Ed Schultz began something of a feud with Sean Hannity, again, yesterday as the Fox News host had commented that he believed that Osama bin Laden would still be alive and kicking had President Obama “gotten his way.” Naturally, these comments incensed Schultz and led him to a discussion with Hannity over Twitter which resulted in Schultz challenging Hannity to produce any evidence that supported him.

Yesterday on The Five, Dana Perino made the bizarre claim that M.I.A. wasn’t American enough to perform in the Super Bowl Halftime Show unlike such American luminaries as, I guess, The Who, The Rolling Stones, and Madonna’s accent. Obviously, Perino’s allegation was borderline laughable and easy to make fun of (seriously, if I didn’t have to leave the office early yesterday, Frances never would have gotten a chance at this post), so you know what that means; set the timer for a rival cable network to mock it. And…take it away Ed Schultz!

After a week off due to a bout with bronchitis, Countdown host Keith Olbermann returned to the air Monday night, to the center of the Current TV universe, and to the black backdrop that seems a fitting stand-in for the star’s reportedly tumultuous relationship with his employer. According to a new report by Newsweek, that relationship may be hanging by a thread, and with it, the future of Current’s plan to become the left’s answer to Fox News.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, Gasland director Josh Fox publicly responded to being forcibly ejected from a hydrofracking hearing in Congress Wednesday. “I didn’t expect to be arrested for documentary filmmaking and journalism on Capitol Hill,” Fox told Schultz. “I was prepared for it but didn’t expect it. I did think they would come to our senses and let them film the hearing. We were there covering a very crucial hearing about a case of groundwater contamination in Pavilion, Wyoming, 3 1/2 year investigation by the EPA shows subjects from the first film from Pavilion, with groundwater contamination resulting in 50 times the level of benzene in groundwater and EPA pointed in this case that hydraulic fracturing is the likely cause. What was happening today, Republicans called in the Science, Space and Technology Committee to a hearing to challenge science. Their panel was made up of gas industry lobbyists. We were there to expose what I believe is ugly and brazen attack on science itself, on what is happening across the country, with hydraulic fracturing. We were there doing our jobs.”

Ed Schultz opened his program tonight with a segment of Republicans behaving badly– from RNC Chair Reince Priebus to Arizona governor Jan Brewer to Rep. Allen West. Schultz and his guests, Melissa Harris-Perry and James Peterson, made the point that Priebus’s comparison of the President to the Captain of the sunken Costa Concordia, Brewer’s exchange with him in Arizona, and West’s demand that he leave America were all indicative of the same illness in Republican politics.

Ed Schultz and Eric Bolling have a pretty longstanding cable news rivalry of sorts, one that goes back and forth on issues from who is maybe drinking to grabbing drinks together to maybe not doing that, and policy disagreements, sometimes. The latest barb was thrown in Bolling’s direction, and for the last of those reasons, as Schultz blasted the Fox News host for disagreeing with President Obama’s use of Air Force 1.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi appeared on MSNBC’s The Ed Show Thursday night and clarified her statements about former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Ed Schultz asked Pelosi if she had a secret dossier on him as she seemingly suggested yesterday. “No, that’s not true. Let me tell you what is the truth. Everything I’ve said or will ever say about Newt Gingrich’s ethics is in the public record. I’ve said on and on, just read the public record.”

During Monday night’s The Ed Show, host Ed Schultz took on former House Speaker Newt Gingrich‘s penchant for “vilifying President Obama” with the “coded language” of racism. During the panel segment, Salon’s Joan Walsh summed Gingrich up in easily-deciphered fashion, telling Schultz that “Newt is the face of the politics of resentment and racism and angry white male rage” that led voters to vote against their own economic interests.

While many cable news viewers were focused on the Republican debate Thursday night, Ed Schultz took some time out to devote his “Psycho Talk” segment to Chris Christie‘s apparent sudden change of view on Iowa. And in introducing the clip of Christie, Schultz made sure to let viewers know exactly how he felt about Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy, with a fun mispronunciation of his last name.

As fate would have it, my exclusive interview with MSNBC’s Ed Schultz came just before his return to Wisconsin this week, where he began covering the protests over Gov. Scott Walker’s assault on labor a year ago. Luckily, I don’t have to ask Ed how he feels about the delivery, Tuesday, of over a million signatures for Walker’s recall. Schultz played a major role, not just in covering the protests, but in energizing them as well. They say it’s better to be lucky than good, but Ed Schultz was a little bit of both this past year.

Ed Schultz, star of MSNBC’s primetime lead The Ed Show, is coming off of a year that saw his cable news fortunes rise considerably. On the strength of his years of broadcast experience, and his early catch of 2011′s populist protest wave, and a series of events that landed him in the 8pm timeslot on MSNBC, Schultz is now firmly embedded at the forefront of liberal media consciousness. In this portion of our exclusive interview, Ed discusses his views on hot-button issues like marriage equality, abortion rights, and gun control.

Ed Schultz, star of MSNBC’s primetime lead The Ed Show, is coming off of a year that saw his cable news fortunes rise considerably. On the strength of his years of broadcast experience, and his early catching of 2011′s populist protest wave, Schultz is now firmly embedded at the forefront of liberal media consciousness. In this preview of our exclusive interview, Ed shares how he gets his news, and answers some lighter questions, like what he watches for fun, what his last meal would be, and whether he’s ever indulged in recreational herbage.

