Today is a glorious day, for I have discovered something so rare it is almost non-existent in today’s media world: giving context to things. On his CNN show today, Fareed Zakaria discussed Mitt Romney‘s unfortunate comments about the poor, which have done nothing to help his public image, but Zakaria actually defended Romney. He blamed the media for taking Romney’s comments out of context to get the juicy soundbite of the former businessman seemingly ignoring the plight of poor people.

Did GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney — not one to have been particularly surprising or controversial during this election’s many debates — hurt his chances during last night’s performance in South Carolina? That’s precisely what the Morning Joe crew wanted to figure out Tuesday morning. And, more importantly for our country, are Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough ok?

Have we not reached a place free of this yet? For some reason, George Stephanopoulos decided to talk about the notoriously Christian NFL player Tim Tebow on This Week today. He asked George Will how Tebow has become such a polarizing figure in not just sports, but somehow in politics as well. Will called Tebow “an exemplary gentleman” and said he was undeserving of the attacks against him.

Who would’ve thought it was going to be Peggy Noonan who would coin the single most hilarious, funny-because-it’s-true nickname for what candidate Newt Gingrich has become in the sunset of the complimentary Republican primary surge every candidate (except Jon Huntsman) appears to be entitled to? Noonan’s campaign roundup in today’s Wall Street Journal takes a brutal look at all the candidates’ flaws– Mitt Romney‘s bland inevitability, Gingrich’s muffinness, Rick Perry‘s assumed privilege– and goes, somewhat surprisingly, softest on Rick Santorum.

George Will really doesn’t like Newt Gingrich. On the This Week round table this morning, Will began his comments on Gingrich, now a frontrunner, by stating that his candidate “embodies everything disagreeable about modern Washington,” going on to laugh at the idea that Gingrich was hired by Freddie Mac as a “historian,” and, as a final blow, speaking more glowingly of even Rep. Ron Paul than of Gingrich.

On This Week with Christiane Amanpour, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman gave his two cents about why Republican support is beginning to coalesce around Newt Gingrich, but not with a snarky barb thrown in for good measure. “It was his time, the Republican base doesn’t want Romney and they keep looking for an alternative, and Newt — although somebody said ‘he’s a stupid man’s idea of what a smart person sounds like,’ but he is more plausible than the other candidates they’ve been pushing up.”

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed Friday morning, conservative columnist Peggy Noonan channeled her inner middle-schooler, calling President Obama a “loser,” and likening White House Press Secretary Jay Carney to a “ferret with flop sweat.”

While there are people on both sides who might foresee the inside of a gym locker in the President’s future, Noonan’s current conclusions about the debt ceiling negotiations are based on complete nonsense. Noonan appeared on Morning Joe to defend her comments.

Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer appeared on Morning Joe to discuss how difficult the budget talks with Republicans have been since they keep “walking out” when things don’t go their way. Joe Scarborough suggested President Obama isn’t without blame either since he waited so long to get involved, yet Schumer responded that now Obama is anxious to make a big deal while the Republicans keep talking in circles.

On Friday, Parker/Spitzer co-host Kathleen Parker announced that she is leaving the show. In a guest column, John Ziegler, radio host, Palin confidante, and the filmmaker behind Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted, offers his commentary on Parker’s departure from CNN.

In attempting to praise Ronald Reagan and his legacy, NBC‘s Andrea Mitchell ruffled the feathers of conservative columnist Peggy Noonan on Meet the Press when Mitchell claimed Republicans are “trying to appropriate Ronald Reagan for their own political purposes now.” Noonan, the former Reagan speechwriter, immediately called Mitchell out and got her to clarify exactly what she meant.

If you’ve been feeling like this country’s heading down a dangerous path (and, we don’t mean a socialist one), you’re not alone. Peggy Noonan feels the same way — and writes about it in today’s Wall Street Journal column, “America Is at Risk of Boiling Over.”

