Brian Williams will be filling the "Meet the Press" moderator's chair this Sunday, and no permanent decisions have been made regarding a new moderator, but Page Six reports that MSNBC fixtures Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann are both jockeying for the position. Further, the gossip (which has a vendetta against MSNBC/NBC News in general, and Olbermann in particular) alleges that Olbermann has threatened to quit if he wasn't named Russert's successor and that Matthews was overheard discussing the best way to pitch himself while still at Russert's memorial:
Tim Russert's body wasn't even cold in the ground before MSNBC anchors Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann started jockeying for his job, sources claim.
Matthews was heard loudly discussing what seemed to be his strategy for landing Russert's "Meet the Press" show at Wednesday's memorial reception for the NBC Washington bureau chief at the Kennedy Center in DC. After Brian Williams, Carl Bernstein, David Gergen, Barbara Walters and NBC brass eulogized their friend, Matthews huddled with an unidentified "agent type" and seemed to be plotting.
According to our spy, "Chris, with his loud voice, was going over a pitch for Tim's job. He was saying, 'You know, Tim's thing was this, and my thing is that.' It was unbelievably tacky."...
Meanwhile, Matthews' MSNBC cable cohort Olbermann, who was also at the memorial, is "threatening to quit if he isn't installed as Russert's replacement," another insider said. "I know, it sounds ludicrous, but, then, Keith Olbermann is ludicrous."
Both Olbermann and Matthews vehemently deny the allegations — Matthews claims he was discussing an upcoming speech with real-estate developer Bob Monahan, and Olbermann flatly denied the claim on Thursday's "Countdown" — and claim they are not interested in moderating "Meet the Press."
Watch and read more about Olbermann's denial here, and watch him call Page Six's Paula Froelich the "Worst Person in the World."