Closing arguments began this week in the Conrad Murray case, and Good Morning America brought in their “legal dream team” to assess the situation. Mediaite founder Dan Abrams and HLN’s Nancy Grace butted heads in their analysis of the case. “Nobody’s on trial because it’s not a crime to be awake. It’s a crime to be dead by having propofol shot into your dead body until all of your organs are saturated with a powerful, surgical anesthetic that is not to be used outside the operating room. Those guys didn’t know what they were talking about!” exclaimed Grace. “It’s actually not a crime to be putting drugs into a dead body,” Abrams snarkily rebutted. “But if you put it in a live body, that is a crime.”

Brian Ross and the entire staff of Good Morning America were dancing for joy Wednesday morning (at least on the inside), as a company they had been dogging with allegations for some time were hit with a large criminal complaint. “A year after we first raised questions about the company’s sales practices here on Good Morning America,” Ross said, “local officials in Los Angeles have filed a 19-count criminal complaint alleging misdemeanor fraud and theft by the company.”

Democratic strategist James Carville appeared on Good Morning America this morning to assess the current crop of front runners in the GOP presidential field and was not shy in his both predictable and entertainingly harsh criticism of his ideological foes. Herman Cain and Mitt Romney were both targeted, but it was Texas Governor Rick Perry, who has seen a rather enormous dip in recent polls, that received the most merciless review.

On Wednesday’s edition of Good Morning America, ABC legal correspondant and Mediaite Founder Dan Abrams discussed the clash between the family and the police in the Baby Lisa case. Abrams reported that Baby Lisa’s parents will only answer questions from authorities under unusually strict guidelines e.g. if they’re asked fairly and by people who haven’t determined guilt. He noted that this was bringing a real tension into the case as police were treating them as potential suspects. “This is their child who’s missing, and people are going to hear that and say ‘I don’t care what your lawyer is telling you, you have to help them everyway that you can.’” Abrams assessed.

ABC News and Yahoo! just announced plans to launch a “strategic online news alliance” that will “blend ABC News’ global newsgathering operation and unrivaled lineup of trusted anchors and reporters with Yahoo! News’ unmatched audience, depth and breadth of content.” The announcement was just made on-air of Good Morning America, a video of which will [...]

Doctor Conrad Murray‘s trial continued yesterday with the jurors hearing testimony from the first security guard to be called to Michael Jackson‘s side by Murray. Alberto Alvarez told the court that Murray told him Jackson had a bad reaction, and asked him to hide a bag of medicine vials before calling the police.

The trial of Conrad Murray continued yesterday with testimony from the Michael Jackson‘s head of security and personal assistant, recounting the scene at Neverland the day the star was found dead. The two described, in a consistent manner, according to Dan Abrams who ran down the day on Good Morning America earlier today, a frantic and suspicious scene.

Conrad Murray‘s trial kicked off to a grim start yesterday with a photo of Michael Jackson’s lifeless body stretched out on a hospital gurney, an eerie recording of Jackson, and tears all around. ”Prosecutors want to make the jurors realize that this is about Michael Jackson‘s gruesome death,” expounded legal analyst Dan Abrams, stopping by Good Morning America early this morning to run down day one.

Former counsel for Michael Jackson, Mark Geragos and Mediaite’s own Dan Abrams stopped by Good Morning America today to preview Doctor Conrad Murray‘s trail, set to start today. Murray has been charged in Jackson’s death, and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical license if found guilty. Proceedings will be televised and broadcast online and will play out as a somber final chapter in the media spectacle that was Jackson’s life.

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly visited Good Morning America to offer his take on the GOP presidential field so far, as well as whether he believes Obama’s new tactics will work to get him re-elected (Hint: NOPE.), and what sort of person would fare well.

Mediaite founder and ABC legal analyst Dan Abrams appeared on Good Morning America this morning — in what seems to be his daily segment — to makes sense of Amanda Knox‘s most recent turn in the Italian courts, this time facing an appeals court in hopes of getting her guilty conviction dropped and returning home to Seattle. “Well, look, she’s got a decent shot here of going free, but there are a lot of other possibilities,” Abrams said, cautioning that Knox is not home-free just yet.

Democratic strategist James Carville is feeling better about President Obama‘s economic strategy after yesterday’s speech. Last week he penned a none-to-subtle op-ed for CNN suggesting that the President do two things: fire all his economic advisors and panic. So far as we know, Obama hasn’t fired everyone just yet, but joining Good Morning America‘s George Stephanpoulous today, Carville sounded pleased with the steps the president has taken, saying, “I think he fired his old negotiating philosophy which was a pretty good start.”

Mediaite founder and ABC News legal analysts Dan Abrams and HLN’s Nancy Grace went head-to-head this morning on Good Morning America, debating the Bob Ward murder trial taking place in Orlando. In a 911 call, Ward admitted to shooting his wife, but later backtracked, saying she killed herself while he tried to take the gun [...]

