Dan Patrick Finds New Home -- Sports Illustrated

Former ESPN SportsCenter anchor, radio host, studio host, and all around ombudsmen, Dan Patrick, has found a new home after leaving ESPN earlier this year. It was announced today that Patrick will join the pages of Sports Illustrated. Not only will Patrick pen a weekly column for the magazine, he'll write for SI.com and his daily radio show will be streamed on SI's website as well as they use Patrick to help re-launch their entry into digital media.

The move should be a good one for SI. While many may see Patrick as a broadcaster and not a writer, his book with Keith Olbermann, The Big Show which went behind the scenes of "The Big Show" SportsCenter they created was very creatively written in two different type-faces to designate when Patrick and when Olbermann was writing and his ESPN Magazine interviews were great. It will be interesting to see if Patrick writes more "sports" columns or more human interest stories, sort of like what Mitch Albom does for the Detroit Free Press (though, as Patrick's columns will appear in the front of SI, as a bookend to Rick Reilly's end-of-the-magazine column, it will likely be the latter).

In either case, I look forward to seeing his columns. Patrick was on MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning, discussing his move to SI (and discussing his old ESPN partner-in-crime Olbermann who has found success at the cable network), the video is below.

Morning Joe Discusses Fox Business "Peacock Hunting" Stunt

As has been covered extensively by media outlets and news blogs across the web, Fox launched the Fox Business Network (or is it just Fox Business? They seemingly dropped the "Channel" from their name just prior to lift-off) yesterday in an effort to revolutionize the covering of the business world just as Fox successfully revolutionized and took over the cable news network with the incredibly successful Fox News Channel. I wasn't able to check out the first day's coverage (FBN is not offered, yet, on my local cable network) but until they sign up Erin Burnett and/or Jim Cramer (the two CNBCers I watch most) they probably won't be getting my business.

Yesterday, as part of their launch, Fox Business began the day with a "shot across the bow" to CNBC, a playful stand-up by one of their news reporters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, where CNBC is located. Saying she was "peacock hunting" (the mascot of NBC) the reporter joked around about reporting on Wall Street from such a distant location. It was obviously tongue-in-cheek (as was Jim Cramer's response on Street Signs later that afternoon which was also a playful shove, not an "on air outburst" as blogger Ian Schwartz claimed). Sophomoric? Maybe. But, it was probably something that got the Fox faithful pumped up on their first day.

This morning, on MSNBC's Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough attacked the Fox Business stunt, calling the people behind it "dorks" and "goobers" and saying that while Fox News filled a void in cable news, allowing it to become a huge success, there is no similar void in business news, and CNBC's brand will allow it to maintain its edge over its new rival. The video of Joe's discussion of the stunt, and the start of FBN, is below.

Chris Matthews Discusses Controversial Comments on Morning Joe

Hardball's Chris Matthews will be co-moderating tonight's Republican debate with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo (live from the great state of Michigan) but many have called for Matthews to recuse himself from his role due to recent comments Matthews made at an anniversary party celebrating Hardball's 10th anniversary. Matthews went hard after the Bush administration and the "criminality" of conduct by Vice President Cheney.

"They've finally been caught in their criminality," Matthews continued, although he did not specify the exact criminal behavior to which he referred. He then drew an obvious Bush-Nixon parallel by saying, “Spiro Agnew was not an American hero."

Matthews left the throng of Washington A-listers with a parting shot at Cheney: “God help us if we had Cheney during the Cuban missile crisis. We’d all be under a parking lot.”

Matthews defended himself on Morning Joe this morning, in an interview previewing the debate, saying that he has been tough on both Republican and Democratic administrations during his media career and that tonight's debate should not be about him, but about the Republican candidates, one of whom may be the next leader of this country.

Keith Olbermann Overtakes O'Reilly; Morning Joe Discusses

While the overall audience for Fox News' Bill O'Reilly remains much higher than that of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, the gap is shrinking by the week, and according to TV Newser, Olbermann defeated O'Reilly in the 25-54 demographic on Friday night, the first time Olbermann has done so when O'Reilly was not in repeats or had a guest host. Many are crediting Olbermann's gains to his appearances on NBC's "Football Night in America" where Olbermann has become a halftime panelist, bringing over his "Worst Person in the World" bit to a much wider audience. As CBSNews.com's Matthew Felling speculated on Morning Joe this morning, perhaps Olbermann's move to NBC is paying dividends by exposing sports fans, who remember Olbermann from his SportsCenter days and are now checking out his cable news program.

