MSNBC Takes Incendiary Hosts (Olbermann, Matthews) From Anchor Seat

Source: New York Times

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.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/business/media/08msnb...

or the OBVIOUSLY biased approach of FAUX NOISE



Guess ratings don't matter.. kissing repuke ass is more important.

is supportive of the repukes. This is nauseating...

And Brokaw and Williams can both eat shit..They will be able to handle it well, after all, they are already kissing asses.

White House propaganda machine just as they do now, day in and day out.

I cannot stand how Brokaw and Williams just melt with love over McCain. My Dad was a war hero and POW and it doesn't mean he was qualified to be president by any means. He had a lot of issues to deal with and he did and turned out to be a great father.

But give it up Brokaw and Williams--you are looking like fools.

www.johnrussellforcongress.com

Hey, the mainstrem media have an election to win - what can we expect?

Peons write letters. Peons write emails. Peons call. But John-Boy and Saracuda FILE their displeasure (to the Federal Election Whining Commission or Billo Reilly, I imagine). Words cannot adequately express how very very IMPRESSED I am.

9/11 video that they played before McCain's acceptance speech. He expressed his unhappiness and how he thought that the cynical use of the images was simply to conjure up the anxiety of the time.

He was absolutely right on. I had the same reaction...

I've always been worried about a backlash against Keith's outspokenness, but I was hoping that his ratings would make up for it...

The fix is in.

Andrea Mitchell, Gregory, Brokaw, Brian Williams et all seems more professional to have them in the chair asking Olberman and Matthews for their opinions. It doesn't sound like M & O will be entirely excluded.

on the media, that would be unprofessional.

WTF?

talking point. Apparently you do not watch these people most of your waking hours as I and many here on DU who know where these folks lean. When the truth hurts as NBC-MSNBC has come to learn, they FIX it and Olbermann has come to symbolize the truth and he has been fixed.

Completely biased. Never asks Republicans hard questions, always interrogates Dems.

Ever since he became Rove's dance partner he's been a right wing tool.

Brian Williams is an admitted Limbaugh fan. Brokaw drools over McCain

There was a time, long ago, when I couldn't suss out Chris Matthews' political leanings -- or Olbermann's either, for that matter. After the 2004 election, the gloves came off. More specifically, after Dan Abrams became GM, things changed. Keith began to get away with murder. Matthews began to drop hints he was a little left of center. I loved it.

I've watched both Matthews and Olbermann since they began hosting both their shows -- ten years for Matthews, going on five years for Keith. I never miss them. So I say this with love for both guys -- they've gone too far -- especially Olbermann. He's become too full of himself. He pontificates too much. If there were a far right version of Keith Olbermann, it would look like Rush or Bill-O. Maybe even Rush. Sorry, but I really believe that.

My disappointment with Keith really began in earnest when he essentially banned Dana Milbank from 'Countdown' when Milbank quoted Obama out of context. IOW, he cut Milbank's mike. My husband reminded me that we have never heard Keith debate an adversarial guest on his show -- because he only hosts people who agree with him. Think about that -- it's true. I loathe Bill O'Reilly, but you know, even Bill-O hosts guests he disagrees with. Frankly, I like DU, but I prefer Politico because it isn't as one-sided.

If you think Fox now has to demote Bill-O just because MSNBC has demoted Matthews and Olbermann, you're not thinking clearly. What Fox does has nothing to do with MSNBC. What has happened to cable news is that Fox went far right, MSNBC went far left, and CNN is still as dry and boring as ever -- but at least offers some semblance of neutrality. If CNN would ditch Rick Sanchez, I'd probably watch them a lot more.

It's amazing how truth these days is considered far left. Notice how the liars with nothing backing up any of their claims are considered far right. In this scenario, I'll take the far left any day because I won't be satisfied with anything less than the truth. I'm glad he doesn't have anyone on with opposing views as it's refreshing not to have to listen to all the b.s. We just hear substance that always has substantial back-up. Yes, Keith Olbermann throws in his opinions, but unlike the others, his opinion makes complete sense based on facts. Everyone else is clearly bought and paid for. Most of us see through it, don't you?

On edit: Bill Moyer is also a truth teller. He's awesome.

