Chuck Todd interviewed Politico’s Roger Simon and Time Magazine’s Jay Carney during the NoonET hour of MSNBC this afternoon. But Simon had some added distraction on his end — a fire alarm going off for the duration of the interview. “Looks like John Harris wants to make sure we all know when Politico’s ready to call a state,” joked Todd. “I’m very impressed with that mechanism.”

“I stay on TV until it burns around me,” joked Simon:

This morning on CNN’s Reliable Source, Howard Kurtz asked Politico’s Roger Simon whether he thought Tom Brokaw lost control of last Tuesday’s debate?

Simon: No. I think he really was trying to play by the rules. And if he appeared to lose control, it’s because it’s live TV, and both the guys on stage are good enough at using live TV that they know they can get away with anything.

The rules say you can only go five feet from your chair, they’ll go 10 feet. What, is Tom supposed to wrestle them to the ground? If it says you can’t respond to your attacker, they’ll respond to your attacker. What, is he going to stuff his tie in their mouths?

They will do what they want to do. They are good players on the stage. They know how to game the system.