Today, the White House announced that President Obama would be spending September 11th attending memorial services at the Pentagon which he also did last year. Many in the media are speculating that this decision was made to avoid possible protests if he spent the day at Ground Zero. On Fox News, Lou Dobbs likened the move to a president hiding himself in “a bunker.”

Megyn Kelly had on Lou Dobbs as guest on her show America Live today in which they talked about the emerging narrative of the White House “potentially being thin skinned” as Kelly put it just before running a clip of President Obama‘s now infamous quote in which he claimed “powerful interests” who “talk about me like a dog.” As if to prove the president’s point, Dobbs chose not to soften his rhetoric, instead upping the sophomoric ante by ostensibly calling the sitting U.S. President a cry baby. This is how we live now.

A lot hay has been made by cable pundits and right of center politician of late, regarding the issue of the 14th Amendment, which essential claims that any child born in the United States is automatically a naturalized citizen, regardless of the immigration status of their parents. Recently Senators Lindsey Graham and John Kyl have considered eliminating birthright citizenship, which is the exact sort of controversy custom-made for cable news programming! Et VoilĂ  – today Fox News host Megyn Kelly and Lou Dobbs discussed this very issue!

Bill Press is a member of an increasingly endangered species: the successful progressive radio host. With his new book, Toxic Talk: How the Radical Right Has Poisoned America’s Airwaves, my White House press colleague aims to diagnose, and treat, the left’s deficit on the dial. While it lives up to its title, Toxic Talk is much more than a catalog of crass conservative cacophony. Breezy and full of insights for left, right, and in between, Press’ book is essential reading for political media junkies.

Missing in all the Arizona immigration law debate in the media was one familiar cable news personality – Lou Dobbs.

The former CNN host, who made illegal immigration a major topic on his program for years, weighed in on the topic upon entering Bill O’Reilly‘s No-Spin Zone last night.

Here’s a blast from the past, in cable news time: former CNN anchor and current radio host Lou Dobbs has inexplicably popped up in an extensive 6-page profile in GQ, railing against bad grammar, illegal immigrants, potholes and stopping his endless ranting for a few seconds to suggest he is running for president in 2012.

Cable news ratings for the first quarter came out this week, and its been a rather tough day for CNN. Writing for the NY Times, Bill Carter‘s story includes a headline that screams “CNN Fails to Stop Fall in Ratings.” No, it’s not good news – or more to the point — it’s actually more bad news. Insiders have long whispered about what’s going on at CNN, and alas, the continued and consistent poor ratings mean that its finally time to openly question Jon Klein‘s future in his role as President of CNN.

CNN announced this morning the hiring of RedState.com editor Erick Erickson as a political contributor for their new 7pmET program, John King, USA. The addition of Erickson to the team fits in well with John King’s idea of the program as a political rundown of every part of the nation with a variety of opinions (Erickson will be located in Atlanta). Yet given that King’s predecessor, Lou Dobbs, felt that as an advocate journalist he was not a good fit for the future of the network, hiring someone to the right of Dobbs as a contributor for that time spot may send some mixed messages.

John King‘s new CNN show at 7pmET will launch sometime…soon, and he and CNN have found a creative way to make the announcement of when that will be and what it will be called – Twitter clues.

That’s right, stay tuned to Twitter for the details about the delayed launch of one of the most important CNN products in the last couple years.

Glenn Beck may have organized the 9/12 movement and think the White House is stock full of Mao enthusiasts but he draws the line at the Birthers! Beck yesterday referred to the movement as “dumb.” So dumb, in fact, that Beck thinks they are likely setting themselves up as puppets of conniving Liberals who are secretly campaigning to get the Birthers on air in order to marginalize them even further.

Technically speaking we could also title this ‘Our Most Popular Posts Ever!’ or alternately ‘Our Most Popular Posts Of The 2nd Half Of 2009′ since Mediaite actually didn’t come into existence until July of this year. Regardless, any way you slice it these were our most popular posts in 2009 reposted here with their original excerpts and links. Media Muggles, Sarah Palin, and Noam Chomsky may make for a strange mix but turns out they are all very popular!

