Yesterday on The Five, Dana Perino made the bizarre claim that M.I.A. wasn’t American enough to perform in the Super Bowl Halftime Show unlike such American luminaries as, I guess, The Who, The Rolling Stones, and Madonna’s accent. Obviously, Perino’s allegation was borderline laughable and easy to make fun of (seriously, if I didn’t have to leave the office early yesterday, Frances never would have gotten a chance at this post), so you know what that means; set the timer for a rival cable network to mock it. And…take it away Ed Schultz!

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi appeared on MSNBC’s The Ed Show Thursday night and clarified her statements about former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Ed Schultz asked Pelosi if she had a secret dossier on him as she seemingly suggested yesterday. “No, that’s not true. Let me tell you what is the truth. Everything I’ve said or will ever say about Newt Gingrich’s ethics is in the public record. I’ve said on and on, just read the public record.”

During Monday night’s The Ed Show, host Ed Schultz took on former House Speaker Newt Gingrich‘s penchant for “vilifying President Obama” with the “coded language” of racism. During the panel segment, Salon’s Joan Walsh summed Gingrich up in easily-deciphered fashion, telling Schultz that “Newt is the face of the politics of resentment and racism and angry white male rage” that led voters to vote against their own economic interests.

Ed Schultz, star of MSNBC’s primetime lead The Ed Show, is coming off of a year that saw his cable news fortunes rise considerably. On the strength of his years of broadcast experience, and his early catching of 2011′s populist protest wave, Schultz is now firmly embedded at the forefront of liberal media consciousness. In this preview of our exclusive interview, Ed shares how he gets his news, and answers some lighter questions, like what he watches for fun, what his last meal would be, and whether he’s ever indulged in recreational herbage.

Following former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty‘s dis of MSNBC’s The Ed Show during last night’s New Hampshire primary coverage, host Ed Schultz dedicated a bedtime story to him — a satire of Goodnight Moon entitled Goodnight Mitt lambasting his chosen candidate Mitt Romney. “In the great 12 million dollar beach house, there was a telephone and 250 million bucks and a picture of greedy multi-millionaire schmucks!”

On Monday, we reported on Rick Santorum‘s supposed use of the words “black people” during a campaign event in Iowa Sunday, and I was apparently the only person in the non-conservative world who thought he hadn’t said it. Since then, I’ve been joined on this lonely island by The Plumline‘s Greg Sargent, and now, The Young Turks‘ Jayar Jackson, who explained, last night, that he didn’t think Santorum said “black people,” but more importantly, that the issue is somewhat moot.

We already know how much trouble a singer can get in for just saying she likes Ron Paul, so what happens when a liberal firebrand has the gall to say Rick Santorum’s oratorial skills rival President Obama’s? That’s what Ed Schultz is discovering this week. However, there is one big difference between Schultz and Kelly Clarkson.

Things got a little bit heated during MSNBC’s Iowa Caucus coverage Tuesday night when The Ed Show host Ed Schultz and The Last Word host Lawrence O’Donnell sparred over surging candidate Rick Santorum‘s tax repatriation plan, and whether it constitutes a “manufacturing plan.”

The exchange was heated, but brief, as co-anchor Rachel Maddow comically saved the day with the cheery declatarion, “Look! It’s Rick Perry!”

In the world of the microscopic news cycle, a year is a mighty long time. Think “dog years” on steroids. Over the course of the past year, in thousands (around 7,500 ) of articles and millions (between 3 and 4 million) of words, Mediaite has covered the ups and downs of that whizzing, ricocheting media world. In case you lost track in that sea of information, we’ve compiled a list of 2011 Media Winners and Losers that we hope will be the start  of a conversation, not the end of one. Here, in no particular order, are Mediaite’s 2011 Media Winners and Losers.

Viewers of Thursday night’s opening Ed Show segment might have done a double-take as Ed Schultz introduced a segment on surging GOP hopeful Rick Santorum when it looked like the host showed up in some b-roll of a Santorum town hall meeting. But sure enough, Ed was there, and conducted a surprising interview with the socially conservative former Senator that had Schultz wondering if Santorum could be a threat to win Iowa.

In what was probably the eighth or ninth iteration of the point-and-laugh-at-Fox White House Christmas card story, MSNBC host Ed Schultz managed to top them all, with an assist from a temporary co-host named Rex. Schultz set up the story by introducing the adorable animal shelter beagle, a stand-in for First Dog Bo Obama, whose presence on the White House card, and on a presidential shopping trip, prompted ridiculous criticism from the likes of Sarah Palin and Sen. John McCain.

TheGrio.com editor and cable news rising star Goldie Taylor punctuated the Herman Cain saga with her own exclamation point on last night’s The Ed Show, comparing the departed former GOP frontrunner to a faith-healing charlatan, and declaring that “You have to be angry at a guy who’s running for president and bastardizes our political process for his own gain.”

Ms. Taylor made a raft of dead-on observations about Cain, but it was her shot at Newt Gingrich that really resonated.

