New Jersey Governor Chris Christie lashed out at Washington Post columnist and MSNBC contributor Eugene Robinson on Robinson’s home turf this morning, telling Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski that people like Robinson “shouldn’t have a platform to speak, they’re so ignorant.”

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie sat down with Oprah Winfrey on her show Oprah’s Next Chapter, and had some surprisingly complimentary comments for President Obama. “Those who underestimate Barack Obama, underestimate him at their own peril. He’s as good a politician as I’ve ever seen,” Christie gushed. “I think he’s very charismatic. And I think he’s genuine. I think what he says he believes, he believes. That’s a very dangerous politician.”

Wednesday night, Bill O’Reilly focused his attention on Oprah Winfrey‘s struggling OWN network and on its hope that actress, TV personality and prolific blogger Rosie O’Donnell might be able to lend it a dose of star power and a healthy boost in viewership with The Rosie Show. He brought on marketing strategist Laura Ries and New York Post reporter Sean Daly to discuss.

Ries agreed with O’Reilly assessment that O’Donnell is a risky choice for the network given she has “staked a claim in far-left territory” throughout her career, but that it’s a risk the flagging network has to take in the hopes of injecting some sort of interest into its programming. Daly weighed in, opining that the network would have to keep “a tight rein” on the actress, which was met with more than a smidge of skepticism by O’Reilly.

Forbes has come out with its annual list of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” and, as is to be expected, several recognizable names in media made the cut. According to Forbes, the women on the list were selected “not just for being on top” but also for “being smack in the middle of Richter-registering events.” (Quite literally in some instances, if yesterday’s east coast earthquake is taken into account.)

All politics is local, and it doesn’t get any more local than your own wallet. A new Pew study that shows record wealth gaps between white people and black and Hispanic people is getting some air in today’s news cycle, but another recent Pew study, which shows Republicans making large gains among white voters, deserves attention alongside it. Is this a case of knowing on which side your bread is buttered?

It is difficult for a commentator like Rachel Maddow to explain the current climate in the Republican Party, so last night she went to explanation by way of analogy. There was a time when KKK leader David Duke won a Republican primary– against incumbent Republican governor of Louisiana Buddy Roemer. Roemer is running in 2012 for President and, yes, Duke is considering it, too. This, Maddow argues, is a product of the same Republican “crackpottery” that brought us the infamous Iowa pledge Rep. Michele Bachmann signed yesterday.

Jimmy Kimmel has always had a deep, abiding love for Oprah Winfrey. Why else would he have played the truly horrifying creation “Oprah Jimfrey” on The Man Show 12 years ago? So, with Oprah’s show finally heading to that Favorite Place in the sky, it’s unsurprising that he’d want to give her a little tribute. However, last night, Kimmel went all out, bringing in Boyz II Men to sing their touching farewell (and parody farewell) staple, “It’s Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.”

Forbes has come out with its annual list of the world’s most powerful celebrities – its “Celebrity 100.” Strewn among the requisite Hollywood actors, pop singers, supermodels and major athletes are a few names that are likely all too familiar to regular Mediaite readers.

The sordid story emerging from the collapsing relationship of Arnold Shwarzenegger and Maria Shriver has fueled a frenzy among media types for the first on-camera interview with the former first lady of California. TMZ is reporting Oprah Winfrey has the inside track. “Oprah met with Maria last week, trying to convince her to become a talk show host on Oprah’s OWN Network. We’ve also learned Maria is going to be a guest on Oprah’s final show.”

The New York Times is reporting that Christina Norman, head of the four-month old Oprah Winfrey Network, has been dismissed. As Brian Stelter reports, “Peter Liguori, the chief operating officer for Discovery Communications, will take over the channel on an interim basis. Mr. Ligouri’s appointment is effective immediately and will likely last into the fall, if not longer.”

Nothing perks up a warm, muggy Thursday afternoon quite like checking in on Wasilla’s second… third… well, there’s…hmmm… seventeenth most famous export: Levi Johnston. Sadly, young Johnston has put his plans to overtake Hollywood on hold (a shame, because the fifth Fast and the Furious installment could really use his boyish charm), but that doesn’t mean he’ll quietly retreat into the shadows among the common riffraff. You see, Bristol Palin‘s former fiancé is currently angling for a spot on Oprah Winfrey‘s show.

Birther or not, many people who knew President Obama was born in Hawaii were still a little curious why Obama waited this long to end the craziness surrounding rampant speculation about his birth certificate. Today, Obama’s friend Oprah Winfrey raised that question, asking the President “why did you wait so long” to release the birth certificate?