To be fair, though, the Morning Joe team made it seem as if Olbermann had more viewers than O'Reilly overall, which he did not, but as Olbermann pointed out himself on Friday, all that he cares about (and all anyone should care about) are the demographic ratings. On that show, when we now know Olbermann was beating O'Reilly in that demo, Keith named O'Reilly his "Worst Person" for trying to distort the ratings, after Olbermann, earlier in the week, outpaced O'Reilly for half of his program.

'Morning Joe' Scarborough Attacks News Corp on CNBC Story

Joe Scarborough on his MSNBC morning show, 'Morning Joe,' took a shot at Fox News and its parent company, News Corp, this morning, for, as he put it, "ginning up a story" in the New York Post regarding a rivalry between CNBC anchors Maria Bartiromo, Erin Burnett, and the rest of CNBC's female anchor staff.

For those unfamiliar, the Post, over the past few months, has continuously written about a supposed "feud" between CNBC's top female anchor, Bartiromo, and its upcoming and quickly rising "international superstar" (as Scarborough calls her each day during her segment on Morning Joe), Burnett. I've written about these stories before but The New York Post upped the ante earlier this week when it claimed not just Burnett and Bartiromo were fighting, but dissension went far deeper at CNBC.

A source says reporters including sexy blonde Melissa Francis, who covers energy, have complained to CNBC suits that while they get zip, Bartiromo and Burnett are treated like princesses - with massive promotion, regular gigs on the "Today" show and "NBC Nightly News," perks such as limos and gushing quotes from network brass in newspaper articles.

"The catfight that started with Maria being jealous of Erin's rise has spread down the line. Now all of the other female reporters are getting p - - - ed off," our insider said.

"They're going to management and telling them they want equal treatment - better public relations, better placement on the air. They are all being divas now. It's gotten ridiculous."

So what was so suspicious in the eyes of Scarborough? The New York Post is owned by News Corp, which owns the cable network Fox News (which not coincidentally was promoting the story and the supposed feud on its airwaves) and is soon to own its own Fox Business Channel. So who has the most to gain by creating dissension within the ranks of CNBC? News Corp, who hopes to poach as much of CNBC's talent as possible for its new business cable channel.

If Joe is right, it's scary that sources that people use, or try to use, to get legitimate news, may be used to manipulate the news. And as Time.com's Ana Marie Cox brought up on Morning Joe discussing this topic, imagine what will happen, and how much power News Corp will have, once they start controlling the Wall Street Journal where they can really give legitimacy to these kinds of stories. Paranoia? Maybe. Probably even. But, maybe not.

Enjoying Joe Scarborough and Company's Morning Joe

I never really watched or listened to Don Imus. I'm not entirely sure why. I'm usually up in the mornings, either for class during the school year or work during the summer, and considering how much I love keeping up on news and politics, and how much I watched MSNBC anyway, you'd have thought I would have tuned in. And the loss of the well-known and well-listened-to Imus could have been bad news for MSNBC's mornings. But, as it turns out, the loss of Imus may have been the best thing for MSNBC. At least if they were trying to get me as a daily viewer (and, let's face it, what television network isn't courting me as a viewer?)

I write this because Imus' replacement thus far (and I would assume permanently, though, for some odd reason MSNBC seems to be dragging their feet in that regard) former Republican Congressman and MSNBC prime time host, Joe Scarborough, has been terrific. While Joe has not taken over Imus' gig on the radio (which, I for one, am very disappointed about because that 8:00-9:00 drive to work would be a lot better if it were) he hosts Imus' former show, from 6:00-9:00 am weekdays on MSNBC. Joined by acclaimed writer John Ridley, news anchor Mika Brzezinski (of the now famous, thanks to YouTube, clip from Morning Joe where she refuses to report on Paris Hilton) and some other fun people (like Willie Giest) the show is smart, topical, has great guests, great commentary, and is must-see viewing for those looking to catch up on the day's headlines and stories as they brew their own cup of 'Morning Joe.'

I've started to tape 'Morning Joe' on my computer each morning, catching up on the first (on while I'm still sleeping) and third (on while I'm driving to work) when I get back home. It also doesn't hurt that a regular contributor to the third hour of the program is CNBC's Erin Burnett, talking about the day ahead in the stock market. Burnett, of Portfolio.com's recent profile (quote me and get a lot of plugs -- I think this is the lesson to be learned here) and of my praising back in March, really seems to enjoy her interactions with Joe, and their segments have been very entertaining as well as informative (a description which describes the entire morning program).

So, you need to get up early, before work, check out Morning Joe on MSNBC. Vastly superior to the other morning cable news fare, and the best thing to happen to MSNBC since Keith Olbermann came back to the network. Both liberal and conservative, Republican and Democratic viewpoints and guests, and Erin Burnett. What morning show can top that?