The back and forth between MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and Fox News’ Glenn Beck continues… And, is it our imagination, or do both men seem to be kind of in on the joke? They seem to be genuinely enjoying this.

Glenn Beck took a little time to address something on many people’s minds: The end of the world! Brought upon, specifically, by nuclear war. Will it happen? Won’t it? Should we start stockpiling baby wipes and saltines right about now?

There’s been no shortage of video showing the force of the tsunami that struck Japan. But in this just-released video, a man captures his perspective as a driver on a coastal road suddenly caught in the path of a devastating tsunami. “When I turned the corner I could see the wall of water,” the man told reporters. “At that moment I could do nothing else but keep driving.”

Look, it’s not like we’re expecting plumes of radiation here in the U.S. anytime soon. President Obama was clear on that yesterday. We don’t expect any harmful radiation. But, hey, stuff happens, right? So Good Morning America was kind enough to do a demo this morning on how to use sheets of plastic and duct [...]

Between the Middle East’s sovereignty as we know it breaking down, myriad natural disasters and a less-than-stellar economy, no one would doubt that being the leader of the free world in 2011 is no easy task. Luckily for President Obama, there is some sympathy for him out in the media world– take, for instance, Newsweek editor Tina Brown, who suggested on Morning Joe this morning that “with the world exploding as it is, I have to say that Obama has the worst inbox of any president maybe in history.”

Potential presidential candidate Donald Trump slammed the president for playing golf amid the crisis in Japan, but former vice president Dan Quayle laughed off that comment, saying “I’m glad he’s out playing golf…I think presidents deserve downtime.”

In an interview with Neil Cavuto on the Fox Business Network, Quayle spoke extensively on the Japan crisis and its impact on nuclear energy, and defended President Obama.

Nine-year-old Toshihito Aisawa has spent the last few days combing through shelters in search of his missing family: his father, mother, grandmother and two of the boy’s cousins were nowhere to be found in the wake of Japan’s recent series of devastating events.

The nuclear emergency currently underway in Japan as a result of last week’s deadly earthquake is some scary stuff– scary enough to make some pundits (ahem, Glenn Beck) wonder aloud whether this is the “end of the world.” In others, however, it appears to have had the completely opposite effect. Take Lawrence O’Donnell, for one, who begged viewers today to believing him, that “this is absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt not the end of the world.”

Nuclear physicist and medical expert Ann Coulter has spoken, and it turns out that a giant radioactive plume floating across the Pacific may be just what the doctor ordered for fretting California residents. On tonight’s O’Reilly Factor, Coulter told host Bill O’Reilly that “radiation is good for you,” and cited a number of articles in the New York Times showing radiation has a positive effect on cancer patients. Then, of course, she blamed “the media” for not covering it.

Glenn Beck just broadcast an image straight out of the Tea Party’s best dreams and his liberal detractors’ worst nightmares. Unsatisfied with President Obama’s statements on the massive devastation in Japan, Beck decided to take a shot at delivering an “Oval Office Speech,” praising the Japanese for their resilience and imploring Americans to compete harder against their good allies.

In what has become an annual tradition, critics of President Obama are slamming him for taking the time to select picks for the NCAA’s “March Madness” College Basketball Tournament, when he should be focusing on…(fill in current event here). I say “has become an annual tradition” because, prior to the Obama presidency, I don’t remember another President being criticized for such a brief sports-related diversion. Is it the president in question, the sport, or both?

Rush Limbaugh responded to criticism that he was insensitive to Japanese victims by clarifying that he actually “bucked the conventional wisdom” by not making fun of the Japanese people and instead only mocked ABC‘s Diane Sawyer. Distinguishing himself from the likes of Gilbert Gottfried, Rush said all he’s guilty of is “cramming it down the throats of the liberals.”

Travelers arriving in Chicago from Japan set off radiation detectors at O’Hare Airport on Wednesday. Airport officials described the radiation as a “very small amount,” but significant enough to trigger alarms as the passengers were clearing customs. “We are aware of the radiation,” Chicago Aviation Department spokesman Karen Pride told WBBM radio. “We are adding screenings and precautionary measures.”

