RACHEL MADDOW Comments on Olbermann Situation - 'Different from Fox'

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Run time: 07:03 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpCEDOOWERw   Posted on YouTube: November 06, 2010 By YouTube Member: MOXNEWSd0tCOM Views on YouTube: 13   Posted on DU: November 06, 2010 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 8203

 
MSNBC The RACHEL MADDOW Show - 5 Nov. 2010: Rachel points out what Fox "News" Network does on a regular basis in her response to the suspension of Keith Olbermann today.

MADDOW: "Hey, so, uh, this happened..."

SEAN HANNITY (VIDEO): Joining me now with reaction is Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Congresswoman, welcome back."

MICHELE BACHMANN (VIDEO): "Sean, thank you, always a pleasure."

MADDOW: "That was from Sept. 17th of this year. The host of Fox News Channels' 9 p.m. show interviewing Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, two and a half weeks after that same host donated $5,000 to Michele Bachmann's political action campaign. Mr. Hannity's donation to Ms. Bachmann was noted at the time, it was reported on, by Salon.com in the article you see here.

Fox News executives responded to the ethical quandary pointed out here by telling the St. Paul Pioneer-Press in Minnesota that Mr. Hannity would disclose his $5,000 donation to Michele Bachmann's political action committee on the air to his viewers when he interviewed Ms. Bachmann.

Despite Fox News Channel's assertions that the host would disclose on air when he interviewed her that he had made those donations to Ms. Bachmann's political action committee, the host DID NOT make that disclosure.

The same host also maxed out his personal political contribution to a Republican New York State congressional candidate named John Gomez. The host then interviewed Mr. Gomez after the campaign donations in late September of this year.

Fox News have also explicitly endorsed Republican candidates, just from this election cycle. Here's one:

- snip -

Presumptive 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is also a host at Fox News. He hosts a show there I think that is on the weekends. Making explicit political endorsements is essentially Mr. Huckabee's full-time other job. Besides being on Fox, when he is not making explicit political endorsements, Mr. Huckabee, the Fox News host, is appearing at political fundraisers for Republican candidates. Fox News. Republican fundraiser. Fox News. Republican fundraiser. That's what he does as a Fox News host.

Same goes for Fox News host Sarah Palin... Fox News. Republican fundraiser. Fox News. Republican fundraiser. It's what she does as a Fox News host.

- snip -

Sometimes, Fox News hosts save the travel budget and they just hold these fundraisers for Republican candidates right on the air."

GLENN BECK (VIDEO): "How can I help you raise money?"

MICHELE BACHMANN (VIDEO): "Well, people can go to michelebachmann.com. I need the help."

- snip -

SEAN HANNITY (VIDEO): "...we cannot afford to lose that race."

MADDOW: "Also, those nickels and dimes. In case it wasn't clear enough, this is from Mr. Hannity's own website, from his photo album on his website. The website brags that this is Mr. Hannity headlining a National Republican Congressional Committee fundraiser. That fundraiser reportedly raised $7 million for Republican House candidates. Earlier this year, that took place. Raising money for the NRCC. $7 million dollars, earlier this year. $7 million.

You may have heard today that my colleague and friend Keith Olbermann was temporarily suspended from his job hosting Countdown on this network because he made three personal political donations to candidates in this last election cycle.

The reason that resulted in Keith's suspension is that here at MSNBC there is an explicit employee rule against hosts making contributions like that. You can do it if you ask in advance and management tells you o.k. That is what I understand happened with our morning show host's political donations in 2006 under previous manangement.

For the record, this rule applies to us hosts here at MSNBC and to NBC News staff. CNBC is not under NBC News, so CNBC staffers are not bound by the same thing.

I understand this rule. I understand what it means to break this rule. I believe everybody should face the same treatment under this rule. I also personally believe that the point has been made and we should have Keith back hosting Countdown.

"Here's the larger point, though, that's going mysteriously missing from all the right-wing cackling, and the Beltway old media cluck, cluck, clucking about this. This is what I think is missing.

Let this incident lay to rest forever the facile, never-true-anyway, bull-puckey, lazy conflation of Fox News and what the rest of us do for a living.

I know everybody likes to say: 'Oh, that's cable news. It's all the same. Fox and MSNBC. Mirror images of each other.' Let this lay that to rest forever.

Hosts on Fox raise money ON THE AIR for Republican candidates. They endorse them explicitly. They use their Fox News profile to headline fundraisers...

- snip -

They can do that because there's no rule against that as Fox. They run as a political operation. We're not.

Yes, Keith's a liberal, and so am I, and there are other people on this network whose political views are shared openly with you, our beloved viewers, but we are not a political operation. Fox is. We are a news operation and the rules around here are part of how you know that.

Before it was politically safe to do it, Keith Olbermann attracted the ire of the Right-wing, and a lot of others besides, when he brought to light and raged against what he saw as the errors and sins of the previous Presidential administration.

Keith was also the one who brought to light Fox New's water-carrying role for the Bush administration. He was one whose point-of-view journalism exposed and put exclamation points on the problems in the political-operation-disguisde-as-news-network model embraced by the guys across the street at Fox.

Now, weirdly, once again, it is Keith who is illustrating the difference between what he does on TV, what we do here at MSNBC, and what goes on across the street.

Good night."

NOTE: Short (very short) glitch at 5:50-5:56.