MSNBC's website is linking Hillary Clinton's name to her campaign website, which takes readers directly to a donation page. Odd behavior, and, as far as we know, unprecedented for other candidates or other online news sources. But Hillary's an odd candidate for favoritism from the network that gives us cheek-pinchin' Chris Matthews. We'd say it might be how they got the Meet the Press sitdown but the easiest way to get Hillary on your Sunday morning show is to have a Sunday morning show. [MediaBloodhound]

Everywhere we turn we see another network news anchorwoman sporting the exact same long-layered take on the post-Rachel Green do. Does Fox News have only the one style consultant? If you looked at the cable network's anchors (from l-r) Lis Wiehl, Dagen McDowell and Cheryl Casone, you might think so. Alycia Lane may not have abided by the CBS code of conduct, but she certainly toed the coiffure line. CNN Headline News anchor Linda Stouffer and colleague Carol Costello flaunt the style, along with CBS News' Hannah Storm and MSNBC's Contessa Brewer. Longer hair can make you look younger (what woman in TV news couldn't get behind that concept) and both focus groups and the men in them tend to appreciate lengthy locks (Case-in-point: Felicity's post-shearage ratings nosedive. What? You know you watched it once.) Still, when we flip on the tube, it's getting harder and harder to shake the feeling that we're catching the tail end of a Central Perk coffee klatch.

The latest issue of Men's Journal tells the story of Keith Olbermann, the logorrheic sportscaster who terrorized ESPN while creating its sarcastic brand, became a failed "serious" newscaster, and finally ended up as the hopeful savior of perennial third-place cable news network MSNBC by providing a liberal blowhardy-but-funny alternative to Fox's self-serious conservative goons. Olbermann—nearly canceled a few short years ago—is rapidly becoming the face of the network, thanks to his solid ratings and fantastic demographic numbers. "Keith runs MSNBC," an unnamed senior MSNBC executive tells Men's Journal. "Chris Matthews is infuriated by it." Naturally! They're both ridiculously self-important, convinced of their encyclopedic knowledge of everything political, and they tend to not mesh well with other egos. Poor Chris already has Tim Russert undermining him, the last thing he needed was an up-and-comer usurping his tiny, wonky niche. [TVNewser]

"We all have too many hours to fill and too little imagination to fill them creatively." [MSNBC's Tom Brokaw, the retired network anchor, one of the few TV presenters who didn't call the New Hampshire race for Barack Obama.]

Shouty mad man Chris Matthews' primary selling point and liability is that he will loudly say any damn thing that comes to him. This morning, on Scarborough, this came to him: "Let's not forget, and I'll be brutal, the reason she's a US Senator, the reason she's a candidate for President, the reason she may be a front runner, is that her husband messed around." That's Hillary Clinton he's talking about, in case you thought he was maybe referring to Pat Leahy. See, Chris, unless "messed around" means "secretly gave Rudy Giuliani cancer and replaced him with this lunatic," that statement really makes no sense. Of course, it is the Clintons, so you never really know. Crooks and Liars has the video, plus a thousand angry lefty internet nerds piling on in the comments. [Crooks & Liars]

I'm sitting in the CES press lounge when my editor, Owen Thomas, sends me an email:

Much as Peter denied Jesus three times, so do some anti-American types deny Rudy Giuliani. Specifically, they deny that HE AND HE ALONE was personally responsible for making New York livable (fun fact: the only people who lived in New York before Rudy were criminals and victims of criminals, most of whom were also criminals) and for saving the entire world on 9/11 by walking uptown with some tv cameras and shooting down that one plane in Pennsylvania that was headed for a school full of orphan children learning to be firefighters. And like Peter, the deniers will die a glorious martyr's death in the inevitable Giuliani presidency. Or so we've gleaned from watching this clip of Joe Scarborough compare criticizing Giuliani's inflated record with denying the Holocaust.

Scarborough Likens "Holocaust Deniers" To "Giuliani Deniers" [HuffPo]

No sooner had we reserved some room in our increasingly spacious DVR boxes (now occupied by season passes for Meerkat Manor, C-Span 3's America's Most Smartest Lobbiest, and not much else) for Rosie O'Donnell's upcoming MSNBC talk show, it turns out network executives have pulled out of the project after O'Donnell blabbed about the deal on her blog and at a Miami book signing. A new poem at Rosie.com explains what happened:

With the writers' strike finally upon us, a nation of panicky couch potatoes nervously scanning their TV Guides in search of whatever available, non-scripted programming might prevent them from succumbing to an organ-seizing bout of TV withdrawal, we bring you a small measure of hope: According to the NY Times, Rosie O'Donnell is in talks to launch a nightly, primetime MSNBC talk show:

Newsvine, the Seattle-based headline aggregator — think Digg, but without the heartthrob cofounder — has sold to MSNBC.com for an undisclosed amount. The company had raised a small amount of venture capital, $1.5 million, which has led some industry insiders to peg the price at more than $15 million, less than $35 million. Newsvine, like Digg and the rest, encourages users to discuss news headlines, but it adds a twist: So-called "citizen journalism," where users also write their own articles. To a cynic, allowing that just spells more loser-generated content. But for MSNBC, which has, since its birth over a decade ago, been struggling to embrace the Web, the prospect of viewers contributing reporting has double appeal. First, it potentially cuts costs, and secondly, it adds a much-needed appearance of hipness, as upstarts like Current.tv threaten to garner a more youthful audience.

