video Every single person involved in the John Edwards story is awful. But People magazine is still Team Elizabeth, and gets Elizabeth Edwards' PR team's spin reaction to the GQ Rielle Hunter interview. And the Today show dug deeper. (more...)

video Is Kirstie Alley's new diet company “Organic Liaison” connected to the Church of Scientology, of which she's a member? Reports vary, but she says the idea there is a connection is bullsh...oh Kirstie, you can't say that on network morning television! (more...)

video There have been some recent and unsubstantiated questions surrounding Mediaite founder Dan Abrams and his past and current relationship with NBC News. Well as we informed you at the time, it was a non-issue. Abrams appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe and NBC's Today Show (multiple times), providing Chief Legal analysis on a number of topics, including Glenn Beck's interview with Eric Massa, the Letterman extortion case and more (including a couple of name checks for dear old Mediaite.) (more...)

video This morning's guest on Fox and Friends warned that the Constitution was under attack and the two-party system was bleeding the nation dry. He made clear his disdain was equal for both the Bush and Obama administrations, and noted that he would only support politicians that are truly independent. And if he hadn't called Sarah Palin a "quitter" who is "in" on the federal Constitutional takeover the Tea Party activists are also a part of, Jesse Ventura could have almost passed for Glenn Beck. The former Minnesota governor has been making the morning talk show rounds to sell his new book, American Conspiracies, and saved his most special material for the Fox News audience this morning. (more...)

video In anticipation of the release of his memoir, Courage and Consequence, Karl Rove opened up about his political and personal life to Matt Lauer this morning on the Today show, where the host probed into Rove's understanding of "Rovian" politics, his role in the more negative aspects of both George W. Bush presidential campaigns and the upbringing that primed him for his place in history as one of the most influential, if not most beloved, political figures of the 21st century. More shocking than Rove's willingness to open up to Lauer - who, despite not exactly being a hard-hitting interviewer, is no Oprah either - was his comparative ease in discussing his private life compared to answering political questions. It was clear that, despite the traumatic nature of Lauer's questions in the second half of the interview, Rove was more comfortable talking about his life than the 2000 Bush campaign. (more...)

Sometimes even Karl Rove wants to travel to a simpler time. With the release of his new book slated to drop this Monday, Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight, Rove is making the 2000 presidential election an issue again by admitting to some of his worst mistakes as the 'Architect' of Bush's win, and accusing a former Gore staffer (and, perhaps unintentionally, a major media ally) of putting into motion the news story that may have led to the Florida recount. (more...)

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano may have given conservatives a great new t-shirt idea yesterday by claiming that the system "worked like clockwork" once the flight 253 incident had occurred (a disclaimer that rendered the statement meaningless), but there may actually be some truth to the notion that the system worked. (more...)

video Sec. of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano was on NBC's Today show this morning, back-tracking a bit from her statements about the attempted terror attack made yesterday on several Sunday shows. She says her comments about how "the system worked" were taken out of context - and she agrees the system actually "failed miserably." (more...)

George Stephanopoulos' debut on Good Morning America Monday morning did not do much to help the show cut into NBC's Today show lead. The difference between the two programs was even wider than the previous week. (more...)

VIDEO

There were several disappointments at Thursday's Crasher-gate hearing, but chief among them were Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan's continued insistence that the now-famous security breach posed no threat to the President, and the committee's focus on Social Secretary Desiree Rogers' role in said breach.

Taken together with the media's initial narrative on the Social Secretary's Office, the right's targeting of her, and a heated broadside from the White House press corps, it seems some are taking the Secret Service's failure as an opportunity to settle scores with Desiree Rogers.

Initially, I shared the House Committee on Homeland Security's consternation at Rogers' absence from the hearing, but after further consideration, I'm not so sure. The committee members' interest in Rogers seemed to involve spreading some of the blame for the Secret Service's failure to turn away Michaele and Tareq Salahi, as they repeatedly questioned Sullivan as to whether the presence of a Social Office staffer would have prevented the breach. This is absurd on two counts.

