On Time‘s Swampland blog today, Massimo Calabresi reveals something interesting about Viet Dinh, the man handpicked by Rupert Murdoch to oversee News Corp.’s internal probe into allegations of phone hacking. During his first week at Harvard, Dinh began a long, ongoing friendship with Preet Bharara — who just so happens to be the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the person leading the U.S.’s investigation into News Corp.

TIME‘s Michael Crowley says “it’s not easy to get to Michele Bachmann.” Not in the sense of getting under her skin, but literally getting close enough to throw a question at her. As Crowley writes, “Her appearance at a rally on Tuesday in Aiken, S.C., attended by perhaps 150 people, featured three uniformed police officers and two plainclothes bodyguards. One of those guards spent much of the day preventing reporters from getting too close to the candidate.” Of course, ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross can’t be discouraged by mere bodyguards.

It’s hard not to wonder whether this is a cry for help or merely an ingenious move to remain in the news cycle. Time‘s Michael Scherer reported yesterday that during a recent interview with Alvin Greene, South Carolina’s embattled and mysterious Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, Green encouraged Scherer to dig into his military history

I think this may be Glenn Beck’s version of backpedaling. Nearly ten days after Time posted an article titled “Why Does Glenn Beck Hate Jesus?” — which itself followed a New York Times piece about certain church leaders encouraging their followers to stop watching Beck — Beck has addressed the issue. Sort of.

Remember the other week when the political phrase du jour was “reconciliation” and Rachel Maddow spent not a little amount of time illustrating how the Republicans who were in an uproar over the “nuclear option” were actually total hypocrites who had had no problem implementing the procedure when it suited there aims? Well, looks like the shoe is currently on the other foot (color us shocked).

This is sort of strange. Time‘s national political correspondent Karen Tumulty reports that when she attended President Obama’s health care rally in Pennsylvania earlier today she was not allowed to talk to the public.

Something about Time’s Joe Klein really brings out the best (or the worst, depending) in Glenn Beck. The last time Beck went after Klein — for penning a column on the “stupidity” of Americans — the result was arguably Beck’s best fifteen minutes ever. Today’s spot, meanwhile, was a little bit like Masterpiece Theater meets Mr. Rogers meets…Mel Brooks?

Happy Anniversary Mr. President. Oy. In the words of Jake Tapper, “one of the bluest states in the nation just gave President Obama the WORST anniversary gift he could think of.” Or at least one of them. The day after recriminations and analysis has already started as everyone from the White House on down tries to figure out how this happened and what to do next. And not surprisingly, plenty of people are weighing in.

Anyone out there harboring any hope that this year might herald the end of the nation’s obsession with politics (or at least see it diminished) is now probably out of luck.

Despite the Obama administration’s various bailout plans people are still struggling, and there is the strong things may remain this way for longer than predicted. So who’s fault is this? President Obama, has apparently pinpointed his own culprit: the media.

The White House might be annoyed with the way that Roger Ailes‘ Fox News has been covering the current administration, and a little upset that other mainstream outlets have not been especially diligent when fact-checking Fox. But there’s one thing that Anita Dunn, field marshall of the White House’s Call ‘Em Out Patrol, doesn’t mind about Fox: Golden boy Major Garrett.

Looks like the Obama administration is serious about dealing with Fox News. Politico reported yesterday that during President Obama’s visit to the UN two weeks ago senior adviser David Axelrod met privately with Fox News head Roger Ailes…for coffee. Details are sketchy but perhaps they should have considered something stronger.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs seems like a nice enough guy. He has a sense of humor about his work, he maintains a friendly banter with reporters, and he was even the goalie of the North Carolina State Wolfpack soccer team. But Gibbs largely gets a free pass from the media for his many blunders. How does he do it?