rachel maddow

Last night on 'The O'Reilly Factor' (weeknights at 8PM ET on Fox News Channel), Bill O'Reilly called MSNBC's Rachel Maddow a "loon" for the way she has described Fox News coverage of the Shirley Sherrod/NAACP controversy on her show (weeknights at 9PM ET). Well, as soon as he said that we all knew that Maddow would respond at some point, and last night on her show she did.

Oddly, Spongebob SquarePants and 'NCIS' are mentioned.

I guess we'll have to wait to see what O'Reilly says about it tonight and then what Maddow says about what he said, etc, etc. But what we're all waiting for is what 'The Daily Show' says about it when they return from vacation on Monday.

Ah, there's nothing better than live TV. On the latest installment of 'The Rachel Maddow Show' (weeknights, 9PM ET on MSNBC), host Maddow was attempting to discuss how current Republican proposals would massively increase the size of the U.S. deficit.

Unfortunately, her presentation involved sticking giant red pieces of something-or-other onto a display screen. And those pieces kept falling off the screen, over and over again. "I knew that was gonna happen!" Maddow said.

So Rachel had to have a crew member named Rich come out and physically hold the big red whatever-they-were things up. She was in good spirits about it, though. But then, everything still fell down again afterward. Oh, Rachel. In Internet-speak, this is all a major FAIL. You have been PWNED ... by pieces of red felt.

When she segued to a talk with Senator Sherrod Brown, the senator had this to say: "You're having too much fun."

"I am having fun!" she replied. "Whenever things fail visibly on television, I enjoy myself." Aw, Rachel, we love you.

At any rate, the point that Rachel was trying to make was that current Republican proposals would add more than three TRILLION dollars to the deficit. That's interesting, considering that the GOP is supposed to be the party of fiscal responsibility. Do you think Rachel is right? Are the Republicans acting a little crazy with their current proposals? Feel free to leave your replies in the comment section.

In surprising recent news, Rush Limbaugh had Elton John perform at his wedding ceremony. It was Limbaugh's fourth wedding, and the singer received a $1 million fee to play at the event.

On 'Real Time With Bill Maher' (Fri., 10PM ET on HBO), Maher and his guests discussed the controversy. Elton John is -- quite obviously -- gay, and Rush Limbaugh has frequently come out strongly against gay marriage and gay rights. As a result, many people felt that Elton's performance was ... odd, to say the least.

Appearing on the show was MSNBC personality Rachel Maddow, the first openly gay anchor to host a prime-time TV program. Maher asked her how much money it would take to get her to sing at Rush's marriage. Maddow replied that she was "sort of against weddings" in general.

The BP Oil Spill is just the latest crisis to devastate the Gulf Coast region. (Previously, there was a very large hurricane that you may have heard about.) On 'The Rachel Maddow Show' (weeknights, 9PM ET on MSNBC), Rachel visits a couple of Gulf Coast residents who are trying to make the best of things.

Jamie and Terri are the proprietors of the Dock of the Bay Bar on Grand Isle -- an island just off the coast of Louisiana, which has been one of the areas hardest hit by the oil spill. The main customers of the bar are fishermen, but there is no fishing in the area anymore, and thus, there are many fewer customers in the bar.

Excitement was in the air Tuesday night on the cable news channels as a mini-Super Tuesday saw Senate primary battles going on Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Arkansas, with a special election in Jack Murtha's former Congressional seat in upstate Pennsylvania. It was as if Christmas had come early for the anchors hosting the coverage, who were so pumped up they could barely contain themselves. At the end of 'Countdown' (weeknights, 8PM ET on MSNBC), as Keith Olbermann was tossing his show over to 'The Rachel Maddow Show,' Maddow went on a riff about how excited she was to be covering real elections again.

Describing her enthusiasm, she told Keith she was having "election night sweats," and that she was "vibrating off my seat at a height of about six inches." Olbermann visibly struggled not to burst out laughing, and instead warned Rachel that she was "getting into Matthews territory here," a reference to his co-host's infamous "I feel a thrill running up my leg comment" after listening to a Barack Obama speech. Always self-deprecating, Rachel laughed it off and told Keith she appreciated the warning.

Sherri Shepherd of 'The View' (weekdays, syndicated) films herself at the White House Correspondents' Dinner and runs into Kevin Jonas and new bride Danielle Deleasa, Kim Kardashian and political commentator Rachel Maddow.

Shepherd talks to Jonas about how he proposed to Deleasa, learns that Kardashian's dress is vintage fashion from 1984, and discovers that Maddow is slinging drinks behind the bar.