First of all, this is the year 2009. You no longer have to actually be standing next to someone in order to communicate with them. The officers at that first checkpoint had an entire world of confirmation at their fingertips. The committee focused on the fact that there usually is a staffer present for state dinners, but they seemed ignorant of the fact that 99.99% of White House visitors are checked in by the Secret Service alone.

More absurd is the notion that the Secret Service needs backup from the White House social staff. If that's true, Sullivan should just hang it up. This would be akin to Batman blaming a defeat on the absence of Alfred, the butler.

Since Rogers' name first came up, however, there seems to have been a cauldron of resentment simmering just below the surface. A disgruntled former staffer came forward to complain about Rogers, and the right jumped at the chance to show how Rogers was yet another example of how Barack Obama is everything that's wrong with the world.

>>>NEXT: A transcript of Ryan's chat with Gibbs and a final defense of Desiree Rogers...

I'm at the House Committee on Homeland Security hearing on Crashergate, where Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan spent the morning on the hot seat for his agency's failure to repel uninvited guests Michaele and Tareq Salahi from last Tuesday's White House state dinner. Among the revelations this morning is the embarrassing fact that, according to Sullivan, the Secret Service learned of the breach on Facebook. (more...)

As a Congressional hearing gets underway to drill down on how the uninvited Salahi couple managed to breach White House security, the White House has removed any and all doubt as to whether the Secret Service might have had a legitimate excuse for letting the couple past the first checkpoint. (more...)

The saga of would-be reality stars and accused White House Party Crashers Michaele and Tareq Salahi continues to unroll slowly, as NBC fortuitously scores scoop after scoop. The latest: The Salahis' attorney provided The Today Show with copies of their emails with Defense Department White House Liaison Michele Jones. If this is the bombshell evidence they promised to bring Matt Lauer in their meager Today interview Monday, they're in trouble. These emails are all smoke, no  gun. Given the very best possible interpretation, the emails show that Michelle Jones was working to get the Salahis tickets to the arrival ceremony prior to the dinner, but explicitly tells them that the dinner has been full up for months. The emails leave open the possibility, however unlikely, that the Salahis might attend the arrival if tickets became available. That leaves open the possibility that the couple passed through the first checkpoint as legitimate attendees of the arrival ceremony. I asked the White House about the arrival ceremony specifically, and a White House official told me that "the Salahi’s were not cleared to enter the White House grounds for any reason." Michele Jones never confirms either event for the couple in the emails, except to accept their thanks the following day. The crux of their defense, then, is that they went to the White House just to check if Jones had managed an 11th-hour miracle, and they say in a thank-you email that they were, indeed, on the list. The email conveniently explains that their cellphone battery had died, so they wouldn't have received any calls telling them not to go. The White House and the Secret Service have now fairly definitively ruled out every scenario that could vindicate the Salahis. While their future as reality TV stars may be bright, it looks like they could face serious trouble for what looks more and more like a ridiculous security breach.

At the heart of the story of Michaele and Tareq Salahi's big adventure at last week's state dinner is a security breach so unbelievable, I actually don't believe it. However, barring the emergence of exculpatory "stunning details" that were absent from this morning's useless "Today Show" interview, the President would do well to heed the alarm being sounded by Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and "In the President's Secret Service" author Ronald Kessler in this clip from yesterday's "Today Show." King calls Obama our "most threatened President ever," and Kessler says "it's only a matter of time before there's an assassination." (more...)

developing Now that the Salahis have broken their silence and told Matt Lauer on NBC's Today show, essentially, stay tuned for more, the question is: why did they change their mind after first agreeing to appear on Larry King Live? Gawker thinks they have the answer - that it was part of their Bravo contract - but Bravo is denying it. (more...)

A well-coached, soundbite-full Michaele and Tareq Salahi, the White House Party Crashers, appeared this morning on NBC's Today show in a two-part exclusive interview with Matt Lauer. They breathlessly denied any party crashing took place, explained how devastated they were by the whole ordeal, and promised more information to come soon. Just, not today. (more...)

