Keith Olbermann

What happened to NBC, wonders Felix Gillette. "In recent days, MSNBC’s president, Mr. Griffin, has told a number of reporters that the change was not made as a result of outside pressure. Still, some TV insiders continue to play the MSNBC parlor game, speculating about how and why the McCain camp appeared to have succeeded in budging MSNBC where Hillary and her democratic supporters had failed."

Cheers! John Koblin reports that The New York Times will celebrate its own coverage of the Beijing Olympics with "Champagne and egg rolls to reward the 'stunning' coverage The Times produced on the Web, and in the newspaper..."

Publishers are clambering to put together books on Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, reports Leon Neyfakh. Plus: After David Carr, Bill Clegg.

PLUS: Femocracy '08... What Has Happened to the Toronto Film Festival?... Ira Silverberg

On Tuesday afternoon, Phil Griffin, the president of cable-news network MSNBC, had had enough of the interviews and was getting angry.

Roughly 48 hours earlier, Mr. Griffin had announced his decision to remove Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews from anchoring big political nights for his network. Henceforth, according to Mr. Griffin’s dictum, NBC News’ chief White House correspondent, David Gregory, would handle the news duties for MSNBC. Mr. Matthews and Mr. Olbermann would shift into purely revved-up pundit mode.

This morning, Mr. Griffin was batting back a report from the New York Post that Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of NBC’s parent company General Electric, had facilitated the change after “a lot, maybe thousands” of shareholders had called up to complain about Mr.  read more »

Paris Hilton is defending the Jonas Brothers' decision to wear promise rings, saying virginity is "a cool thing for a kid to keep." [US Weekly]

Lil' Wayne cancelled his performance at Fashion Rocks rather than endure a mandatory security check. [P6] 

The Eldridge is now adding people to its semi-exclusive guest list via Facebook. [Down By The Hipster] 

The drama at MSNBC continues, with sources saying that Jeff Immelt, the head of parent-company GE, was directly involved in the decision to demote squabbling anchors Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann. [P6]  read more »

MSNBC is moving back the center. According to a report by The New York Times' Brian Stelter, the cable news network's experiment in more partisan election coverage "appears to be over."

Writes Stelter:

After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage.

The sometimes rancorous convention coverage repartee between Mr. Olbermann (whom The Times describes as "lightning rod for much of the criticism") and Mr.  read more »

MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell got caught in the middle of the balloon drop last night at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. "I am somewhere on the floor of this convention," Ms. Mitchell said. "I'm about to be bombarded by balloons."

Anchor Keith Olbermann called Ms. Mitchell's location "the political equivalent of a Chuck E. Cheese."

Watch the video here.

Tonight,  Brian Williams will interview John McCain from the Gulf coast in the pathway of Hurricane Gustav for Sunday's Nightly News. In the meantime, Tom Brokaw will be heading up the network's coverage of the RNC convention in St. Paul.

Over at MSNBC,  Dan Abrams will be anchoring the channel's primetime hurricane coverage on Sunday from a studio in New York. On Monday, Mr. Abrams will handoff to Keith Olbermann. Chris Matthews will be anchoring the convention coverage from St. Paul.

More from the NBC release:

NBC News' Ann Curry, Lester Holt, Al Roker and a team of correspondents including Contessa Brewer, Don Teague, Janet Shamlian, Kerry Sanders, Lee Cowan, Mark Potter, Mary Murray, Michelle Kosinski, and others, will also be on location.

 read more »

Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson have responded to Michael Lohan's public comments about Ms. Ronson's supposed tell-all book via their MySpace celebrity blog. [MySpace via Daily Intel] 

A Gossip Girl script for the upcoming season has leaked! Click through at your own risk. [Gawker]

At the DNC, Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) asked staff to introduce her to Jennifer Lopez. Meanwhile, Jessica Alba is over there drinking something called a "Dirty Delegate" martini. [NY Daily News]   read more »

Barack Obama's campaign managers are focused on keeping celebrities off the stage and out of sight of cameras in order to prevent further "celebrity" attacks from the McCain camp. [NY Daily News]  

That's not stopping them from coming to Denver, though. Rosario Dawson, Jessica Alba, Eva Longoria, Fat Joe, Wilmer Valderrama and Sofia Vergara will reportedly party tonight at the Voto Latino DNC event in Denver. [P6] 

Richard Price, author of Lush Life and Clockers, compared his creative process to the way that a woman "of a certain age" feels when she has not yet had a child and her biological clock is ticking. [P6]  read more »

Tim Kaine’s stock as a potential running-mate for Barack Obama has dropped markedly in the last day, with the news that Mark Warner, Kaine’s predecessor as Virginia’s governor, will be the keynote speaker at the convention in Denver.

