Liberal lesbian Rachel Maddow — introduced here with her two most important traits — just went and scored herself her own MSNBC show, which was some time in the making. Officially, NBC says Rachel's debut on Sept. 8, or 09/08/08, is the "final leg of the political race this year."

Unofficially, though? On 09/08/08, a one Keith Olbermann will mark his nearly complete takeover of the network. Yes, Olbermann might as well hold Phil Griffin's title as MSNBC chief, since, according to knowledgeable sources and all outside appearances, he's making the calls.

CONTINUED »

See what we did there? We took a couple of photos of some media elite enjoying gift bags in the Hamptons and, in just one degree of separation, proved Page Six editor Richard Johnson, despite trashing Keith Olbermann regularly in his column, actually loves himself some MSNBC: Johnson-Geraldo Rivera-Dan Abrams.

IRS and Page Six target Keith Olbermann is selling his West 57th Street apartment, which he bought under the company Olbermann Broadcasting Empire Inc., to something called the Chinese American Trading Co. This is clear evidence NBC's ties to China go deeper than we thought. [WoD]

Oh noers, MySpace is teaming up with MSNBC to hold a "citizen journalist" contest, with the prize being a trip to either the DNC or RNC (depending on which party your Top Eight friends are voting for) and continuing exposure on MSNBC. The submission deadline was mid-July, so unfortunately you missed out on this once-in-a-blogtime opportunity. Again, most bloggers/people on the internet do not have the credentials to do objective reporting, but hey, it's MSNBC so luckily that's not a requirement. But cranky Keith Olbermann won't agree to having xxxSEXYJESSY82xxx or whomever on his program. Is this because MySpace is owned by Rupert Murdoch, the older and grouchier media kingpin? Olbermann's reps have said that the conditions of the contest only extend to the winner appearing on Morning Joe, but Keith has heard of the phenomena of MySpace-face and doesn't want to be upstaged by a sixteen year old with better hair.

If you're among the 11 people paying attention to Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank leaving MSNBC for CNN, then these are the facts you know so far — and let's put facts in quotes, like this: "facts" — Milbank penned a Post piece that wasn't too Obama friendly; because of the article, he got slammed by the web ring of left-ys who said his reporting was, at best, lax, and that he took quotes out of context; after four years of MSNBC appearances, he suddenly showed up on CNN opposite Keith Olbermann's Countdown program; Obama-lover Olbermann explained in a Daily Kos blog post that MSNBC had been "waiting for [Milbank] to offer a correction or an explanation for his column," which never arrived, before letting him back on the air; and lastly, Milbank announced he inked a deal with CNN.

Except maybe that's not exactly how the "facts" went down?

CONTINUED »

"Dana Milbank finally gets my seal of approval. If, before you leave 'Countless' please take a moment to fart in Keith Olberdick’s chair. Make it a long, wet one and if you have the time to piss in his chair, please do. The socialist is annoying and hopefully will be fired from A-Mess NBC real soon. Good luck DANA!" [ICN, earlier]

Countdown regular Dana Milbank will no longer appear on the show. After appearing on MSNBC for the past four years, the Washington Post columnist signed a deal with CNN. Last night he appeared on CNN Election Center with Campbell Brown, which airs opposite Keith Olbermann's show. Of course none of this had anything to do with MSNBC temporarily ejecting Milbank after he wrote a piece about Barack Obama that took quotes out of context and called the candidate the Democratic party's "presumptuous nominee." [Daily Kos]

Know what you get when you spot isolated instances of various television personalities wearing a tie of a certain color? A Times trend story! Eric Wilson spotted folks like Brian Williams, Keith Olbermann, and Bill O'Reilly all wearing ties of a purplish hue in recent weeks, which is apparently their way of announcing they're staying neutral in this heated political climate, where, duh!, wearing a red tie is an obvious sign you're in McCain's camp and wearing a blue tie is the equivalent of licking Obama's feet.

So certain of this trend, Wilson even hooked semi-respectable people into his charade, getting GQ creative director Jim Moore to declare, "Purple is the new neutral," and Bergdorf Goodman's men's fashion director Tommy Fazio to insist, "There are other ways of not being partisan.”

We've seen pure coincidences manufactured into trends before, but OMG, this is ridiculous. Here's why:

CONTINUED »

Over the weekend, Keith Olbermann did not name Brooke Hogan one of his worst persons in the world, but he did pop up on E!'s Talk Soup to guest host a segment and give host Joel McHale a breather. There, he did make fun of the physical appearance of the reality star, who is a 20 years old.

CONTINUED »

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.

CONTINUED »

That Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann continue playing both hard news anchor and opinionated talking heads is of no consequence to NBC News president Steve Capus. Responding to taunts from Fox News' Chris Wallace made earlier this week at the Television Critics Association annual event, Capus told MSNBC's audience he has no plans to change the formula, where his star power pundits anchor news coverage like elections while going on the air every night to deride the right wing. Says Olbermann: "We know there are different rules for us, and the viewers — I think based on how many of them have turned out — know there are different rules."

And Capus agrees: "The audience gets it, and that’s the single biggest factor that I see."

Hey, remember when a certain other left-leaning institution thought their audience would "get it"?

CONTINUED »

Now that Tony Snow is dead, everybody who made it their jobs to hate him, rebuff him, criticize him, and expose him as a White House shill. Every one is a saint in death!

Last night, it was David Gregory's turn. Here, he delivers a "Remembering Tony Snow" tribute. Quite touching, really. Nevermind that Gregory couldn't stand the guy.

CONTINUED »

Fox News has long found itself defending its "Fair & Balanced" slogan. And rightfully so: Everyday there are endless examples of Roger Ailes' minions schilling for conservatives. Not exactly the straight and narrow its mantra would have you believe. But at the same time, MSNBC's liberal slant has floated on by with less criticism than Fox News has suffered. That's been changing recently; Chris Matthews and, in particular, Keith Olbermann have been fingered in recent months for driving the network's progressive bias, from its opinion shows to its hard news daytime broadcasts. And now Chris Wallace, who managed to stuff endless opportunities for meta media coverage into his Television Critics Association appearance, HE'S NOT GOING TO TAKE IT!

CONTINUED »

Noble public official forgiver Keith Olbermann delivered one of his Digg-bait "Special Comments" last night, except this time he wasn't devoting 10 minutes to assailing President Bush — he was extending an olive branch, and a "second chance to make a first impression," to Sen. Barack Obama, who suddenly decided to vote for FISA, the federal wiretapping-without-warrants law that the Bush administration has so long wanted on the books, as well as blanket immunity for the telecom industry who's been cooperating with officials who may or may not be violating Americans' Fourth Amendment.

Nevermind that Olbermann was championing Obama just last week for "refusing to cower even to the left on the subject of warrantless wiretapping" — signaling a flip-flop of his own, since Olbermann was championing Obama when he was anti-FISA back when this campaign started — and got thrown to the lions by Glenn Greenwald, who pointed out the discrepancies in Olbermann's logic. Video below.

CONTINUED »

That Variety is weighing in on the Olbermann-O'Reilly feud pretty much means it's time to turn in, doesn't it? [Variety]