Earlier today the news broke that CNN contributor Roland Martin will not be appearing on the network indefinitely for what GLAAD perceived to be a homophobic tweet. Despite his personal ideological bent, the reaction from the conservative media was a swift defense of the longtime CNN pundit. But the conservative reaction to Martin’s suspension is no surprise because the conservative movement has long abandoned the left/right divide for a new war front: that between individuals and the media elite.

Mitt Romney‘s presidential campaign has drawn widespread criticism from the press for its dishonest use of a quote from then-Senator Barack Obama in its new campaign ad. Rather than apologizing, though, the Romney campaign is engaging in a delusional victory dance, telling Slate’s Dave Weigel that White House Press Secretary Jay Carney was having a “total meltdown” over the ad. That delusion bespeaks the sad truth that they’re desperate to have anyone talking about them.

Mitt Romney stumbled a bit in his ad debut this week, releasing a spot that disingenuously quoted the President and receiving the expected heat for it. But you wouldn’t know the campaign flubbed judging from his advisers’ comments in the spin room after Thursday night’s debate, where the group was celebrating the attention received for it.

In an interview with Fox and Friends‘ Steve Doocy this morning, Human Events ambush journalist Jason Mattera talked about his now-famous (or infamous?) bushwhacking of Vice President Joe Biden, alleging that he is now being investigated by “the Senate Gallery and the Vice President’s office” over the tactics he used to gain access to Biden.

Since then, though, the chair of the standing committee on correspondents has said that no complaint has been filed.

The world of media reporting is, often enough, something of a clusterf… fiasco, with media people reporting on the personal views or slip-ups or extracurricular activities of their colleagues. Those who report or present the news become newsworthy themselves, and, as such, hold a certain level of celebrity: not enough so that E! is guaranteed to cover their weddings (we can’t all be Kardashians, after all), but enough that they are ripe for satire and parody. To wit: Yesterday, Tim Carney, the Washington Examiner‘s senior political columnist, noticed that a Google+ account ostensibly belonging to economist and New York Times op-ed columnist Paul Krugman, posted a rather controversial reaction to the earthquake that resulted in literally dozens of pencils rolling onto the floor.

“People on twitter might be joking,” Kurgman appeared to have written, “but in all seriousness, we would see a bigger boost in spending and hence economic growth if the earthquake had done more damage.”

Barely an hour after a (now-downgraded 5.8) earthquake hit the East Coast, the internet began congratulating its own sparkling wit by publishing Top Earthquake Tweets lists. While this is a decidedly narcissistic exercise, some of them are actually pretty funny. As a public service, we’ve culled through the lists to present some of our favorites, plus a few tweets that didn’t make the lists. We’ll let you decide which group had the funniest tweets.

GOP Presidential front runner Mitt Romney got a warm up to tonight’s GOP debate at the Iowa State Fair when he was confronted by a cluster of individuals who aggressively confronted the former Massachusetts Governor over social security. Romney did not back down – he was ready and seemed to give as much as he got, though he may come to regret the pull quote “corporations are people my friend.”

Watch your back, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter! Another 2012 Republican candidate’s attempt at making sweet music has appeared on the internet, and it’s a doozy– introducing Sunday Morning*, a gospel album recorded by former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain. Precious little is know about the 13-track album, which appeared on the internet today, but the soulful baritone crooning is certainly worth a listen.

It might be an overstatement to say that Slate‘s Dave Weigel and FishbowlDC‘s Betsy Rothstein have been engaged in a long-running Cold War (perhaps a chilly skirmish?), but however you characterize it, Rothstein reports that a slimmed-down Weigel was considerably warmer toward her at MSNBC’s 15th birthday party.

The liberal blogosphere is all aflutter about the “Yup. I’m a Racist” t-shirts that were on sale at a July 3 Tea Party event in Lexington, Kentucky. Wonkette takes the shirts as “A-HA!” proof that Janeane Garofalo was right all along, while Dave Weigel helpfully explains that, like that 2008 Spartacus-style anti-healthcare “PSA,” the shirts are meant to be ironic, and presents a video interview with the vendor from last year’s event. Fair enough. Is the “Everything I Need to Know About Islam I Learned on 9/11″ part of the brilliant meta-humor?

On Friday, we reported that Andrew Breitbart was confronted at the liberal Netroots Nation conference in Minneapolis. As is often the refrain on Breitbart-related stories, the full video is now available (from The Uptake), and it is compelling. Breitbart’s conversation with Dave Weigel is interrupted by questions about his credentials, his sexuality, cocaine, and a drunk who dropped Breitbart’s name the night before. The dramatic video shows Breitbart’s full harague-filled exit from the hotel.

FishbowlDC gossip and media reporter Betsy Rothstein is, to put it mildly, a polarizing figure in Washington, DC. Despised by some for her role in Dave Weigel‘s Journolist-fueled career reorganization, dismissed by others as a petty gossip, she also enjoys a stealth legion of admirers who appreciate her hard work and Keyser Soze-like omnipresence. When word spread of my interview with Rothstein, “Team Betsy” emerged from the woodwork to weigh in, and the common theme was quickly evident: Betsy Rothstein is fearless.

