Hillary Clinton sat down with Bill O'Reilly yesterday because she apparently feels no compunction about encouraging him. The result was a reasonably reasonable interview, especially for Bill—which is not entirely surprising, as he usually saves his bullying for people who are easily bullied. He called her a socialist, yes, and then he called Teddy Roosevelt a socialist as well. At the end of the interview (which continues today) O'Reilly tried to goad Hillary into trashing NBC news. It might've worked! Bill hates MSNBC because their Keith Olbermann subjects him to the sort of personal abuse that Bill specializes in. Hillary hates MSNBC because their Chris Matthews compulsively says terrible sexist things about her. Sadly, Clinton backed down from the fight. Later today, they're gonna talk waterboarding!

Arianna Huffington has reportedly been BANISHED by NBC news—including MSNBC!—because her new book savagely criticizes NBC political honcho Tim Russert. Keith Kelly reports: "Sources said that Huffington was at a dinner in the home of Barbara Walters on Tuesday night when she heard that word had come down from on high that she no longer appear on NBC or MSNBC, where talk show hosts Keith Olbermann, Joe Scarborough and Dan Abrams were all interested in booking her." NBC's Phil Griffin claims to not know anything about it. We'd argue Arianna was just playing up a rumor she heard to publicize her book, but Griffin adds: "I know some people have issues with her as a guest, but it has nothing to do with the book." Say what you will about Arianna, but she's generally a great guest. So we'll take that as a confirmation. Arianna used to appear on Olbermann's and Dan Abrhams' shows fairly regularly, but her media schedule shows no forthcoming appearances. [NYP]

Former White House correspondent and current MSNBC host David Gregory just may be taking over for Chris Matthews once Matthews' very expensive contract is up next year. It is hoped, by MSNBC brass, that the kinda well-liked Gregory will be less of a headache than the notorious diva Matthews. But maybe he'll be just as bad! We asked for your stories about Gregory, and you delivered. As we said yesterday, his reputation in DC was not particularly bad for a TV "star." But that town is sycophantic enough to forgive a lot. So far, you all agree that David Gregory is, in fact, a jerk. Your personal stories of jerkdom, after the jump (and feel free to send more).

MSNBC took away Tucker Carlson's show because it was terrible and no one watched it. They gave to former White House correspondent David Gregory (the tall guy). We're not sure if his show is terrible or not, because no one still watches it. But regardless, rumors continue to fly that Gregory is being "groomed" to take the place of Hardballer Chris Matthews. Matthews is a network star, but he comes with a lot of baggage, like accusations of sexism, embarrassing magazine profiles, and his inability to deal politely with his staff. Gregory—famous for, in addition to his height, his testy and sarcastic exchanges with Bush press secretaries—doesn't have the ratings to justify any of this yet, obv, but supposedly CBS wants him so therefore NBC needs him even more because that's how TV works with its "talent." But would replacing Matthews with Gregory be even more of a disaster?

The Daily Show covered this the other night. Skip to about three minutes in, when the pundits demand blood. "Look, we gotta kill her off—y'know, figuratively."

It's no surprise that MSNBC is tilting to the political left; the cable news network admitted as much to the Times in the fall. But MSNBC is still figuring out how far to push its political bent into viewers' faces. If the network's coverage of a recent speech by Republican presidential candidate John McCain is anything to go by, it is edging toward becoming the Fox News of the left, as Fox itself feared. Saying he believes Iraq is a key Al Qaeda battleground, where of course America should fight an endless war forever, McCain told an MSNBC reporter, "General Petraeus and I and Osama bin Laden are in agreement," and the news network dug into the quote like the journalistic red meat that it was. See the headline at left for a flavor of how MSNBC covered the story. Video of McCain's treasonous comments is after the jump.

So Mika Brzezinski, the daughter of former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, is apparently an on-air personality on MSNBC. Today Yesterday on Joe Scarborough's morning show, she co-interviewed her dad. It is a very serious talk about the Iraq war and Dr. Brzezinski's advisory work with Barack Obama, except Mika calls him "dad." Which is cute, but kinda disconcerting. It's a bit like Billy Bush interviewing George H. W. Bush, except with both parties involved being considerably less vile.

Immediately after our exclusive story that executives at Sony attempted to squash an MSNBC.com story about Will Smith's alleged involvement with Scientology ran last night, Defamer received an email from the MSNBC.com news team stating the following: "We have now heard from Sony - furious that someone at msnbc.com is claiming that they asked us to kill the piece." Shortly thereafter, they updated their original story to include a denial that they had ever been contacted by Sony. As any faithful entertainment news follower is well aware, it is standard practice for media big guns to play the denial card as soon as any poor press hits. However, it is important to note that we here at Defamer are standing by the accuracy of our item; we will not be pressured into pulling it down.