At first, the White House party crashers, Michaele and Tareq Salahi, were set to appear on Larry King's 9pmET CNN show tonight - but they "postponed" the interview. After rumors the couple wanted a large sum of money to appear in a TV interview, we now know where they'll end up - tomorrow morning on Today. (more...)

video Now that he's gone rogue, Lou Dobbs is free from his CNN constraints to go on any network he wants. His first choice was Bill O'Reilly on Fox News, and this morning he was on the Today show set at NBC with Matt Lauer. He didn't reveal his future plans, but maybe there'll be a lot of media appearances. (more...)

For some, Halloween is an opportunity to take on a new persona; for others, it's an opportunity to proudly let their true colors fly. Mediaite has combed celebrity sites, media soirees, and the viral web to assemble some of our favorite costumes of Halloween '09. In our travels, we've come across Heidi Klum dressed as a raven, Nick Douglas dressed as PostSecret, Jon Gosselin dressed as a shallow celebrity tabloid cover (!), and much, much more: (more...)

This morning on the Today Show, weekend anchor Lester Holt unveiled his Halowe'en costume: Susan Boyle. It was...impressive! So impressive that even Piers Morgan would have flirted with him. Amy Robach was Simon Cowell, looking a little like Natalie Portman with her fetching pixie boy-cut. Adorbs. (more...)

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It's official: Chuck Todd's goatee will remain intact. Todd had a running bet with ABC's Jake Tapper that if the Phillies made it to the World Series, he would either shave off his goatee or donate $1000 to the charity of Tapper's choice. After a tense standoff with a razor-wielding Press Secretary Gibbs on The Today Show, Todd went with charity, much to the disappointment of the Twitter community. (more...)

The story of "Balloon Boy" Falcon Heene has become the newest national joke, the "I'ma let you finish" du jour. While there are humorous elements to the story, the media seems to be ignoring the darkest chapter in this story, and their (our) complicity in it. Recently, The Rachel Maddow Show and Countdown have each run lighthearted, humorous segments specifically about Falcon Heene's bout with nausea on NBC's Today Show. While they're surely not the only ones to make light of this, they are the straws that broke the camel's back. Here are the clips from Countdown and The Rachel Maddow Show:

We contacted MSNBC about both segments, and they declined to comment. Those morning show appearances have been weighing on me. While I'm disappointed in Olbermann and Maddow, two people who do 99% excellent work, they are not alone here. We all sat by and watched that 6 year-old become violently ill on The Today Show and Good Morning America. We know for a fact, now, that the child's father was making him lie, and it's likely what made Falcon sick that morning. The problem is, we all pretty much knew it at the time, too. Falcon Heene did a courageous thing by telling the truth on national television, and his reward was to be ignored. Wolf Blitzer fumbled the follow-up, and the authorities dithered, still believing Richard Heene's lies. While our own Dan Abrams theorizes that the Sheriff's ignorance may have been strategic, that would have been a strategy that didn't benefit the child. Falcon Heene went to sleep that night knowing that he wasn't believed.
Falcon's confession could not have been clearer, yet for some reason, the media continued to treat the idea of a hoax as an open question, a 50/50 shot. The following morning, Richard Heene went on TV and fed his son a lie for him to agree to, after who knows what kind of coercion. Why did these interviewers not press Heene on the details of a story that clearly did not add up? Why didn't they call him out? Most importantly, why did they continue these interviews while the child was in obvious physical distress? The fact that his parents didn't have the decency to do this is little excuse when you consider their part in Falcon's situation. Next: Further media wrongdoing on GMA and Today

video As expected, Balloon Boy's comment on CNN's Larry King Live last night ("we did this for a show") has caused a media frenzy - although not nearly as much of a frenzy as the whole Balloon incident that started this thing. The parents of six-year-old Falcon Heene thought it would be a good idea to go on the full morning show circuit, but to prove just how good an idea it really was, Balloon Boy puked live on air during two interviews. (more...)

