CNN Headline News host and The View panelist Joy Behar and actress Cynthia Nixon received the top honors at the Gay an Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Awards handed out March 13 in New York.  Behar won the excellence in media honors and Nixon received the Vito Russo Award for advocacy by an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender media person.

The New York Times won the award for best overall newspaper coverage, with the NYT's Frank Rich winning for best columnist, Tara Parker-Pope winning for best newspaper article for "Kept from a Dying Partner's Bedside" and Benoit Denizet-Louis winning for best magazine article for his NYT magazine piece "Coming Out in Middle School." Best television news segment went to CNN's "Why Will Won't Say the Pledge of Allegiiance" while Rachel Maddow won for best TV news journalism for "Uganda Be Kiddng Me."

Outstanding digital journalism article was won by ESPN.com's "We Love You, This Won't Change a Thing'" by John Buccigross who told the story of Brendan Burke's coming out to his father U.S. Olympic hockey coach Brian Burke. Brendan died in a February car crash. The award was shared with AfterElton.com's  "Why Can't You Just Butch Up? Gay Men, Effeminacy, and Our War with Ourselves" by Brent Hartinger.

Best Spanish language newspaper article went Pilar Marrero of La Opinion to "Mas familias de dos papás o dos mamas" for a story on adoption by same-sex couples while Univision and Telemundo divided up the outstanding Spanish-language television journalism awards.

video Elinor Burkett made headlines last Sunday when she interrupted Roger Ross Williams' acceptance speech for producers of the Academy Award-winning short-subject documentary Music By Prudence. Last night she explained her "Kanye Moment" with Joy Behar and seemed to ignore the graceful route of explanation, choosing instead to remind us all of why we didn't like her to begin with. (more...)

video The guy who got Kanye'd at Sunday night's Oscars was a guest on CNN last night. And after a short interview, Larry King gave Roger Ross Williams his shot to give his full speech - before interrupting him again. (more...)

video Joy Behar had on her regular guests Ann Coulter and Hilary Rosen to discuss, among other things, Karl Rove's controversial new book Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight. When the subject came to Rove's nickname of "Bush's Brain," the analysis turned to that of a Good Cop/Bad Cop scenario between Rove and George W. Bush. Unfortunately for Behar, instead of "bad cop" she inadvertently referred to Rove as "bad c*ck," which earned an in-studio chuckle. (more...)

video The Best Documentary Short Oscars category has never been this exciting! After Elinor Burkett Kanye'd Roger Ross Williams last night, each get their chance to explain what the hell happened in dueling cable news exclusives. (more...)

video Too soon? Tonight on The Joy Behar Show, the View co-host discussed Dick Cheney's recent hospitalization with Bill Maher, who didn't waste any time or sympathy before calling the former VP a Soviet robot. Yikes! (more...)

video Bill O'Reilly wants you to know that he is smarter than feminist playwright Eve Ensler. After showing a clip of Ensler asking why people give attention to someone (Sarah Palin) whose "intelligence hasn't really evolved yet," O'Reilly also claimed that if he and Ensler were to have a debate, he "would pound her into pudding with intellectual arguments." Hyperbole or not, hearing O'Reilly chastise feminists for any critiques on Palin struck an odd chord, but made for strangely compelling video. (more...)

video Andrew Young is on a full media push to promote his new John Edwards tell-all book, The Politician. Depending on where he ended up on the dial, he got to reveal some reveal some salacious and unique details of his relationship with the one-time Presidential candidate. Here's a look at three Young cable news interviews yesterday. (more...)

video I don't think Elisabeth Hasselbeck actually meant that we should literally put the former president on trial (though, honestly, sometimes it's hard to tell amidst all the shrieking) instead she was arguing we shouldn't use the prosecution of the 9/11 terrorists in a civilian court as a sort of backdoor way to retroactively try Bush policies. But in an attempt to make her point that's actually what she said. (more...)