The thinking, widely repeated in the media yesterday and this morning, is that Warner’s selection effectively excludes Kaine from the V.P. hunt since the Obama campaign wouldn’t want two Virginians occupying the featured speaking roles on two consecutive convention nights. As Keith Olbermann put it on his MSNBC show last night:

Warner's rising star might actually dim the VP chances for Virginia's current governor, Tim Kaine on this simple theory.

 read more »

With allegations of media bias and candidate favoritism flying in every direction this campaign season, what's an honest-to-goodness straight-down-the-middle news anchor concerned about protecting his good name to do?

Simple: Wear a purple necktie.

Today in a classic bit of campaign trend spotting, Eric Wilson writes in The New York Times about a dramatic uptick in the number of purple neckties being sported this campaign season by TV men across the cable and broadcast landscape. (We suspect that Kurt Andersen approves.)

From the article:

Keith Olbermann, the commentator on MSNBC, has worn solid pale purple ties twice in the last week. And on Tuesday, he wore another one with purple stripes.  read more »

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Declaring the president of the United States the "Worst Person in the World," is apparently no biggie these days, what with his historically low approval ratings and all that. But saying the same about Katie Couric?

Outrageous! (Historically low ratings may not apply in this case.)  read more »

Last night, NBC threw a party to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Network bigwigs, including Jeff Zucker and Phil Griffin, turned out to toast their top cable-news anchor, who at one point during the night posed for pictures wearing a sparkling tiara.

The party was thrown at the Landmarc restaurant at the Time Warner Center.  read more »

Last week, we reported that Katy Tur, daughter of legendary chopper reporter Bob Tur and current paramour of MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann, had landed a freelance general assignment reporting gig with CW11.

Her addition to the CW11 team came amid some speculation about her qualifications for the job. All of which left us wondering what type of stories Ms. Tur would be reporting on.  read more »

This morning, Page Six reported that Keith Olbermann's 24-year-old girlfriend, Katy Tur, had just landed a news anchor job on CW11, despite minimal journalism qualifications. How did Ms. Tur—the daughter of legendary Los Angeles helicopter reporter Bob Tur—land such a lofty job at such a tender age? The Post reported that Ms. Tur had gotten the position "allegedly with [Mr. Olbermann's] help."

But as it turns out, Ms. Tur hasn't landed a news anchor job at all.  read more »

On a conference call just now, to Howard Wolfson responded to Ben’s inquiry about Keith Olbermann's characterization that the campaign was "awash in filth."

"We obviously vigorously disagree with that observation," said Wolfson. "Although many of us remain fans of Keith and enjoy watching the show on nights other than last night."

Chris Matthews woke up on Super Tuesday at the Ritz Carlton on Central Park South. For breakfast, he tore into a bowl of Raisin Bran with skim milk, slurped down a cup of coffee (no cream, no sugar) and attacked a stack of newspapers. Moving from story to story, he scribbled notes directly onto the newsprint, circling important facts and figures and jotting down the occasional exclamation points.  read more »

The Houston Chronicle reports that, in an interview, Phil Griffin, who oversees MSNBC's primetime lineup, "reject[ed] the notion that MSNBC has used [Keith Olbermann's] show and others as part of a deliberately more contrarian tone toward the Bush administration as an alternative to Fox News Channel."

Mr. Griffin told the paper: "Keith was doing this show before it was popular to beat up on this president or to beat up on this war ... Because of his point of view and the 'Special Comments,' people think this is our strategy. This isn't a strategy. This is Keith."

But two months ago, The Times reported:  read more »

Keith Olbermann has raised his profile and his numbers at MSNBC in part by taking on other cable hosts. And last night, notes TV Newser, he opened another campaign, naming CNN's Lou Dobbs as the"Worst Person in the World" (there's a new one every night, so don't take it literally).

Mr. Dobbs provoked Mr. Olbermann's ire with a tirade of his own, attacking LA Times columnist Tim Rutten on his Monday show, after Mr. Rutten wrote a column that argued that CNN devoted too much of its recent Republican debate to immigration, as a way to help Mr. Dobbs' show, which focuses on the issue.

   read more »

Come Back to San Gennaro: The Mob is Deeply Missed
City officials have since strived to cleanse San Gennaro of certain less than desirable elements: No more gambling. No more booze-slinging street vendors. And, if you believe the current organizers, no more Mafia involvement. Mob mentality, though, still has its place. Go to story by Chris Shott.  read more »