As part of our one-part series Project: In Vino, Mediaite set out to capture media elites, gathered to fête Hardball host Chris Matthews‘ Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero, in their alcohol-lubricated natural habitat, and maybe to drink some of it ourselves. With the aid of a hidden camera, I ventured to MSNBC’s book party Tuesday night to tear the lid off of this den of open bars and Wagyu beef hors d’oeuvres.

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson earned himself a hardy round of laughs at last night’s Fox News/Google debate when he joke that “his next-door neighbor’s two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this current administration.” It was a good joke, but it wasn’t him. According to Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone, radio host Rush Limbaugh delivered a similar joke on air earlier that day.

Before most U.S. cable networks sleepily turned over their pre-tapped Sunday broadcasts, Britain’s Sky News’ Alex Crawford had won the attention of Twitter users and fellow reporters alike with her reports, live from the back of a Libyan rebel pick-up truck. “This is going to be the biggest party Tripoli has ever seen,” she said, with reason of her own to celebrate, as first to report from amidst an early wave of celebration in Tripoli’s renamed Martyr’s Square.

The Huffington Post has announced a slew of new hires this morning, marking the first wave of hires to its reporting team since teaming up with Aol. Chances are, you’ll recognize some of the names in the bunch.

For instance, Michael Calderone (pictured), formerly Yahoo’s senior media reporter, has been named HuffPost’s new senior media reporter.

Yahoo is making major moves to ramp up itsoriginal content: this morning, Yahoo launched three new blogs to spin off of  The Upshot. It’s a big move for the Upshot, which is only seven months old and helmed by Andrew Golis, formerly the deputy publisher of Talking Points Memo. The three new blogs include The Cutline, [...]

Tis the season for polls. Here is the latest. A new one out from ABC News/ Yahoo! reveals that the majority of those surveyed think the media is to blame for the ever-widening national political divide. Meanwhile, contrary to what you might have concluded from said media, President Obama gets high marks for cooperation from the nation.

It’s official. Pastor Jones and his 30 followers have hijacked the newscycle. After nine years of managing to calmly and respectfully mark the anniversary of 9/11 the nation appears to have suddenly gone into nutty overdrive. So much so the State Department has issued a “‘Worldwide Caution’ to warn Americans of dangers abroad linked to plan for Koran burning and 9/11 anniversary.” The AP is taking matters into their own hands.

The White House Correspondents Association has reportedly reached a decision on who gets Helen Thomas‘s much-coveted briefing room seat. From Mike Allen: “Congrats to White House Correspondents’ Board on its hard work: AP moves to Helen’s center seat, Fox to AP’s front-row seat, NPR to 2nd row.”

Defying the advice that it’s better to look for a job while employed, David Weigel is adding Slate to his growing list of jobs after resigning from the Washington Post at the beginning of the Journolist scandal.

In addition to his already announced work for MSNBC, Weigel is now under a one-year contact with WaPo’s corporate sibling Slate to be a political reporter and start a new politics blog, The Upshot’s Michael Calderone is reporting and Weigel confirmed in a tweet.

On his radio program yesterday, Rush Limbaugh took a segment to sing the praises of the recently deceased George Steinbrenner, a “cracker who made a lot of African-American millionaires.” It didn’t take long for Al Sharpton to call for an apology and liberal websites to go on the offensive, and now Limbaugh tells Yahoo! News’ Michael Calderone that the fact that he is being attacked for this is a sign of “how bad things are for the left.”

Add Bloomberg to the (short) list of people who don’t think Fox should get Helen Thomas‘ recently vacated White House briefing room seat. While the media consensus thus far has been that Fox News’ Major Garrett will get the prime spot, Bloomberg is making the case that they deserve it.

Michael Calderone reported today for Yahoo! News that author Zev Chaffetsclaimed to have been deliberately kept off of Fox News airwaves because his recently published biography of Rush Limbaugh included criticism of Fox News host Bill O’Reilly. But sources at Fox News dispute this claim, telling Mediaite that the author is only looking for publicity, and that no such booking was ever in fact made.

Famous young internet journalist Michael Calderone has penned an in-depth analysis of famous young internet journalists and their newfound relevance in the media market– and what it means for the older, established class of print reporters. Needless to say, the people who spent most of their twenties reporting on lost puppies and local fires are not too happy about the success of people like Ezra Klein and Chris Cillizza.

Politico’s media analyst Michael Calderone offered his farewell column yesterday just as FishBowlDC was reporting that Politico’s Nia-Malika Henderson was about to jump ship to the Washington Post to cover the First Family. The exodus at Politico–which has done its own poaching of top reporters since its inception–has become fodder for its rivals. In the past few weeks, Politico has lost three other reporters in addition to Calderone and Henderson.

Yesterday we picked up on a story from Michael Calderone about how Rush Limbaugh had taken the unusual step of encouraging his listeners to call their congressmen and complain about the health care bill. Then he gave out the Congressional Switchboard number. Cut to this little tidbit this morning from Politico:

In an almost unheard of move (it’s apparently only happened once before) Rush Limbaugh announced the Capitol switchboard number on air and encouraged his listeners to call their local representatives and push back against health care.

Why now?

So maybe it wasn’t just the Salahis that pushed Desiree Rogers out of her job as White House social secretary. Turns out it might actually been a penchant for putting on expsensives dresses…oh and perhaps being a tad too frank with the press.

Those hoping Sally Quinn would get one last chance to air her family drama on the prized cover of the Washington Post‘s Friday Style section were likely disappointed to find there was no Quinn, only another story about the president handing out awards and earnest Washingtonians creating a “coffee party” to challenge the tea party.

This is one of those times where you have to wonder whether Sarah Palin is truly a media genius. Or merely a sign of things to come. Or both. Yesterday Palin’s spokesperson resigned. Today comes news Palin has no plans to hire a new one.

You know, in hindsight, it is sort of stunning that no one has done anything like this sooner. Responding to recent criticisms made by Countdown host Keith Olbermann that the Tea Party movement effectively had no diversity amongst its ranks, the Dallas Tea Party organization has produced a remarkably effective video response. Not only does the video feature a number of men and women of color, but it also highlights the remarkable lack of diversity on MSNBC’s line-up. Judge not, lest ye be judged?

I’m fairly certain that at some point this is going to end in tears. Regular watchers of the White House will likely already be aware that both deputy press secretary Bill Burton and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs are now on Twitter. So, what’s their plan?

Turns out we are not the only ones paying attention to Glenn Beck’s immediate influence on the world of book sales. Glenn Beck apparently also has an eye on the rocketing Amazon rankings of the books he recommends (even the evil ones!). Beck is the new master of literary top ten list.

Ah, a tale of two tabloids. Over the weekend Governor Paterson, who admitted early on in his term that he and his wife had not always been faithful to each other, and whose son was arrested last week for shooting dice, (which is to say, Paterson is not new to the tabloids) was seen canoodling with a strange woman in New Jersey steakhouse. Or not depending which tabloid you read.

There’s no argument that brand name newspapers have undergone huge shifts in recent history. We’ve read David Carr‘s estimation of partisan changes at the Wall Street Journal, and countless reports and predictions about the future of the New York Times. Now, the next issue of The New Republic dedicates its cover story to evolution at the storied Washington Post under the new reign of Katharine Weymouth and Marcus Brauchli. Preview inside!

How we donate now! Oy. While the country is reaching into their pockets (and cell phones) and donating in record amounts to the Haiti relief effort the New York Times sent out this awkward email yesterday informing its staff it would not be ponying up for their generosity.