Last night I was on the Joy Behar Show to discuss the Conan-Leno-NBC-Late-Night kerfuffle. Joy spoke first with Bill Carter of the New York Times, pretty much the go-to expert on all things late night thanks to his seminal — and still relevant! — book The Late Shift. Following Carter's comments (he thinks NBC and Leno will be just fine, by the way), Joy discussed the brou-ha-ha with her panel, which consisted of me, Rachelle Carson of "Living With Ed" (her show with husband Ed Begley) and comedian-actor-musician-pop-culture-expert Hal Sparks, who made me crack up on the air with a lube joke. Well done, Hal. Lube jokes are never rendered obsolete by breaking news stories. (more...)

video FBN anchor John Stossel returned to his former network, ABC, for an interview with the women of The View. The discussion, about banks, bonuses and the government's role (you can guess where libertarian Stossel stands), was spirited, but ultimately came to some common ground. (more...)

The year 2009 had many media bright spots, break-out stars, dominating networks and game-changing technologies.  The Mediaite 50 collects the finest, most exemplary innovators and influencers of the year, defining a media moment in time and setting the agenda as we move forward. (more...)

video Joy Behar continued her string of news-making guests since her HLN show's launch (Bill Maher, Ann Coulter, Joe the Plumber, Orly Taitz to name a few), adding Levi Johnston to the list last night. While he stayed fairly quiet on new Sarah Palin info, he did talk about being a "gay icon" - and revealed more upcoming Playgirl pics. (more...)

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Jesse Ventura's promotional blitz for his new truTV show Conspiracy Theory has been a strange but entertaining mix of made-for-soundbite quotes, stabs at his former employers, and earnest political commentary. In his appearance on last night's Joy Behar Show, he touched a nerve when he bluntly asked if President Obama "really run the country" given his escalating commitments in Afghanistan. He also stormed out of The Opie and Anthony Show after being heckled by comedian (?) Jim Norton over his antiwar stance. (more...)

video Here's the answer to the headline: no. But Joy Behar wondered on The View yesterday if describing the day after Thanksgiving as "Black Friday" was actually racist - and Whoopi Goldberg told her it wasn't. (more...)

video Rush Limbaugh's interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace on Sunday, during which he criticized President Obama's "out of this world ego" and described the president as "immature," "inexperienced," and "in over his head" is still making waves. On Joy Behar's HLN show last night both Arianna Huffington and The Nation's Katrina Vanden Heuvel weighed in on the interview, which Vanden Heuvel described as 'sycophantic': (more...)

video Bill O'Reilly appeared on The View Friday, dressed as a vampire for their Halloween-themed show. This is what happens when five women, including one dressed as a box of cereal, and a Fox News host dressed like he's Count Dracula have a heated political discussion. (more...)

While Fox News is headed for its best ratings of all time, and CNN and MSNBC are seeing some of their worst ratings of 2009, where does that leave cable news network #4 - CNN sister network HLN? In a very good place. HLN is also on pace for its best ratings ever, in total day and prime time, in total viewers and the A25-54 demographic. So what's working? (more...)

video "You're not a celebrity," the always outspoken Joy Behar said midway through her HLN interview with Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber. That may be so, but "grass-roots activist" Wurzelbacher's fifteen minutes haven't run out yet. He was back and at it again on Behar's program on HLN last night, dishing out on the Republican Party, homosexuality, and the Tea Party movement. (more...)

video As ill-advised as the White House 'war' against Fox News might be -- last night at a Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me taping at Carnegie Hall Brian Williams said he thought the White House "might want this one back -- it is a gift to the media industry. Much the way the 2008 election provided a narrative for the entire industry so is this smaller campaign against (between?) Fox and the Obama administration providing everyone, including the blogosphere(!), with daily fodder, and new shows with a quick way to get in on the conversation. (more...)