video Maybe Michael Moore and Glenn Beck should get together and have a tea party. Moore appeared on the Today show this morning to talk about the yesterday's 10,000 Dow, and Wall St. bonuses, and the coming populist rage. Watch this clip and see if his tone rings a bell. (more...)

video Rush Limbaugh sat down with NBC News' Jamie Gangel for a wide-ranging interview, being shown over two days on the Today Show. Yesterday was the first day, with some choice quotes; today, there are many, many more — about Glenn Beck, his painkiller addiction, the Donovan McNabb-ESPN incident and what he'd say to President Obama if invited to the White House. Which is totally likely. (more...)

video No matter what, Hillary Clinton always seems to be answering questions regarding the powerful men around her. Not to get to MoDo on the subject, but it must get tiring. Then again, she's not the Secretary of State for nothing. Despite plenty of humorous (and not so humorous!) speculation about both of the Clinton's response to President Obama's surprise Nobel Peace Prize win last Friday, Sec. of State Clinton was nothing if not diplomatic in her response to Ann Curry regarding whether she thinks Obama "deserved" to win and join the ranks of "Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, and Nelson Mandela." (Not to put too fine a point on it!) (more...)

Radio superstar Rush Limbaugh sat down with NBC's Today show correspondent Jamie Gangel for a two-part, wide-ranging interview beginning Monday morning. One of the revelations from excerpts we received this afternoon: It's all about the Benjamins, baby! Limbaugh likes his ratings, and his cash. (more...)

video You may think you know about the David Letterman extortion/sex with staffers story, but really, you only know one side of the story (or maybe no side of the story at all). At least that's what Robert J. Halderman's lawyer wants you to believe, as he made a few the first of likely to be many media appearances, dropping references to Letterman's 'manipulation' and giving a vague defense argument preview. (more...)

Mediaite's Glynnis MacNicol and Rachel Sklar were on the Today show this morning, in the 9 am and 10 am hours respectively, discussing the David Letterman extortion/sex-with-staffers story. (more...)

Here's a trick, for those of you flying on those quaint old-fashioned airlines that still don't have wifi: Make sure your Tweetdeck is locked and loaded with all sorts of juice before you get on a plane, and then spend the next hour or so catching up with the 140-character brilliance of those you follow. That's what I did this morning as I flew back home from Toronto (and boy are my arms tired! Wa-wa) - and as I found myself making mental notes to retweet a few when on the ground, I thought, why not a group retweet? Otherwise known as randomly collected and curated series of tweets that'll do nicely for a blog post, thanks. You'll never get at all the good stuff in your (or my!) Twitter feed, but at least I can give these gems a second chance. What is John Carney's brilliant idea to save journalism? Where can you ogle a young Johnny Depp? What TV does Jenny 8. Lee recommend? Why do Ford Models think Bill Clinton is Bubba-licious? How can you learn more about the NASA's new ION space engine? The answer to those questions and many you didn't know you had lie below, in this first installment of The Best Of My Tweetdeck, which just became a recurring feature. You're welcome. (more...)

I met Howard Dean on the Today show recently, right when Obama's honeymoon started ending. I was there to do an interview with Meredith Viera about how I am turning my prosthetic eye into a wireless video camera. This is a fairly big deal for a little Canadian cyborg because the Today show is the number one morning show in America, and Meredith is # 26 on the Mediaite Power Grid, just ahead of Larry King, last time I checked. (more...)

VIDEO Yesterday we noted how you'll be seeing even more of Al Roker beginning on Monday. Well today we saw (or rather, heard) more than usual. (more...)

And the award for most blasé member of the Power Grid  goes to ... #8 Print/Online Columnist and NYT foodie Mark Bittman. Bittman, who literally has his hand in every pot — books, blogs, Twitter, Today, print — told Splice Today that he's still not sold on the value of Twitter and other 'short-form' media: (more...)