Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher — the lefty you love to hate…or just love — has been busy the last few days, fighting off horrifying allegations that might fell a lesser man. In one of the most ridiculous and occasionally amusing uses of internet bytes:

It appears that the situation between Keith Olbermann and Current TV that led to the “Chief News Officer” there being excluded from primetime Iowa caucus coverage has taken a turn for the worse. Olbermann’s lead attorney spoke to The Hollywood Reporter today confirming that lawyers are discussing the matter, while the host himself tells THR: “I was not given a legitimate opportunity to host under acceptable conditions.”

You may or may not have heard yet, but Mediaite is losing Colby Hall, the only Managing Editor it has ever known. While Hall and Mediaite founder Dan Abrams have already had their say, the well-oiled cogs in the Mediaite machine still haven’t had their turn. As the last of the Mediaite O.G.s, it falls to me to guide this exercise, and to send Mr. Hall into the after-Mediaite-life with a full understanding of what he has meant to us.

It’s with mixed emotions that I bid farewell to the thrilling role of Managing Editor at Mediaite. While I am very excited about my new opportunity on the digital side of corporate media behemoth Clear Channel (the details of which will be forthcoming in the next week or so), I am sad to walk away from this labor of love, overseeing an influential and successful site and playing the part of post-modern disc jockey to the daily political news narratives that makes up the media zeitgeist.

Amidst the breathless reporting on the reprehensible child rape scandal surrounding the Penn State college football program, many reporters in the media have used a certain shorthand to discuss the alleged crimes of former Defensive Coordinator Jerry Sandusky. The consistent use of the phrase “sex scandal” to describe such abhorrent criminal behavior caught the ear of Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher, who penned a column yesterday that called out the media’s lazy and incorrect labeling of a rape scandal. On Thursday he visited with MSNBC’s Tamron Hall to discuss his story.

Defying dismissive mainstream media narratives, the Occupy Wall Street demonstration continues to grow, and gather momentum. While coverage of the movement has varied in quality, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz has been broadcasting live from among the protesters. In an interview with Mediaite, Ed acknowledged the “good, the bad and the ugly” of the protest, but pointed out that, “Unlike the tea party, I didn’t see any racist signs, I didn’t see any firearms,” but rather, people “concerned about the quality of life and fairness in America.”

With the “fall” of Texas Governor Rick Perry and the rise of Herman Cain, the bizarre side quest the media has undertaken of trying to convince New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to hop into the race has been at the forefront of many headlines. Naturally, what the ultimate opponent any of these candidate would face has to say on the matter is worth noting and, to that end, we sent out own White House Correspondent Tommy Christopher to ask President Obama just what he thinks about the rumored Christie run.

Mediaite’s own Tommy Christopher was a guest on The Bill Press Show, discussing various recent headlines. He gave his assessment on (relatively) new White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, whom he thinks has “come alive” within the last two months, particularly with the debt ceiling discussion, and how Barack Obama seems to have suddenly “found a voice” and has taken to calling people out on both sides of the aisle — from Congressional Republicans to the (mostly) liberal members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

He distills Obama’s change from his last campaign to recent weeks:

It worked during the 2008 campaign, this high road business worked for him and he won doing that. And I think he thought, “Oh, that’ll translate to, you know, this.” But it hasn’t.

Andrew Breitbart has posted an email purportedly from Joe McGinniss that seems to show that even he didn’t think he had enough facts to back up the controversial claims in his Sarah Palin book, The Rogue. Ironically, though, in trying to nail McGinniss for allegedly spreading unfounded rumors, Breitbart does the same, printing a Todd Palin rumor that didn’t end up in McGinniss’ book.

Barely an hour after a (now-downgraded 5.8) earthquake hit the East Coast, the internet began congratulating its own sparkling wit by publishing Top Earthquake Tweets lists. While this is a decidedly narcissistic exercise, some of them are actually pretty funny. As a public service, we’ve culled through the lists to present some of our favorites, plus a few tweets that didn’t make the lists. We’ll let you decide which group had the funniest tweets.

Are we really in a new age of civility? Does one political party use more vicious attacks than the other? Is the term “terrorist” that much worse than the term “hostage taker?” These were some of the questions posed in a Fox News panel on political name calling this afternoon and, while I’m not sure any of them were actually answered, credit should be given to frequent sparring partners Christopher Hahn and Chris Plante who got through a whole round of bickering without calling each other any names themselves.

The political world is still reeling from the intense Congressional debate that pushed America to the brink of default, and trying to find just who to blame to make sure it doesn’t happen again. On last night’s The Big Picture, Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher took on the subject with host Thom Hartmann, arguing that the Democrats were “cute” in their naivete and could never pull off such a stunt because, with Republicans, “there’s nothing you can threaten them with.”