Okay, you’re probably sick of hearing the phrase “teachable moment.” It’s made quite the comeback amid the Shirley Sherrod hoopla. But in today’s Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan has a slightly different take on it. Noonan argues Sherrod’s speech has lessons that students could — and should — learn from.

Peggy Noonan has decided there aren’t enough adults in charge and that we need old men (I guess old women wouldn’t be of any help). Waxing nostalgic on the anniversary of the publishing of To Kill a Mockingbird, she’s decided that we need Atticus Finch to lead us through life and that he could be personified in, wait for it, former Republican National Committee chair and current Mississippi governor Haley Barbour.

The Meet the Press roundtable this morning has some not-so-pleasant things to say about John McCain and his latest “complete the dang fence” campaign commercial. Said Peggy Noonan after viewing the video: “Yes, oh dang was the worst part. I don’t know its impact, it seems desperate.” Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter piled on.

We previously chronicled the accuracy of the Daily Beast’s attempts to rank the most influential liberals and conservatives in American media. Over the weekend the online magazine attempted a similar endeavor with the “Top 25 Centrist Columnists and Commentators,” and it’s about as flawed as the entire concept of centrism.

The reaction from Catholics to the newest scandal within its ranks has certainly covered many perspectives. This Good Friday morning, the conversation has moved to the Wall Street Journal where Peggy Noonan offered her opinion of the scandal that, “was dug up and made famous by the press” and the fallout of accusations by both sides of unfair treatment.

Is anyone in the media not talking about Glenn Beck? It’s clear we here at Mediaite certainly spend a lot of time doing so, but it would appear the rest of the world is catching up. Are they ever. Just take my morning media consumption as an example.

Today the Morning Joe crew proved that, in addition to featuring colorful personalities debate topical issues, they can also provide the most informative and relevant content in morning cable news programming with a debate on reconstructing the public school system that every parent in an at-risk community should pay close attention to.

Peggy Noonan’s WSJ column this week is utterly brilliant in so far as, had President Obama at the last minute decided to stick with his plan to visit to Australia and Indonesia she would have only had to change a few words and voila! She could still make her point. Which is: the President is a failure and he is embarrassing her. Also, he’s being mean to Australia

The Daily Beast took a stab at one of the harder sciences of the media world last night, publishing a list of the top 25 most influential right-wing journalists in America. It is a pretty comprehensive list, with all the usual suspects making appearances, and both conservative and libertarian columnists taken into consideration. “What unites them all, broadly,” writes columnist Tunku Varadarajan, “is their influence on the public debate, and their place on the political spectrum—which is somewhere to the right of center.”

Morning Joe, the most laid-back cable news program this side of Red Eye, may not be the first place to look for a call to arms against beer-and-chips gag ads on the Super Bowl, but guest Donny Deutsch took the opportunity to remind companies that football fans are not as dumb as they might think.

Michael Wolff: “There’s the sex vibe, the exhibitionism and preening, the weird family stuff, the phony authenticity, and the euphoric sense of his own arrival…while Brown may be Palin-like he may actually be much better than Palin. “

This clip from this morning’s Morning Joe is currently making the rounds due to Peggy Noonan’s remark that today’s Mass. special election GOP candidate Scott Brown is popular because he “looks like an American.” Actually, Noonan’s remark may be the least offensive to come out of this morning’s chat session on the subject, Donny Deutsch thinks the fact Brown not black or a woman may offer a “visceral comfort” to voters.

I have a problem with Peggy Noonan’s column in the Wall Street Journal on December 19th, “The Adam Lambert Problem.” But this is not a story about an angry liberal attacking a perceived conservative newspaper. This is the story of poor journalism.

In our weekly recap of movement in the Power Grid, we run down all of the big shifts and their current event causes. This week, we weigh White House Correspondent Jake Tapper‘s facial hair, Sumner Redstone‘s financial woes and People magazine’s huge photo exclusive to see how they affected our leader board.