MSNBC's Rachel "Maddow tried to replace all the staffers who work on the 9 p.m. time slot, which she takes over on Monday, but management refused... 'She is Olbermann's protégé and is behaving like he does.'" [Post]

"Olbermann 'announced that his bosses [had] better find a more secure location for him to broadcast from at the Republican National Convention or he's not going,' one insider said. 'He thinks someone will assassinate him.'" [Post]

It comes as no huge shock to hear that the on-air bickering that has characterized MSNBC's coverage of the Democratic convention has carried over into behind-the-scenes tension and backbiting. The reports poured in last night. Politico quoted a "high-ranking journalist" who said "the situation at our channel is about to blow up." Jossip reported that both staff and top brass believe network host Keith Olbermann is way out of bounds in bashing other anchors. And the Wall Street Journal quotes former MSNBC host Connie Chung thusly: "Grow up! They have to just grow up." Whose fault is all this? Probably MSNBC chief Phil Griffin, whose staff (judging from all the reports) have a hard a time trusting. Well, he is the fellow who keeps rather ridiculously insisting MSNBC isn't becoming the left-wing Fox News. But the Journal has found another guilty party: Tim Russert, who had to go and die:

"Hillary Clinton will be on hand for Barack Obama's acceptance speech, but according to a source close to former President Bill Clinton, he will not: the source tells CNN that Clinton will not join his wife at Invesco Field Thursday night." (That's the entire story, at the moment.) [CNN]

MSNBC's team at the Democratic National Convention needs to get more sleep and maybe also one of those massages that Arianna Huffington is giving out. The cable network's anchors are sniping at one another tonight, just like they did last night. About 20 minutes ago, ahead of Hillary Clinton's speech, Chris Matthews was talking about how some women feel disenfranchised within the party. It's a touchy subject for Matthews, who has been accused of sexist commentary against Clinton, and he did not appreciate a producer telling him to wrap up his ramble. He also didn't appreciate his sometime rival Keith Olbermann making one of those "talking" gestures with his hand. He, uh, let him know that. There's more real-life political drama and intrigue among MSNBC anchors than at the convention at this point. Click the icon for the video. More MSNBC internal fighting in our earlier roundup of Cable Feuds.

Cable news is a hyper-competitive environment full of huge egos fighting with each other for every scrap of a ratings point. And at this time of year, with all the shouting heads descending upon the political convention like a gang of ferrets into a small sack, conflict is inevitable. Plus it's hot, and there's not too much real news anyhow, so everyone is grumpy. After the jump, an illustrated guide to the most vicious feuds in the cable world. Pick your side, demonize your enemies, and play along:

Here's a fun video of Keith Olbermann, Joe Scarborough and Chris Matthews of MSNBC being vicious and bitchy to one another when they're supposed to be discussing the Democratic National Convention yesterday. All you really need to know is that all three men hate each other, although you might as well learn why, since we had to: Scarborough and Olbermann are blowhards from opposite sides of the political spectrum, Matthews thinks Scarborough is too partisan and Matthews and Olbermann constantly try to out-wonk one another out of insecurity. Everyone's big egos might be good for ratings, but they're making it very hard to cover the convention. Matthews was heckled by Hillary Clinton supporters, Olbermann briefly recused himself from gushing about Michelle Obama because he realized he sounded like a "sycophant" and Scarborough got into the middle of the fracas shown in the video. Be sure to stick around for the Matthews-Scarborough nastiness at the end. (Click the video icon to watch.) [YouTube via TVNewser]

Sure, it makes sense that gay media mogul Paul Colichman, owner of Out and the Advocate, is taking some flack because he doesn't support Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. To gay rights advocates, after all, Obama is far preferable to his opponent. But Colichman's critics would do well to distance themselves from comrade-in-arms Neal Boulton, the Genre editor who slammed Colichman in Page Six today and declared his own support for Obama "whether he says he's for gay marriage or not." Pansexual playboy Boulton should realize that's easy for him to say, but for Colichman and his gay partner it's an entirely different story. Boulton is already married to a woman. The marriage is one of some devotion, and a natural outgrowth of Boulton's attraction to women. And it's hard to imagine the editor settling down with a man.

While promoting his new documentary Religulous (the hit of Claremont, CA!), the politically incorrect Bill Maher sat down with TV Guide for its upcoming August 25 issue. After discussing the religion-bashing doc, talk turned to The View (because when doesn't it?), and Maher was asked for his opinion on notorious flat-earther Sherri Shepherd. His response earned him a round of playground high-fives and "oh snaps":

New York is stoking a rivalry between Nina Garcia of Project Runway and Marie Claire and Anne Slowey, Garcia's TV stand-in at Elle and star of the forthcoming reality show Stylista. It's hard to imagine either of the two fashion editors terribly minded New York's in-depth article on their differences — which, disclosure here, was written by our own Moe — considering they both have shows to push, Slowey's being brand new and Garcia's in the midst of a controversial jump to Lifetime. But it's hard to imagine Slowey, who desperately needs to put Stylista's embarrassing trailers behind her, is thrilled about the particulars of how she looks.

Even those who care nothing for the "lifestreaming" website NonSociety, the Bravo reality TV show pilot being spun off from it or the fameballs behind it can appreciate the fundamental truth on display on the site this weekend: Conflict is central to any "reality" driven broadcast. Without conflict, reality television would be watched mainly by sociology professors and prison inmates. That's why producers in the genre tend to seek out dramatic clashes of any sort, going so far as to line up racists, sexists and just overall idiots for their casts. It's also why the most interesting thing posted so far to NonSociety, one month in, is recently-insecure designer Mary Rambin's tiff with bitch-blogger Frangy over... well, over whether two streets intersect. Spoiler: Things do not end well for poor Mary.

