Tonight’s “Rock Center” led off with a two-part Ted Koppel report looking at partisan news media, its rise and why it may be here to stay, whether you like it or not.

The hugely popular and wildly profitable Fox News Channel — in the form of Bill O’Reilly — participated in the NBC report, but MSNBC did not. “The presidents of Fox and our sister network, MSNBC, wanted no part of this conversation,” said Koppel. “And also declined on behalf of their on-air talent.” O’Reilly was the exception. Koppel also talked with Ann Coulter and Bill Maher. Also:

• Koppel posed this hypothetical to O’Reilly: “Diane Sawyer is retiring, they want you to be the next anchor. Money is not going to be a problem. What do you do?” O’Reilly: “I don’t do it. Too boring. It would not be nearly as much fun as teeing the world off every night here and having all the reaction and being able to do all the things I could never do in a hard news broadcast.”
• Koppel, showing his own bias (journalistic, not political), describes Fox News this way: “A partisan news network with the mocking slogan ‘Fair and Balanced.’”
• New York Times media columnist David Carr thinks a partisan outlet as primary news source is, “an existential threat to our perfect union.”

Full segments after the jump…

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• NBC’s Peter Alexander is hosting a special for Travel Channel called “Travel Like a President.” Produced by NBC’s Peacock Productions, the special will look at what goes into the travel arrangements of the president, from clearing hotel rooms to flying on Air Force One. The special airs on Travel Channel Tues., Oct. 2 at 8 PM.

• Al Jazeera English is launching a monthly iPad magazine. About 60 percent of the content will be created for the magazine, with 40 percent coming from Al Jazeera’s other resources. AJE acting chief Will Thorne talked about the magazine to journalism.co.uk.

• NBC’s “Rock Center” is dedicating a segment this week to controversial and partisan media personalities. Ted Koppel will interview FNC’s Bill O’Reilly, HBO’s Bill Maher and conservative pundit Ann Coulter. From the logline: “On the left and on the right, are they speaking for America, or are they bad for America?”

HBO is launching a new TV newsmagazine series with VICE. VICE founder Shane Smith will host the program, which will be executive produced by Smith, comedian Bill Maher and VICE chief creative officer Eddy Moretti. CNN host Fareed Zakaria will serve as a consultant on the series, per his overall agreement with Time Warner signed in 2010. CNN is a sister network to HBO.

Potential subjects for the new series include “Taliban child suicide bombers; North Korean slave labor camps; New York’s underground voodoo heroin clinics; Somalian pirates; and Satanic dentists in the Pacific Northwest,” the network says. Some of the segments will likely be repurposed video content from Vice.com, like this segment on North Korean labor camps:

There is no premiere date or timeslot for the series, which will be called “VICE,” though HBO says it will be televised weekly. That said, TVNewser hears that it will likely debut as a lead-in or lead-out to “Real Time with Bill Maher,” which airs Friday nights on HBO.

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• HBO has renewed “Real Time with Bill Maher” for two more years, bringing the show through 2014. “Bill Maher’s irreverent wit and fearless insights make him the perfect observer for these unpredictable times,” said programming chief Michael Lombardo. “I’m delighted that we can continue to offer an uncensored forum for his original and thoughtful humor.”

• Did you know that FBN correspondent Peter Barnes writes children’s books in his spare time? He talks to Capitol File about the side-job, including how he uses the books to teach kids about history and government. “We’re not going to do a book about a cute puppy or kitty,” says Barnes. “It’s going to be something that fills a need, is a good keepsake, or can be used in the classroom.”

• As we noted last week, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith MC’d an event honoring New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning. Smith sat down with Manning to talk about the Super Bowl and Ole Miss:

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New York magazine profiles comedian and raconteur Bill Maher, and reveals a surprising fact about the first guest on the first taping of Maher’s Comedy Central show:

He pitched a show to Comedy Central executives that would remake political-debate programs like The McLaughlin Group with comedy and celebrities. He would do a monologue like Carson and feature assorted stars tackling current affairs. The very first guest during the first taping, in a studio on East 23rd Street in New York, was a Republican TV executive at NBC named Roger Ailes.

The article goes on to have Maher impersonating Larry King (“Let’s go grab a nosh with Larry King”) while his friend refers to MSNBC’s Martin Bashir as “Martin Balsam.”

Read the entire piece here.

