Fox and MSNBC have been attacking each other with more frequency (but probably less violently) than the Black Spy and the White Spy, and one of their main forms of ammunition have been their respective ratings.

So naturally 'Countdown', hosted by the rather large (both in stature and physical size) talking head Keith Olbermann, had to respond to a report that appeared in the New York Post's "Page Six" column claiming that his show is one baboon hair away from cancellation hell.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Democrats are getting desperate to retain the baboon hair thin majority they have in the Senate.

How desperate are they? They actually asked political TV shouter Ed Schultz to run for a vacant seat.

The pundit and host of MSNBC's The Ed Show got a call from Democratic Rep. Merle Boucher asking him to run for retiring North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan's vacated seat.

Schultz hasn't said whether he'll run one way or the other but when he does, expect his booming voice to knock out a few car windows and the occasional fragile wine glass. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Morning Meeting, a horrid hour long morning news and shout show featuring former CNBC talking head Dylan Ratigan, invited Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz on a recent show and conducted the kind of interview that would cause the Bill O'Reilly from that infamous Inside Edition clip to calm down. Although it would probably sound more like "calm the f*$& down."

Ratigan tried to take Schultz to the mat over the recent health care bill, but the only thing he accomplished is turning his own show into the kind of wall of incoherent noise that has dominated the cable news clusterf&$%. He has since issued an apology.

If you're wondering who actually flicked the switch for the always impressive Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, you might be surprised or violently angry depending on your personal opinions.

MSNBC's professional right-wing pundit impressionist Keith Olbermann lit the tree during last night's episode of Countdown while dishing on Tiger Woods' series of trysts with gossip monger Michael Musto like a couple of housewives in a beauty parlor with baritone voice. Olbermann officially ushered in Christmas with a switch that looks like he raided the trash bin after NBC dismantled the Family Feud set. Then without missing a beat, the two jump right back into the Tiger trashing.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Who doesn't love Thanksgiving? I'll be enjoying mine with all the usual staples: turkey, cranberries, cornbread stuffing, some weird brown thing my father attempted to make and my Mom's mind-numbingly good meliton dressing. I'm literally chomping at the bit to take that first of 227 bites of homemade turkey. I've gone through three remotes in the last hour.

But I have to come up with something to do after all the food has been ravenously devoured by that wolf pack I call my family. And rather than list 100 reasons for regretting life (because 99 of them would be "Why did I eat that?"), here some things I have to be thankful for instead.

If you're playing a TV news drinking game wherein you and your dumb little buddies have to do a shot every time someone posts fake footage or film for a story, you might want to think about switching to Tang.

Now MSNBC's Morning Meeting has been caught dipping their hand in the Photoshopping jar when they aired rather obvious fake photos of Sarah Palin while doing a diss-session on the former VP candidate and her never ending book tour. Seriously, why is there this much coverage over one book? Even The Never Ending Story has an ending.



Dylan Ratigan issued an official apology to the viewers, Palin and her family for "mistakenly" using the doctored images. He also said he and the network took the weekend to ensure this would not happen again. I guess that means there's one less email forwarding fratboy on MSNBC's research payroll now.

The Los Angeles Times made a rather humorous error in their TV listings and some, depending on what they personally think of MSNBC talking head Keith Olbermann, may not have noticed the difference.

Their TV listings for Thursday listed Jackass in the time slot where Countdown with Keith Olbermann should have been. The paper issued a correction the following day, disappointing thousands of easily hammered frat boys (including me) who thought MTV's nightly cavalcade of nut shots and poo fights had returned to television on another network.

Olbermann was OK with the mistake until one of the paper's bloggers used it as a political parry against him and his network. That launched the MSNBC host into a personal tirade against the blogger and anything else that happened to saunter into the path of Olbermann's angry spittle cannon.

Walter Cronkite's passing didn't mark the end of an era in the TV news business. The era he helped produce and prolong died long before he did.

It's hard for me to ever imagine a time when people considered a major network news anchor as America's most trusted source for anything. Claims of bias and political persuasion being injected into every story with a meat syringe created a thick fog that made it very hard to cover anything with a modicum of honesty.

Cronkite, however, was the man people turned to when something blew up, exploded, imploded, launched, landed or any other number of descriptive verbs, because his goal wasn't to make news every time he stepped in front of a camera. His goal was just to report it.

From the Things I Don't Understand file: NBC is selling video of Matt Lauer's interview with Prince William and Prince Harry on iTunes, even though the entire interview is available on MSNBC.com for free.

