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The latest person to take Fox News honcho Roger Ailes to task for his (to put it mildly) questionable comments on NPR (and less-incendiary remarks on Jon Stewart) is, unsurprisingly, Keith Olbermann. Olbermann dissected Ailes’ remarks on tonight’s (Not Really) World’s Worst, gave Ailes “(Not Really) Worser” status…and boasted ever so slightly to Stewart in the process.

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Various members of the Palin family have been in the news for many reasons lately, including Bristol (for Dancing With The Stars controversies and PSAs with The Situation), Willow (for Facebook fighting), and, of course, Sarah (for SPAlaska). Jon Stewart couldn’t let any of that go without comment, and used a segment on last night’s Daily Show to take a look at the craziness.

Part Two of Howard Kurtz’s interview with Fox News chief Roger Ailes is out today, and based on his frank and candid assessment of Jon Stewart, NPR and a defense of conservative bias, no one should ever call Mr. Ailes a shrinking violet. His comments are sure to be received by some as evidence of Ailes malevolent character, but one could just as easily read the enlightening Q & A as a refreshingly plain-spoken conversation in which one of the most powerful media figures of the day isn’t afraid to speak from the heart.

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Since performing very well in the recent midterm elections, the GOP’s has evolved its rhetoric from inimical and bullying to amiable and “adult.” As Jon Stewart points out, party leadership was quite successful in delivering at least one talking point to its ranks, evidenced by the montage of several Republican electees each claiming that its now time for an “adult conversation.” The Daily Show host queried, “by ‘adult conversation’ you mean the kind of conversation where the adult says ‘no! because i said so!’?”

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Yesterday Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) was found guilty of eleven separate charges relating to personal finance and fundraising efforts by a House Ethics sub-committee. Earler, Rangel made the odd decision to remove himself from the proceedings, seeming to claim ignorance over both the facts and procedures of the case. Sound ripe for mockery? Enter Jon Stewart, who last night lampooned Rangel’s odd defensive posture and can be summed up as: ignorance is no defense, son.

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Senator John McCain and his wife Cindy appear to be on different sides of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell: Ms. McCain recently recorded a spot for a “NOH8″ campaign that was a blatant critique of the policy of no openly gay military members, but then clarified via Twitter that she still supported her husband’s stance against reforming the controversial policy. This was perfect fodder for The Daily Show’s host Jon Stewart, who presented a very similar case against McCain has Rachel Maddow did earlier in the evening.

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After enduring what many saw as fairly strong rebuke in the midterm election results, Barack Obama took a 10-day diplomatic trip to Asia. The media’s reaction to the trip was pretty consistent: it was a failure and evidence that the president has lost his mojo. Last night Jon Stewart summed up the current pundit fueled anti-Obama animus, and compared it to the current chattering class love-fest enjoyed by former president Bill Clinton. Oh, and thanks to the DVR gods, there was lots of archival footage of late 90’s Clinton hate with which to compare.

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Keith Olbermann may have just inadvertently won himself the praise of the American right. In a twelve-minute Special Comment refuting Ted Koppel’s obituary to “real news” this week, Olbermann attempted to unmask the true nature of so-called objective journalism legends like Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow. They weren’t objective, he argues– they were liberals, just like him.

200,000 people may have gone to listen to Jon Stewart decry the domination of partisan and extreme opinions in our news media and political discourse but, at the end of the day (and, as he tried his best to explain last night with Rachel Maddow), he is still a comedian commenting from the outside. Ted Koppel is not. The 47 year veteran of journalism wrote an editorial for the Washington Post entitled “Olbermann, O’Reilly and the death of real news”, in which, as the title suggests, he doesn’t mince words describing his displeasure with the two biggest cable news outlets.

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Last night MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow interviewed Jon Stewart and spoke at great length about the current state of journalism, particularly in the context of cable news’ ability (or incapability) of distinguishing news from opinion. The conversation was at times confrontational but always respectful; well-reasoned and yet still confusing; intellectually challenging, if not academic discourse about media that certainly deserves further parsing and analysis in the coming days.

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“Memoirs are by their nature self-serving, you get to create the parameters by which you want history to judge you.” These were the words used to set-up by Daily Show host Jon Stewart the following segment focusing on former President George W. Bush’s recent publicity tour promoting his new memoir Decision Points. Despite the very low energy of a clearly infirm Stewart, the source interview material made for a very entertaining and humorous trip down Presidential memory lane, with appearances on Hannity, Today, and Oprah, there was no shortage of clips used for comedic juxtaposition.

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Right after Bill O’Reilly got a former president on his program, Rachel Maddow had a big guest of her own – Jon Stewart. Stewart was a game guest despite clearly not feeling too well, and explained his thoughts on the Rally to Restore Sanity, as well as why he feels the cable news networks are missing the point. Video of the entire interview after the jump.

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The week that follows the midterm elections is notoriously a slow week for news. Coming off a big week of late nights and hustle, its as though everyone catches their collective breath, leaving junior staffers to fill cable news airtime with whatever story they can find. Case in point: earlier this week news broke of a mysterious missile launched off the coast of California that had the cable newsers all hot and bothered, in particular because no government agencies were able to either confirm nor deny its existence. If this sounds silly, then you have something in common with Jon Stewart.

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Rachel Maddow is very, very excited about her interview with Jon Stewart tomorrow. After being a guest on the Daily Show and openly being a big fan for so long, she finally has the opportunity to discuss with Stewart his role in the greater political arena. But as exciting as tomorrow’s talk is for her, it isn’t exciting enough for any of the ads her crew came up with, apparently taking a page out of Don King’s promo book.

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Last night Jon Stewart weighed in on President Obama’s post-election trip to East Asia, expressing both skepticism of the motivation behind the trip and mockery of Obama’s dance moves. Yes, many thought it cool when candidate Obama danced on the set of Ellen; but dancing with Indian kids celebrating the Hindu holiday of Diwali at a local school in Mumbai? Not so much. Oh fickle punditry, easy to deride a man down on his metaphorical mojo.

Conan O’Brien’s night owl cohorts weren’t shy about mentioning the redhead’s new program on their own shows yesterday. David Letterman, though, wasn’t quite so gentle when he gave Conan a shoutout. In a typically sarcastic move, the acerbic late night titan took Conan’s premiere as an opportunity to lob an uppercut at his favorite punching bag.

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Jon Stewart returned from his long weekend, having spent one less day off than the indefinitely suspended Keith Olbermann, and was ready to talk about the MSNBC host and others in the media who had critiques of his rally from the left.

After explaining the point, he turned to the suspension.

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Mediaite’s Editor-at-Large Rachel Sklar appeared on CNN’s Reliable Sources this morning with the New York Times‘ David Carr and host Howard Kurtz to discuss the impact of last week’s Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert rally and cable news — and the recent suspension of Keith Olbermann by MSNBC.

Back when he was a senator, Vice President-to-be Joe Biden was having a hard time keeping his temper in check and found his indignation a hurdle rather than an asset to his career. Seeking someone of like mind and ideology for guidance, he asked Keith Olbermann out to lunch, to get tips on how to properly channel liberal anger. This according to the New York Times, whose pre-suspension interview with Olbermann was published today.

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Wow. It looks like Keith Olbermann isn’t the only big liberal star to have a problem with the message espoused by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert at last week’s rally. On tonight’s Real Time, Bill Maher also had a problem with the way Stewart seemed to equate the extremes on the Left with the extremes on the Right. During an extended (and sure to be debated) New Rule, Maher argued that he didn’t “need to pretend that both sides have a point here.”