As the Colorado election results stretched on through the night and Rick Santorum‘s surprising vote count began to roll in, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer became downright giddy. Anderson Cooper observed that The Situation Room host said ‘OMG’ during the break.

John King had an awkward slip-up during CNN’s coverage of Saturday’s Nevada caucus results. King was explaining several factors at play in the night’s voting results, including breaking down votes by each candidate’s respective religion.

Bill O’Reilly and Bernie Goldberg aren’t usually the ones first in line to heap praise upon their competitors over at CNN, but last night they had nothing but good words for Wolf Blitzer‘s performance as moderator of CNN’s latest Republican debate, particularly in shutting down Newt Gingrich. Unlike John King, who Goldberg suggested was trying to “start a food fight” with his question on Gingrich’s marriages, both host and guest agreed that Blitzer was attacked for asking a legitimate question, and that the audience at home was on his side.

Republican hopeful Ron Paul stopped by John King USA and hit back at former GE CEO Jack Welch who earlier called for him to step down from the race. “The former GE CEO Jack Welsh doesn’t think you’ll win the nomination but he also says the Republican Party better be careful. Do you feel the party’s treating you well, sir?” “I think they’re making an attempt to do so. And I think he has something going there,” Paul observed.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer appeared on CNN Thursday and was grilled by John King over her contentious meeting with President Obama. “Were you trying to create a scene here?” King asked. “There are some people suggesting you wanted to have a scene with the president so you could sell more of your books.” “Absolutely not!” Brewer exclaimed “That’s absolutely ridiculous!”

In what Politico‘s Dylan Byers is calling “a small but important victory” for CNN anchor John King, Republican hopeful Newt Gingrich admitted his campaign did not offer ABC News witnesses to rebut his ex-wife’s ‘open marriage’ claim. “Tonight, after persistent questioning by our staff, the Gingrich campaign concedes now Speaker Gingrich was wrong — both in his debate answer, and in our interview yesterday,” King noted on Wednesday’s John King USA. “Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond says the only people the Gingrich campaign offered to ABC were his two daughters from his first marriage.”

A sign of the times? The most comprehensive, mature, and convincing conversation Newt Gingrich has had with the media so far about his dubious personal history comes to us from Univisión, where their top journalist, Jorge Ramos, sat down for an extensive interview with the candidate released today. Ramos went where few journalists have gone before with Gingrich– a comparison of his second known affair with President Clinton’s– and got a fair and long answer.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared on NBC’s Today show this morning, where he told Ann Curry that, if Nancy Pelosi knows something about him that would keep him from becoming president, she should simply “spit it out.”

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sat down with CNN’s John King, to whom she hinted about knowing “something” about former House Speaker Newt Gingrich that makes her certain he’ll never be president.

On CNN’s John King USA, King faced off with Republican hopeful Newt Gingrich for the first time since their King faced off with Republican hopeful Newt Gingrich for the first time since their heated debate exchange about his opening question on his alleged “open marriage” proposal. “I want to come back to your point there, sir,” King asked Gingrich. “You were attacking me and calling me part of the elite media. We can debate whether it was an appropriate question at the beginning of debate.”

Rick Santorum comes into tonight’s debate at a fluid third, the place he held in the South Carolina primary. And he comes into it with the image of being the most solidly conservative candidate in the race, which is both a blessing and a curse. During a rally today, Santorum was confronted with the ugliest part of that side of the aisle– supporters of his who think President Obama is Muslim– and on CNN tonight, John King asked him to explain his response to the lady, which completely dismissed her comments.

During CNN’s election coverage of the South Carolina primary results, Wolf Blitzer “corrected” Piers Morgan for saying fellow network colleague John King “attacked” Newt Gingrich when he asked the former Speaker of the House about the “open marriage” controversy.

Appearing on CNN’s Newsroom, Howard Kurtz criticized his fellow network colleague John King for his “open marriage” question to Newt Gingrich. “I must say that I thought it was a misstep for John King, who is a fair and seasoned and balanced reporter, to make that the very first question of the debate.”

Fox News’ Neil Cavuto defended CNN’s John King for opening Thursday’s debate by asking Newt Gingrich a question about his alleged “open marriage.” “I respect Speaker Gingrich for the energy and intelligence that he brings to this race, but, frankly, his pile on the questioner because you do not like the question, is getting a little long in the debate tooth in this race,” Cavuto scolded.

Just like Juan Williams before him, it appeared that John King got “dunked on” by Newt Gingrich last night. However, Rush Limbaugh doesn’t think he’ll feel any shame for it. No, as Limbaugh explained to his listeners, “you cannot shame the mainstream media.”

Studio B guest host Trace Gallagher talked with Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace and ask him about CNN’s John King‘s controversial opening debate question on Newt Gingrich‘s “open marriage” scandal. “Yeah, I would have!” Wallace exclaimed.

Thursday’s South Carolina debate started off with a bang when moderator John King swiftly and immediately tackled the elephant in the room, asking former Speaker Newt Gingrich about his ex-wife’s ABC News interview about his affair and the dissolution of their marriage.

You may have heard that Newt Gingrich opened Thursday night’s GOP debate with some fireworks, accusing CNN and moderator John King of asking an “appalling” question to start the debate, and blasting, “the destructive vicious negative nature of much of the news media.” On Thursday morning, Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy expressed his displeasure at CNN, introducing a segment on the debate by suggesting that his rival news network would never open a Democratic debate with a question that personal in nature

During CNN’s South Carolina debate, the audience erupted in jeers when John King tried to switch topics from abortion before letting Congressman Ron Paul give his two-cents. “All right, let’s take another question,” King said, before being interrupted by the crowd to let Paul respond. “Let’s take a question now from social media question — before we move on, you want in on this issue?”

Have you been watching this debate, people? Hoo boy. At one point, moderator John King asked Rick Santorum to respond to Newt Gingrich‘s assessment that he and former candidate Rick Perry would do well to drop out of the race, citing their lack of “knowledge” to do anything on a grand scale.

During CNN’s South Carolina debate, moderator John King asked the GOP candidates to weigh in on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) Bill being discussed in Congress, and all of them expressed disapproval.

Republican hopeful Newt Gingrich excoriated CNN’s John King at Thursday’s South Carolina debate for asking if the former Speaker of the House wanted to respond to the allegations by Gingrich’s ex-wife that he had asked her for an “open marriage.” “I am, frankly, astounded that CNN would take trash like that and use it to open a presidential debate,” Gingrich fumed.

Appearing on John King USA on Wednesday evening, Rick Santorum denied he said he didn’t want to make “black people’s lives better” during a pre-caucus campaign event Sunday in Sioux City, Iowa. “I’ve looked at that quote, in fact I looked at the video,” Santorum argued. “In fact, I’m pretty confident I didn’t say black. I started to say is a word and then sort of changed and it sort of — blah — mumbled it and sort of changed my thought.”

CNN had a few great moments way past midnight tonight– the loosening of the proverbial tie happening somewhere around 1:30 AM. But the votes had still not come in, and an industrious producer put Wolf Blitzer in contact with the Clinton County, Iowa Republican Chairwoman, Edith Pfeffer, and the woman who woke her up to get the votes to CNN, Carolyn Talett.

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.