MSNBC.com streamed Obama's speech on race in America live on its website today. Naturally, MSNBC ran some advertising along with the stream, but it wasn't the smartest product placement. Have a look:

What if they canceled Tucker Carlson's MSNBC show on a Sunday evening and no one noticed? [TVNewser]

Marketwatch media person (and frequent target of Gawker ridicule) Jon Friedman actually wrote a thought that is sorta original and correct and interesting! According to him, MSNBC's ratings may suck, but they "stand out in one underappreciated category: embarrassing, mealy-mouthed apologies." He refers to David Shuster's suspension for his remarks about Chelsea Clinton (ably dissected down to the very last gruesome detail by Rachel Sklar here), which, along with Chris Matthews' half-hearted and partially reversed apology for being insane about Hillary, has MSNBC holding the early lead in the "apologizing to the Clintons" race. Of course, in the overall apology race, Fox did force anchor John Gibson to apologize for laughing it up at the death of Heath Ledger. But he didn't really mean it so that doesn't count. [Marketwatch]

Rage-filled party-animal and man who is uncomfortable with powerful women Chris Matthews is (kinda justifiably!) pissed off that the Hillary Clinton campaign has been bugging his network, MSNBC, about how a couple of their anchors have said borderline misogynistic things about Senator Clinton. They have every right to bitch, but actually calling up GE-owned NBC? Actually asking that correspondent David Shuster be fired? For a sitting Senator who wishes to be President, that is not really kosher. As he usually does, Matthews went off in stronger langugage on his MSNBC colleague Joe Scarborough's morning show than he does on his own program. He seems to maybe regret his half-assed apology! Details of his rant below:

"Matthews says his job 'is to be provocative and say things — you know, "That's crazy!" — the way you might at a party.'" That's from today's lengthy Howard Kurtz profile of the famed MSNBC shouty person, which, in typical Kurtz style, uses many words, anecdotes, and interviews to say precisely nothing about its subject. Matthews: says whatever he thinks! Matthews: enrages Democrats and Republicans! Matthews: is criticized by some for talking about women in odd and uncomfortable ways! Oh, there's insight. You just have to dig for it. (For example, here's Newsweek senior Washington correspondent Howard Fineman summing about everything useless about Howard Fineman in two sentences: "'Chris asks a question, he often answers his question, and then he asks you to comment on his answer to his question,' says Fineman. 'Which I'm perfectly happy to do.'") After the jump, a brief history of Chris Matthews terrifying his staff, demonstrating a dodgy relationship with the powerful women in his life, and cursing on air.

Ridiculously error-prone New York Times TV critic Alessandra Stanley has been making reliably glaring mistakes in every single piece she has published in the newspaper of record for years now. Here's today's, in her story about how MSNBC is trying very hard not to upset the Clintons anymore: "MSNBC calls its stars 'the best political team' on television, but at the moment some players are in disgrace." A free cookie to Slate's Jack Shafer, who wrote an entire column about how annoying it is that CNN uses that "best political team" slogan incessantly. Does Ms. Stanley own a TV? Or have an editor? [NYT]

David Schuster, an NBC News correspondent whom no one on Earth had ever cared about before today, has just been suspended for announcing that it was "weird" how the Clintons "pimped out Chelsea" when they made her call all those superdelegates and those ladies from The View. Chris Matthews, Tucker Carlson, and even lovable old Pat Robertson will still appear on the network regularly. [Media Matters]

MSNBC is offering a live Webcast of its Super Tuesday coverage online. Could this be the first time a cable channel has simulcast news coverage on the Web? I've asked MSNBC if that's the case, but the network has yet to get back to me. A live broadcast is significantly more expensive than serving up a cached video, as YouTube does. The only other major live Internet broadcast has been pay-only from Major League Baseball, and that's not a replica of a cable channel. Stuck at your computer? Hit the jump to watch some MSNBC, straight from your desk.

"I shudder to think about a MSNBC.com and Yahoo News integration," a source formerly employed by both companies in the proposed Microsoft-Yahoo merger tell us. The "cultures," she says, "will be really tough to integrate." In that case, we're happy to report the good news: There's no way it will happen. Legally, Microsoft can't keep both news sites, and if it has to choose between the two, Yahoo News would be its natural choice.

Oh my. You really must watch this video, after the jump, of an addled NYObserver president Robert Sommer explaining to MSNBC host Tucker Carlson why his peachy paper endorsed Barack Obama this week. Our favorite line? "We like to view our readers as some of the smartest, most insensitive-most-Some of the most brightest readers in the country and especially New York." Aww...television is hard.

The Columbia Journal Review kinda hates everything on the cable news networks, but we have to hand it to them—today's MSNBC interview with author Ben Shapiro does reach a new and impressive low. Shapiro wrote a book called Project President: Bad Hair and Botox on the Road to the White House. This sounds like a man whose expertise on the political process should be celebrated on a national cable network! Contessa Brewer sat down with Ben and reinforced every single unfair negative stereotype about the vacuity of campaign coverage in something like two minutes. BREWER: "The only woman running in this case, Hillary Clinton, I was watching the debate the other night, looking at her beautiful skin, wondering if she's had any work done because I know that Botox and chemical peels and laser work and a little nip-tuck can make a world of difference." Ben, for those keeping score at home, doesn't think injecting botulism toxin into her forehead to temporarily hide signs of emotion and age would necessarily be such a bad idea for the 60-year-old senator. BREWER: "Ben, I think you're too young to know about Botox. I love the Botox. Next, we have an update on some reported UFO sightings..." [CJR]

MSNBC's appeal to block Nevada courts from forcing them to include magical elfin candidate Dennis Kucinich in tonight's debate is going before the Supreme Court right now! But we have no idea what network to turn to for coverage, as no one wants to report a story about the UFO-riding leprechaun with the only consistent voting record on the war. [Media Mob]
Update: The ladies of The View side with Dennis. Even Elisabeth! [NYT (last graf)]