Tuesday's 'Rachel Maddow Show' (weekdays, 9PM ET on MSNBC) turned the spotlight on a strange connection between Kentucky Republican Senator Jim Bunning and candy-flavored cigarettes. Maddow reports on Senator Bunning's outrage that a new law passed by the Canadian Parliament has banned candy-flavored cigarettes in Canada on the grounds that they encourage children to pick up smoking. Yes, you read that correctly -- Bunning, who represents a tobacco-growing state, is actively protesting against another country's efforts to curb smoking among young people.

America, we need to talk.

There was a time when you were my favorite country in the world. Sure, you invented the Snuggie and insisted on airing multiple shows about making cakes for some reason, but you were always pretty stable. Well, that's changed and I think I know why.

You're addicted, America. You're addicted to something more insidious than nicotine or cocaine or Pokémon: you're addicted to Opinion Based News Shows.

Don't deny it! I've seen the signs! What started as an innocent attempt to have more talking points at parties has begun to rage out of control. Sometimes it seems you can't even make a move without a little taste of Keith or Glenn just to get you "right".

Well, I'm not going to watch my friend go down without a fight. This is your wake-up call America. This is your intervention.

Last night during MSNBC's coverage of the State of the Union Address, Chris Matthews said about President Obama, "I forgot that he was black tonight, for an hour." Now, even if you give him the benefit of the doubt about this statement (a dumb statement for many reasons - what, he does remember that he's black all the other times of the day? What exactly does it mean?), it's still an odd statement to say out loud. He "clarified" the statement on Rachel Maddow's show.

Don't think what he said was odd? Imagine if someone on FOX News had said it.

No, not that one. That's not a secret.

Maddow was on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon the other night, talking about healthcare and cocktails and comic books and other things. At the start of the interview she also drops some news about why she was gone from MSNBC a couple of weeks ago that some might find surprising.

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.

They passed the torch on NBC yesterday. After weeks of speculation, it wasn't either Ted Koppel or Rachel Maddow that received the choice assignment. Nope. It's David Gregory who'll take over Meet the Press -- effective immediately. On Sunday morning's broadcast, interim host and NBC anchorman emeritus Tom Brokaw made it official by officially letting the world know it was a done deal by presenting Gregory on air.

Apparently, some at NBC were miffed that this information was leaked last week, spoiling the big surprise today, but really, there wasn't much suspense. Joel wrote about it. The selection of David Gregory is a safe, solid and somewhat staid choice.

Shortly after Tim Russert's death in June, I speculated on who NBC might pick to host Meet The Press. At the time, I figured that David Gregory was the best choice, given his pedigree as White House correspondent and the decent job he did subbing for Russert in the past. But over the summer and the heat of the election homestretch, I came to change my mind about that.

I saw Chuck Todd and His Goatee take a bigger and bigger role in the coverage, stepping into Russert's nightly role of presenting and analyzing the latest blizzard of polls to come out, and I thought he'd make an interesting choice for moderator. Then Tina Brown floated the idea of Rachel Maddow as moderator, and I was also intrigued, given her rise to punditry stardom and her surprising even-handed manner.

But, if a report from the Huffington Post is to be believed, Gregory will soon be named the moderator of the program. Which is too bad, because this gave NBC an opportunity to do something different.

Meet the Press, NBC's venerable (six decades!) political affairs news program and a staple of Sunday morning TV, has been in flux ever since the untimely death of Tim Russert. Tom Brokaw has been sitting in the big chair, brought out of semi-retirement and keeping the show together in Tim's stead. But NBC has confirmed that Brokaw is leaving on December 7. They have not confirmed who will become the new face of Meet the Press.

Last week, Bob speculated about Ted Koppel joining NBC to anchor the show, and he was certainly be a credible choice. Tina Brown at The Daily Beast web site has another idea; she says that Rachel Maddow should take over Meet the Press.

My first reaction to Brown's idea was, "No, not Rachel." But that was just because I wouldn't want Rachel to give up The Rachel Maddow Show, her prime time MSNBC show. I enjoy her daily take on the world of politics. She's smart, insightful, a good interviewer, and despite her liberal leanings, surprisingly critical of the left. She could bring all the critical thinking to MTP.

Here's some news that's bound to equally thrill and displease readers. MSNBC has given Keith Olbermann a new four year deal, ensuring that Countdown with Keith Olbermann remains in the cable's primetime lineup. For fans of Olbermann, the prospect of Keith's continued commentaries and his clever interpretation of the news is a good thing. For those who loathe the man -- and there are just as many detractors as fans -- this is one more reason to be ticked off with MSNBC.

The fact is that TV success doesn't depend on having everybody love you. There are many stars, in fact, who are polarizing figures. Either you love them or you love to hate them. The point is that you don't ignore them. So, Keith Olbermann will remain a part of the public discourse and that means the best media feud of the decade goes on -- Olbermann versus Bill O'Reilly.