Though the critics have skewered his first book, Brian Stelter chooses to see the coffee cup as half full.

“Honestly, I appreciate the feedback,” says Stelter, 27, author of Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV, and a media reporter for the New York Times. (Full disclosure: Stelter founded TVNewser when he was a college student)

“I’m not making this up,” he continues. “I want to learn how to be a better writer and reporter. I do think normal readers come away really happy, really entertained.”

‘Normal readers’ probably don’t include a trio of power players, past and present, from NBC. ‘Morning’ paints a less than flattering portrait of ‘Today’ co-anchor Matt Lauer; his former boss, Jim Bell; and ex-NBC News president Steve Capus.

All were involved, to varying degrees, in the ham-handed – and excruciatingly public — ouster of Lauer’s co-anchor, Ann Curry, according to the book. Bell had dubbed it ‘Operation Bambi,’ not knowing, of course, that Curry would come out looking as innocent and victimized as the white-tailed fawn in his title.

Lauer is the clear villain of the piece, prompting Entertainment Weekly to accuse Stelter of having a ‘vendetta’ against the mega-millionaire anchor.

Stelter labels the accusation as ‘preposterous.’

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Last night the media elite gathered at the rooftop of The Park in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood to toast New York Times media reporter Brian Stelter‘s book Top of the Morning.

As the sun set over the Hudson River and the High Line park, guests sipped wine and nibbled on hummus, cheese and skewers of shrimp and scallops. NY1 traffic anchor Jamie Shupak, Stelter’s girlfriend, organized the affair.

“Matt Lauer and Ann Curry send their regrets,” Stelter quipped in his remarks. Indeed, NBC’s “Today” was not represented at the party, though there were plenty of notable TV news attendees.

ABC News seemed to have the largest contingent, led by president Ben Sherwood, and joined by senior VP of content and development James Goldston, and senior VP of communications Jeffrey Schneider. CBS News was represented by chairman Jeff Fager and “CBS This Morning” co-host Charlie Rose (pictured below). NY1′s morning news anchor Pat Kiernan was there, as was CNN “Piers Morgan Live” EP (and former “Today” EP) Jonathan Wald. Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, New York Post publisher Jesse Angelo and Gawker founder Nick Denton were all spotted in the crowd.
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I admire Aaron Sorkin, but he gives me a headache. By the time his characters finish a monologue, I’m ready for a nap.

Sorkin’s latest work, “The Newsroom,” which debuts Sunday on HBO, is no exception. In the pilot’s opening scene, set at a J-school panel, cable newsman Will McAvoy delivers a breathless tirade that, while eloquent, lasts longer than most network sitcoms.

In an homage to Paddy Chayefsky’s “Network,” McAvoy, played by Jeff Daniels, explodes when the moderator goads him into answering a student question about why America is the greatest country on earth. It’s not, he says, and here’s why.

Citing reams of statistics that someone in his line of work could not possibly know – another Sorkin trademark — McAvoy ends on a hopeful note. The speech will change the direction of his career from a bland ‘Jay Leno’ to a take-no-prisoners anchor of the Old School, like Murrow, Cronkite and Brinkley.

Images of those very men are in “Newsroom’s” opening montage, along with those of Dan Rather and legendary producer Don Hewitt. They are Sorkin’s heroes, he says. To that end, the underlying message of “Newsroom” is that it’s not too late to create a civil, intelligent newscast they would have been proud of.

News junkies will not be able to resist this show, despite the fact that some of the plotlines are ridiculous and that Sorkin writes like he’s getting paid by the word. Programs about the TV news business are rare. The last good one, Sorkin’s “Sports Night,” ended 12 years ago.

Sorkin reportedly based “Sports Night” on Keith Olbermann, but he’s denied that Olbermann was his muse for McAvoy.

Please. McAvoy is wicked smart, totally self-involved, highly temperamental and loathed by his staff. “I’m not the easiest guy to work for,” he tells his boss, Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston), news division president at fictional network ACN. Skinner has a short fuse and drinks a lot.

It pains me to say this, but Waterston, one of my favorite actors, is a tad old for the role. He punches out his lines like every breath will be his last. Daniels, on the other hand, is in his element,

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The TV critics are assessing last week’s morning show stunts.

“Television news now feasts on fame, the gaudier the better, with journalistic credentials a mere afterthought,” writes Newsweek/Daily Beast’s Howie Kurtz, who talked to two former “Today” show hosts about last week’s ratings grabbers — including Sarah Palin co-hosting last Tuesday — a response to Katie Couric‘s fill-in on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

The star-making machinery has changed. When Today tapped Jane Pauley in 1976, she says, “I was 25 years old, four years out of college. I was extremely unknown.” Today alumnus Bryant Gumbel, who says he was “embarrassed” by the Palin stint, believes hosts “used to be judged not just on their popularity level but the extent to which they were capable of interviewing someone or reporting on a situation, or able to have a degree of gravitas. Now that is secondary to being popular.”

The New York Times’ Bill Carter and Brian Stelter sum up the week and the ongoing horse race between “Today” and “GMA,” revealing Katie Couric could return to ABC’s mornings:

Senior ABC staff members characterized NBC’s stunt bookings as desperate. But those at NBC suggested that ABC’s use of Ms. Couric, who left ‘Today’ in 2006, and the overall win-at-all-costs approach showed desperation. [GMA Senior EP Tom] Cibrowski disputed that and said Ms. Couric could fill in again in the future, perhaps when Mr. Stephanopoulos takes a vacation.

