The “must-reads” segment on Morning Joe today opened with a NY Times op-ed that ridiculed Newt Gingrich‘s claim that the $300,000 he received from embattled government mortgage agency Freddie Mac was for his “advice as a historian.” Given the fierce anti-Frannie and Freddie sentiment among the GOP, and blame assigned to these agencies for the housing crisis and credit default problems that helped tank the US economy in 2008, host Joe Scarborough believes that Gingrich has got some splaining to do.

Donald Trump is sure making the media busy these days. Besides being a persistent presence– either in person or in commentary– on cable news, Trump took to print this weekend to reply to a column by Gail Collins dismissing his presidential ambitions. “I have great respect for Ms. Collins in that she has survived so long with so little talent,” he begins, before a lengthy defense of his investigation into President Obama’s birth.

Rachel Maddow is not very happy with the mainstream media, or more to the point, the mainstream media’s promotion of Paul Ryan’s new budget that he calls “Pathway to Prosperity.” In five minute segment on her show last night, the MSNBC host methodically took a part many of the core economic assumptions to Ryan’s budget proposal, many of which seem optimistic at best, delusional at worst. But it wasn’t Ryan that caught the majority of Maddow’s ire – it was the media’s “smoochy, smoochy love bubble surrounding” the Wisconsin Congressman.

At the top of the Oscar list are two movies – True Grit and The Social Network – that have attracted and delighted audience that are now vying for supremacy in the eyes of the Academy Awards voters. Last week, Grit pulled ahead in box office totals, but Social Network has been the favorite thus far among major critics’ awards. Because of the late momentum Grit has generated at the box office, Social Network will be re-released in theaters.

On Friday Glenn Beck devoted this week’s “Founding Friday” show to the women who built this country. I’m not sure what it says about the state of education and media (and Hollywood…ahem!) in general that Beck is leading the charge to (broadly) inform the country about women’s roles in the founding of this country but there you have it. Glenn Beck hear me roar!

On a beach? Relaxing at home? Wondering how to spend your post-BBQ stupor? Here is some patriotic Fourth of July weekend reading from Mediaite’s staff, columnists and contributors. Enjoy!

Before the 2010 midterm elections really kicked into gear, would anyone have guessed that Alabama would be the state to best employ Internet memes in political campaigns? Alabama has compiled an impressive repertoire of strange, eye-catching videos that have put the candidates in the national spotlight and, as the New York Times‘ Gail Collins notes, made the state of Alabama go viral.

“Every single moment that we are stroking our beards and gazing at our navel and thinking about the world we’d like to be and singing ‘Kumbaya’ is another day we’re not punching Bill O’Reilly in the nose.” That’s New York Congressman Anthony Weiner. He goes on.

When incisive, frequently hilarious New York Times op-ed columnist Gail Collins is speaking at an event in your general area, ideally, you go. When the event is not only in your area but conveniently located in the town where you get on and off the train every day, (and at your alma mater, no less) – well, then you definitely go.

Gail Collins of the New York Times weighs in on last week’s joint Sarah Palin/Michelle Bachmann rally and the larger ramifications of the Palin ‘wow’ factor and utter lack of substance. Palin is corrupting the tone of national politics! But it is entirely her fault?

Is anyone in the media not talking about Glenn Beck? It’s clear we here at Mediaite certainly spend a lot of time doing so, but it would appear the rest of the world is catching up. Are they ever. Just take my morning media consumption as an example.

Thanks to Senator Jim Bunning the nation is becoming acquainted with the ins and outs of the dark side of the filibuster. This despite the fact that what Bunning is doing is not technically a filibuster. Nevertheless! Bunning, thanks to a general ignorance of the term filibuster, is giving filibustering a bad name!

I have been waiting all week for Gail Collins to weigh in on the (latest) Gov. Paterson scandal. Is there anyone better at nailing the utter absurdity of Albany? Why doesn’t Collins have a NYT.com blog?! She’s in top form today.

It’s not really a secret around here that I am a big fan of New York Times op-ed columnist and author Gail Collins. Collins, whose witty and sharp columns often add a measure of levity to the Times op-ed pages — particularly during last year’s sometimes fraught campaign season — has brought those same talents [...]

Our favorite book author Gail Collins stopped by to talk to Stephen Colbert last night about her new book ‘When Everything Changed.’ According to Collins a major problems we face today is that “half the workforce is female now, and we still haven’t figured out who’s supposed to take care of the kids.” Which sort of pales to the problems women faced in 1960.

Gail Collins’ new book When Everything Changed, which we have written about in this space before, was released this week (buy here!). This morning she appeared on a large chunk of Morning Joe to discuss, among other things, the fact that former Vice President Dick Cheney is a “dweeb.”

Who: Gloria Steinem and Farai Chideya, moderated by Gail Collins (New York Times)
What: TimesTalks’ “Changes in Women’s Lives”
Where: The Times Center
When: October 13, 2009
Thumbs: Up

NYT columnist Gail Collins has followed up her best-selling America’s Women with the soon-to-be published When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey Of American Women From 1960 To The Present, an advanced copy of which landed on my desk last week. And I am just as engrossed as I was the last time. Welcome to the latest installment of the Mediaite Book Club.