On Thursday night’s The Ed Show, host Ed Schultz joined 99 percenters across the nation in celebrating Republican pollster Frank Luntz‘s admission that he’s “frightened to death” of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Schultz and guest Alan Grayson correctly assess Luntz’s fear as a positive sign that the movement is having a real impact, but they badly underestimate Luntz’s Jedi mind-trickery, declaring that it won’t work this time.

Scott Olsen, the Iraq war veteran who had his skull fractured in late October at the Occupy Oakland protests, made his first two media appearances since being injured on Tuesday. First, IndyBay.org posted an interview to their site that they had conducted on Sunday, where Olsen talks about the injury and his recovery. Later, Olsen appeared on MSNBC’s The Ed Show, and fielded questions from Ed Schultz about his symbolism among the Occupy protesters.

It’s been almost a year since the miraculous rescue of 33 Chilean miners captured the world’s attention, and to mark the occasion, MSNBC is premiering the documentary 17 Days Buried Alive, this Friday, that focuses on the 17 days immediately following the collapse, when the fate of the miners was still unknown. Ed Schultz, MSNBC’s resident champion of the working man, hosts the documentary, which airs at 10pm ET on Friday, and he spoke to Mediaite about what this story means to him, and what it should mean to the rest of us.

On Wednesday night’s The Ed Show, host Ed Schultz came out swinging against conservative moviemaker Christian Hartsock’s “failed ambush” of Schultz on the issue of Ohio Senate Bill 5, which drastically weakens public employee unions. According to Schultz, the bill doesn’t allow firefighters to collectively bargain over safety issues, and when Hartsock confronted him after a show in Ohio, Schultz didn’t have chapter-and-verse handy. He remedied that on his show last night.

In teasing The Ed Show‘s nightly “Psycho Talk” segment, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz challenged Mediaite and Politico to demand a correction from Rush Limbaugh and Fox’s Sean Hannity, presumably with the same volume we highlighted Schultz’s edit of Gov. Rick Perry‘s “big black cloud” remark. According to Schultz, Hannity and Limbaugh each recently misstated the unemployment rate that President Obama inherited from President George W. Bush. Fair enough, let’s take a look.

GOP hopeful Gov. Rick Perry drew fire from some quarters earlier over a remark, reported by ABC News’ The Note blog, that “a ‘big black cloud’ hangs over the country.”

As it turns out, Perry’s remark was much more specific. While he did use the phrase “big black cloud,” he was referring explicitly to the debt, as the full video of Perry’s remark reveals.

Rep. Michele Bachmann is facing the beginnings of what may be the defining scandal of her campaign as more information comes to the fore on her husband’s mental health clinic, which patients therein are now claiming engages in “gay reparative therapy,” a discredited method by which some believe homosexuality can be “cured” away. Tonight, Ed Schultz spoke to an activist that went undercover and asked for the therapy at the clinic, and he classified what he received as “dangerously archaic.”

It was always an obvious reality that Keith Olbermann‘s Current TV show would experience some degree of crossover with MSNBC’s prime-time programming, but any hope of a peaceful rivalry have evaporated, as Olbermann has made it clear he intends to go after his former employer’s audience by going after his former employer. The fact that Olbermann has opted to “go negative” so early (his show hasn’t even premiered yet) portends a bloody battle for the hearts and minds of liberal viewers.

The establishment of Current TV as a destination for liberal news programming doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing for MSNBC. There are, apparently, millions of liberals who aren’t watching cable news, and this represents an opportunity for both channels to attract a new audience.

MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, suspended by MSNBC Wednesday evening for calling conservative radio host Laura Ingraham a “right-wing slut” on his nationally syndicated radio show, addressed his comments on the final Ed Show episode before beginning what was to be week-long suspension. In a remarkably fulsome and sincere apology, though, Schultz announced that he was taking himself off the air for an “indefinite” period.

In the wake of the Osama bin Laden killing, there has been some ugly debate over credit for vanquishing the terrorist leader, which has, in turn, revived some bitter Bush-era battles. On Thursday night’s The Ed Show, host Ed Schultz ran down a list of reasons not to credit the Bush administration for bin Laden’s [...]

You may recall that, last Friday, Bill Maher invited MSNBC host Ed Schultz and former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele onto his show to yell over one another as viewers clapped in delight discuss proposed Medicare vouchers.

On his program, Schultz kept that discussion going.

It seems that Libya, Egypt, and Wisconsin may not be the only places where President Obama will need to address a full-on revolt– he’s losing major points with the hosts of MSNBC. First it was Cenk Uygur who took him out to dry for his silence on the Wisconsin union protests, and now Ed Schultz is demanding nothing less than a road trip, though he has the 2008 campaign trail soundbites to back up why he’s being demanding.

These out-of-left-field (politically as well as figuratively) labor protests in Wisconsin have brought out the weird in cable news. Glenn Beck retreated to his studio to study the rise of the Antichrist; Rachel Maddow retreated to hers to warn viewers of the shocking truth that people may hold different beliefs on the matter. Meanwhile, her colleague Ed Schultz grabbed the first flight over to revel with the union protesters and, amid cheers and chants, interview an old familiar face on the situation– Jesse Jackson.