Ever since Lou Dobbs announced he was leaving CNN, there have been questions about where he’d end up. Earlier today, the New York Times reported Dobbs had, “held talks with the business news network CNBC in recent weeks.” But tonight, a CNBC spokesperson tells Mediaite, “We are not in talks or negotiations with Lou Dobbs. He is not going to work at CNBC.”

Now that Lou Dobbs is free from his CNN constraints, he’s appearing everywhere from Fox News to NBC. But the on-air and off-air members of his show’s staff want to stick around CNN as the network transitions away to a new show and format.

The New York Post reports they will have to re-apply for jobs within CNN to stay with the network.

John King takes over the 7pmET timeslot on CNN early next year, as the network moves from its advocacy journalism previous host, Lou Dobbs, to a more traditional newscast.

We spoke to King yesterday as he was on the road in Little Rock, Arkansas, visiting his 45th state in 45 weeks. He talked about plans for the new show, what he’ll take from Dobbs’ previous program, and yes, ratings.

Lou Dobbs was on the Daily Show last night, in an interview that skirted lightly around the reasons for his split with CNN, despite welcoming Dobbs to the set with a Mariachi band (though Jon Stewart did call Dobbs’ views “abhorrent and wrong”). Dobbs said he parted ways with CNN because he didn’t fit with their “middle of the road journalism.” Then they talked about whether Obamacare = Tyranny. And more!

Now that he’s gone rogue, Lou Dobbs is free from his CNN constraints to go on any network he wants.

His first choice was Bill O’Reilly on Fox News, and this morning he was on the Today show set at NBC with Matt Lauer. He didn’t reveal his future plans, but maybe there’ll be a lot of media appearances.

Almost a week after the fact, lots of fascinating details are starting to trickle in about Lou Dobbs‘ departure from CNN. Why did he announce his resignation on Wednesday instead of the more customary Friday? (Bad luck to bow on Friday the 13th.) What sort of severance did he get? (For the headline-impaired among you, that would be $8 million.) The big question: is Dobbs planning on going into politics?

Jon Stewart said his goodbye to Lou Dobbs last night on The Daily Show, but he won’t have to wait too long to see him back on cable news.

Dobbs will be on The O’Reilly Factor Monday night.

“What a relief to get the odious Lou Dobbs out of the news business, at least for a while.” Let’s just say that Bil Rappleye thinks his replacement with John King is a step in the right direction for CNN.

Shortly after Lou Dobbs announced his decision to leave CNN, he received his very first going-away present: a “Worst Person in the World” bronze medal, courtesy of Keith Olbermann. What did he do to deserve the honor less than two hours after he announced his departure?

In what sounded like the beginning of a campaign stump speech, Lou Dobbs announced on his program tonight on CNN that he was leaving the network, effective immediately.

He said he would “engage in constructive problem solving,” and will “pursue new opportunities – at this point I’m considering a number of options and directions.”

Wolf Blitzer made a stunning revelation to the nation last night when he revealed that he knew what marijuana smelled like. In what at first seemed to be playful banter between Blitzer, Jessica Yellin, and Lou Dobbs, Blitzer dropped the bombshell that he would “know what [marijuana] would smell like.”

What impact will this have on Blitzer’s reputation? Lou Dobbs? What about CNN itself, and even the future of the Republic?

On this week’s Reliable Sources, Howard Kurtz struck back at CNN cohort Lou Dobbs. Earlier in the week, Dobbs claimed that he and his wife had been shot at in their New Jersey home, in part due to the “national liberal media” and its coverage in the immigration debate. Kurtz and guest Margaret Carlson were skeptical.

For all of the hoopla about Fox News’s partisan bias, what about the rest of cableland? Writing in The New York Times, CNBC correspondent John Harwood makes the point that essentially all cable news networks that aren’t Fox have viewerships that tilt substantially to the left, which is very different from how it was eight and even four years ago. It’s not just MSNBC: even the likes of HLN, CNBC, and Comedy Central have big Democratic leans.

Who is Lou Dobbs mad at now?

No, not Keith Olbermann or anyone on MSNBC, or Pres. Obama or anyone in the White House. How about John Stossel? You know, the newly hired analyst at Fox Business Network (the same outfit Dobbs is rumored to be headed to!)