“Some News Leaves People Knowing Less,” blares a headline from the political science department of Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey today. The University conducted a survey of several hundred New Jersey residents and found some numbers that are very convenient for the enemies of a certain news organization– Fox News viewers were 18% more likely to be either misinformed or uninformed about certain current events.

Rachel Maddow tonight devoted some time to “the Paul Ryan thing;” namely, that “Republicans voted for [it]” and now must defend it at town hall meetings. They haven’t always done so with great success, but Maddow noted a lack of coverage of this, save for liberal websites…plus one site she apparently doesn’t think is so liberal these days.

Leave it to Daily Kos to dig out the most disheartening poll for Sarah Palin‘s presidential ambitions possible: according to data compiled by the group Public Policy Polling, Palin doesn’t even stand a chance against known trainwrecks with no aspirations and even less qualifications to live in the White House. Yes, Sarah Palin is now trailing Charlie Sheen in certain presidential polls.

Friday night’s shocking announcement that Keith Olbermann was immediately leaving MSNBC has had an interesting effect on both detractors and supporters. Right of center media outlets appear to a have embraced a measured yet celebratory tone, while those on the left have called it an “end of free speech,” and have begun to hypothesis what could be Olbermann’s next steps. Some enterprising members of the left wing DailyKos website have begun a DraftOlbermann campaign for the Connecticut Senate seat soon to be vacated by Joe Lieberman. Hey if Linda McMahon can run…

Right-wing media watchdog Accuracy In Media took AIM at Countdown host Keith Olbermann Wednesday, tweeting that Olbermann “still has a hard-on for ‘teabaggers.’”

Olbermann took exception, noting the irony of AIM’s use of sexual slang to decry the once-popular term for the Tea Party, but AIM’s bigger problem is in accusing Olbermann of “twisting the poll numbers” to tie the Tea Party to violence, while twisting those same numbers, and my commentary, to illustrate their point.

On Monday night’s Countdown, host Keith Olbermann delivered a followup to the Special Comment he made in the wake of the mass shooting in Tucson. He covered a lot of ground regarding the nine days since the tragedy, but the segment was most notable for the fact that he singled out John McCain as the only political/media figure who had risen to his challenge to assume personal responsibility for their own rhetoric, and called out President Obama by name as one who hasn’t.

On Monday night’s Countdown, host Keith Olbermann cited a new Daily Kos/Public Policy Polling survey that showed that 13% of Tea Party voters think that violence against the current American government is justified, versus 6% of Republicans, and 5% of Democrats. He discussed the results with Mother Jones’ David Corn, and how they relate to the discussion on violent rhetoric in the wake of the mass shooting in Tucson.

In the days following the massacre in Tucson, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has become a focal point in the media conversation about the shootings. A confluence of events has linked Palin to the shooting, despite a lack of any evidence of a causal link. Aside from some ludicrous backstopping by an aide and a partial email to Glenn Beck, however, the normally loquacious media supernova has been uncharacteristically silent on this issue.

During a Fox News segment today, anchor Shep Smith tossed to a live shot of a vigil for critically wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and several seconds into it, as one mourner said “…and I say to you, Sarah Palin…” then cut to a commercial. Sarah Palin, a Fox News contributor, has come under fire in the early aftermath of this mass shooting, as some are connecting it with her “crosshairs” ad from earlier this year.

As details emerge about the Arizona shooting that claimed the life of federal Judge John Roll, and left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Az) fighting for her life, echoes of violent political imagery have come under eery scrutiny, no more so than in this March interview between Giffords and MSNBC’s Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie. In the clip, Giffords talks about threats and vandalism of her office, and specifically mentions Sarah Palin‘s “crosshairs” ad.

Shortly after reports surfaced that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had been shot point-blank range during a meet and greet event in a Tuscon area Safeway parking lot, the managers of the website for Sarah Palin’s website SarahPAC took down some controversial imagery that included gun sight symbols over various congressional districts in political play, many on [...]

Perhaps it is no secret that Countdown host Keith Olbermann is not a fan of Fox News, but his blunt Twitter declaration that “Fox News is 100% bullshit” is worth noting, if for no other reason than that it is sure to draw some kind of response from its target. He was responding to a dissonant comparison of Fox News to liberal blog Daily Kos.