Lewis Lapham's forthcoming Harper's column on Tim Russert is not entirely unexpected, given the cranky literary liberal's public pronouncements on the late host of Meet The Press. But Lapham, sometimes slammed as insufferable bore, has spun a compelling essay out of his rough initial pronouncement that "1,000 people came to [Russert's] memorial service because essentially he was a shill for the government." Maybe Lapham's thorough disassembling is so tasty this time around because the reverence for Russert (not to mention his son Luke) was so completely over the top: two days and three nights of televised memorial, or some 96 hours of airtime, by Lapham's count. Lapham's column is called "Elegy For A Rubber Stamp," entertains the concession that Russert was probably a good father and friend and Catholic, and then swifty moves on to saying Russert had "the on-air persona of an attentive and accommodating headwaiter," that his "stock in trade was the deftly pulled punch" and that Russert was a "pet canary." Further excerpts after the jump.

Hints abound today that the wheels may be coming off the souped-up Dark Knight bandwagon — and not just at the box office, where some estimates have Tropic Thunder usurping the top spot this weekend. TDK's sweeping cultural influence may be in jeopardy as well, with its Greatest! Movie! Ever! status now reduced to a nonsensical three-way tie at IMDB and a pair of formidable opponents shaping up across town at Camp Iron Man. In case you missed it, Robert Downey Jr. has already resorted to dramatic efforts of Batsabotage ("Didn't get it, still can't tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character and in the end they need him to be a bad guy. ... You know what? F-ck DC comics"), and now jealousy-inspiring actor/screenwriter Justin Theroux has enlisted exactly the kind of metaphorical bitchslap we'd expect from his soaring geekcake talent:

Even L.A. Police Chief William Bratton is keeping up on lesbian lovers Lindsay Lohan and DJ Samantha Ronson, and the couple would like him to kindly get them out of his dirty old mind. Bratton was explaining why he skipped a city task force meeting on curbing the paparazzi last week when he said, "If you notice, since Britney (Spears) started wearing clothes and behaving, Paris (Hilton) is out of town not bothering anybody, thank god; and evidently, Lindsay Lohan has gone gay, we don't seem to have much of an issue." Now Linds and Sam are firing back at the meaty cop.

It's a late-breaking story, and CNN's American Morning clearly thought it had a big "get" — a live interview with the brother of Bruce Ivins, a federal biodefense researcher who killed himself as the government prepared to charge him in the anthrax mailings of late 2001. Host John Roberts was prepared, no doubt, to delicately question a grieving sibling — not for the increasingly surly conversation that ensued. Of course, it's hard to fault him for not having a followup question ready for statements like, "I'm a paratrooper." The logical reply is a bit insensitive: "Are you entirely sober?" Click the video icon to watch a distinctly bitter sort of grieving.

A couple of weeks ago, singer and serenity guru Courtney Love posted to her Myspace a long rant entitled "Ryan Adams you fucking weasel. deal with it.858,00$." No one knows exactly what Love said in the missive, precisely, but the scholarly consensus at this point is that it involved Adams using Love's American Express card and checkbook to pay for record expenses well above and beyond what Love felt had been authorized, possibly while Adams and Love were sexing one another. Also, Adams was supposedly spending money intended for Love's 15-year-old daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. Now Adams has linked, from a strange box in the upper-right corner of his Web homepage, something of a response. Or at least it seems that way. He could be talking about some other "reality-challenged" person accusing him of "fictonal crime against innocents." But probably not! An excerpt:

Minneapolis Star and Tribune "gossip" columnist (there is no gossip in Minneapolis) C.J. has a kind of hilarious "item" about how Times media columnist and addiction memoirist David Carr is now feuding with Washington Post media columnist Howard Kurtz. How does she manage this? She quotes a Kurtz column in which Kurtz sums up Carr's assesment of himself as a lousy junkie, then calls Carr to ask if he'll be on Kurtz's show. Carr, probably befuddled at receiving a call from C.J., says something kind of confusing about how they are not that close. Then, FishbowlNY picks it up? Best entirely nonsensical made-up feud ever! Team Junkie! [Strib]

So what's going on with hip hop radio queen Wendy Williams' new morning TV talk show these days? Strife, anger, and war, that's what! You can't say Williams isn't a pro. She knows she has a reputation for evil herself, so she went out and found one of the most widely despised semi-celebrity figures in America-ex-Apprentice star and insane person Omarosa-and invited her on the show yesterday. Chaos ensued! Highlights and the very special video, after the jump.

Phil Griffin was only promoted to president of MSNBC last week, but he's already escalated the cable news network's feud with competitor Fox News Channel. That probably shouldn't be surprising given that Griffin is the chief patron of Keith Olbermann, the antagonist most detested by Fox. But Griffin's swipes at his competitor in the Kansas City Star are still startlingly raw: "You can't trust a word they say," Griffin said of Fox News. "THEY made the business decision to create an ideological network. We didn't. They were the ones that got in bed with the Bush Administration, so that most of the time, where did the Bush Administration officials come out and make their points? Fox News." Well, OK then! But isn't MSNBC adding a lot of left-wing opinion to its own newscasts, via Olbermann and others? Totally different, said Griffin:

Sober rocker Courtney Love posted an open letter to her myspace page last night, in which she charges that fellow musical mess Ryan Adams had something to do with stealing "858,00$" from her-and from daughter Frances Bean Cobain. Let's all try to make sense of it together, shall we?