At today’s White House briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked, by CNSNews.com reporter Fred Lucas, to comment on President Obama‘s use of the term “tea-bagger” in an interview for Jonathan Alter‘s book. Gibbs replied that he hadn’t read it. I followed up by asking Gibbs if he could find out if the President was aware of the controversy, or if he had any comment about his word choice. Short reply: Not a tea bag’s chance in hell.

ABC News’ Jake Tapper took heat from “some liberal bloggers” when he contrasted President Obama‘s call for civility in politics with Obama’s use of the term “tea-bagger” in a November interview for Jonathan Alter‘s new book. At issue was Tapper’s failure to point out that the term was originally coined by the Tea Party movement, which he addressed in an update.

The story of John Edwards‘ affair with Rielle Hunter seems to have raised a media meta-quandary about how to treat stories reported by The National Enquirer. Should we report on them? Should we report that they’re being reported? Throw in a Drudge link to an already explosive rumor like, say, the President covering up an affair with a former campaign staffer, and it’s damn near irresistible. There is a responsible way to cover something like this

The Washington Post did a lengthy profile on Robert Gibbs, from which the Huffington Post gleaned a list of the six biggest press corps complaints about Gibbs. There are some fair criticisms, some of which have been echoed on the record here at Mediaite, but much of the criticism of Gibbs is simply built into the divergent roles of Press Secretary and reporter.

We published an email exchange Thursday night between MSNBC President Phil Griffin and a David Shuster fan about his anchor’s indefinite suspension.

Mediaite spoke exclusively with Griffin today about the reasons behind the suspension, emailing with viewers and more.

After Twitter’s previous stint as Worst Person, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann gave in, joined the social networking site Thursday and has been busy tweeting all weekend.

There are the correspondences with celebrities and a lot about baseball – but Olbermann has also taken to addressing the Twitter hate directly (and talking about David Shuster).

The only public statement about David Shuster‘s suspension from MSNBC was five words from a spokesperson.

But Mediaite has obtained an email from MSNBC President Phil Griffin to an angry fan, explaining in slightly more, and much harsher, detail the reason for Shuster’s indefinite suspension.

Now that David Shuster has been suspended indefinitely by MSNBC, it looks like he may not be back on the air for the remainder of his contract – up at the end of this year.

The pilot that led to his MSNBC demise was just the latest in a series of run-ins with management. Now Mediaite hears these extended to his time with a previous employer, Fox News.

When I first saw Lloyd Grove‘s version of the now-annual effort to autopsy the White House press corps, I rolled my eyes in agreement with Glynnis MacNicol.

Then, I noticed that not one of the 3 C-Spans, nor any other news outlet, carried yesterday’s briefing. Heh, neat coincidence. No biggie. The timing’s a little weird, but these things happen.

Still, before this gains any more traction, allow me to make the case for the press corps to the writer of next year’s “Press Corpse” piece, and anyone else who’s interested.

I interviewed now-suspended MSNBC anchor David Shuster a few weeks ago, and looking at it in hindsight, that conversation takes on new meaning. The interview took place around the same time Shuster was supposedly shooting a pilot for CNN, and at the time, was remarkably charitable to the position of Andrew Breitbart and James O’Keefe in modern journalism. Was he polishing his objectivity cred for CNN?

Yesterday we reported that David Shuster had been suspended indefinitely by his employer MSNBC, apparently in response to Shuster’s alleged dalliance with CNN. Last week it was revealed that he may have taped a pilot for the competing cable news network, which some have surmised was done in advance of his contract with MSNBC ending this year. But just as MSNBC is free to audition his possible replacements, isn’t it unfair that Shuster is penalized for looking out for his own future?

Mediaite has learned David Shuster has been suspended from MSNBC, effective immediately.

This comes on the heels of a report Friday he had filmed a pilot for CNN – for which MSNBC said he would be “punished appropriately.” He met with MSNBC President Phil Griffin yesterday afternoon. Update: Who fills in today.