Apparently, Coundtdown fill-in host Chris Hayes didn’t get that memo, though, as he joined Rachel Maddow last week in crediting Shep Smith with helping to get the 9/11 First Responders bill passed.

Andrew Breitbart is going mainstream. The Big site proprietor and polarizing internet mogul has been tapped to provide Election Day analysis for ABC News along with Big Hollywood editor Dana Loesch, and the amicable relationship between a major network and a major Tea Party icon has made many on the left predictably uncomfortable.

Liberal firebrand and host of pioneering radio/webcast The Young Turks Cenk Uygur made his guest-hosting debut on MSNBC’s Countdown last night, and as he signed off, delivered a thank you to regular host Keith Olbermann. Briefly describing Countdown‘s Bush-era emergence, Uygur said it was an honor to host the show “in the house that Olbermann built,” a reference that is sure to both please Olbermann, and launch spit-your-drink cackles from the host’s detractors.

Real Time host Bill Maher, who normally says “teabagger” more frequently than a foreman on a Lipton assembly line, was on his best behavior last night for “Tea Party Person” (and Hottest Conservative New Media Woman) Dana Loesch. Both he and DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas, another aficionado of the term, studiously avoided using the Tea Party-coined-then-rejected appellation throughout most of the show, obviously in deference to Loesch.

Fox News reporter Carl Cameron sold out his own network to a DailyKos blogger. That’s what a Daily Beast contributor would have you believe. In a story posted yesterday a report claimed that Cameron said that FNC had organized the Tea Party and overreached in their influence over the Sherrod scandal. Mediaite exclusively spoke to Cameron, who explained that much of what was reported was taken out of context.

Following a harsh exchange between MSNBC host Joe Scarborough and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas on Twitter in May, Moulitsas writes today that he has been banned (for now) from appearing on the network.

He publishes an email from MSNBC President Phil Griffin explaining the reasoning (a “cheap shot”), but Moulitsas concludes he has “been booted from the network because of a Scarborough temper tantrum.”

Last week, The Daily Kos filed a lawsuit against the company Research 2000 for breach of contract and fraud. Research 2000 had been contracted by the political blog to conduct regular polls, but according Kos founder Markos Moulitsas the tracking polls conducted by Research 2000 were “likely bunk.” This subject came up this weekend on Fox News, and host Gregg Jarrett set the tone for the panel discussion by claiming that both sides in this were “juvenile.”

Last Wednesday Keith Olbermann left one of the new media platforms he has frequented – blogging at the Daily Kos.

Well rejoice, liberal blogosphere! He made his triumphant return this afternoon in the “full flower of the pomposity that always strikes me at midday.”

What happens when two liberal giants collide? Countdown host and liberal opinion leader Keith Olbermann wrote what netizens call a GBCW (Good-Bye, Cruel World) post at Daily Kos Wednesday night, touching off a blizzard of blog posts and comments at the left’s leading online community. The uproar is understandable, but also damned entertaining. Pop some Orville Redenbacher, pull up a chair, and check out some of the highlights.

After taking heat from some of his liberal fans on Twitter over his strong criticism of Pres. Barack Obama‘s Oval Office speech Tuesday, Keith Olbermann stopped into another of his new media stomping grounds to find more of the same.

Now he’s leaving The Daily Kos after finding a “diary trashing first me and my colleague Rachel.”

Pioneering Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas was on hand yesterday for a panel discussion at the liberal America’s Future Now! conference, and spoke with authority about grassroots activism in the Age of Obama. I caught up with him after his panel to bounce a few media-related questions off of him, and he had some surprising things to say.

Now that the controversy over the failure of the White House corps to criticize Helen Thomas has temporarily blown over, there is a new journalism controversy facing the DC press: should journalists go to the Biden’s house for a picnic and be Super Soaked by Rahm Emanuel.

Yesterday was a tough day to be Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough, as political pundits were taking shots at him left and…left. The subject was Joe’s assertion that the media slept through the Joe Sestak controversy (an assertion with which I strongly disagree). First, DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas attacked Scarborough via Twitter, and on last night’s Countdown, MSNBC colleague Keith Olbermann launched a veiled, but very nasty, attack on him.

Former talk show host (and MSNBC host) Phil Donahue was a guest on Joy Behar‘s HLN show last night tonight, and the subject of former HLNer Glenn Beck came up.

Donahue says he’s a viewer of the Fox News host, but also pointed to a Daily Kos video as a must-watch Beck crash course.