Ed Schultz

MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes is going from working weekends to working weeknights. Hayes, who had hosted a weekend morning show for the the cable news channel, has been tapped to take over its 8-9 p.m. time slot starting April 1. Ed Schultz, who had hosted that hour, is now moving to weekends. For MSNBC, the hope is that Hayes can attract younger viewers and will be a better fit with Rachel Maddow, whose show runs in the 9-10 p.m. time slot. Hayes has often been a guest host on Maddow's show.

Book on pope in works It seems like the smoke had barely cleared from the Sistine Chapel before news came that a book about the new pope is on the way. The as-yet-untitled book about Pope Francis - heretofore Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, now the first pope from the Americas - is to be published by Image Books, a Catholic-focused imprint at Random House. The publisher plans for it to "give readers an insight into the spiritual vision of the new pontiff with a look at his most inspirational teachings on God, Jesus, marriage and family, life, prayer, religious freedom, and more.

  Flip through the radio dial any given afternoon and you might hear an angry-sounding white man railing against the government, Congress and dastardly politicians. No, not Rush Limbaugh. This one criticizes Congress for not giving more help to the poor, the government for cutting off unemployment benefits, and politicians for pledging to dissolve unions. Ed Schultz has, over the last two years, made a niche in radio and on TV by talking about the poor and middle class, solidly gaining in ratings while more and more Americans lost jobs, benefits and middle class status.

MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes is going from working weekends to working weeknights. Hayes, who had hosted a weekend morning show for the the cable news channel, has been tapped to take over its 8-9 p.m. time slot starting April 1. Ed Schultz, who had hosted that hour, is now moving to weekends. For MSNBC, the hope is that Hayes can attract younger viewers and will be a better fit with Rachel Maddow, whose show runs in the 9-10 p.m. time slot. Hayes has often been a guest host on Maddow's show.

Fans of liberal talk radio were no doubt baffled in recent weeks by the decision by KTLK-AM (1150) to relegate its popular midday personality Ed Schultz to the lesser time slot of weekday evenings and replacing him with a host with a lower national profile. But while listeners may be puzzled, Schultz himself thinks there's a conspiracy at work, one involving "progressive talk" station KTLK and struggling liberal radio network Air America. "It's not a radio decision," Schultz said by phone.

The most widely carried liberal on radio is a "prairie-dwelling, red-meat-eating, gun-toting former conservative" who broadcasts from the unlikely locale of North Dakota. Since launching his syndicated show last January, former football player Ed Schultz has peddled his Fargo brand of populism to 70 markets, including stations in San Francisco, Miami, Phoenix, Denver, Boston and Detroit (but not L.A.).

ED SCHULTZ may be the most interesting radio voice to come out of the upper Midwest since Garrison Keillor, with whom he shares almost nothing except a throbbing aversion to George W. Bush. From a station in Fargo, N.D., the loud and hearty, meat-eating Democrat has attracted a growing national following of liberals, progressives, lapsed Republicans and other talk-radio listeners who hear in the rumble and flow of Schultz's impassioned populism a sound unlike any other on the AM dial.

Re "A Sharp Left Turn on Dial," Feb. 5: Ed Schultz is among the few liberal talk show hosts "allowed" to be on the radio. My vote goes to Bernie Ward of KGO-AM (810) out of San Francisco, weekday nights from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. I hear him in Los Angeles loud and clear (pun intended), and he is heard far and wide, as attested to by his callers. Ward has the facts and the skill to present them effectively. We need more like him to restore some balance to the media. Marshall Pearlman Laguna Hills

At the NBC News Group's upfront presentation Thursday in New York City, “Today” host Matt Lauer wasted no time in addressing the problems plaguing the once-dominant morning program. “I would like to tackle what might be a teeny white elephant in the room. We all love covering the news, we hate being the news,” he said on stage at the New York Public Library's Celeste Bartos Forum, where he was joined by co-host Savannah Guthrie. “I promise to spend all of my time and energy over the next several months trying to keep Savannah out of the headlines.” The joke, of course, is that it's Lauer who's been getting the wrong kind of attention recently, culminating with an ill-timed front-page story in Thursday's New York Times about his plummeting popularity . PHOTOS: Celebrity portraits by The Times But if the bad press had him blue, Lauer wasn't letting on. He put on a brave face at the presentation, joking that “we want to go back to the most-watched morning program and the least-talked about morning program.” NBC Universal News chairman Pat Fili-Krushel likewise stressed “Today” in her remarks at the luncheon, pointing out the months of work put into “evolving” the ailing cash cow. “We are really pleased with the direction it's headed,” she said, boasting that with “Today,” MSNBC's “Morning Joe” and CNBC's “Squawk Box,” they “own” morning television.