In an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan set to air tonight, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said the expanding threat of a nuclear catastrophe in Japan has changed his thinking on the safety of nuclear power. “It certainly caused me to reconsider the projects of building civil nuclear power plants,” Netanyahu said. “I have to tell you I was a lot more enthusiastic about it than I am now.”

Netanyahu, whose conversation with Morgan touches on Israel, Palestine, the spread of uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, said what’s happening in Japan is a “confluence of a natural disaster and a man-made disaster. And the cloud of radioactivity, the uncertainty of what will happen with it, is the cloud that hangs over the people of Japan, and the people of the world.”

he Fukushima Fifty is a group comprised of 180 power plant workers – working in rotating shifts of 50 – doing all they can to stop the Fukushima plant’s nuclear reactors and fuel rods from leaking additional radiation. Some are calling their task a “suicide mission,” while other nuclear experts (like Jere Jenkins, the director of Radiation Laboratories at Purdue University) assuring a worried world that they know exactly what they’re doing, with all the proper precautions in place. Which is all the more reason to ask: Who are these workers?

Well, this was a bit awkward… ABC correspondent Jake Tapper asked White House Press Secretary Jay Carney about what specific information the White House has on the goings-on in Japan. To which Carney basically replied: “Find out for yourself.”

The ladies of The View discussed Gilbert Gottfried’s recent Japan jokes, with Joy Behar chiming in with… this:

I don’t know, maybe people who just need relief from the terror of it all. I don’t know, but I mean, I’m sure people in concentration camps made jokes about each other, about the Nazis, about their situation. That’s the way people relieve stress.

CNN spin off network HLN finds itself in a unique position: As news trickles out that the plant’s nuclear reactors are possibly being abandoned due to imminent danger and the threat of a nuclear catastrophe looms on the horizon, how does its celebrity gossip and entertainment news show, Showbiz Tonight, tout its coverage of Japan-related news and, say, Selena Gomez‘s Justin Bieber dating drama without seeming out of touch?

Dr. Jay Lehr of the Heartland Institute and Dr. Arjan Makhuani joined host Bill Hemmer on Fox News this morning for what turned out to be a spirited debate over nuclear power safety in light of the current situation in Japan. Lehr suggested that the news frenzy over the damaged nuclear reactor was an overreaction by the media. Makhuani’s position was that the health risks that come from leaked radiation is well documented and that the situation was still dangerous. Then things got ugly.

At the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, all of the workers are now being evacuated due to elevated radiation risks. As MSNBC‘s Ed Schultz reports, this now means that the facility will be unmanned and leaves the stability of the plant in severe doubt.

Bill O’Reilly believes that the “worldwide media is hyping the nuke situation in Japan a bit too much.” Given that the hype is causing chaos in the stock markets and panic throughout Japan, O’Reilly thinks that until there are new developments, the nuke situation should not continue to be the subject of media speculation.

Glenn Beck opened his show by looking around the world and seeing crisis everywhere, from Middle East rebellions to the Japanese natural disaster, and wondered why President Obama was not showing more passion? Beck was shocked that Obama instead made time to attend concerts, play golf, promote women’s history month and share March Madness predictions with ESPN.

Nuclear expert Jim Walsh visited CNN’s In the Arena to discuss the most recent in a string of ongoing problems at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. “Well, this is definitely not good news,” Walsh told host Eliot Spitzer, before telling viewers that it’s important not to jump to conclusions before having all the facts straight about what exactly is going on at the plant.

Dan Turner, the press secretary to Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, has stepped down from his role after it was revealed that he made jokes about the ongoing disasters in Japan in the daily email he sends out to Barbour’s staff and cohorts.

The joke was a parenthetical noting that Otis Redding’s popular song “Sittin’ on (The Dock of a Bay)” is “not a big hit in Japan right now.”

As the nuclear crisis in Japan continues to unfold, cable news has tried, with varying degrees of success, to explain what’s happening within the imperiled nuclear facilities. From a news consumer’s point of view, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has been doing an admirable job placing the crisis in clear layman’s terms. On Monday night’s show, she [...]