On Saturday mornings’s Up with Chris Hayes, journalist and MSNBC contributor Karen Hunter challenged The New York Times‘ Jodi Kantor over her motivation for writing the buzzed-about tome The Obamas. Hunter leveled a highly-charged criticism at Kantor, mentioning her “seven figure” payday, and wondering “What was your motivation for doing it?”

Kantor’s response seemed to be leading to a crackling exchange, but host Chris Hayes swooped in and changed the subject.

Soledad O’Brien welcomed The Obamas author Jodi Kantor on Starting Point Friday morning, and things got a little heated as O’Brien continuously tried to ask Kantor to defend her methodology in reporting the book.

On Thursday morning’s Fox and Friends, Eric Bolling asked why bombshell revelations from the Jodi Kantor book The Obamas, like supposed tension between the East and West Wing and the Secret Halloween Party That Wasn’t A Secret, were “not exposed by the White House press corps.”

Fox News contributor Andrea Tantaros‘ diagnosis: “most reporters” are “lazy and liberal.”

There’s been quite a bit of hubbub lately about The Obamas, a controversial book by The New York Times‘ Jodi Kantor, which promises all sorts of juicy details from the White House. Well, one of those details leaked recently and it’s been blowing up. You see, it appears that the Obama Administration had a star-studded Halloween party for military families and kept it a secret from the White House press! Well, earlier today, our own Tommy Christopher (an actual member of said press) pointed out the many reasons why the “scandal” was fairly silly. However, later on, during The Five, Eric Bolling argued that…

Oh my God. Eric Bolling and Tommy Christopher agree about something. We have reached the End Times.

One of the revelations from the new book The Obamas by The New York Times‘ Jodi Kantor that’s getting some unexpected heat (especially on right-wing blogs) is the supposedly “secret” 2009 Halloween party at the White House, which was attended by the likes of Johnny Depp and Chewbacca The Wookie. At today’s White House briefing, Jay Carney responded to the “controversy,” telling ABC Radio’s Ann Compton and Fox News’ Ed Henry that it wasn’t actually a secret at all.

Today’s Matt Lauer put author Jodi Kantor on the heat seat Monday morning over her controversial new book, The Obamas, which claims — among other things — that there are tensions between White House staff and the First Lady.

Over the course of 2011, we covered an array of politicians, authors, entertainers, media mavens, and others as they discussed their crafts and their industries. (Here’s last year’s list.) We enjoyed most of the panels, lectures, and debates we took in, while some of them fell short. Here, a rundown of our 5 favorites, followed by the 10 quotes that defined the year in New York City media panels:

Who: Richard Just, Jodi Kantor, Ryan Lizza, moderated by Franklin Foer
What: “The Year of the Herminator: A Panel of Reporters Explain the Weirdest Republican Primary Ever”
Where: New America NYC
When: December 8, 2011
Thumbs: Way Up

There is still money to be made in book publishing, apparently. Sort of. Apparently the publishing world feels there’s still enough juice to be squeezed out of the nation’s fascination with our First Couple that they are willing to cough up seven figures for it.