Posted on 09/07/2008 6:33:59 PM PDT by flyfree
MSNBC tried a bold experiment this year by putting two politically incendiary hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, in the anchor chair to lead the cable news channel’s coverage of the election.
That experiment appears to be over.
After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage.
The change — which comes in the home stretch of the long election cycle — is a direct result of tensions associated with the channel’s perceived shift to the political left.
“The most disappointing shift is to see the partisan attitude move from prime time into what’s supposed to be straight news programming,” said Davidson Goldin, formerly the editorial director of MSNBC and a co-founder of the reputation management firm DolceGoldin.
(Excerpt) Read more at drudgereport.com ...
Does this make any difference?
Not trying to be cute, but who cares? Nobody watches MSNBC except for lefty whack jobs.
Great news! I watched a half hour of those two last week and couldn’t handle any more. Olbermann is so over the top and obnoxious. The words journalist and Olbermann should never be in the same sentence.
Here’s a comment by IMFORGORE from DU
“watch Keith and Rachel and ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE on MSNBC. Show them that the only reason their ratings had been climbing were because of Keith and Rachel. F*ck everything else. Catch the debates on C-Span or PBS.”
Costas is pretty much of a lefty as well.There's no bigger waste of a broadcast minute than a Costas minute.
...
For some real laughs, be sure to check out the reactions over at the DUmp. It’s their lead story.
http://www.democraticunderground.org/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3476338
The Dummies are losing their minds over this... threatening to cancel their cable altogether...
Now that there is funny I dont care who ya are that is some funny stuff.....
There's a cynical name for a business if there ever was one. LOL
Reputations are to be “managed” according to leftists.
"The modern news media draws half its power from coils placed around the spinning in Edward R. Murrow's grave. "
You know, I’m not a fan of the Patriots or Brady, but I never wish an injury on a player. This year, I had him on my fantasy team. It could be worse, though. You could be a Bengals fan. Judging by the way the team played today, it will be our 18th year without a playoff win. It’s gonna be a long season. :(
Lemme take us back about fifteen years. I'm sitting in a bar, of sorts, that has big TV projection screens on various cable channels, but the dancers'--oops, I mean club's--music is so loud that they don't bother with the TV sound.
Anyway, This guy's mug comes up on one of the sports channels. Don't know him from Adam. I turn to the ummmm, lady, sittn' with me and I sez,
"How'd they get Groucho Marx back from the dead to do a sports show?"
This from Broadcasting & Cable.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6593698.html
MSNBC Drops Olbermann and Matthews From Election Coverage Anchor Roles
Outspoken duo demoted to analysts for debate and election night coverage
Marisa Guthrie — Broadcasting & Cable, 9/7/2008 10:57:00 PM
Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews’ often-controversial tenure as co-anchors of MSNBC’s election coverage has come to an end. Instead, David Gregory NBC News’ chief White House correspondent will anchor election night and the three presidential and one vice presidential debates.
Olbermann, the outspoken host of Countdown, will continue to host his primetime show and will be available as an analyst for the remaining events, as will Matthews.
NBC News spokeswoman Allison Gollust said in an e-mail message to B&C that relieving Olbermann of his anchor duties “clarifies” Olbermann’s role.
“It doesn’t diminish his role on Countdown or its importance to MSNBC,” she wrote.
According to a report in the New York Times, executives at NBC News and its parent company NBC Universal made the switch after growing concerns that the two opinionated MSNBC commentators, Olbermann, an outspoken critic of the Bush Administration, and Mathews, were effecting perceptions of NBC News as an impartial news source.
When the VP nominee Sarah Palin criticized the media during her speech at the Republican convention, delegates began chanting “NBC.” Olbermann’s co-anchor Chris Matthews, a somewhat lesser target of Republican ire, has also been demoted to the role of analyst.
