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MSNBC Drops Olbermann, Matthews as News Anchors
by Dave Keating | September 8, 2008 at 12:58 am | 661 views | 29 comments | 36 recommendations
MSNBC's perceived moves to become a "Fox News" for the left seem to have come to an abrupt halt, as the network announced today that Keith Olbermann and Chris Mathews will no longer be used as news anchors for live events because they are perceived as being too opinionated. Olbermann in particular is usually very critical of the Bush administration and the GOP. The criticism was reportedly coming from many of NBC's anchors and reporters, who are frequently used on MSNBC and were saying that the cable network's perceived move to the left was casting their regular reporting into doubt.
Fox News regularly features incendiary conservative commentators such as Sean Hannity as news anchors for live events, as well as allowing regular anchors to freely express conservative opinions on air.
MSNBC is removing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as the anchors of live political events, bowing to growing criticism that they are too opinionated to be seen as neutral in the heat of the presidential campaign.
David Gregory, the NBC newsman and White House correspondent who also hosts a program on MSNBC, will take over during such events as this fall's presidential and vice presidential debates and election night.
The move, confirmed by spokesmen for both networks, follows increasingly loud complaints about Olbermann's anchor role at the Democratic and Republican conventions. Olbermann, who regularly assails President Bush and GOP nominee John McCain on his "Countdown" program, was effusive in praising the acceptance speech of Democratic nominee Barack Obama. He drew flak Thursday when the Republicans played a video that included a tribute to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, saying that if the networks had done that, "we would be rightly eviscerated at all quarters, perhaps by the Republican Party itself, for exploiting the memories of the dead, and perhaps even for trying to evoke that pain again. If you reacted to that videotape the way I did, I apologize."
Yet former Republican representative and current MSNBC host Joe Scarbourough, who had this rant while being an anchor covering the Democratic convention for MSNBC, will continue anchoring live events. With the idea of the "liberal media" being so powerful in American political discourse, broadcast networks are always more sensitive to accusations of liberal bias than to accusations of conservative bias. In this climate it remains difficult for US broadcast networks to put left-leaning commentators on the air.
September 8, 2008 at 12:58 am by Dave Keating, 661 views, 29 comments
Crowd Power
Dave Keating
London, United Kingdom
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (29)
at 01:03 on September 8th, 2008
Dave Keating, I like this story. It's good stuff. Honestly, I could not stand watching either.
at 03:06 on September 8th, 2008
I couldn't stand them either
but it just goes to show you how the republican bush machine controls the press
at 05:00 on September 8th, 2008
Dave Keating, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 05:44 on September 8th, 2008
Yeah! Though Chris is not half as bad as Keith with his machine-gun delivery as if he were the last word on anything.
at 06:01 on September 8th, 2008
Frankly, I find Chris' screeching and half-baked comments quite unnerving, infantile and arrogant. That's on the days they are not just downright stupid.
:)
at 08:15 on September 8th, 2008
What I don't like about him is his mouth looks like a deep dark bottomless pit. Have you ever noticed how dark it is? It is jet black.
at 05:50 on September 8th, 2008
Probably a good move for credibility sake. Now if Fox only will . . . who am I kidding?
Fox execs are probably puzzling over what is the big deal anyway. It will remain as the Radio Havana of the Right.
at 05:53 on September 8th, 2008
Dave Keating, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 06:04 on September 8th, 2008
Leftists have grown up knowing only television networks that are heavily biased toward them. This is proven in several successive surveys showing anchors and commentators on NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC and CNN vote Democrat more than 80 % of the time. To label Fox News as conservative because it presents both sides is laughable.
at 06:09 on September 8th, 2008
What twaddle!
And, these surveys are located where?
at 07:25 on September 8th, 2008
Who in your opinion is the harshest critic of the Bush administration on Fox?
at 08:01 on September 8th, 2008
I'm hard pressed to think of any commentator on FOXNews that could be labelled "harshest critic".
Invariably, the majority of the news at the network delivers wall to wall praise of the Bush administration, as well as praise for those individuals that defend the administration, while attacking anyone perceived as a detractor of the administration.
at 08:20 on September 8th, 2008
You must not listen to oreilly, combs and a few others. Most lean right but they have outspoken leftists too. Hannity has toned down from what he was a few years back. And frankly I emailed Combs a few years ago asking how he could stand sitting there with Hannity. The other news channels are just plain ridiculous.
at 08:09 on September 8th, 2008
mtippett, that's easy. Alan Colmes, but Kristen Powers is more effective because she is much more honest.
at 08:44 on September 8th, 2008
Again, those surveys are located where?
at 07:46 on September 8th, 2008
Dave Keating, I like this story. It's good stuff.
The other option is to employ anchors who just attack all politicians, in the style of BBC Newsnight, or Channel 4 News.
It seems to me (as an outsider to most of US News) that it's only accused of being "liberal" because it refuses to toe the GOP party line. Clearly, nobody told them why it's called "news" not "propaganda"
And can anyone explain to me why "liberal" is a good thing in the rest of the world, but can be used as an insult in the USA. I'd have thought that libertarian principles were what the USA was founded on.
at 08:00 on September 8th, 2008
Dave Keating,
I like this story, because we all know a system without standards is a system broken.
I wonder just what kind of feeling might be going up Chris Matthews' leg now ... he probably could use some Viagra right about now!
Regards,
Ed
at 08:08 on September 8th, 2008
Dave Keating, I like this story. It's good stuff.
Resistance is futile ...
at 08:54 on September 8th, 2008
.... but, in this case, assimilation is unacceptable.
at 09:07 on September 8th, 2008
Everything begins to make perfect sence once you get the implant ...
at 13:15 on September 8th, 2008
That's what I'm afraid of, loss of ability to exist outside of the collective; only being able to think what I am ordered to think!
at 14:04 on September 8th, 2008
Well, it certainly doees now seem to have come down to a situation of, 'you're either with us or against us.'
It's really quite similar to the state human beings lived in during the most recent stone age ...
at 10:11 on September 8th, 2008
Yes McHawk you are right, that is the style of British broadcast news. Let me tell, you having lived in both countries, British broadcast news is of such a higher quality than US broadcast news that US broadcast seems laughable by comparison. It's a shame that US broadcast news has degenerated to the state that it has. That being said, US print news is still much better than British print news I would say.
- reply
Philip Thrift (not verified)at 12:24 on September 8th, 2008
Why do Brits know a lot about American broadcast news and Americans know virtually nothing of British broadcast news?
at 12:41 on September 8th, 2008
>Why do Brits know a lot about American broadcast news and Americans know virtually nothing of British broadcast news?
Scale. American broadcast is such a huge business it can only dominate the world media.
at 13:08 on September 8th, 2008
More on this from MSNBC.msn.com:
Griffin said that rather than pull his stars back, he wanted to lift the “restraint” imposed by their roles as straight news anchors. “I want them to be totally comfortable,” he said. Phil Griffin is president of MSNBC.at 14:32 on September 8th, 2008
Because the UK is a US vassal state! No actually it's because you can watch US broadcast news on cable here, which obviously isn't the case the other way around in the US. The US has enough of its own TV that it doesn't need to import any from other countries.
at 10:31 on September 12th, 2008
Source: msnbc.msn.com
I found this article while researching the political bias of a specific reporter, thought it might be worth posting here.
at 10:38 on September 12th, 2008
>143 journalists: 125 giving to Democrats and liberal causes, 16 to Republicans, and two to both .
Looks like two might be independent to some degree, donate to the person not the party. Or maybe playing both teams--corporations tend to do that.