On Good Morning America this morning, Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus made clear that he is “very satisfied with where the field is at in the Republican side of the aisle” and that “it’s time to start to debate about how to get American back on the rails and save ourselves economically and make Barack Obama a one-term president.” As he sees it, President Obama has “taken the country off the rails,” and Congress’s lagging approval ratings are not a problem. “You know I’m not worried about it, because I think that at the end of the day the fish rots at the head,” he said.

Dr. Mehmet Oz is a real doctor, with real-life credentials and experiences. As a TV doctor, however, he often shares with his viewers real-life health concerns, like unhealthy amounts of arsenic in store bought apple juice. Dr. Oz appeared on GMA this morning and received a remarkably heated challenge from ABC News chief health and medical editor Dr. Richard Besser which included accusations of “fear mongering” and “irresponsible reporting.”

“The President has a package, and the package works together,” said top Obama strategist David Axelrod ABC’s Good Morning America, insisting, as the White House adamantly has, that congress pass the America Jobs Act quickly and in whole. “We want them to act now on this package,” he said. “We are not in negotiation to break up the package. And it’s not an a la carte menu. It’s a strategy to get this country moving.”

In the world of bizarre rap (?) feuds, there are few quite as strange as the one between Chris Brown and Red Eye ombudsman Andy Levy, which began after the latter tweeted a joke about domestic violence to the former, who was convicted of such a crime. On last night’s show, host Greg Gutfeld couldn’t resist bringing up Brown’s strange parking violation problem, for which the entire panel took Brown to task.

On Wednesday morning’s edition of Good Morning America, in an interview with George Stephanopoulos, Karl Rove called Rick Perry‘s stance on Social Security “toxic in a general election environment and…also toxic in a Republican primary.”

Muammar Gaddafi, “has become, for all intents and purposes, a part of Libya’s past and now people need to look to build Libya’s better future,” Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman said, sounding hopeful, on Good Morning America today. During the brief interview conducted from Cairo, he furthered President Barack Obama‘s assessment that Gaddafi’s regime is “absolutely” past it’s tipping point, but reminded GMA host George Stephanopoulos that, even when you are the highest ranking official on the ground, verified information is scarce.

Donald Trump (“The Donald”) managed to the the topic of a national (media) obsession earlier this year when he hinted that he might possibly perhaps consider running for president as a potential GOP candidate. Now, he’s got the rumor mill churning again with chatter that he may yet run — as a 3rd party candidate. In an interview with Good Morning America‘s George Stephanopoulos, Trump hinted (again) that he “might” run with a 3rd party should Republicans not choose the “right” candidate. Stephanopoulos wondered what that meant, and went down the list of front-runners to see how Trump felt about each. As it turned out, if Trump hasn’t met you in person, he can’t possibly consider voting for you (a common thread throughout the interview whenever Stephanopoulos mentions a politician’s name).

Rapper/singer Nicki Minaj paid a visit to Good Morning America and suffered a little bit of a wardrobe malfunction, as might be expected when wears a teeny tiny itty bitty little tank top held up with double-sided tape and a prayer.

Lost in a sea of debt ceiling sturm and drang is another news story that has been overlooked by many in the press, a potentially resolved mystery that has captivated the nation’s attention and has even been the focus of a feature film in the earlys’80s. It’s the story of D.B. Cooper, the alleged skyjacker of a commercial flight in the early 70s, who has been a legend of mythic proportions and, thus far, an unsolved case. Until now, perhaps, thanks to a Marla Cooper, who is the niece of Lynn Doyle Cooper, who she believes is the real D.B. Cooper.

On Good Morning America, ABC’s Sam Champion warned East Coast viewers it’s not just going to be insanely hot today, but–brace yourself–you might not have air conditioning to endure the heat. Champion says the monster heat wave is pushing power grids toward capacity as temperatures hover around 100 degrees and energy consumption strains the system. It’s called a “heat dome,” a shroud of high pressure that’s keeping millions of Americans stuck in a prison of hot, humid air–and a very real possibility of power failures.

Want to get on Paris Hilton‘s bad side? Ask her if she’s old news. ABC’s Dan Harris sat down with Hilton at her home in Los Angeles to talk about her career, and whether or not low ratings for her Fox reality show The Simple Life indicate she’s seeing the end of her “moment.” Hilton smiles awkwardly, looks off camera–taking direction from a handler–and walks off. As Harris described it, “after storming off, Hilton eventually returned to the interview after some cajoling to discuss her ideas about her own reinvention.” The interview–and the interruption–were featured on Wednesday morning’s GMA.

The image of a liberated Casey Anthony leaving the prison that has for years housed her must have been extremely jarring for those that followed the case closely and had no doubt of her guilt. Needless to say, it was difficult to watch for Nancy Grace. Grace appeared on Good Morning America today to react to the midnight release, and aside from questions as to who is funding Anthony’s getaway, she noted weighing heavily on her was a “disappointment in our justice system.”