As of Thursday’s ratings, “Today” was holding off the hard-charging “GMA.” We’ll have Friday’s Fast National numbers this afternoon, and final weekly ratings for last week on Thursday.

The NYT’s Bill Carter, covering MSNBC’s panel this morning at the Winter TCA, reports political analyst Pat Buchanan may not be returning to MSNBC afterall. Buchanan, who has been a frequent guest for much of the network’s 15 years, hasn’t been on for months. MSNBC president Phil Griffin asked Buchanan “not to be on” while he’s promoting his book, “Suicide of a Superpower.”

“Pat and I are going to meet soon and a decision will be made.” Griffin added, “Pat is a good guy. Some of his ideas are alarming.”

The book describes how America has become “a multiracial, multicultural, multilingual, multiethnic stew of a nation that has no successful precedent in the history of the world.”

“The ideas he put forth aren’t really appropriate for national dialogue, much less the dialogue on MSNBC,” says Griffin.

InsideCableNews, which, earlier this week raised the question about Buchannan’s prolonged absence, concludes that this says less about Buchanan and more about MSNBC.

Pat has not changed. He may be a bit more vocal and shrill about it but he hasn’t changed his positions. On the other hand, MSNBC has changed. It openly courts Progressive views and news. It puts out job ads asking for candidates with a progressive news background. Its pundit host class is all progressive and the network lets them show up en masse at the White House for off the record get togethers.

TVNewser learned earlier today that Keith Olbermann would make an announcement tomorrow as to where he’ll be next after he left “Countdown.”

But the news broke sooner than expected.

The New York Times‘ Bill Carter and Brian Stelter wrote today that Olbermann will be going to Current TV.

Carter and Stelter wrote that Olbermann and his representatives would not deny the story and an anonymous source told them that the former MSNBC host would have an equity stake in Current TV.

Current TV has prepared a presentation for Wednesday morning in New York City to announce the channel’s future plans.

We’ll be listening to the conference call tomorrow and will update with the details.

Remember what Greta Van Susteren had to say about Bill Carter‘s CNN ratings story? WebNewser has the latest in the back-and-forth, which includes Carter writing “somehow I get the feeling facts do not penetrate the parallel universe conservatives have chosen to inhabit” in an email…

Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck, “suddenly one of the most powerful media voices for the nation’s conservative populist anger,” is featured in a front page story in the New York Times today.

“With a mix of moral lessons, outrage and an apocalyptic view of the future, Mr. Beck, a longtime radio host who jumped to Fox from CNN’s Headline News channel this year, is capturing the feelings of an alienated class of Americans,” writes Brian Stelter and Bill Carter.

Beck says the times are “so serious now that I find myself sometimes being the guy I don’t want to be — the guy saying things that are sometimes pretty scary, but nobody else is willing to say them.”

Several people give their take on Beck’s sudden surge, including MSNBC president Phil Griffin: “That’s good dramatic television. That’s who Glenn Beck is.” And conservative commentator David Frum who calls Beck’s rise, “a product of the collapse of conservatism as an organized political force, and the rise of conservatism as an alienated cultural sensibility.”

Beck has said viewers should make up their own mind on issues rather than take his opinion outright. “I say on the air all time, ‘if you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot,’” he says.

This morning on the Media Menu podcast, Stelter told us he thinks the ratings success will sustain. “A month ago I was more skeptical than I am now,” he said, adding, “March has been a pretty average month by news standards and he’s still knocking it out of the park.”

And while he’s featured on the front page today, Beck had a different use for the New York Times last week. Click continued to see a fishy segment from his FNC program…

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The New York Times’ Bill Carter reports MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews is staying with the network, in a deal set to last “at least four years.”

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, and one unnamed executive said, “Whether he took a slight cut or got a slight raise, it’s nobody’s business.”

Matthews had been considering a Senate run in his home state of Pennsylvania, but told his staff January 7 he was staying at MSNBC. Matthews was clear in the article that he hadn’t used the possibility of leaving as a negotiating tool. “I think it’s unfair people think like that,” he said. “That’s sacrilegious.”

The New York Times’ Bill Carter brings up the idea of Jimmy Kimmel moving up a half-hour into Nightline’s slot. However in the article, Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney-ABC Television Group, “denied there was any plan for action in the short or long term, saying that no change in status for either the Kimmel show or ‘Nightline’ would take place this year.”

An ABC insider tells TVNewser, “We’ve been hearing these rumors for years. Nightline continues to do great journalism, and is in a great position.”

A position that sees Nightline beating CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman 41% of the time this season, and twice beating NBC’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno in the A25-54 demo and once in Total Viewers. Jimmy Kimmel Live hasn’t beaten either program this season.

In the fourth quarter of ’08, Nightline was the #2 show during late night in the demo and 3rd in Total Viewers, while Kimmel was #5 in both.

“Just look at the numbers — Nightline is performing very strongly,” says the insider. “The same cannot be said of Kimmel. If you do the math this story just doesn’t add up.”