It didn’t help that Matthews and Olbermann engaged in on-air squabbles and put-downs during coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The two were separated when network executives decided to keep Olbermann in New York to quarterback MSNBC’s coverage of Hurricane Gustav rather than sending him to St. Paul for the Republican convention.
The tipping point apparently came last week when Olbermann took issue – during MSNBC’s Republican convention coverage – of an RNC video showing scenes from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, including video of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center.
“I found it ironic and instructive that I could have easily said exactly what I did say, exactly when I did say it, if I had been wearing a different hat, and nobody would have taken any issue,” Olbermann told the New York Times.
MSNBC has received persistent complaints from the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and John McCain.
During the hard-fought Democratic primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the Clinton campaign accused MSNBC of bias and specifically denounced comments made by Matthews and correspondent David Shuster, who mused that Chelsea Clinton was being “pimped out” by her mother’s campaign. Matthews’ “thrill going up my leg” line about Obama, became the tag line of a McCain campaign web ad purporting media bias in favor of Obama.
Countdown, which was launched in 2003, is the network’s top-rated program and in intended left-leaning counterweight to Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly.
Sunday, Sep 07
MSNBC Removes Olbermann & Matthews From Election Anchor Duties
With less than 60 days until the election, MSNBC is replacing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as co-anchors of prime time political coverage and replacing them with NBC White House correspondent David Gregory.
For months the network has been criticized for allowing Olbermann to anchor election coverage while he continued to host “Countdown” where his opinion was made clear in segments and “Special Comments.” In a story in tomorrow’s New York Times, Olbermann calls his situation as being, “not utterly neutral.”
For MSNBC president Phil Griffin the shift to the left is less ideological and more bottom line. “In a rapidly changing media environment,” he tells the Times’ Brian Stelter, “this is the great philosophical debate...the bottom line is that we’re experiencing incredible success.”
But that success, more limited than “incredible”, is coming at a cost. In recent months, the network has received letters of criticism ranging from Hillary Clinton’s campaign to the Bush White House. And since MSNBC is now so closely tied to NBC News, the critics started seeing the two entities as one.
Last month John McCain’s campaign requested a meeting with NBC News president Steve Capus over something correspondent Andrea Mitchell said on Meet the Press. McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis wrote, “We are concerned that your News Division is following MSNBC’s lead in abandoning non-partisan coverage of the Presidential race.”
During the RNC last week, which Olbermann co-anchored from New York, insiders from both NBC and MSNBC opened up to TVNewser, most speaking on background. “It’s a completely untenable situation,” one MSNBC insider said. And, in what now seems prescient, added, “It’s not going to be workable forever, to have two anchors like that. It’s just too bizarre.”
It’s not known when Chris Matthews was made aware of the changes. Matthews, who was in St. Paul for the RNC dismissed reports he and Olbermann don’t get along. Matthews told TVNewser Wednesday, “Don’t you see that we get along? Forget the scuttle, don’t you see how we get along? I think it’s pretty obvious we get along.”
Matthews and Olbermann will continue to be analysts during coverage and Matthews’ Hardball will continue at 5pmET and 7pmET as will Countdown at 8pmET. In fact, Olbermann’s show is expected to be the lead-in for the three presidential and one vice presidential debates which will air at 9pmET beginning with the first on Sept. 26.
As for Olbermann, he returned to the NBC airwaves tonight for the season premiere of Football Night in America. He kept politics out of the pre-game show, but during halftime, while reporting on the New Orleans Saints Reggie Bush and his game-winning touchdown, he took a line from Countdown’s “Bushed” segments. Olbermann stretched out Reggie’s last name saying the Tampa Bay Bucaneers got “Bushhhed.”
Bump for the Best Pic Ever!!!....hahahahaha
Thank you Bobalu.
David Gregory often sits in the front row at the White House press conferences.... right next to Helen Thomas. They're made for each other (wink).
I about fell off the sofa when he got hurt. I admit my first thought was to my fantasy team, then to the future of the Pats and then to hoping he wasn't seriously hurt.
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