Earlier this week, Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly dedicated his “Talking Points” segment to the issue of free speech and censorship, focusing on the recent Rush Limbaugh/Sandra Fluke controversy:

O’Reilly has an unlikely ally here in the form of comedian Bill Maher, who wrote an op-ed in the New York Times called “Please Stop Apologizing.”

I have a better idea. Let’s have an amnesty — from the left and the right — on every made-up, fake, totally insincere, playacted hurt, insult, slight and affront. Let’s make this Sunday the National Day of No Outrage. One day a year when you will not find some tiny thing someone did or said and pretend you can barely continue functioning until they apologize.

If that doesn’t work, what about this: If you see or hear something you don’t like in the media, just go on with your life. Turn the page or flip the dial or pick up your roll of quarters and leave the booth.

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An Aol brand is taking on le nom de Huffington. Arianna Huffington just announced the launch of HuffPost TV, a re-launch of the site formerly known as AOL TV. From Arianna:

In its new incarnation, HuffPost TV will have many of the same features you’ve come to know: exclusive interviews and clips, reviews and recaps, and TV listings. But now, we’re adding HuffPost’s powerful blog and community platforms to the mix, giving you an even more comprehensive — and much more social — look at everything happening in the world of TV, both onscreen and off.

Contributors on the site today include Bill Maher, Aaron Sorkin, Norman Lear and Dr. Phil. The vibrant MEDIA section of Huffington Post continues reporting on the TV News side of television. Aol bought Huffington Post earlier this year for $315 million.

Washington Whispers went to the North and South Poles of political/media watchdoggery to find out who are the 10 Commentators the Right and Left Love to Hate.

Not too many surprises here. Most of those on the left who the right hates work (or worked) for MSNBC, and most of the those on the right who the left hates work (or worked) for Fox News.

• Media Research Center List:

1. Bill Maher
2. Chris Matthews
3. Joy Behar
4. Ed Schultz
5. Keith Olbermann

• Media Matters List:

1. Rush Limbaugh
2. Glenn Beck
3. Eric Bolling
4. Steve Doocy, Gretchen Carlson, & Brian Kilmeade
5. Sean Hannity

On Tuesday, NBC’s “Education Nation On-The-Road” tour makes a stop in Los Angeles where “Hardball” host with Chris Matthews devotes his MSNBC show to the challenges, potential solutions and innovations on the education horizon. And he’ll be doing it “Hardball” style with Bill Maher, and former FCC chairman Michael Powell.

MSNBC has a sponsor lined up for this stop: the Grad Nation campaign of America’s Promise Alliance. Powell’s father, Gen. Colin Powell (Ret.) is the founder of America’s Promise Alliance.

This is all a part of NBC’s “Education Nation Los Angeles,” running all week and involving NBC’s LA TV outlets NBC4 and Telemundo 52.

On June 8, Matthews returns to his hometown of Philadelphia for another “Education Nation On-The-Road” stop. NBC’s “Education Nation Philadelphia” will run from June 5-11.

Phil Griffin & Keith Olbermann at Countdown's 5th anniversary party in 2008.

Whither goest Keith Olbermann?

Though his separation agreement with MSNBC keeps Olbermann off TV for at least six months, it hasn’t stopped rampant speculation about the irascible ‘Countdown’ anchor’s next field of battle place of employment.

Given his nuclear departures from ESPN, Fox Sports and MSNBC (twice), Olbermann’s choices may be limited. Regardless, one popular scenario making the rounds has him going to HBO, where he would create a weekly show to be paired with Bill Maher’s ‘Real Time.’

Premium cable — virgin territory for Olbermann — could end up being the perfect fit for the self-righteous leftie. His politics are compatible with those of Maher, albeit louder, taller and far less subtle.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he [Olbermann] lands at HBO for 2012,” says fellow MSNBC exile David Shuster in an email. “He and Bill Maher would be an interesting combination. I would definitely watch, though I already watch Maher to begin with.”

Robert Thompson of Syracuse University’s Center for the Study of Popular Television, who describes Olbermann’s style as “news journalism in the jazz idiom,” is equally intrigued by the possibility of a tandem with Maher on HBO.

“It’s definitely do-able,” Thompson says. “HBO already has the model and slot to put him in. Olbermann might find it a relief to be on only once a week. And because HBO is not a news network, he wouldn’t always have to be ‘making a statement.’”

Also, with no pesky constraints on language, Olbermann’s “Special Comments” could spin into postal territory. It’s a location he visits frequently with management. To put it another

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