In an interview set to air on the Oprah Winfrey Show today, Michael Douglas says wife Catherine Zeta-Jones was forced to reveal her bipolar disorder. “I must say, Catherine’s being quite open about it because she was outed, you know,” Douglas said.

Douglas says his wife’s decision to speak out about her illness was motivated by a desire to “get out the story” before someone leaked it:

Ah yes…we recall those days when everyone asked us “who needs another media site” as many will certainly ask of Mogulite. The difference, of course is that our friends at Mogulite can’t answer it, and we could! Kidding. Just like Mediaite, Mogulite will focus on personalities and in their case, the titans of industry and very powerful people who don’t always welcome attention the way our friends in media do.

So what to make of Mogulite? Well let’s let our newest cohort Amy Tennery explain its raison d’etre

While Oprah Winfrey may not be officially endorsing Barack Obama in 2012, she’s still a fan and with her seminal talk show coming to a close in May, it’s no surprise she’s bringing the President back in for one last interview. Gossip Cop has the details of Obama’s final appearance on the show, set to tape later this month.

This week President Obama officially launched his re-election campaign, yet according to some reports, one of his most prominent supporters from his first campaign will not be back for another ride. Oprah Winfrey apparently still supports the President privately, but in 2012 she will not be sharing her political views with her viewing audience.

In the brand new “Mondays with Trump” segment of Fox & Friends, potential Republican candidate for President and consistent headline seeker Donald Trump called in and shared his thoughts on the latest topics in the news. Proving that anything goes in the segment, Trump discussed everything from promoting Celebrity Apprentice in one moment, to his plans for Iraqi oil in the next.

Monday’s exclusive report by Mediaite’s Colby Hall, revealing the deal to bring Fox News executive Joel Cheatwood to Glenn Beck‘s production company, Mercury Radio Arts, indicated, as Hall put it, that Beck has “perhaps much bigger and more innovative plans than anyone had previously thought.” That report has set off a storm of speculation: what is Beck planning?

In The New York Times, Brian Stelter envisions Beck following the Oprah Winfrey model, beginning his own OWN:

The New York Post‘s Michael Shain reports Tuesday that the Oprah Winfrey Network faces a “reboot” in an effort to “win back” viewers. Shain suggests “network officials have quietly been telling worried advertisers that OWN…will begin reshuffling its lineup in the next few weeks and investing millions” to fire up the fledgling channel.

OWN, which started two months ago with a flurry of media buzz and millions of dollars in promotion, has seen viewership dip–at one point even sliding below the levels of the Discovery Health channel, which was shelved to make room for OWN. To address that, the network’s biggest hit, Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes, will move to Sunday night:

All things considered, an endorsement from Oprah Winfrey can’t be a bad thing. And on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, which was live in Oprah’s hometown of Chicago Friday, that’s exactly what they got: a rave review and Oprah-sized endorsement. “I love the show. I think you all do this better than anybody in television.”

Oprah, who’s hardly a regular on live shows like Morning Joe, was right at home in MJ‘s easygoing conversational vibe, something she said she likes about the show:

Over the years, Oprah Winfrey has made a name for herself by surprising her viewers with revelations and awesome gifts, often quite loudly and with great fanfare. Now, it seems to be her turn to receive a shocking surprise. You get a long-lost secret sister, and you get a long-lost secret sister! And a pashmina wrap.

While most people watched the premiere of Piers Morgan Tonight and asked themselves questions like “Will this save CNN?” and “Is Morgan a worthy successor to Larry King?”, Glenn Beck took a different tact. He wanted to know if Oprah Winfrey was secretly a Tea Partier. He laid out the evidence on his radio show this morning.

With so much hype leading up to last night’s debut of Piers Morgan Tonight, it was almost inevitable the first show would prove–to some–a bit of a letdown. And sure enough, critics are finding plenty to talk about. In The New York Times, Alessandra Stanley argues the show’s promos–particularly the way the opening-night interview of Oprah Winfrey was sold–didn’t quite deliver.

After months of buildup, CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight launched tonight with little fanfare, few fireworks, and a focus on one thing: showcasing the host’s ability to inject new life into the hour-long interview.

Piers Morgan had Oprah Winfrey as his first subject, and while Oprah’s been unusually available ahead of her own cable channel launch, Morgan did his best to break new ground.

Right now, the annual Press Tour is going on for the Television Critics Association and this year is the first appearance by OWN (non-coincidentally, it’s also the first year OWN’s existed). That brought Oprah Winfrey and, if your favorite TV critics seem out of sorts this morning, give them a break.