Posted on 11/08/2010 9:47:13 AM PST by lbryce
MSNBC, worried that its reputation as a fair broker of the news hung in the balance, sent Keith Olbermann to the woodshed on Friday for an unpaid suspension because he had donated $7,200 to some of the Democratic politicians he had championed on his hit show “Countdown.”
Golly, that ought to take care of everything.
If MSNBC were really worried about coming off as impartial, don’t you think it would have chosen somebody besides Mr. Olbermann, one of the most rabidly partisan figures in national news, to anchor its election coverage? Even Fox News knows better than to do something like that.
MSNBC is new to the network-as-political-identity game, and its parent company, NBC, is far less comfortable with pure play political programming than the News Corporation — and it shows. MSNBC backed into its current identity, driven by the outsize ratings of Mr. Olbermann, and the success of Rachel Maddow’s frankly liberal take on the world.
So what message is being sent by the suspension, which will end on Tuesday? Apparently, Mr. Olbermann is supposed to fire up the base like a convention keynote speaker at 8 p.m., but conduct himself like Brian Williams the rest of the time.
The lines separating politics, entertainment and news were already fading. This election obliterated them. Both Glenn Beck and Jon Stewart held well-attended and well-received rallies on the Mall in Washington, and Fox News had three Republican presidential hopefuls — Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin — on the payroll as commentators.
And Mr. Olbermann not only gave airtime on Oct. 28 to Representative Raúl M. Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona, he engaged in a new version of checkbook journalism that same day, contributing $2,400 to Mr. Grijalva’s campaign, according to Politico, which broke the original story on Mr. Olbermann’s contributions.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The rantings of those who speak in the language of sour grapes.
In news operations, opinion used to have a separate address. In newspapers, the publisher or his surrogates would toss around lightning bolts in a walled off section at the back of the paper.....
Really? The New York Times' opinion, a separate address...in a walled off section? What planet is this guy from?
Because prior to Fox News (which is not truly a conservative network) there was no "political identity" in news coverage, life simply "was" liberal.
"How did Nixon win, I don't know ANYONE who voted for him..." < /barf >
Because prior to Fox News (which is not truly a conservative network) there was no "political identity" in news coverage, life simply "was" liberal.
"How did Nixon win, I don't know ANYONE who voted for him..." < /barf >
Yea, hit show. His mother watches, and somebody else, maybe.
the outsize ratings of Mr. OlbermannLOL!
He's talking about way back, not recently. When I was a kid newspapers only gave their opinions in editorials and those were usually on the back page. News stories back then didn't have snide comments and they mentioned the party of the political people they were discussing equally.
Say what?
First sentence, and I laughed so hard I spit all over the laptop.
“MSNBC, worried that its reputation as a fair broker of the news”
http://www.johnspeedie.com/healy/laughs.wav
I suspect that the majority of Olberdouche’s viewers are actually conservative bloggers harvesting his ridiculous ravings so they can make fun of it.
The non-story story.
The whole thing was a cheap, stupid, obvious fake to attack FOX, and the NYT is happily playing along.
The moderators for the 2008 debates were all liberals and the final presidential debate was moderated by a woman who had a pro-bama book slated to hit the streets on Jan 20, 2009.
The media is proud of their objectivity, by golly.
Hit show?
The author of this piece is totally ignorant of MSNBC's ratings or lack thereof.
“The author of this piece is totally ignorant of MSNBC’s ratings or lack thereof”
It’s the New York Times after all. Compared to their falling subscriptions MSNBC and Countdown are probably viewed as a hit. lol
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