Now, before you say "nobody would buy that," please note that the $1.99 video is the number two TV video on iTunes right now, right behind video of the recent Miss Universe Pageant. Just kidding. Actually, number one right now is the latest episode of Starter Wife. The rest of the top 10: recent eps of The Office, Lil' Bush, The Starter Wife, Kyle XY, The Starter Wife, Hannah Montana, Stargate: SG-1, and Studio 60.

I guess if you buy it from iTunes you can keep it forever and watch it over and over and over.

MSNBC has just announced that they will air the first debate of the 2008 Presidential campaign. The network will have the first Democratic party debate at South Carolina State University on April 26. A few weeks later, on May 15, FOX News will air the first Republican party debate from South Carolina.

Um...wait a second. The election isn't until November of 2008 but the debates are already starting this April? More than a year and a half before the election? Has this always been done? I usually pay close attention to these things but I can't remember them starting this early before.

Then again, all the supermarkets and drugstores had Christmas candy on the same shelves as Halloween candy a few months ago, so I guess everything starts early these days.

[via TV Newser]

Is this one of the improvements they're making to the cable network now that it's under new leadership? Not sure if you watch it during the day, but they have this really annoying new feature where you see and hear the producer in the control room telling the technicians what to do, telling the anchor what story is coming up next, telling viewers they're going to commercial. Why are they doing this? Doing it once or twice was a quirky and interesting, but now it's a regular thing? Who cares what the producers say and how the show runs? When I watch a 24 hour news channel (or many types of shows, actually), I don't want to see the inner workings of the machine. Do they think it's hip or revealing or innovative? It's not.

If they want to start putting cameras in the dressing rooms of the anchorwomen, then I might be interested. New slogan: "MSNB-See the hot anchorbabes like you've never seen them before!"

Here's a story I don't quite understand. Everyone knows that MSNBC's shows often lag behind the shows and news coverage offered by rivals CNN and FOX News, so why wouldn't they change their name? The name change has been hinted at since NBC bought the majority stake in the company from Microsoft (the "MS" in the channel's name).

A change to NBC News Channel (or whatever name they would give the network) would not only sounds a lot better than MSNBC (which was always an odd name for a news network - NBC News would give an air of authority and gravitas to the channel), but maybe changing the name would be a kick in the pants not only to the employees of the station but also to viewers. Change, as they say, is good, so I don't see what possible positive point there would be in keeping an old name that is associated with second or third place?

Sure, the reason in the article below is that the channel has such a close association with Microsoft and the web site that it would be hard to change. But I don't buy it.

Tucker Carlson's show is one show I never hear anyone talking about. It used to be on earlier in the evening on MSNBC, but then it got pushed back to 11pm. It's not doing too well in the ratings, and according to some guy in line at the movies the other night, it might not survive the 11pm slot.

And I would guess that if it doesn't survive that slot, it will probably be canceled all together. And then we'll see Carlson show up on another MSNBC show, or we'll find him back on CNN or on FOX News.

Lohan appeared on The Today Show this morning to promote her latest film, and it looks like Matt Lauer's questions didn't make her too happy. (Oh well, at least she didn't tell him "Matt, Matt ... you're glib ...").

I didn't see it this morning, and, unfortunately, I can't see it now. MSNBC's site insists that you have Internet Explorer and download their software. But Gawker has the details.

I'm so glad that last night Mad TV did a takeoff on Weekends With Maury and Connie (Bobby Lee as Connie - ha!). This has got to be the worst show on television. At least Wife Swap has kids you might feel sorry for.

This show so badly wants to be The Daily Show it's embarrassing (Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead is the executive producer). It wants to take current events and politics and give them an irreverent spin, while also tackling some serious issues with serious interviews. But the result is horrifying. Maury Povich gave up his membership card many years ago, when he started his sleazefest morning show, and Connie Chung continues to be the most laughable, incompetent newsperson since Ted Baxter. I still cringe when I think about her first CNN show a several years back, when she had Jon Stewart on and seriously told him he could be a major network news anchor. Stewart was stunned she was serious, as was all of America.

I also hate how at the beginning of the show, one of them actually says "Welcome To Weekends With Maury and Connie," 10 seconds after the announcer has already mentioned the title twice. Couldn't they just say "welcome to the show," instead of referring to themselves like that?

This is a show that could actually work - maybe even with a husband and wife team - but they have to get rid of Povich and Chung and retool it.