When Saul Levine turned classical music station KMZT-AM into talk outlet KGIL-AM (1260) 14 months ago, he said the theme of the station "is going to be the word 'balanced.' " Not anymore. Starting Monday, liberal morning host Ed Schultz will be gone, and the KGIL weekday lineup will feature conservative hosts Laura Ingraham (6-9 a.m.), Glenn Beck (9 a.m.-noon), Monica Crowley (noon-3 p.m.), Michael Savage (3-5 p.m.) and Lars Larson (5-7 p.m.). Only Alan Colmes, airing from 7 to 10 p.m., will offer a left-of-center perspective.

At the NBC News Group's upfront presentation Thursday in New York City, “Today” host Matt Lauer wasted no time in addressing the problems plaguing the once-dominant morning program. “I would like to tackle what might be a teeny white elephant in the room. We all love covering the news, we hate being the news,” he said on stage at the New York Public Library's Celeste Bartos Forum, where he was joined by co-host Savannah Guthrie. “I promise to spend all of my time and energy over the next several months trying to keep Savannah out of the headlines.” The joke, of course, is that it's Lauer who's been getting the wrong kind of attention recently, culminating with an ill-timed front-page story in Thursday's New York Times about his plummeting popularity . PHOTOS: Celebrity portraits by The Times But if the bad press had him blue, Lauer wasn't letting on. He put on a brave face at the presentation, joking that “we want to go back to the most-watched morning program and the least-talked about morning program.” NBC Universal News chairman Pat Fili-Krushel likewise stressed “Today” in her remarks at the luncheon, pointing out the months of work put into “evolving” the ailing cash cow. “We are really pleased with the direction it's headed,” she said, boasting that with “Today,” MSNBC's “Morning Joe” and CNBC's “Squawk Box,” they “own” morning television.

There's something laughably inventive about how the cable TV political machines take the barest thread of evidence to weave elaborate tapestries of conspiracy and umbrage. Case study: The histrionics by a couple of MSNBC hosts and their guests over a rash comment by one of Mitt Romney's sons. Tagg Romney, 42, told a talk-radio host this week that hearing his father described as a liar at the latest debate (though that never happened) made him want to "take a swing at" President Obama.

  Flip through the radio dial any given afternoon and you might hear an angry-sounding white man railing against the government, Congress and dastardly politicians. No, not Rush Limbaugh. This one criticizes Congress for not giving more help to the poor, the government for cutting off unemployment benefits, and politicians for pledging to dissolve unions. Ed Schultz has, over the last two years, made a niche in radio and on TV by talking about the poor and middle class, solidly gaining in ratings while more and more Americans lost jobs, benefits and middle class status.

Cable news channel MSNBC ended its turbulent relationship with its most-popular anchor, Keith Olbermann, with a terse statement saying that Friday night's show was his last. In a six-minute farewell sign-off at the end of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," the forceful liberal commentator didn't volunteer a reason for his abrupt departure from the channel that became an ideological counterbalance to the rival Fox News Channel. The only hint Olbermann offered for his exit was an admission that over the last couple of years there were "many occasions" when the noise and heat surrounding the show "was just too much for me. " But, he added, it was a supportive, unwearying audience that "required that I keep going.

Fans of liberal talk radio were no doubt baffled in recent weeks by the decision by KTLK-AM (1150) to relegate its popular midday personality Ed Schultz to the lesser time slot of weekday evenings and replacing him with a host with a lower national profile. But while listeners may be puzzled, Schultz himself thinks there's a conspiracy at work, one involving "progressive talk" station KTLK and struggling liberal radio network Air America. "It's not a radio decision," Schultz said by phone.

ED SCHULTZ may be the most interesting radio voice to come out of the upper Midwest since Garrison Keillor, with whom he shares almost nothing except a throbbing aversion to George W. Bush. From a station in Fargo, N.D., the loud and hearty, meat-eating Democrat has attracted a growing national following of liberals, progressives, lapsed Republicans and other talk-radio listeners who hear in the rumble and flow of Schultz's impassioned populism a sound unlike any other on the AM dial.

There's something laughably inventive about how the cable TV political machines take the barest thread of evidence to weave elaborate tapestries of conspiracy and umbrage. Case study: The histrionics by a couple of MSNBC hosts and their guests over a rash comment by one of Mitt Romney's sons. Tagg Romney, 42, told a talk-radio host this week that hearing his father described as a liar at the latest debate (though that never happened) made him want to "take a swing at" President Obama.

Cable news channel MSNBC ended its turbulent relationship with its most-popular anchor, Keith Olbermann, with a terse statement saying that Friday night's show was his last. In a six-minute farewell sign-off at the end of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," the forceful liberal commentator didn't volunteer a reason for his abrupt departure from the channel that became an ideological counterbalance to the rival Fox News Channel. The only hint Olbermann offered for his exit was an admission that over the last couple of years there were "many occasions" when the noise and heat surrounding the show "was just too much for me. " But, he added, it was a supportive, unwearying audience that "required that I keep going.