In the wake of a report Friday MSNBC’s David Shuster had filmed a pilot for CNN – for which MSNBC said he would be “punished appropriately” – the anchor was off the air today.

We hear he met with MSNBC President Phil Griffin this afternoon, and are awaiting the results of the meeting.

David Shuster isn’t anchoring his 3pmET hour – which is significant, because he was there for his 10amET hour.

It appears Shuster may be in the MSNBC doghouse again after reports he shot a CNN pilot recently, which apparently happened without his MSNBC bosses knowing.

Luke Russert was paneling with David Shuster earlier today, in what may have been the most shameless (and yes, sadly, entertaining) moments on cable news thus far this week. Taking off on a Daily Beast feature ranking the top political sex scandals in recent history, Russert took a decidedly sporty style to analyzing what makes a political sex scandal interesting and who has suffered the most political shame: Democrats or Republicans. Video of the sophomoric and salacious video below:

MSNBC anchor David Shuster, while not technically on the “White House beat,” has lots of experience covering the White House both from within and without. In the balance of our interview, he offers insights into the process that differ significantly from what we’ve heard in other Inside the White House Press Corps interviews. As promised, here is my full interview with Shuster, in which he discusses covering the White House, lazy reporters, interviewing space aliens, plus the first two parts.

MSNBC’s David Shuster has been absent from Twitter for a little over a month after taking heat from MSNBC for unloading on costume journalist James O’Keefe. In this second preview from my interview with Shuster, I asked him how he feels about the “Free David Shuster” campaign, and Twitter in general.

Since it was fresh in my mind, I also asked him about the interruption-filled Brett Baier interview of President Obama.

MSNBC’s David Shuster made an appearance at yesterday’s White House briefing, and afterward, sat down for an interview for Mediaite. While not a regular presence in the briefing room, Shuster is more than qualified to render an opinion on the journalism being practiced there, and that distance allows him to make fresh observations. In this preview of our interview, I asked Shuster for his take on the position of people like Andrew Breitbart, Matt Drudge, and James O’Keefe in journalism. His response was rather surprising.

We’ve seen today what many in the media world (and even Press Secretary Robert Gibbs) thought of the highly-rated Bret Baier exclusive interview with Pres. Obama.

There’s one more from earlier in the day – MSNBC’s David Shuster. He also had some general thoughts on his network and Baier’s.

MSNBC anchor David Shuster broke his three-week long Twitter silence last night with a strange series of explanatory tweets about his absence – that were all deleted a few hours later.

What does appear to be clear, however, is Shuster says MSNBC management is stopping him from tweeting.

MSNBC anchor David Shuster tweeted a Media Matters link to story about James O’Keefe at 5:41am on January 27.

But since that tweet, he’s been very noticeably silent, while appearing in his regular timeslots anchoring MSNBC – including for one memorable on-air fight with Andrew Breitbart on January 28. So why the Twitter silence?

It was (sort of) Presidential Question Time, Part Two today, as Pres. Barack Obama addressed the Democratic Senators at their retreat.

It turned out to be far less of a pull-back-the-curtain moment – but it was interesting to see MSNBC deal with what happened when the President started taking some shots at cable news.

A Pew survey that shows MSNBC spent six times as much coverage on the James O’Keefe story as other outlets is being touted as evidence that the cable news network might have it in for the pimp-suited independent filmmaker. Just as likely, though, is that the other media outlets shied away from the story due to their complicity with the O’Keefe-as-journalist meme, and out of fear of being embarrassed again. That fear may be behind MSNBC’s new reticence to tell it like it is with O’Keefe.

In the wake of David Shuster‘s James O’Keefe reporting/tweeting (and subsequent response from MSNBC PR), Fox News’ Red Eye gave the MSNBC anchor the Robot Theatre treatment.

Well Shuster responded – and apparently he thought it was funny.

Now that Andrew Breitbart and David Shuster have sufficiently yelled at each other on MSNBC over the James O’Keefe III arrest, let’s recap how we got to this point – and what’s next.

Here’s a few of the big storylines.