Legendary musician and outspoken drug legalization advocate Willie Nelson endorsed fellow outspoken drug legalization advocate Gov. Gary Johnson for president earlier this week, only to retract that statement earlier today and choose to endorse no one (yet). This is all fairly humorous, except most of the media outlets reporting this story have been burying the lede: Nelson withdrew his support because he’s “already committed to Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich.” Huh?

The hearty liberal mockery of Thursday’s Republican primary debate took center stage on last night’s Last Word, and it’s hard to see how Lawrence O’Donnell could resist being snide about a Republican field where even the head of the RNC was openly hoping other people run. O’Donnell discussed whatever it was that happened last Thursday with Dave Weigel, who expressed far more excitement for Ron Paul and Herman Cain than Tim Pawlenty and Rick Santorum.

Lawrence O’Donnell smelled blood in the water today, and decided to take yet another bite out of the Tea Party. Mocking what he considered paltry numbers at a rally in Washington, D.C., O’Donnell declared it evidence of certain doom for the American right, though his guest, Dave Weigel, begged to differ: having attended the rally, he attributed the dwindling numbers to the electoral success of the Tea Party, and asserted he wasn’t reading anything too disastrous for the movement in the numbers.

What’s in a generation? The New York Times took a gander at profiling the famous-for-being-young crowd of political bloggers in Washington, DC now rapidly approaching their thirties on Friday, alternately referring to them as “brat packers” the “juicebox mafia,” and analogs to the characters (not actors) of St. Elmo’s Fire. But in labeling them upstarts in political media, the Times has exposed itself as out of touch with how rapidly generations of writers mature outside the print world.

The drama currently unfolding in Wisconsin is tailor-made for cable news executives and viewers alike; it includes a great political narrative and comes incredibly compelling footage and action. Crowds shouting “Shame!” at the legislators making their way through. Citizens struggling to get in to the Capitol to watch their elected government work. So why was it ignored by cable news outlets?

Looks like the Democratic senators’ move to leave Wisconsin in order to block a vote on the state’s controversial union bill has backfired. As their presence was needed solely because the bill was fiscal in nature according to the state’s constitution, Republicans took all the fiscal material out of the bill and split it in two. The anti-union provisions that did not affect the state’s budget just passed the Senate with only Republican support.

The most anticipated political film since the inception of the Tea Party movement is nearing its release, and, just in time for CPAC, the company behind it has released a trailer full of explosions, despicable Washington villains, awkward sexual tension– the kitchen sink of Hollywood advertising gimmicks. With more than on-set interviews to judge Atlas Shrugged: Part I on now, it is abundantly clear that the team behind it went all or nothing on interpreting Ayn Rand‘s classic novel.

Ah, finally: a neologism related to Sarah Palin not coined by her. With the help of Slate‘s Dave Weigel, fill-in host Chris Hayes gave a spot on Friday’s Countdown to the reinvention of the fake verb “Hannitize”– once used by the man Sean Hannity himself to describe the process by which viewers are converted to his political views, now employed as a way to describe interviews between Hannity and conservatives that have said messy things in the news before going on the show.

The New Year is here, and with it, the annual exercise in futility that is the New Year’s Resolution. As you stare into the abyss of another 365 days in which to improve yourself, it might help you to know that the figures who make Mediaite go ’round have some things to work on, too. Here’s what we think some of them are saying into the mirror this morning.

So, before you try to shake off that Cold Duck and Four Loko hangover and blearily search for a gym membership you can get out of when you get tired of it after 3 sessions, why not check out our list  of New Year’s Resolutions for Everyone Else?

It’s the most wonderful time of the year–a time for sledding, hot cocoa, and very little hot news tidbits. So when Hawaiian governor Neil Abercrombie rekindled the dying embers of the birther fire today, the media leapt up like starved piranhas to nip at the scrap. Would a final investigation bury the birther debate once and for all? Would it discover that the birth certificate that was never actually existed? And, just as importantly, what would Orly Taitz, D.D.S., Esq. have to say?

In a series of separate press releases and tweets by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, the White House seemed to be intent on naming every single supporter of the just-completed compromise on the Bush Tax Cuts, prompting Twitter wags such as Jake Tapper and Dave Weigel to throw out some choice wisecracks.

Gibbs took it in stride, even joking that a press release from fictional former President Josiah Bartlett (D-NBC’s The West Wing) was forthcoming.

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) is currently the talk of Twitter after someone with access to his account tweeted (uncensored) “U love torturing me with this sh*t.” The tweet was quickly deleted, and an apology issued, but not before the enigmatic missive was widely re-tweeted.

While Dodd’s Twitter feed quickly announced “From Dodd Staff – Apologies to Dodd’s followers, last tweet was not from Chris Dodd,” the errant tweet is already fodder for Twitter jokesters like Slate’s Dave Weigel, who tweeted “Members of all parties can agree that no one should torture Chris Dodd with sh*t. #genevaconventions.”

The real question: where did the tweet come from? (h/t Michelle Malkin)

If you happen to follow a bunch of political and media types, you may have noticed that your Twitter just exploded. That’s because Keith Olbermann just happened to be suspended indefinitely. We’ve collected some of the best reactions from the Twittersphere here. We’ve also excluded all of the Tweets which just said some variation of “Wow.”