More sad news: today is host and TVNewser blogger Steve Krakauer‘s last mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast.

Mediabistro.com editorial director Rebecca Fox and AgencySpy editor Matt Van Hoven helped send off Steve with some discussion about The New York Times‘s Bill Keller reporting from the frontlines of Iran and a reliving of the time Rush Limbaugh gave a shout out to the podcast.

Also: what Steve has learned since launching the podcast a few months ago and some love lockdown.

We’ll miss you Steve!

Next week, Galleycat editor Jason Boog takes over hosting duting on the podcast, so stay tuned.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

Newspapers are dying, magazines are closing and more journalists are finding themselves without paying gigs every day. Everyone is wondering: what does the future hold for the media? We brought the questions to the front lines, asking leaders in the field to tell us: what’s next?

This week, we decided to talk blogs with author Eric Boehlert. Set against the backdrop of the 2008 presidential election, Boehlert’s new book, “Bloggers On The Bus — How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press,” discusses how the liberal blogosphere affects political candidates and campaigns. He told us about how the relationship between newspapers and blogs are changing with the death of newspapers and what conservative bloggers have to do to keep up with successful liberal blogs like the Huffington Post.

FBNY: What do you think about the relationship between traditional media and blogs?

Eric Boehlert: I think it’s painful to see the newspapers in a downward spiral because I think blogs do the best when they augment the traditional press. The blogosphere sort of lives alongside traditional media and helps fill in the gaps. Blogs help keep the press accountable and raise issues that the traditional media is overlooking or forgetting. They can be a watchdog while having their own original content and analysis. It makes me nervous when people say we don’t need newspapers. In a perfect world, newspapers and blogs would live alongside each other.

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The last time we had ABC’s Terry Moran on our podcast we got picked up by Rush Limbaugh. We are hoping for some Rush love today after Terry joined us today from O’Hare where he’s been waylaid since last night on his way to Nebraska. If any of you Limbaugh listeners out there hear us get another name check be sure to let us know.

Regarding Limbaugh, Moran says: “I was a White House correspondent for five and half years…the one thing you learn very quickly is that you have to develop a very thick hide.”

Other than aggravating Rush, one of the reasons we asked Moran to join us today was to discuss his recent Nightline piece on the Mexican drug wars and their toll on Juarez, where he recently spent some time on assignment. “It is the Wild West across Northern Mexico, because the drug cartels now are almost as strong as the government in many places, and stronger in some.”

We also talk about the controversy over yesterday’s LATimes NBC ad, and whether Twitter might someday be a money-maker.

Today on the Menu listen to us get Rushed by Rush Limbaugh on his show last Friday! (We hope Rush considers today’s modest podcast a formal invitation to come on as our guest!)

Also, we do a post-Oscar wrap up. Was everyone as bored as we were? Does it matter? The news is so dire these days one imagines the Oscar’s numbers may be up simply because it has nothing to do with the financial crisis.

Also, the saga of the New York Post‘s rampaging chimp cartoon continues. Have we seen that last of the controversy? All signs point to no. You can listen to the podcast live every morning at 9amET on BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321. You can also subscribe to the iTunes feed of the podcast by clicking the “iTunes” button.

We’ve been Rushed! We were hearing rumors early Friday afternoon that Rush Limbaugh had cited our Morning Menu interview with Terry Moran during the opening of his show that day and turns out it was true. Rush was responding to a remark Moran had made comparing Barack Obama to George Washington. Says Limbaugh:

There’s a blog out there called mediabistro.com, TVNewser and so forth, and the TV people read it religiously. I mean not too many other members of the public do, but it’s big in the TV business. They have a show on there; it’s a web radio show. Terry Moran of ABC’s Nightline was the guest. This is what he said about President Obama.

“In some ways Barack Obama is the first president since George Washington to be taking a step down into the Oval Office. From visionary leader of a giant movement, now he’s got an executive position that he has to perform in, in a way, and I think the coverage reflects that.”

“Yes, you heard right, a step down for Lord Barack Obama, the Most Merciful,” said Limbaugh. “He was leading this giant movement, a la George Washington. Now he’s had to take a step down. What did I tell you people? He’s too big to fail.”

Moran responded via Twitter saying:

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Next time they should send the National Enquirer! Turns out that story Page Six ran last week (it’s since been removed) about Michelle Obama ordering caviar and lobster to her Waldorf Astoria room wasn’t true at all! Says Page Six‘s retraction in today’s paper:

The source who told us last week about Michelle Obama getting lobster and caviar delivered to her room at the Waldorf-Astoria must have been under the influence of a mind-altering drug. She was not even staying at the Waldorf. We regret the mistake, and our former source is going to regret it, too. Bread and water would be too good for such disinformation.

Fair enough. How Rush Limbaugh will counter his charges of “hypocrisy” is another story. Also, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that some astute blogger felt that the non-existent lobster and caviar order was further proof of Obama consorting with (non-existent) terrorists.

And just like that John Edwards ceases to be the biggest asshole in his own love-child scandal.

I’ve got a theory about the motivations. Well, I don’t know that I could — I don’t know that I can put this one on the air…We know — we’ve been told that Elizabeth Edwards is smarter than John Edwards. That’s part of the puff pieces on them that we’ve seen. Ergo, if Elizabeth Edwards is smarter than John Edwards, is it likely that she thinks she knows better than he does what his speeches ought to contain and what kind of things he ought to be doing strategy-wise in the campaign? If she is smarter than he is, could it have been her decision to keep going with the campaign? In other words, could it be that she doesn’t shut up? Now, that’s as far as I’m going to go…It just seems to me that Edwards might be attracted to a woman whose mouth did something other than talk…my theory that I just explained to you about why — you know, what could have John Edwards‘ motivations been to have the affair with Rielle Hunter, given his wife is smarter than he is and probably nagging him a lot about doing this, and he found somebody that did something with her mouth other than talk.

Radio companies — even satellite ones — appear to be tightening up in a post-Imus world. Yesterday, XM suspended shock-jocks Opie & Anthony 30 days for a homeless man’s comments about Condoleezza Rice, Laura Bush and Queen Elizabeth, aired last week on the show. The suspension follows last week’s cancellation of The Dog House with JV and Elvis show by CBS Radio for a prank phone call to a Chinese restaurant.

Opie & Anthony’s latest suspension, though, seems to’ve stemmed from comments made during yesterday’s broadcast, which appearently ticked off XM management:

“Comments made by Opie and Anthony on yesterday’s broadcast put into question whether they appreciate the seriousness of the matter. The management of XM Radio decided to suspend Opie and Anthony to make clear that our on-air talent must take seriously the responsibility that creative freedom requires of them.”

Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh and his “Barack The Magic Negro” bits soldier on, unscathed.

RELATED:

Via Radar and Best Week Ever comes this video montage, set to a song parody by “conservative political satirist” Paul Shanklin (based on this piece in the L.A. Times) that aired on Rush Limbaugh‘s radio show, which, in the wake of Imus, is, frankly, unbelievable.

Especially for a Nobel Peace Prize nominee.