I am rarely accurate with prognostications or predictions but I am feeling pretty confident about two things: 1) there will be another high-profile trial in the not too distant future, like Casey Anthony’s, that will capture the attention of the nation and the media; and 2) it will be followed...

Now that the initial furor has died down, much of the media is quickly coming to a consensus that the debate over building a Muslim community and prayer center two blocks from Ground Zero was overblown. It is/was part of a "summer of fear," a "

Frank Rich is frustrated. He is clearly annoyed that the Wikileaks release of almost 92,000 pages of documents related to the war in Afghanistan has not become more of a rallying cry to end that military effort. Or more specifically, he is seeking to reassure those hoping it will ultimately...

It must have been a virtual scream on newsroom/blogger computer screens around the nation. The moment it became clear that President Obama would be nominating Elena Kagan, editors simultaneously posing the same and obvious question: What do we really know about her? Of course, it is a far more loaded...

Isn't it ghastly? Will we be accused of capitalizing on the nation's grief? Is it still too soon?

Those were just some of the questions we faced when deciding whether to replay NBC's 9/11 coverage when I was General Manager of MSNBC back in 2006. As I watched MSNBC...

It was no easy feat becoming Dominick Dunne. Think about it. He was the most celebrated chronicler of downtrodden socialites. He feasted on their famine with little sympathy or admiration for their formerly exalted positions. Yet somehow they invited him back. Not only was he invited back to the most...

It's hard to believe that Walter Cronkite has not been a staple on the air for over 28 years. Through all that time, he has achieved something few in this age of information overload could do when removed from the spotlight for so long. He remained the standard bearer, the...

Welcome to Mediaite, the website of and about the media. It's my hope that after checking out the site you will see this as a unique property that will quickly become the must-read for anyone interested in media, the business of it and the personalities behind it. We have assembled...

People constantly complain to me about news coverage of criminal cases. "What happened to the presumption of innocence?" they ask at almost every turn. Well, I'm tired of it.

I don't presume that Bernie Madoff is innocent. The same goes for toddler Caylee Anthony's mom Casey, or for any of...

April 21, 2008

Dear Mr. Rove:

I write in response to your letter about my coverage of the Siegelman case -- a case we have been covering extensively. Its potential significance to the American justice system extends well beyond the halls of the Alabama Statehouse.

Your letter poses...

We are thrilled to be finally launching my new show Verdict on Monday. For the past six months, we have been assessing exactly what this show should be. Political? Legal? What about pop culture? Verdict will examine all of the most controversial stories of the day through the eyes of...

College junior Jason Rae's cell phone is blowing up, not with invites to tonight's kegger from the local sorority at Marquette University in Wisconsin, but with calls from the likes of Chelsea Clinton, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Sen. John Kerry and former President Bill Clinton.

Rae is one...

As Republicans get their political house in order with Romney bowing out and Mccain making nice with the conservative wing of the party, Democrats appear to be heading towards chaos. Most troubling is that party insiders, members of Congress, union leaders, party officials and an assortment of activists known as...

We've inaugurated a new segment on my show called, On Their Trail. It's our look at the candidates' misstatements, blunders and cheap shots. We've started this recurring segment because there are so many examples out there -- and too few in the mainstream media are keeping track.

Just three days after our series Bush League Justice exposed the dismal record of this Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, in particular the voting rights section, now we learn that the head of that division, John Tanner, is "resigning" effective immediately. For weeks, civil rights advocates had been calling for...

Bush League Justice is a series (airing Monday-Thursday at 9 pm on MSNBC) that stems from my increasing frustration and outrage over how the Bush administration has politicized the usually apolitical Justice Department. In the process, it has significantly abused its authority to try to enhance power at the expense...