Gossip gal Courtney Hazlett left OK! magazine last week, we heard, but we didn't know where she was off to. Now we hear she's going to MSNBC, to replace their long-missing gossip columnist Jeannette Walls—Jeannette stopped writing their "Scoop" column more than a year ago to become a fulltime authoress. Hazlett (fun fact: once upon a time an intern for The Smoking Gun, while she was at Columbia!) will also continue her T.V. talking-headness.

"MSNBC said today that [general manager] Dan Abrams, who has been the host of a 9 p.m. news hour called 'Live with Dan Abrams' temporarily since July, will stay in the job permanently, leaving behind the managerial position he had occupied for a little over a year." With MSNBC's ratings nipping at CNN's heels, this can only be good for Abrams: If ratings stay high, he can take all the credit, and if they start to go down, hey, he can just blame the new guy. Also notable: Dan Abrams, though he unfortunately refers to his program as "snarky," has "no interest in doing Keith Olbermann." Boy, is he not alone in that.

Blogger Matthew Baldwin is sick and tired of the media misusing the word "hoax." A few days back, MSNBC Googled up a parody blog and included its fake quotes from Al Sharpton in their story on dog-killing former NFL quarterback Michael Vick. (Like Al Sharpton would have been so hard for the reporter to get on the phone—the trouble is getting Al Sharpton not on the phone! It's like phones come with Al Sharpton in them!) And so they ran a correction and said "MSNBC.com has determined that the blog is a hoax." Actually, no. No it's not!

Comedy ensued on MSNBC last night when pundit Tucker Carlson happily admitted that when a guy hit on him in a men's room in Georgetown, he went back with "someone I knew and grabbed him... and hit him against the stall with his head." Then the cops came and arrested the gay dude. But not Tucker! The laughs just keep coming; MSNBC top exec (um, and lawyer) Dan Abrams and chatshow host Joe Scarborough were besides themselves with giggles. We're no lawyers ourselves, but didn't Tucker just confess to an actual crime on air?

"The case against Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick has exposed a split within both the NAACP and the larger African-American community, as some activists condemn Vick's role in the deaths of fighting dogs and others cast him as a victim of a racist justice system," an MSNBC article revealed yesterday. Who are some of the dog-murdering quarterback's defenders? Well, you'd expect Al Sharpton to step up, right?

Yes, today's only Saturday, but it's never too early to solidify plans for the big Chris Matthews-emceed MSNBC Republican debate Thursday night. So where be the hot parties? Regrettably, MittRomney.com and JohnMcCain.com each offer but the most skeletal of old-folk social-networking functions — which is why it always makes sense to pull for the frontrunner and/or fascist!

While the rest of us are drinking and snoozing, the television is trying to transmit important information into our homes. Today, our special correspondent for T.V. punditry catches us up on the week in chat shows. Because we totally wouldn't watch that shit if you paid us. Get your tinfoil hats on!

Never let it be said that MSNBC's Keith Olbermann is myopic. The anchor of Countdown just sprung for a 4.2 million dollar condo at 200 E. 69th St, a hulking Trump tower, says the Observer. Whilst padding about in his Missioni housecoat through his five 40th-floor rooms, Olbermann will enjoy 360 degree views. The same can't be said for Fox News's late-night host Greg Gutfeld, who recently bought a coop in a tiny 5-story building on W. 49th Street for an infinitesimal fraction of the price of Olbermann's condo. But what his apartment lacks in size is made up for with convenience—News Corp is located just around the corner on 48th and 6th, close enough to stumble home from after another soul-crushing night of broadcasting to stoners. Take that, Olbermann! —Josh

Our pals inside MSNBC are saying that with the loss of advertisers, radio cadaver Don Imus actually won't have a show to return to after his two-week suspension for talking about nappy-headed hos. This sounds crazy to us—just like Paris Hilton after the sex tape, now he's more famous than ever! But radio, we suppose, is sort of a business too, and they do like having ads. And if you can't get Bigelow Tea to pony up cash, well. Anyway. Someone made the point to us last night that the real question is: Maybe he'll never see guests the likes of Maureen Dowd or whatever, but will racial flame-war mistalker Joe Biden go on Imus again? That seems like the true test of something or other. Can someone ask him? Great thanks!