Keith Olbermann opened the latest chapter in his itinerant broadcasting career last night, and introduced as a contributing guest Markos Moulitsas, founder of DailyKos, to his new program. Moulitsas was on to ostensibly explain why he stopped appearing on MSNBC roughly a year ago, but ended up using the reclaimed platform of a broadcast medium to antagonize his former allies at MSNBC, especially Morning Joe Host Joe Scarborough, to whom he referred as a “loser.” #Newtone.

Since the revelation Friday that the sources known as “Betty,” “Veronica,” and “Mrs. Betty” are not who they represented themselves to be, a lot of questions, speculations, and criticisms have arisen. As the reporter who broke the story, vigorously defended it, and helped to discover the deception, it’s reasonable for people to expect some answers to those things. While I don’t have a lot to add to what we published on Friday, I will do my best to apply that information to these questions, speculations, and criticisms.

One gut-wrenching by-product of the pursuit of the Weinergate story is the degree to which the safety and privacy of underage girls have been compromised, by those on the right and the left. Both right-wing blogger Jim Hoft and left-wing blogger Markos Moulitsas defiantly refused calls to redact the identities of underage girls, and conservative activist Dan Wolfe‘s crusade against Weiner brought one 16 year-old girl into contact with Mike Stack, a man with a troubling history.

The “Weinergate” story has been a veritable clinic in the pitfalls of new media-influenced journalism, and one such pitfall has come to a head. Andrew Breitbart has been repeatedly accused of engineering a hoax against Rep. Anthony Weiner, and while journalistic ethics prevented me from explaining further, I tried to defend him. As rampant, baseless speculation ruled the week, I have been developing the story the old-fashioned way, by properly verifying facts before I release them.

In the days following the massacre in Tucson, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has become a focal point in the media conversation about the shootings. A confluence of events has linked Palin to the shooting, despite a lack of any evidence of a causal link. Aside from some ludicrous backstopping by an aide and a partial email to Glenn Beck, however, the normally loquacious media supernova has been uncharacteristically silent on this issue.

Despite earlier reports that he would end the segment, Keith Olbermann announced Monday night that Countdown‘s “Worst Person in the World” segment will continue in some form, but under a different name.

He explained the fact that the segment was rooted in satire, but that some still thought he was literally claiming that these were the actual worst people in the world, and “there’s potential danger in that.”

The tragic shooting in a Tuscon area Safeway that killed 6 individuals and put Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition has caused significant ripples in the political media. Amid fingerpointing about “violent rhetoric,” Countdown host Keith Olbermann led the charge with a “Special Comment” calling for an end to such discourse. According to one report, it appears that Olbermann is putting his money where his mouth is, and permanently ending his “Worst Person in the World” segment, but MSNBC tells Mediaite that no decision has been made.

In a special Saturday episode of Countdown, spurred by the mass shooting that claimed six lives and left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords clinging to life, host Keith Olbermann declared an end to violent political rhetoric. In doing so, he ran through a laundry list of conservative examples of same, plus one of his own, and while critics may paint this as merely an opportunistic attempt to bludgeon those with whom he disagrees, his overarching theme is worth serious consideration.

During a Fox News segment today, anchor Shep Smith tossed to a live shot of a vigil for critically wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and several seconds into it, as one mourner said “…and I say to you, Sarah Palin…” then cut to a commercial. Sarah Palin, a Fox News contributor, has come under fire in the early aftermath of this mass shooting, as some are connecting it with her “crosshairs” ad from earlier this year.

As details emerge about the Arizona shooting that claimed the life of federal Judge John Roll, and left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Az) fighting for her life, echoes of violent political imagery have come under eery scrutiny, no more so than in this March interview between Giffords and MSNBC’s Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie. In the clip, Giffords talks about threats and vandalism of her office, and specifically mentions Sarah Palin‘s “crosshairs” ad.

Shortly after reports surfaced that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had been shot point-blank range during a meet and greet event in a Tuscon area Safeway parking lot, the managers of the website for Sarah Palin’s website SarahPAC took down some controversial imagery that included gun sight symbols over various congressional districts in political play, many on [...]

