AdWeek's AdFreak blogger, David Giantasio brings word—and image!—of this 30 Rock promotional stunt from The Netherlands that's so strange, it has to be real.

Behold, Oscar-nominated actor and recent New Yorker profile subject Alec Baldwin's face on toilet paper. (This comes via TVTattle.)

Someone should probably send a case of this stuff to the staff of the New York Post's Page Six' and Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, each of whom has elevated hating the outspoken Mr. Baldwin to a life mission.

Last night, Bill O'Reilly of Fox News appeared on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. There, Jon Stewart admitted that on the heels of President-elect Barack Obama's victory, he was worried for Mr. O'Reilly.

"I'm an anarchist," said Mr. O'Reilly.

To soothe him, Mr. Stewart gave the anchor a teddy bear and some hot cocoa.

On the heels of the Election, the Pew Research Center for People & the Press recently conducted a survey in which they asked Americans to name their favorite and least favorite TV journalists and anchors during the campaign.

Shockingly, the survey found that Republicans and Democrats differ in their taste for punditry. Republicans in the survey, for instance, made Fox News' Bill O'Reilly their top favorite (winning 9 percent of vote). Democrats made Mr. O'Reilly their top least favorite (winning 10 percent of their ire).  read more »

On Thursday, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow appeared on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, where she discussed such things as the new king of Bhutan and her lack of Peabody Awards.

"Just for the record, how many Peabody's do you have?" Mr. Colbert asked her at the outset. "I don't have any Peabodys," Ms. Maddow answered.

"I've got a couple," Mr. Colbert boasted before suggesting that she, like Bill O'Reilly, just claim she has some. "Nobody checks," he assured her.

In 1993, Rolling Stone writer Hugh Gallagher forced himself to watch MTV for seven days straight. Mr. Gallagher's reaction to the experience was easily summed up in the headline to his story: "An Experiment in Terror."

In this week's New Republic, Isaac Chotiner tries a similar (but less immersive) experiment as he watched 24 Hours of Fox News.

Writes Mr. Chotiner:

As one might expect with Barack Obama so close to the presidency, the channel is in full nuclear meltdown mode; I was afraid the stench of desperation would waft out of the television set and into my studio apartment. Fox is going ballistic for good reason: These days, absolutely nothing is going right—in both declensions of the word. The paroxysms I witnessed hinted at an answer to a critical question: What will the opposition media look like during an Obama administration?

Mr. Chotiner calls Fox News "the right's main television outlet," a risky move since The Washington Post and The New York Times have each found themselves obliged to print corrections for referring to Bill O'Reilly as a "right-wing pundit" and Hannity & Colmes as a conservative show in recent weeks.  read more »

Fox News' newly-reupped host Bill O'Reilly appeared on Late Show with David Letterman last night.

As you may recall, Mr. O'Reilly and Mr. Letterman didn't get along so well when they met in 2006, but this time, the two got on just fine, making small jokes at each others' expense but smiling the whole time.

Mr. O'Reilly told Mr. Letterman he admired vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, describing her as a "self-made woman" and offering an impersonation of ABC News' Charlie Gibson interviewing her about The Bush Doctrine.   read more »

Last night, Bill O'Reilly tried to prove that viewers of The O'Reilly Factor are more intelligent than those of his satirical nemesis Stephen Colbert's Colbert Report.

"Little Stevie Colbert's ratings have been flat lately, even though he's gotten increasingly nasty. And a recent article in The San Francisco Chronicle that Colbert's audience is smarter than the Factor audience," Mr. O'Reilly said. "Of course, that is false."

As Mr. O'Reilly continued, "According to a Pew Research study, a whopping 83 percent of Factor viewers have a high or moderate knowledge of current events, as opposed to 79 per cent for little Stevie.  read more »

With allegations of media bias and candidate favoritism flying in every direction this campaign season, what's an honest-to-goodness straight-down-the-middle news anchor concerned about protecting his good name to do?

Simple: Wear a purple necktie.

Today in a classic bit of campaign trend spotting, Eric Wilson writes in The New York Times about a dramatic uptick in the number of purple neckties being sported this campaign season by TV men across the cable and broadcast landscape. (We suspect that Kurt Andersen approves.)

From the article:

Keith Olbermann, the commentator on MSNBC, has worn solid pale purple ties twice in the last week. And on Tuesday, he wore another one with purple stripes.  read more »

]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/arts-culture/purple-ties-all-rage-political-season-bias-conscious-tv-news-anchors#comments Media Bill O'Reilly Keith Olbermann Lester Holt Purple Neckwear Sartorial Solutions to Media Bias Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:44:02 -0400 Felix Gillette 72655 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/2008/media/nas-i-colbert-i-i-think-oreilly-afraid-me

Yesterday, The Observer's Bharat Ayyar reported on MoveOn.org and rapper Nas' protest outside of Fox News headquarters in Manhattan.

Last night, Nas appeared on The Colbert Report to explain himself. When asked by Mr. Colbert why he thinks Fox is racist, Nas (real name Nasir Jones) said, "It's obvious. Everybody that has eyes and ears can see that this guy [Bill O'Reilly] is out of control. He knows what he's doing, you know what I mean? It's out of line. The things he's saying is worse than the worst rap lyrics I ever heard."

The rapper also told the host, "I think O'Reilly's afraid of me.  read more »

]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/media/nas-i-colbert-i-i-think-oreilly-afraid-me#comments Al Gore Bill O'Reilly Fox News Nas Stephen Colbert Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:10:50 -0400 Matt Haber 72357 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/2008/bloomberg-strategy-state-senate

The Republican mayor of Larchmont, Liz Feld, just announced she'll challenge the incumbent State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer, a Democrat. The strategy is laid out nearly in Feld's public statement:  read more »

]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/bloomberg-strategy-state-senate#comments Politics Bill O'Reilly Liz Feld Michael Bloomberg Suzi Oppenheimer Tue, 27 May 2008 11:22:42 -0400 Azi Paybarah 69708 at http://www.observer.com