Posted on 09/09/2008 8:20:31 AM PDT by presidio9
The decision by MSNBC to yank Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews from anchor duty during live political events did not exactly send a thrill up the leg of liberal bloggers.
A number of them denounced the cable channel yesterday for making a change that had long been sought by NBC News veterans, saying MSNBC was caving into pressure from John McCain's campaign and the right wing.
MSNBC President Phil Griffin denied that complaints from either Republicans or NBC journalists were a factor. He said he reached the decision after "talking to my guys, mainly Olbermann," after the Republican convention. Olbermann and Matthews will remain as analysts during such major political events as the presidential debates.
"We came to the conclusion it was better not to restrain them" by making them wear "two hats," Griffin said. "It's not like we haven't talked about this all along. What Keith can say on 'Countdown' and what Chris can say on 'Hardball' is a little different" than what they could tell viewers in the role of news anchors.
In the liberal blogosphere, Olbermann -- an occasional contributor to the Daily Kos site -- is viewed as a heroic truth-teller who has now been undermined by network suits whose company is owned by General Electric. Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo called the move "pathetic," writing: "It seems pretty obvious that the network got cowed by complaints from the McCain campaign."
Salon's Glenn Greenwald called it "extraordinary for a media company to publicly embarrass, diminish and tarnish its own principal asset. It is plainly doing so for ideological, not ratings-based, reasons: namely, it fears doing anything to anger the White House, the McCain campaign and the right in this country."
Not all liberal bloggers agreed. Jeralyn Merritt of Talk Left attributed
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
And Olbermann was soooooooooo good at wearing two hats. Olbermann was at his very impartial non-partisan best when he was apologizing to his audience for the offensive video the RNC showed at their convention.
Yeah, Josh, that's got to be the reason. Couldn't have anything to do with the advertisers threatening to pull out.
The “News Division” doesn’t live in the real world, but the folks in Accounting/Finance/Public Relations do. The non-stop slander directed at Sarah Palin, specifically, and at Conservatives, in general, has to be taking a toll. I regularly contact alphabet network advertisers and ask them if they think antagonizing customers is a sound business strategy.
I got a tingle up my leg when I heard the news about these two losers.
As if these two could be additionally diminished, tarnished and embarrassments to the human race!
“Salon’s Glenn Greenwald called it “extraordinary for a media company to publicly embarrass, diminish and tarnish its own principal asset.”
That would be whom? Now, if it said, “principle a$$es”, that makes the sentence more understandable.
If those two are the network’s “principal asset” they are in deep doo-doo. Oh wait, MSNBC...
Even funnier is the decision to run Countdown, Rachel Maddow, and Countdown AGAIN as their primetime lineup. I guess airing Keith twice is the only way to increase his ratings.
What’s the over under on that Rachel Maddow show? I give it 2 weeks max
Anybody who thinks that David Gregory is going to be a jpurnalistic improvement on Olberman is deluding himself.
Also. the only people who might think that MSNBC is some sort of counterbalance to FOX are either liberal or European. CNN leans left. FOX leans right. MSNBC leans fruitloops, and so does its audience.
A LITTLE different? No kidding!
In other words, they didn't know the difference between being a news anchor and someone who gives opinions. Their fault or NBC? Probably both. It took them a while to do something about it.
All these liberal idiots, including Kurtz, the author of this article, are on the same side.
the real bombing was their TV ratings — a dismal last place.
Sounds liketheir viewers are not happy- both of them!
last place and yet the loons think they are the majority
more evidence that these far left loons can’t see what is really going on
how sad
Bear in mind that when they are not wearing helments and body armor while reporting from a spa inside a safe zone, all Washington Post employess actually turn to MSNBC to get the news.
The DU and Kos nuts wont be happy until David Axelrod is in charge of the MSNBC political coverage.
I think the empty suits running MSNMC realized that to have ANY credibility as a news network they at least have to PRETEND to be non-partisan. There is no freaking way in he** way to pull that off with Bathtub boy and the Tingler as anchors.
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