Earlier this week, DNC Chair (and House Representative) Debbie Wasserman Schwartz (D-FL) took to the floor of the House and derided the GOP’s latest budget plan known as “Cut, Cap and Balance.” Rep. Allen West (R-FL) took great exception with her comments and sent an email to the DNC chair calling her “vile,” a “coward,” and “not a lady.” Last night Stephen Colbert drew a sharp distinction between the two by juxtaposing the sharp rhetoric of each, and quickly devolves into Colbert shouting “whore” (and much worse) at the image of Wasserman Shultz.

Alas, President Obama has nothing personal to tell America in the Rose Garden tomorrow, though many on Twitter suddenly believed so for about an hour or so today. @BreakingNews, a self-explanatory Twitter feed owned by NBC News, announced at around 6:15 PM today that the President would be making a “personal announcement” tomorrow afternoon. We can confirm that no, there is no drama in the White House to which we shall be privy– it is a personnel announcement that the President will deliver tomorrow.

With a national debt default teetering dangerously near, the spirit of compromise seems to elude both parties, both within and without Congress. On The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann this week, Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher joined host Thom Hartmann and his panel to debate how the President was handling the debt crisis, whether News Corporation will survive the hacking scandal, and what’s going on with those “porno” scanners the TSA uses at airports.

The immediate media reaction to the “not guilty” verdict presented to Casey Anthony yesterday has been one of utter disbelief– how could the jury and the media not see eye-to-eye from the same evidence? On today’s Thom Hartmann Radio Show, Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher argued the disconnect lay in what evidence was permissible in a court of law versus the court of public opinion, but that a responsible media cannot be expected to shield potential jurors from their own reporting.

As a nation sat agape at Casey Anthony being found not guilty of killing her young daughter Caylee, many in the media who had no public doubt of her guilt railed against the jury. But as Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher explained to host BC Thomas on WBGN’s The Sports Guys, the legal burden of proof for murder is far higher than the standards required of responsible journalism.

Obama impersonator Reggie Brown‘s appearance at the Republican Leadership Conference reignited concerns about what constitutes appropriate racial humor and whether there is a double standard over what cannot be said on the left and the right. On last night’s The Big Picture on RT America, Mediaite Political Editor Tommy Christopher chatted with host Thom Hartmann about Brown’s performance, racial humor, and the difference between Eric Bolling and Bill Maher.

Since the revelation Friday that the sources known as “Betty,” “Veronica,” and “Mrs. Betty” are not who they represented themselves to be, a lot of questions, speculations, and criticisms have arisen. As the reporter who broke the story, vigorously defended it, and helped to discover the deception, it’s reasonable for people to expect some answers to those things. While I don’t have a lot to add to what we published on Friday, I will do my best to apply that information to these questions, speculations, and criticisms.

One of the strangest parts of the whole sordid affair surrounding the downfall of Rep. Anthony Weiner has been the differing accounts of this story, and how that engendered speculation and misreporting. Initially, the way the story was reported predictably fell along partisan lines, with many on the left immediately believing Weiner’s account of being hacked. Mediate countered speculation by highlighting alternate fact patterns and all of our reporting we stand by. It turns out, however, that the sources that we reported to be underage participants in the Weiner saga are not at all who they represented themselves as. The material facts of the entire story, though, remain unchanged.

The decision not to release photos of slain terrorist Osama bin Laden has been met with both bipartisan support and bipartisan opposition, so it isn’t that remarkable that liberal commentator Alan Colmes, left-leaning comic Jon Stewart, conservative icon Sarah Palin, and I agree that the photos should be released. What is somewhat remarkable, though, is that we have each offered separate, distinct, and compelling arguments for doing so.

Update: Wonkette has deleted the post, and replaced it with this message: (h/t Little Miss Attila) Rude Post Deleted By Editor; Author Apologizes A post on this page satirizing Sarah Palin using her baby as a political prop was very badly done and sounded like the author was mocking the child and not just Sarah Palin/Sarah [...]

Conservative site Newsbusters is going after Wonkette for a recent post the liberal political humor site published about Trig Palin, the youngest son of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

Newsbusters prefaces its story by asking “What has become of today’s liberalism that makes it acceptable to attack the mentally handicapped if they or their parents are conservatives?”

During a discussion of Glenn Beck‘s departure from Fox News’ air on Sunday’s Reliable Sources, progressive radio host Bill Press joined host Howard Kurtz in pushing back against the idea that MSNBC’s opinion personalities are somehow equivalent to Beck. While Press and Kurtz were correct in their overall assessment, Press’ declaration that MSNBC hosts are “not calling anyone Nazis” is only true because Keith Olbermann is no longer at the network. Oddly, though, Olbermann’s record of Nazi references only reinforces the contrast between Beck and MSNBC.

Earlier today, we reported that right-wing radio giant Rush Limbaugh completely bungled the task of reading Tommy Christopher‘s critique of a Hardball segment comparing the Qu’ran to the Bible. Later in his show, Limbaugh corrected himself, and apologized to Christopher. Mr. Christopher tells Mediaite, “I’m glad Rush corrected the record, and I forgive him, but I cannot accept his apology.”