Some wacky stuff happened in our media world over the past several days, and we’re still trying to sort it all out. A friend suggested that writing our thoughts down in a list form might help. After pondering the top stories at Digg (”ten pen tricks to do when you’re not jacking off” and “five ways to make your chest bigger” ), we figured everybody likes lists anyways, so why the hell not:

1) Why did MSNBC bail on reporter David Shuster for asking Rep. Marsha Blackburn a simple question?

The net’s soon-to-be former General Manager Dan Abrams made Shuster issue an apology to Blackburn on-air after he asked the congresswoman to name the last soldier to die from her district. When Blackburn didn’t know the answer, Shuster said that Jeremy Bohannon was that person — which soon became a source of controversy, with some conservatives saying that Bohannon was not from Blackburn’s district. Before that important detail could be sorted out, Abrams made an unhappy Shuster apologize because he thought Shuster had gotten it wrong. In the end, it turned out that Bohannon was from Blackburn’s district.

Hopefully Abrams made it up to Shuster in private — not that he has much incentive to do so, since he’s in the process of leaving his management job to become the permanent host of the network’s 9 p.m. hour, which was vacated by Joe Scarborough earlier this year.

Media Madness Ranking:  (3) Patrick Gavins 

2) When Rush Limbaugh talks about phony soldiers, and then changes his radio transcripts to make it seem like he didn’t disparage members of the military, why is that OK?

The conservative talker launched into a diatribe last week after ABC’s Brian Ross did a piece on military members who are against the war. Limbaugh used the words “phony soldiers” during his segment. That statement led Sen. Harry Reid to publicly ask Limbaugh’s syndicators to call for him to apologize. In response, Limbaugh and his bosses noted that he’s been overwhelmingly supportive of troops over the years. Limbaugh also said Monday that he never used the term “phony soldiers.” Looking at his program transcripts, you’d think he was telling the truth. However, turns out, the transcripts were altered. He did, in fact, use the term.

Media Madness Ranking:  (4) Patrick Gavins

3) Is Bill O’Reilly racist?

The FOX News commenter recently broke bread with Al Sharpton at a predominantly black restaurant. He had a good experience, and then said on his radio show that black people are nice. Liberals have perceived his words as racist and have compared them to the infamous “nappy-headed hos” statement, which led to Don Imus’ firing earlier this year. O’Reilly says his words were taken out of context and has now promised to punish CNN, MSNBC and other news outlets for running with the story. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann has called on O’Reilly to resign and believes that O’Reilly’s producers may soon try to ambush him.

Media Madness Ranking:  (4) Patrick Gavins

4) Why did Kate Gibbs leave Capitol File?

The editor-in-chief of the Washington luxury mag left the cushy position this week, but no one’s saying why. Jason Binn, the owner of the publication, is notoriously difficult to work for (and with), so he and and Gibbs likely ended up butting heads — especially since the mag has faced some inside difficulties, including staffing and financial problems. Plus, Gibbs was seen by some as an odd choice to lead the mag from the outset, with some arguing that she simply didn’t have the right look or style to cash in on this market. Media insiders who are calling this just another Binn power play might have a point, but what does Gibbs have to say about that?

Media Madness Ranking:  (2) Patrick Gavins

5) Should we feel bad for Wonkette editor Ken Layne?

The big news yesterday was the impending shake-up at Gawker Media, which Big Head DC has been reporting on for ages. After Gawker boss Nick Denton recently received the news that Alex Balk, one of his star NYC writers, was leaving for competitor Radar, Denton quickly scrambled to fill the slot. He decided to tap the increasingly-unhappy D.C.-based Wonkette editor Alex Pareene to fill the vacancy, since Pareene had been wanting to quit the blog for sometime and move back to New York. Pareene had dropped out of NYU to helm the Wonkette blog after Ana Marie Cox vacated the property last year.

After this move was decided, Denton was left with the prospect of keeping Layne on to write the D.C. blog, even though he lives on the West Coast. Instead of running with that odd scenario, Denton chose to hire two new editors (with actual journalism chops) to replace both Pareene and Layne. Layne will apparently continue to freelance for Wonkette, but this is the second time Denton has parted ways with the editor, who previously wrote the now-defunct Gawker Media title, Sploid.

Media Madness Ranking:  (5) Patrick Gavins