Real Time host Bill Maher, who normally says “teabagger” more frequently than a foreman on a Lipton assembly line, was on his best behavior last night for “Tea Party Person” (and Hottest Conservative New Media Woman) Dana Loesch. Both he and DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas, another aficionado of the term, studiously avoided using the Tea Party-coined-then-rejected appellation throughout most of the show, obviously in deference to Loesch.

Following a harsh exchange between MSNBC host Joe Scarborough and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas on Twitter in May, Moulitsas writes today that he has been banned (for now) from appearing on the network.

He publishes an email from MSNBC President Phil Griffin explaining the reasoning (a “cheap shot”), but Moulitsas concludes he has “been booted from the network because of a Scarborough temper tantrum.”

Last week, The Daily Kos filed a lawsuit against the company Research 2000 for breach of contract and fraud. Research 2000 had been contracted by the political blog to conduct regular polls, but according Kos founder Markos Moulitsas the tracking polls conducted by Research 2000 were “likely bunk.” This subject came up this weekend on Fox News, and host Gregg Jarrett set the tone for the panel discussion by claiming that both sides in this were “juvenile.”

What happens when two liberal giants collide? Countdown host and liberal opinion leader Keith Olbermann wrote what netizens call a GBCW (Good-Bye, Cruel World) post at Daily Kos Wednesday night, touching off a blizzard of blog posts and comments at the left’s leading online community. The uproar is understandable, but also damned entertaining. Pop some Orville Redenbacher, pull up a chair, and check out some of the highlights.

Pioneering Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas was on hand yesterday for a panel discussion at the liberal America’s Future Now! conference, and spoke with authority about grassroots activism in the Age of Obama. I caught up with him after his panel to bounce a few media-related questions off of him, and he had some surprising things to say.

Yesterday was a tough day to be Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough, as political pundits were taking shots at him left and…left. The subject was Joe’s assertion that the media slept through the Joe Sestak controversy (an assertion with which I strongly disagree). First, DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas attacked Scarborough via Twitter, and on last night’s Countdown, MSNBC colleague Keith Olbermann launched a veiled, but very nasty, attack on him.

Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel, who writes the paper’s Right Now blog, ignited a firestorm of criticism when he described opponents of gay marriage as “bigots” on his Twitter account Saturday. Now, amid accusations of bias, Weigel has apologized for his word choice.

Ink-stained wretches, it’s not just you! The social media and Twitter elite fret about the future of journalism too — and wonder how it will survive the digital revolution. At SXSWi, there was no shortage of panels obsessively deconstructing this topic (and tweeting about it, natch).

After releasing a pretty inclusive list of the Top 25 Right-Wing Journalists in America, Daily Beast columnist Tunku Varadarajan took on the other half of the aisle, putting together a list of the most powerful and influential American liberals.

Some of the biggest names in the LGBT and progressive blog world participated Feb. 15 in a coordinated effort to encourage the Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay rights organization in the country and a frequent object of blogger scorn, to put its heft behind efforts to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

The Founding Bloggers? Or an Internet tea party? Take your pick. This morning news broke that a group of “politically diverse group of [high profile] bloggers” were so impressed with last week’s question and answer session between President Obama and the House Republicans that they have banded together to call on the president and the Congress to make it a regular thing.

On the heels of Erick Erickson‘s Colbert Report appearance, in which he alleged that White House Director of Communications for Health Care Linda Douglass had referred to opponents of reform as “brownshirts,” the conservative fundit did a little bit of ex post facto-checking last night. Apparently, Colbert somehow came to doubt Erickson’s account (you’re welcome, Stephen. Again.) Douglass appeared on the show last night, but was it to nail, or be nailed?

When I heard that Redstate Chief Editor Erick Erickson was going to be on The Colbert Report (4 minutes before the show), I tuned in expecting to see copious nailage. The mixture of master satirist Stephen Colbert and hard-right loose cannon Erickson is a match made in nail heaven.

The outcome wasn’t what I expected, and at one point, I even found myself in agreement with the face of conservatism’s Markos Moulitsas.

The MSNBC crossfire continues. On Thursday night, Chris Matthews dismissed the Democratic netroots as “troublemakers who love to sit in the back seat and complain:” you may recall that his colleague Keith Olbermann sometimes blogs at Daily Kos and recently used the platform to dismiss the health care bill currently under consideration. Yesterday, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz rolled a clip of Matthews’ remarks for Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas, who promptly fired back: