This reporter was thinking just a little while back, that what this country needs is another intolerant political loud mouth on the airwaves. It doesn't matter what political party they call home -- R or D, liberal conservative. No TV viewer seems able to go more than a few minutes without having some self-important gas bag named Matthews or O'Reilly, sporting one ideology or another, raging at a camera.Fortunately, MSNBC brings us another fix -- the emerging show from Air America personality Ed Schultz. Resembling a sort of square-headed Rush Limbaugh, Schultz's politics run more toward Keith Olbermann. But, let's face it: None of these guys are on TV to discuss sensible politics on either side of the aisle. They're on the air to pontificate, yell, scream and (in Schultz's case) have a borderline Network-ish nervous breakdown on camera every night.
A little bit of new info
I was watching Larry King Live last night (oh, come on, like you didn't tune in to see what the hell's going on with Elizabeth Taylor), and Larry calls Liz's priceless jewelry "costume," and she's stunned. Larry tries to laugh it off that he was just needling her, that he can't tell the difference between real and costume, and then he goes to a break and throws it to Anderson Cooper to see what's coming up at the top of the hour on 360, and he says something like "Anderson, get me out of this will you?" as Larry and Liz laugh, and since he has put him on the spot, Anderson has to muster up a semi-joking "I can't tell the difference either Larry ...coming up, more violence and bloodshed in Iraq."
"Your Mouth Can't Get Pregnant." - title of
Tina Fey's book about teen pregancy, on Saturday Night Live.
Keith Olbermann brings a
certain... attitude... to his nightly newscast on MSNBC. He's bitingly sarcastic, self-deprecating and good-natured.
The scripts for the newscast are heavily written by Olbermann himself, but his producers and writers obviously have his
tone down and write the way he speaks. So, when Keith is on vacation and someone else fills in, the show really, really
sucks. It used to be that Alex Witt filled in for Keith, but she didn't seem to know what she was reading. She read
everything straight. Witt was apparently booted off in favor of 
Looks like Keith Olbermann was serious when he made stop smoking the #1 news story on his Countdown the other day. He has launched a regular segment on the show titled "I Quit," which will offer tips and support to people who are trying to quit smoking. And NBC - regardless of what MSNBC chief Rich Kaplan might have thought the night the segment aired - is actually promoting it. Here's the 
Did you happen to catch the end of Countdown the other night? Keith Olbermann spent the last several minutes of the broadcast revealing that he had a cancer scare too, in his mouth, from years of smoking cigars and pipes (I think that's why Olbermann has been out quite a bit lately - it thankfully turned out to be benign). He went into detail about what happened - in a serious tone - clearly upset about the death of Peter Jennings from lung cancer, and wanted to warn viewers on the dangers of smoking. It was rare television: personal, riveting, and unpredictable.
Gone Too Soon: Invasion
Scrubs season nine -- An early look
The TV Squad Podcast: Vik Sahay of Chuck, Oprah talk, brutal timeslots, and more!
