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:

MTV co-founder Tom Freston has an unusually optimistic view of Afghanistan. “People assume that when the U.S. leaves, the Taliban will just resume control, but Afghanistan has become a different place,” he told New York Times‘ David Carr. Freston, who spent 17 years at the helm of MTV Networks, eight or so months as president at [...]

Stephen Colbert discussed the ongoing News Corp. phone hacking scandal with David Carr from the New York Times and both had a few good laughs at the expense of Rupert Murdoch and Fox News. After having to endure a hearing and a near-miss pie in the face, Colbert mockingly pleaded on behalf of Murdoch, “leave [...]

It’s been a week since New York Times columnist David Carr referred to middle Americans with “low-sloping foreheads” on Real Time with Bill Maher. One of the first pundits to react to the story was Glenn Beck, and now one of Carr’s fellow panelists from last week’s show has weighed in on the controversy.

Earlier this week, outgoing Fox News host Glenn Beck illustrated David Carr‘s criticism of Midwesterners as “neanderthals” by doing an offensive caricature of a mentally disabled person. Mediaite’s Frances Martel wrote a relatively mild critique of Beck’s performance, given the level of offense, and for her trouble, conservative website Big Journalism has accused Martel of anti-disabled bigotry, and defended Beck’s vile minstrelsy by (I’m not kidding) asserting that those offended are mentally deficient.

Glenn Beck seemed to have reached the pinnacle of potential shock value to be had out of The New York Times‘s David Carr making a bad joke comparing Middle Americans to neanderthals on his radio show this morning, calling it the sort of comment “that leads to mass death.” He managed to top himself on his television program today, however, imitating a disabled person to give viewers a sense of what he thinks Carr believes people in the middle of the country are like.

On today’s radio program, Glenn Beck took great exception with a comment made by NY Times‘ David Carr last Friday night during an appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher. While responding to a critique of Gov. Chris Christie‘s leadership of New Jersey — a “smart state” in the eyes of Maher — Carr took a swipe at the residents of Kansas and Missouri, specifically describing their “low-sloping foreheads.” It was clearly a joke (an offensive and unfunny joke) but in Beck’s eyes, this is the sort of comment that “leads to death camps.”

Holding the world’s highest-profile job guarantees a great deal of criticism at all times, but even by those standards, President Barack Obama’s getting a lot of invective thrown his way these last few days – and much of it’s from people normally on his side. Tonight, the panel on Real Time with Bill Maher gave their own thoughts on the president…and Obama probably wouldn’t like what they had to say, either.

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

Writing for the paper’s magazine, The New York Times‘ David Carr has today given us an in-depth look into the rise and… we’ll say side-step, not fall… and possible rise once again of everyone’s favorite liberal talking head, Keith Olbermann.

The profile, titled “America’s Favorite Talking Hot Head,,” colorfully reiterates a lot of what we’ve already known about Olbermann: He loves to be on camera. He has something of a temper. And he firmly believes his own hype.

Director Andrew Rossi‘s upcoming film Page One: Inside The New York Times (opening June 17th in New York, and nationally July 1) documents a year in the life of the Gray Lady, but also sets the table for what may either be the print media’s suffocation within, or emergence from, the chrysalis of the brave new media world. Rossi spoke with Mediaite about his film, its de facto star (Times Media reporter David Carr), and what it all means for journalism.

It would be fair to say that the relationship between Fox News and Glenn Beck is being…tested. A recent NY Times column that suggested that Fox News was considering life without its controversial star has led to speculation about Beck’s value to–and future at –the cable news network, yet few have asked what Beck may have planned if he decides to leave Fox News. We may, now, have an answer. Mediaite has learned that Beck has planned to hire a Fox News big wig to work within his production company, revealing, perhaps, much bigger and more innovative plans than anyone had previously thought.

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?

The clearest sign of the political cowardice and intellectual impotence of liberal America is its collective worship of Jon Stewart. Once upon a time, The Daily Show was probably funny – that’s presumably why it appears on Comedy Central. But Stewart long ago turned into the Oprah Winfrey for urban hipsters, his self-appointment as the arbiter-in-chief of smirking moderation masking a profoundly reactionary worldview.

Stewart is reaping accolades this week for his handling on Monday night of the shooting in Arizona that left six people (including a judge) dead, and fourteen people wounded, most notably the Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. However, by focusing on “the media,” Stewart is playing right into Republican hands.

Over the course of 2010, we covered an array of politicians, authors, entertainers, media mavens, and others as they discussed their crafts and their industries. 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:

Mediaite’s Editor-at-Large Rachel Sklar appeared on CNN’s Reliable Sources this morning with the New York Times‘ David Carr and host Howard Kurtz to discuss the impact of last week’s Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert rally and cable news — and the recent suspension of Keith Olbermann by MSNBC.

In the wake of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert‘s announcement that they will be holding a rally on the the Washington Mall to ‘restore sanity’ the New York Times‘ David Carr takes a look at the media-based origins of the Tea Party and how we got to a place where media figures are playing politicians.

Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings has apparently returned stateside to continue his media rounds following his bombshell article on General McChrystal that resulted in McChrystal’s firing last week. Hastings told Stephen Colbert last night that he thought the White House had used “this opportunity to get rid of someone they weren’t happy with.”

President Obama may have solved his McChrystal problem but the long tail of the now-infamous Rolling Stone profile is still kicking around the media world. In his column today at the New York Times, David Carr takes Politico and Time to the woodshed for posting a full PDF of the McChrystal story before Rolling Stone made it available on their site.

Larry King‘s CNN ratings have fallen significantly, especially recently.

But the media-covering media have taken some serious and surprising shots at the TV news icon, writing the TV show obituary on King. That continues today with a New York Times column by David Carr – looking to put the nail in the coffin. But it is CNN that needs to step up.

It’s true! She’s not! Not in all these PHOTOS and VIDEOS of TAYLOR MOMSEN from GOSSIP GIRL who might know JUSTIN BIEBER! She’s not wearing pants! That’s totally a dress! And you can thank the NYT’s David Carr for the fact that it’s now my headline.

On Monday, finalists for the Mirror Awards — the Newhouse School’s annual honoring of excellence in writing about journalism and the media — were announced, featuring some of the best writers and thinkers in our industry, including our own Philip Bump.

The work of the finalists is excellent. One of our writers was nominated. So why do you sense that there’s a “but” coming?

Sigh. Because there is. Actually, two.

Mashable, the social media blog, is reporting that a new app for Twitter will allow users to compare the fans of different celebrities and see which group is “stupider”. Stupid Fight was created by Tom Scott, a designer who also created the equally mischievous Tweleted, and will probably cause anyone who uses it to become completely addicted…for at least a few hours. Of course, in a world where complex thoughts are broken down to fit into 140 characters, a few hours is nearly a lifetime.

Does this finally make it official? In case you’ve missed the months of media coverage on Sarah Palin, the New York Times’ media columnist David Carr has weighed in on the matter and declared her “a one-woman national media empire.” Sound familiar?

Ink-stained wretches, it’s not just you! The social media and Twitter elite fret about the future of journalism too — and wonder how it will survive the digital revolution. At SXSWi, there was no shortage of panels obsessively deconstructing this topic (and tweeting about it, natch).