JOSSIP REPORTS — With Keith Olbermann back in New York and supposedly making up with Chris Matthews, and Joe Scarborough insisting everyone at the network is going to have Thanksgiving together, everything should be hunky-dorey at NBC News, yes?

No.

Joe Scarborough is still taking shots at Olbermann on the air (excellent video here). Oh, and then there's this little matter of Chuck Todd, David Gregory, and Brian Williams — and Meet The Press. It's a clusterfuck, and these are the details:

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Who says Jon Stewart can't be relevant (sometimes)? The Daily Show picked up on the hot story of the moment, MSNBC's internal feud between Keith Olbermann and anyone at the station who is not Keith Olbermann, and parlayed it into hilarious results. Clip after the jump:

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MSNBC's internal fighting is far from over — nor is the reporting on it. We hear the Wall Street Journal's Rebecca Dana will have something up for tomorrow's paper (albeit leaning in the network's favor), which follows our own regular reports, as well as the Drudge-linked Politico story from Michael Calderone.

Meanwhile, in the past few hours we've spoke to a number of 30 Rock staffers in Denver, New York, and Washington — some of whom thought it more productive to speak to us than attend to the on-going live DNC coverage — and the common wisdom is: 1) Nobody can believe how much Keith Olbermann is getting away with, even if he does draw ratings; 2) As an Olbermann protege, Rachel Maddow is attracting negative feelings from staffers, since she stays mum on many of these catfights, but "there's still time" to represent; 3) MSNBC head Phil Griffin is alienating staffers by publicly defending Olbermann while privately bashing him, and it's left many wondering when that will leak (oops); 4) MSNBC publicist Jeremy Gaines appears increasing stressed out and can be seen "shaking" with a phone attached to his ear dealing with reporters; 5) You don't want to run into Chris Matthews anytime soon, especially en route to the bathroom, because he has zero pleasant things to say right now; 6) Joe Scarborough is definitely stressed, but he's managed to calm down a bit today and can be seen laughing and gabbing; 7) None of this is helping ratings, with MSNBC scoring the lowest numbers against Fox News and CNN in convention coverage.

And one last thing: Nobody, including all of MSNBC, believes Phil Griffin when he says "MSNBC does not have an ideology … We hire smart people who are passionate about their love of politics and love of news." Says one veteran off-camera staffer: "Bullshit … It's a total farce." It's a shame that MSNBC can't own up to the way it's leaning, if only because now it can't separate itself from the same charges aimed at Fox News — that it leans one way politically but pretends to be balanced.

Holy, holy crap. If you thought last night's blow up between Joe Scarborough and Chris Matthews/Keith Olbermann was explosive, you didn't see today's Morning Joe, where Scarborough all but tore into his colleage David Shuster. While Mika B. unsuccessfully played referee, Joe and David's sparring over John McCain (around the 4:00 mark) only hinted at a deeper disconnect: The two guys hate each other. Read into Joe's complaining about David "sleeping through" and skipping three recent Morning Joe appearances as you will, but according to one control room source, "producers couldn't believe it. Some know these two don't get along, but it was awkward even for us. I watched [the clip back] later and it was even worse the second time."

Of course, this is just a long list of internal MSNBC feuding. Scarborough has aimed his ire at Keith Olbermann (later excused as an attack on Anderson Cooper, though nobody believed it). And more interesting, Scarborough appeared excited when he turned to David Gregory on remote — since these two hate each other as well.

Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann, who are not exactly friends, have been tag-teaming the DNC coverage, while folks like David Gregory, Andrea Mitchell, Brian Williams, and, here, Joe Scarborough, have been relegated to remote fill-ins. Even Tom Brokaw has been treated like a second-class citizen, though we love his white pop star mic. But it's here, in the Scarborough interview, where viewers are treated to what's really going on behind the scenes: An on-going power struggle where Olbermann reigns supreme, Matthews accepts he's become MSNBC's No. 2, and everybody else remains in disbelief that things have unfolded this way. [via]

Ron Fournier, the Associated Press' new Washington D.C. bureau chief who hopes to rewrite the rules of reporting, is a known Karl Rove lover. But his obvious political leanings were not, insists John McCain's camp, the reason they tried, though failed, to solicit him to help run the campaign — it was just because Fournier — whose new job responsibilities include calling the election's winner this November — was so adept at the political process. A political process that, at the time, involved him running the now defunct pundit site HotSoup.com, which he co-founded with Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign. Again, just a happy coincidence.