Why do people keep letting crazy Birther lady Orly Taitz on their TV shows? Maybe because she's Rod Blagojevich say-anything kee-razy with a head of hair to match? Joy Behar's show is new, and everyone needs the buzz, so there you have it: Orly Taitz was on Joy Behar last night, accusing President Barack Obama of "massive fraud" and waving around some highlighted binder like Betsy McCaughey about to sing Happy Birthday to the President. Apparently Taitz has a court date? In California? Questioning Obama's birth? Because as an Israeli that makes perfect sense. Also, she's a dentist. (more...)

video HLN host Joy Behar somehow combined Mad Men and "Don't Ask Don't Tell" in a segment last night, talking to Bryan Batt, a gay actor from the show, and columnist Dan Savage. But Behar threw another topic into the mix - the sexual orientation of Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. (more...)

video Joy Behar's new HLN show has had no shortage of high-profile and controversial guests since its premiere, and has made a big (and successful) PR push. But after one week, have the ratings matched the buzz? (more...)

video Joy Behar started her new cable news show on Tuesday, giving her two hours each day on the small screen. She's on The View every morning, and on HLN at 9pmET. But yesterday Behar didn't stop there. She showed up at 11pmET on The Daily Show and "she" showed up on NBC at 8pmET as well. (more...)

video Two Joy Behar shows on HLN so far, two conversations about Fox News host Glenn Beck. Last night Behar had HBO host Bill Maher as a guest for her "below the beltway" segment, and as expected, Maher didn't hold back on any topic. But it is what he had to say about Beck that will get the most attention. (more...)

video For the second night of her new 9pmET HLN show, Joy Behar brought in an old nemesis: Ann Coulter. You may recall that in February, Behar interviewed Coulter when she was guest hosting on Larry King Live, and even the likes of Entertainment Weekly and New York Magazine thought that Coulter outmatched her. Their second matchup, in May, was a stalemate. How did the liberal Behar, who recently told Mediaite "I'm a talk show host, not a journalist," fare against the self-described conservative "polemicist?" Interview highlights, and video, after the jump. (more...)

5QQ You probably know Joy Behar from her usual location - weekday mornings, sitting around a table with several other women, talking about news and life and interviewing guests, always inserting her own unique brand of humor into the discussion. As an original member of The View, the native New Yorker has spent more than 12 years in that role on ABC. Now she adds a new position - beginning tonight, she hosts a 9pmET news/talk show on HLN, the sister network of CNN. Behar has reached into the cable news arena before, as a frequent guest and sometime guest host on CNN's Larry King Live. Now she'll be his direct competitor. Behar always likes to talk on TV - she took a few minutes (she's busy launching a show) to give her thoughts for the latest installment of 5QQ - Five Quick Questions. (more...)

VIDEO Long before The Daily Show, long before The Colbert Report, Saturday Night Live was making fun of the news in a way that no one had ever seen before. Suddenly, establishment journalists like Barbara Walters were fair game. Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd riffed on the seething hostility between co-anchors. Heck, they even took on the 70s trend of sign language interpreters popping up in newscasts. Oprah, Dateline, Geraldo Rivera... SNL's had distinctive takes on almost every major media presence over the years. And SNL's news spoofs aren't just entertainment: it's arguable that more Americans made up their minds about Sarah Palin based on SNL's Katie Couric/Sarah Palin interview than on the original interview itself. Stephen Colbert and John Stewart have done a lot in the news satire biz, but they still have some catching up to do. In honor of the premiere of season 35 of SNL, we've pulled together 35 of SNL's choicest news anchor spoofs and Weekend Updates, spanning all seasons. Shoot us a comment or a tip if you think we've missed a good one. We're seriously counting on a good Glenn Beck skit... Here it is. (more...)

As if to confirm that the pre-Labor Day news drought is officially over, there's been a ton of movement in the Power Grid this past week. Upstarts have risen, giants have fallen, and Eliot Spitzer has broken into the top five TV pundits. What does it even mean, man? Before we answer that, we'd like to introduce a brand-new feature of the Power Grid. (more...)

HLN announced Joy Behar will have her own program, replacing the re-airing of Lou Dobbs at 9 PM. Headline News' evening lineup now consists of relative murderer's row Jane Velez-Mitchell, Nancy Grace, and now the co-host of the View. HLN Head Ken Jautz seems to continue to make decisions that  are smart and successful, particularly compared to his counterpart at CNN Jon Klein. (more...)