Following former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty‘s dis of MSNBC’s The Ed Show during last night’s New Hampshire primary coverage, host Ed Schultz dedicated a bedtime story to him — a satire of Goodnight Moon entitled Goodnight Mitt lambasting his chosen candidate Mitt Romney. “In the great 12 million dollar beach house, there was a telephone and 250 million bucks and a picture of greedy multi-millionaire schmucks!”

Is former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu this election’s Zell Miller? Challenging Chris Matthews to a duel was just about the only thing he didn’t shout at the MSNBC team today, as he told Ed Schultz the statistics he cited were “a crock of crap,” told Lawrence O’Donnell he didn’t “know what you’re talking about,” and challenged one of Matthews’ comments as “anti-American.”

We already know how much trouble a singer can get in for just saying she likes Ron Paul, so what happens when a liberal firebrand has the gall to say Rick Santorum’s oratorial skills rival President Obama’s? That’s what Ed Schultz is discovering this week. However, there is one big difference between Schultz and Kelly Clarkson.

During MSNBC’s coverage of last night’s Iowa caucus, host Rachel Maddow fell for a hoax regarding former Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson. And while that might not be the best of news for Maddow, it does give us a chance to write a Gary Johnson post! And that’s always fun.

Things got a little bit heated during MSNBC’s Iowa Caucus coverage Tuesday night when The Ed Show host Ed Schultz and The Last Word host Lawrence O’Donnell sparred over surging candidate Rick Santorum‘s tax repatriation plan, and whether it constitutes a “manufacturing plan.”

The exchange was heated, but brief, as co-anchor Rachel Maddow comically saved the day with the cheery declatarion, “Look! It’s Rick Perry!”

With the results of the Iowa caucuses still to close to call in a seriously difficult to pin down three-way race, the fate of one of those candidates’ supporters was on Rachel Maddow‘s mind tonight as it became increasingly clear that either Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum would take the state: Rep. Ron Paul‘s. Why, Maddow asked, did no other candidate try to lure in Rep. Paul’s supporters? After all, “Ron Paul voters are human beings, too!”

During MSNBC’s election coverage of the Iowa caucuses, liberal firebrand Ed Schultz made an astounding observation about Republican hopeful Rick Santorum. “When Rick Santorum is out on the stump, he is as good as President Obama,” Schultz explained, without a hint of irony. He then detailed many of the former Pennsylvania Senator’s qualities.

In the world of the microscopic news cycle, a year is a mighty long time. Think “dog years” on steroids. Over the course of the past year, in thousands (around 7,500 ) of articles and millions (between 3 and 4 million) of words, Mediaite has covered the ups and downs of that whizzing, ricocheting media world. In case you lost track in that sea of information, we’ve compiled a list of 2011 Media Winners and Losers that we hope will be the start  of a conversation, not the end of one. Here, in no particular order, are Mediaite’s 2011 Media Winners and Losers.

Ed Schultz‘s program yesterday, like many of Ed Schultz’s programs, featured a heavy-handed segment bashing a Republican candidate for having extremist exclusionary views on LGBT Americans and their place under the law. The segment was par for the course, but preceded by an exceptionally good and thorough interview with a presidential candidate– one that, while alone was a great bit of journalism, cluttered the contextual frame of the segment before it: a positive interview with Rick Santorum, who received no such scrutiny on his “family values.”

Viewers of Thursday night’s opening Ed Show segment might have done a double-take as Ed Schultz introduced a segment on surging GOP hopeful Rick Santorum when it looked like the host showed up in some b-roll of a Santorum town hall meeting. But sure enough, Ed was there, and conducted a surprising interview with the socially conservative former Senator that had Schultz wondering if Santorum could be a threat to win Iowa.

Christmas is a time to be open and forgiving, but not if you work in the world of cable news. And on MSNBC yesterday, Ed Schultz dumped a huge pile of coal on Fox & Friends for focusing on some of the lesser-reported aspects of the holiday season involving possible new EPA regulations and potential lawsuits you could face over the holiday season. I always just assumed the “Psycho Talk” segment was devoted to, you know, psycho talk. But Schultz honed in on the threesome not for anything they said, but for their “unseasonal” tone.

It’s almost Christmas, so here’s a story to warm your heart this holiday weekend. Cable news’ answer to Lassie and Snoopy returned to The Ed Show tonight, and Ed Schultz admitted he got a kick out of the media coverage of his adorable little Republican-hating dog named Rex. Schultz introduced Rex to viewers last night to the politically-astute pooch. The stunt did not go unnoticed by the blogosphere (including this very site), giving publicity to not just the dog, but the center taking care of him.

In what was probably the eighth or ninth iteration of the point-and-laugh-at-Fox White House Christmas card story, MSNBC host Ed Schultz managed to top them all, with an assist from a temporary co-host named Rex. Schultz set up the story by introducing the adorable animal shelter beagle, a stand-in for First Dog Bo Obama, whose presence on the White House card, and on a presidential shopping trip, prompted ridiculous criticism from the likes of Sarah Palin and Sen. John McCain.