal) account of what it was like to work with Julian Assange, UK collaborator The Guardian has done the same. While their rendition of experience does not fail to leave out the requisite depiction of Assange as overbearing and paranoid, the overall tone of the story, rather than vengeful, is surprisingly self-effacing.

Legend has it that the editors at Washington Post and the NY Times communicate each day to confirm that they have different lead stories/images on their front page. Well, it appears that the communication lines between Marcus Brauchli and Bill Keller were not open last night, as both venerable newspapers lead with the same image from the tragic Cambodia stampede from yesterday. (H/T Patrick Gavin)

In a bit of a surprise move Bill Keller has announced that Hugo Lindgren will be taking over as editor of the New York Times Magazine beginning Oct. 25. Lindgren will replace longtime editor Gerald Marzorati who announced his departure earlier this year.

WikiLeaks head Julian Assange is angry that, among other things, the New York Times did not link to his site in their mammoth report. The complaint caught my eye because it’s something the Times has been taken to task for in the past (for much, much smaller stories). This time however the non-linking was very, very intentional.

The last of his breed of media tycoon is a 79-year-old Australian billionaire whose impact has been more corrosive than cohesive.” The media mud fight continues between the New York Times and Wall St. Journal owner Rupert Murdoch. Weeks after the Journal included a picture of Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger in an article about girly [...]

Former Speaker of the House and potential 2012 Republican candidate Newt Gingrich made some news this weekend when he tied the very high unemployment rates with President Obama’s proclivity for playing basketball in his free time. MSNBC’s Norah O’Donnell saw racial insensitivity in the comment; Bill O’Reilly called foul, and also dmitted how his coverage has changed since receiving charges of racial insensitivity.