MNSBC: Blago, Shmago—Leno's Moving to 10 PM!

Sure, the sitting Democratic governor of Illinois has been arrested and charged with attempting to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat.  But enough about that.  Jay Leno is starting his show 90 minutes earlier!!  

Yes, a bit after 1 PM today, MSNBC actually pre-empted its Blago coverage to go to a news conference at which NBC honchos, with Leno present, announced that the Tonight show host would be moving from 11:30 to 10 PM.

Andrea Mitchell was in the midst of a serious dialogue with Pete Williams, when someone apparently whispered in the NBC justice correspondent's ear . . .

PETE WILLIAMS: Couple of other points here, Andrea. Number one, there's no indication in any of these federal documents here that Barack Obama had any idea himself that this was going on, or that his transition team was in any way aware of this.

And the second point here is that the governor and, you know, the U.S. attorney was asked about this several times—Andrea, I'll talk to you more but I understand I need to go back to you.

ANDREA MITCHELL: Pete, Pete, I think we have to interrupt you for another breaking news story; we'll talk more about this later.  You're watching live pictures of a major announcement by NBC about late-night star Jay Leno, and here is the announcement coming from Burbank.

Cut to the Leno news conference just as an NBC exec launches into a loopy laugh and lets viewers know he's "going to say a few words about how thrilled we are."

If you're happy, we're happy, I guess.  Now can we get back to Blago?

Note: As for Williams' insistence that neither Obama nor his transition team knew anything that was going on, have a look at the latter part of Noel Sheppard's fascinating item . . .