1:02 am - 11/06/2010
Time for the grownups to talk
Rachel Maddow Reacts to Keith Olbermann's Suspension
“Hey there — anything crazy happen where you work today?” said Rachel Maddow at the start of her MSNBC show on Friday night. She was referring, of course, to the suspension of her prime-time neighbor, Keith Olbermann, for making donations to three Democratic congressional candidates.
According to NBC News policy cited by MSNBC president Phil Griffin, its employees cannot do that unless they have prior permission. Griffin put out the usual boilerplate: that “these activities jeopardize his [...] standing as an impartial journalist because they may create the appearance of a conflict of interest.”
Come on: Does anyone think Keith Olbermann is an impartial journalist? His show Countdown is intended as a presentation of the day’s news as recalibrated from a liberal point of view; his “special comments” are editorials. Over on Fox News in the same time period, Bill O’Reilly is doing the same thing, but from a conservative point of view. Does the idea that a liberal or a conservative opinion-giver is also a money-giver to campaigns he or she endorses really sully your sense of journalistic integrity? We’re not talking about Brian Williams or Diane Sawyer or Katie Couric taking to the air with ringing hosannas for Michele Bachmann or Barney Frank, and writing them big checks. It’s Keith Olbermann. It’s MSNBC.
And as Rachel Maddow pointed out in the final segment of her show this night, Fox News show hosts such as Sean Hannity and Mike Huckabee have donated money and appeared at fund-raisers for politicians whose politics they praise on their shows.
(Please note: Maddow is also taking an implicit shot at Jon Stewart and his “Rally To Restore Sanity” for equating MSNBC and Fox News. So did Bill Maher on Real Time with Bill Maher. I agree with both of them, and was wondering when this was going to start.)
The notion that the Olbermann suspension is ridiculous has united both liberals and conservatives. Maddow said on Friday night that she, Olbermann, and some others on MSNBC are liberals and identify themselves as such; she called for her network to restore Olbermann to his show immediately. On The Weekly Standard website, conservative William Kristol says, “MSNBC’s suspension of Keith Olbermann is ludicrous. First, he donated money to candidates he liked. He didn’t take money, or favors, in a way that influenced his reporting. Second, he’s not a reporter. It’s an opinion show. If Olbermann wants to put his money where his mouth is, more power to him.”
Bill O’Reilly was a guest on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday night. Maher didn’t ask O’Reilly about the Olbermann suspension; I’ll have to assume it’s because the interview was taped earlier in the day, perhaps before the suspension was announced. But O’Reilly did make one comment to Maher that, by extension, supports his foe Olbermann: “There’s a difference between the opinion people and the hard-news people,” he told Maher. He’s correct.
Can’t wait until Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert get hold of all this on Monday.
source
Also lots of other cable news hosts have given money to politicans, read the article here
“Hey there — anything crazy happen where you work today?” said Rachel Maddow at the start of her MSNBC show on Friday night. She was referring, of course, to the suspension of her prime-time neighbor, Keith Olbermann, for making donations to three Democratic congressional candidates.
According to NBC News policy cited by MSNBC president Phil Griffin, its employees cannot do that unless they have prior permission. Griffin put out the usual boilerplate: that “these activities jeopardize his [...] standing as an impartial journalist because they may create the appearance of a conflict of interest.”
Come on: Does anyone think Keith Olbermann is an impartial journalist? His show Countdown is intended as a presentation of the day’s news as recalibrated from a liberal point of view; his “special comments” are editorials. Over on Fox News in the same time period, Bill O’Reilly is doing the same thing, but from a conservative point of view. Does the idea that a liberal or a conservative opinion-giver is also a money-giver to campaigns he or she endorses really sully your sense of journalistic integrity? We’re not talking about Brian Williams or Diane Sawyer or Katie Couric taking to the air with ringing hosannas for Michele Bachmann or Barney Frank, and writing them big checks. It’s Keith Olbermann. It’s MSNBC.
And as Rachel Maddow pointed out in the final segment of her show this night, Fox News show hosts such as Sean Hannity and Mike Huckabee have donated money and appeared at fund-raisers for politicians whose politics they praise on their shows.
(Please note: Maddow is also taking an implicit shot at Jon Stewart and his “Rally To Restore Sanity” for equating MSNBC and Fox News. So did Bill Maher on Real Time with Bill Maher. I agree with both of them, and was wondering when this was going to start.)
The notion that the Olbermann suspension is ridiculous has united both liberals and conservatives. Maddow said on Friday night that she, Olbermann, and some others on MSNBC are liberals and identify themselves as such; she called for her network to restore Olbermann to his show immediately. On The Weekly Standard website, conservative William Kristol says, “MSNBC’s suspension of Keith Olbermann is ludicrous. First, he donated money to candidates he liked. He didn’t take money, or favors, in a way that influenced his reporting. Second, he’s not a reporter. It’s an opinion show. If Olbermann wants to put his money where his mouth is, more power to him.”
Bill O’Reilly was a guest on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday night. Maher didn’t ask O’Reilly about the Olbermann suspension; I’ll have to assume it’s because the interview was taped earlier in the day, perhaps before the suspension was announced. But O’Reilly did make one comment to Maher that, by extension, supports his foe Olbermann: “There’s a difference between the opinion people and the hard-news people,” he told Maher. He’s correct.
Can’t wait until Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert get hold of all this on Monday.
source
Also lots of other cable news hosts have given money to politicans, read the article here
i consider myself straight, but if there is any woman that makes me have bisexual feelings, it's rachel. shit, i don't even have to have sex with her, i would just stare at her as she talked politics to me all night long.
though really, they should just put him back on, i think the point has been made
Of course, if someone is a valued member of staff and they break such a fuzzily-positioned rule - especially given everyone knows journalists are not really all that impartial - you take them aside for a meeting and do something like suspend them and put them on a warning. So sacking seems more like they wanted to get rid of him. Unless he was already on a lot of warnings.
Having said that, maybe by next week they should have him back, j/s.
People also decry Fox for it's unabashed participation in and promotion of the Republican party and the argument against that is always that it's a "news organization." The country collectively rolled our eyes when their paltry defense was that there are certain segments of their broadcast which are news and others are opinion. TDS sure ripped them a new one for it. Why would Keith (and apparently Rachel) think that doing something similar here would work? People in general don't care which talking head is a pundit and which is a journalist when they are all appearing on a 24hour NEWS channel. That was the argument against Fox, it should be equally applied.
I think MSNBC has made a mistake in following Fox's example, even if they've picked the side I agree with. They aren't going to beat Fox by becoming more like Fox. And for all of Keith's hand wringing last week over the comparisons between the networks, this actually gives his opinion more weight. MSNBC isn't working as openly to promote a political party, here's an example of how they are more restrained.
ill just wait to watch the daily show and the colbert report
i can just see it now
But remember HE'S JUST A COMEDIAN. He has NOTHING to do with twisting the way certain viewers see the political spectrum.
Olbermann is a bit of a misogynist anyway, I'm not too sad rn sorry to say.
I love Keith but that wasn't cool
Fox has shared fuckery in this with MSNBC. They're not some poor persecuted corporation.
My only problem with Fox News (and to a lesser degree with MSNBC) is that they won't just admit they're biased. I have a hard time taking them seriously, because their whole 'fair and balanced' thing is such a joke. If I want the conservative perspective, I watch Fox. If I want the liberal perspective, I watch Olbermann/Maddow. I wish they'd just own up to it.
(That last part isn't directed at you, it's just a somewhat-related rant.)
Edited at 2010-11-06 06:31 am (UTC)