Barely four months ago, MSNBC nearly doubled Keith Olbemann's annual salary to $7.5 million. Now the network says Chris Matthews has re-upped without much of a raise. Ouch.

CNN is flailing, trailing even sister network Headline News this month. With Campbell Brown about to go on maternity leave, are they preparing to quit the "No Bias, No Bull" posturing?

• NBC chief Jeff Zucker says that despite the fact Jim Cramer got his ass handed to him last week by Jon Stewart, it's had absolutely no impact on CNBC. Believe that and you may also be willing to buy that everything's perfect at MSNBC and NBC, and Zucker has a perfect head of hair, too. [Portfolio, B&C]
• Crain Communications has cut 150 staffers and sliced salaries by 10%. [PC]
• Don Hewitt, the creator of 60 Minutes, is in the hospital with cancer. [Wow]
• Media advertising fell 2.6% in 2008, according to Nielsen. [B&C]
• Interview seems to be having financial difficulties. [Gawker]
• Discovery has filed a patent suit against Amazon over the Kindle. [WSJ]
• The Hills's Audrina Patridge has a reality show of her own in the works. [THR]
• CNN's Lou Dobbs is a racist. But you probably knew that already. [Gawker]

George Clooney is, uh, video blogging for MSNBC — sure, why not? — and there's not much to add to his pitch-perfect imitation of Andy Rooney, except that it came none too soon.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has been on a tour of late-night shows, where the Rhodes Scholar explains the massive flaws in our political and economic systems. Another common duty: Answering questions about Keith Olbermann.

Denial appears to be the official position on Jim Cramer following his pantsing by Jon Stewart. CNBCers don't believe there's a problem, while MSNBC is doing their best to pretendCramer doesn't exist.

Meghan McCain went on Rachel Maddow's television program last night in a bid to become the Fresh New Voice of the GOP. Instead she made a fool of herself.

Oh man. Who even knows why this happened, but Chris Matthews and former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer had a hilarious bitchy fight a few minutes ago.

• Jon Stewart ripped Jim Cramer apart once again on his show last night. And now Cramer is planning to appear on The Daily Show on Thursday. [Gawker]
• William Morris and Endeavor are said to be in merger talks. [NYT]
• Time Inc. chief Ann Moore says the company is thinking about turning Time.com and People.com subscription-based sites. [Folio]
• For its part, Disney is launching a new "portal." It's 1999 all over again! [WSJ]
• Former NBC prez Katherine Pope is said to be in talks with News Corp. president Peter Chernin about joining his new production firm. [THR]
• Is liberal talk radio host Ed Schultz destined for a gig with MSNBC? [NYO]
• Needless to say, the Daily News is taking issue with the list suggesting the paper is likely to go out of business in the near future. [Crains]
• The plug has been pulled on David Alan Grier's Comedy Central series, Chocolate News. Let's all take a moment to mourn, okay? [NYT]

You have to hand it to Jon Stewart: The Daily Show host at least has the good sense to mock his "Basic Cable Personality Clash" with Jim Cramer the very moment it becomes mockable.

Leave it to the inestimable and always fabulous George Wayne of Vanity Fair to think of the one question that Rachel Maddow has never been asked before, despite the fact she's been interviewed 2,237 times over the past six months:

(This is from yesterday's Rachel Maddow Show, shortly after her MSNBC colleague finished pointing to his Cornell diploma to prove a crazy point.)

Which I guess makes Ann Coulter... Angela? See, here he is pointing to his Cornell Diploma in order to settle some ridiculous argument. So this is what he'll do without George Bush to kick around!

All Contessa Brewer was trying to do was introduce a clip about a "gigantic gem." But her bitchy co-anchor Melissa Francis had to insult her, by implying she was conceited or something. Contessa was flummoxed.

It's been a rough few weeks for CNN. Ratings have falling fast, especially for primetime programs hosted by Anderson Cooper and Campbell Brown, news that came to light the same day Brown rather bizarrely confessed her apartment had been invaded by "toxic mold" in recent months. To make matters worse, this past weekend the Daily News revealed that Jeffrey Toobin, CNN's very-much-married legal analyst, has been having an affair with the daughter of former colleague Jeff Greenfield, and may have even gotten her pregnant, too. So how is CNN CEO Jon Klein responding to the bad news?

Why did Arianna Huffington agree to do the Rachel Maddow Show with comic and former E! host Hal Sparks? So self-undermining!

• Fox News remains in first place in the cable news ratings race. MSNBC is showing modest gains, while CNN is dropping like a lead balloon. [NYT, MM]
• Cablevision says it plans to charge readers to access to Newsday.com. [NYP]
• Hearst is launching an e-reader for magazines and newspapers. [Fortune]
• The Times is launching several local "citizen journalism" sites. [E&P]
• Sony CEO Howard Stringer has pushed aside two senior execs. [WSJ]
• Old Navy's newest ad campaign resembles a celeb tabloid. [Jossip]
• Peter Scarlet has resigned as the Tribeca Film Fest's artistic director. [THR]
• Take a tour of the White House with Katie Couric if you'd like. [YouTube]
• Denver's Rocky Mountain News says goodbye. [RMN]

Last night, as Bobby Jindal began his response to Obama's speech by wandering into his opulent mansion and sitting down to read us a story, Chris Matthews was heard on-air saying "Oh, god." Today, he explained why.

• President Obama's first Congressional address drew in 33.6 million viewers last night, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen. [ML]
• It was Chris Matthews who muttered "Oh, God" on MSNBC last night, right when Bobby Jindal was about to deliver the Republican response. [Politico]
• Fourth-quarter profit declined 77 percent at the Washington Post Co. [NYT]
• Remember the DABA Girls? Yea, well, much of what they told the Times was BS, which is why the paper issued a correction today. [Newsweek, NYT]
• The CW has renewed a bunch of shows, including 90210, Smallville, America's Next Top Model, and—most importantly—Gossip Girl. [Variety]
• Ex-Domino editor Deborah Needleman is "spending more time at the gym" in order to acquire "one of those Connecticut-housewife bodies," FYI. [MM]
• Jared Kushner may be cutting a deal to sell the Observer at Starbucks. [NYP]

Fox News added an asterisk to this advertisement only to responsibly admit that its competitors have tiny penises: