MSNBC suspends Keith Olbermann for being himself, should liberals find a new home?
YES- I have heard that NASA is looking for people to venture to Mars. And, to my best knowledge, the planet Mars has never tried socialism. So, the planet is ripe for the taking, and may benefit from the utopian dream of communism.
OR...
Should liberals find a new home?
YES, I hear that the CNN building is empty. They used to do some kind of news broadcast from the CNN building a long time ago. But now they mostly tape infomercials there today.
Alright, I got that out of my system.
Liberal / Progressives have put a lot of stock into MSNBC. It was fast becoming their adopted TV home. Keith Olbermann would “cherry pick” from the top headlines of the day, and present these headlines in a manner that appealed to progressives, each night.
Even during an election, MSNBC chose to report the event using left leaning political commentators- Maddow, Olbermann, and Matthews; along with a few “journalists.”
Then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere; Keith Olbermnn is suspended from MSNBC for donating money to democrat candidates.
OK, this calls for a “WTF?” Olbermann suspended for being- Olbermann..?? (After all, Olbermann donates his TIME promoting democrats every night. Time is money, correct..??)
Pundits from all walks of life, shriek..
“Sean Hannity has donated money to political candidates in the past, Fox never suspended him.” Well, Fox has a different policy than MSNBC has. At Fox, “news journalists” (Chris Wallace, Bret Baier, etc) cannot donate to a political candidate without permission, or mention who they would vote for. Political commentators like Hannity, Beck, and O’Reilly can do whatever they like.
But wait a minute, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough donated to a republican candidate in the past and he never got suspended? Well, MSNBC says that Joe asked first, before he donated, Keith did not.
There is also another small problem, that needs to be addressed...
Glenn Beck repeated a statement of Keith Olbermann where Keith claims that he doesn’t vote in political elections because it would interfere with his “journalistic integrity.”
Now, that is a problem.
Had Keith referred to himself as a: “political commentator”, like Hannity and Beck do at Fox; things probably would have been OK. But the minute that Keith claims that he is a “news journalist”, all bets are off; and he now falls under the same rules that apply to Tom Brokaw, and other “so-called” news anchors at NBC.
So, legally, MSNBC has every right to do this. However, I think that it sucks; and I have another theory as to why it happened.
MY THEORY
September- 2008; MSNBC had Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann anchor both of the national conventions for the BIG 2008 presidential election. However, after fighting between Olbermann and several other MSNBC commentators, MSNBC announced that it would “fire” Olbermann and Matthews as election coverage anchors. Both were replaced by David Gregory; who anchored the actual 2008 election coverage in November, and that show took LAST place in cable ratings.
The MSNBC- 2008 election coverage was so screwed up, that Jon Stewart (of The Daily Show) asked NBC News anchor Brian Williams: “What’s going on at MSNBC? Is anyone in charge over there, or is it like (the movie) Lord of the Flies..??”
Here is my theory...
NBC is so f**ked in the brain, and they have been for many years: they actually want Olbermann, Maddow, and Mathews to do their usual liberal reporting on their nightly shows; however they want the three of them to act like “fair and balanced” reporters during the coverage of elections. (Which is terribly unfair for NBC to do.)
So, when something happens like Chris Matthews badgering republican Michele Bachmann about being in a trance, (and of course Michele asks Chris if he still has a tingle up his leg), you can plainly hear Keith Olbermann giggling in the background during the entire exchange. This pissed off the NBC brass because the video went viral, and made the corporation look goofy. So to punish SOMEONE, anyone of the three, there was little Olbermann with a tiny infraction of company policy and BINGO. The “BIG-bad NBC corporation taught those three a lesson, how dare they defy me. I am NBC.”
In my opinion, it is wrong for NBC to try and have Olbermann, Matthews, and Maddow cover election results, (or campaign conventions), then punish the three if NBC believes that they “leaned” too far to the left. That’s what these people do for a living. You can’t ask these people to drop all of that and be “fair” during an election.
I have always said that I wish people would just be honest in news. Do not tell me that you are a non-bias journalist, then report the news with a liberal slant.
(Yes, I know that I just set myself up for a debate about Fox News claiming it is “Fair and Balanced”, and we can debate that if you like.)
However, that doesn’t change the fact that NBC has been screwed up for years. From causing Lorne Michaels (who created SNL) to leave Saturday Night Live, which almost destroyed the show (Lorne did return years later and saved the show from cancellation). NBC went against Johnny Carson’s wishes to have David Letterman take over The Tonight Show when he retired, and NBC gave the Tonight Show to Jay Leno instead. Least we forget the whole debacle between Leno and Conan O’Brian; NBC does NOT have your back. NBC will not stick up for you, and it is not a safe place to call home. (Unless your name is Jerry Seinfeld or Tina Fey.)
So, to answer the original question of this editorial: yes, I think that liberal progressives need to find another home. NBC will keep screwing with these shows, and their hosts. It will not get better.
But where could they go..??
Internet TV just hasn’t taken off. The Young Turks, The Onion, Newsbusters have all tried to provide shows via the Internet, but nothing beats being on the TV.
CNBC is still under the NBC umbrella, so that is no good. CNN seems to be trying to walk an independent straight line (hah, hah.)
Comedy Central would be a perfect fit. Picture it: 8pm Matthews “Hardboiled”, 9pm- Olbermann, 10pm- Maddow, 11pm Jon Stewart, 11:30- Colbert. It would be the perfect liberal paradise.
However, Comedy Central has tried to focus on- Comedy, and probably doesn’t want to get involved in the high cost of paying three political commentators, with hundreds of staff members “checking facts” (checking FACTS, he tried to say while keeping a straight face. Yea, like that is going to happen. )
Headline News (CNN’s sister site.) HHhhhmm..
That would be my guess for a new home for progressives.
Glenn Beck got his TV start on the Headline News channel, so they are not too afraid of controversy. Right now, Headline News has Nancy Grace and Joy Behar; so I think that these shows could fit right in there.
Where ever this future place might be, I think that liberal / progressives need to find a new home. NBC is going to continue to screw with you. (And then NBC will blame you progressives when things don’t go right.)
Written by AR Babonie for The Angry Republic