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Yesterday morning, Joe Scarborough ranted on about a certain cable news anchor who made a big deal about Katie Couric's edited John McCain interview, which, when it aired, cut out the part where he flubbed the timeline of the U.S. troop surge in Iraq. Scarborough wanted to cut CBS a break, because really, who would know the exact dateline of when the troop surge took place and when the Sunni awakening in Al Anbar Province took place. But then who was Scarborough criticizing for making such a big deal out of the story? Fingers began pointing, and the gossip-worthy conclusion that Scarborough was attacking MSNBC colleague Keith Olbermann was built.

Not so!, says Scarborough. In a way that doesn't quite convince us.

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While Don Imus' program began as a radio show that was simulcast on MSNBC, Joe Scarborough's Morning Joe might be going down a reverse path: There's plans for a trial to simulcast the morning talker on radio. That Scarborough got his A.M. show because of Imus' scandal is an irony we won't fail to mention. [CB]

Chaunce Hayden, the Steppin' Out editor whose name regularly appeared in Page Six until he found himself embroiled in a false report about a Bam Margera and Lynsi Smigo sex tape, is the center of this Radar profile, which lists his various past careers: male stripper, car washer, failed punk rocker, bartender, swimming pool digger. Hayden acknowledges that nobody actually reads his publication, which is littered around New York and New Jersey, which might be a growing concern because until lately, it's been his single entry into getting his gossip items, and his name, in the press. Then the Post banned him (Smigo has since filed a $10 million defamation suit against him and the paper); MSNBC blacklisted him after a he caused a commotion on Joe Scarborough's show; he's persona non grata at ABC, when he went on-air to report Diane Sawyer had just shushed him; and Howard Stern would like to see him dead after Hayden said, on ABC, that Stern should be looked at for insider trading for allegedly leaking details of his then-impending move to Sirius. Interesting, though, that Radar is reporting all of this. Not because the gossip industry isn't the pub's territory — it is — but because paragraphs like this:

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NBC News is doing the respectable thing and not commenting, publicly, about their plans in naming a successor to Tim Russert, whose death on Friday at the network's Washington studios has left them without a Meet The Press anchor, or a D.C. bureau chief. As a show of respect for Russert's family and his colleagues, 30 Rock is holding off on telling anyone what they plan to do come this Sunday.

While NBC News chief Steve Capus and NBC head Jeff Zucker wisely selected Tom Brokaw to moderate yesterday's MTP Russert tribute, with a line-up of the guests the late anchor would've booked himself, there's nothing firmed up for the weeks ahead, claims NBC.

None of that means media's chattering classes aren't placing over-unders on who's going to fill Russert's slot, at MTP or leading the network's Washington unit. There's a list of usual suspects, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. So who's the most likely to take the very big reins?

Let's take a look.

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Maybe Don Imus' "nappy headed hos" incident was the best thing to happen to MSNBC? It gave Phil Griffin a chance to audition Joe Scarborough, then the host of primetime's Scarborough Country, for the morning show slot. And it clicked. Now, with sidekicks Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist, Morning Joe is attracting some 360,000 viewers on average, or about what Imus was picking up. It's also scored its host a contract through March 2011.

So 30 Rock must be quite confident with who they've chosen to moderate a show that's part news broadcast, part entertainment fodder, and an excuse for Mika to remind everyone that her brothers and father are all heavily vested in politics, right? Well. Take away what you will from this Jeff Zucker quote: "It’s probably a little unfair to call Joe a ‘space filler.' But we certainly had a need to fill in the morning." Vote of confidence, indeed. [NYT]

Joe Scarborough, returning to his morning slot on MSNBC today after taking a leave to attend to his wife's difficult pregnancy, reflecting on last night's historic events: "A night that nobody believed—but perhaps Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and Chris Matthews—this was a night that very few people believed would ever happen." [Video here]

Some background on Tuesday night's primary coverage dust up between MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and David Gregory:

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We told you MSNBC chief Phil Griffin has made David Gregory his trophy boy. That's why the 6pm anchor was lavished with airtime during yesterday's North Carolina and Indiana primary coverage. Which meant morning boy Joe Scarborough, accustomed to ankling this type of coverage with Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, grew furious when Gregory hogged the cameras — so much so, Jossip hears, that he stormed off the set and never returned for the rest of the evening's coverage.

Sound familiar? It should. Last month, Scarborough pulled the same stunt while guesting on Gregory's Race to the White House after growing furious with Rachael Maddow.

MSNBC is downplaying Joe Scarborough's walking off the set of David Gregory's Race to the White House after getting into a tiff with regular panel member Rachael Maddow. The argument is basically summed up by Scarborough saying, "I don't engage in Crossfire-type debates and certainly I don't want to talk about what people do in bathrooms." Which is funny, because Joe once went on the Today show to talk about a certain congressman's airport visit.

Watch both clips below.

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