About 1 1/2 to 2 years ago, here in the mid-Willamette Valley area of Oregon, Comcast 'rearranged' which network got assigned to which cable channel on 8 or 9 of their channels.The day after receiving an explanation letter from them (the usual: deleting several less popular stations in order to add networks in great demand by 'us, their valued customers'; 'changes to affect Standard Cable customers only' - no changes to any Digital Cable channel (those assigned to channels higher than 125); 'these changes reflect our commitment to providing our customers the programming they want'; blah, yada, etc.), MSNBC vanished!!

The other changes basically swapped A&E and USA Network-type channels around, or grouping similar channels closer together. Guess which station took MSNBC's channel ... the TV Guide Channel! Unreal!!

Loyal KO viewers bitched a bitch! Comcast magnanimously offered to to provide a box ( for only $1 a month) which would allow viewing of MSNBC. Otherwise, it is now only available to Digital Cable Subscribers (at almost double the price of Standard Cable, which itself is ridiculously priced at around $50 a month.).

I too now rely on the internet for my KO fix!

It's a good thing Comcast is as liberal as the media in this country, or we'd probably get Faux News on EVERY channel! Any other region have a similar experience with Comcast??

While I agree with you that KO can get a little full of himself - I particularly cringed when he attempted to belittle Glenn Greenwald because he criticized him and he didn't even know who Greenwald was and that he is an excellent mind.

However, no longer using a reporter because they did their job incorrectly is different than shutting off someone's mic who is telling a truth you simply do not want to hear.

MSNBC is no where NEAR far left. Even with KO and the addition of Rachel Maddow it is still center. Since when did the truth get put on a left-right spectrum? So the stations that peddle govt. propaganda are right and the stations that tell the truth are left? (that is telling right there, isn't it?) You are buying into the framing that the right wing has created as well as buying into the left being a bad thing. The far left has absolutely NO voice in the corporate media. All they will give you is center views that they label far left so you think you are getting "both" sides, when in fact there is at least a third side that is never heard from at all.

Every truth-teller from Olbermann to Rick Sanchez on CNN you've vilified but you defend Fixed News and Bill Orally?!?

Something stinks here and seeing you've only got 16 posts under your belt says enough for me.

When HuffPost tr0//s start mentioning democraticunderground.com I know they've been here and they have the same modus operandi as, well, you.

Yeah, politico is much more right of center so I agree with you, that it's a better place for you too.

He goes which ever way the wind blows, interrupts his guests, talks 150 miles per hour and gets too emotional.

...propagandists sent out by the GOP and corporate head-honchos to help in the dumbing down of Americans.

He was on the path of redeeming himself... and is now promptly demoted.

Who still believes we don't live in a Fascist State after this clear attempt to kill any opposing voices not of the GOP and corporate stables?

CaliDem04 said, "Who still believes we don't live in a Fascist State after this clear attempt to kill any opposing voices not of the GOP and corporate stables?" I agree that fascist governments kill dissenters. I've spent a long time trying to figure out why Bushco lets dissenters live, unlike other fascists. It seems like even little ol' Franco would have at least jailed Keith and Chris, and we don't even need to make mention of what Mussolini or Hitler would have done to them! So I don't get Bushco. Are some fascists just too lazy to kill dissenters?

dissenters, one only needs to silence them. Besides, killing Keith O would only call attention to the true nature of these fascists. This is why their takeover has gone unnoticed by the uninformed majority.

... learn comprehensive reading.

I wrote "...kill any opposing VOICES..." I said nothing about Bushco dictatorship tactics already implemented on the American people and Iraq a la Gitmo.

Oh, and it's BLUECaliDem04, Snail Farter - I mean darter.

It gives the appearance of NOT being an outright fascist state.
Meanwhile, dissent is crushed regardless of the method. Killing dissenters has obvious negative consequences...

He's all over the map. Has he been mainlining caffeine? He used to just interrupt his guests. Now he goes on and on, interjecting movie metaphors and asking some pretty dumb questions. Remember early in the primary season when he was promoting some stupid Lawrence of Arabia analogy to some candidate? (No, it wasn't Obama...) Remember when he couldn't stop playing SNL clips of Darrel Hammond's spoofs of him? Talk about starstruck -- how nauseating.

Matthews used to get the very best guests. Did you ever wonder why Hillary never appeared on 'Hardball' this season? I never did. I knew she'd never give him an interview. He's too

And listen, I'm saying this as someone who has seen just about every 'Hardball' broadcast for the last ten years. I'm worried about him. He's starting to channel Larry King.

FUCK YOU NBC!

and especially Repug thug David Gregory. This is a major bolder thrown at the even hand and one giant leap toward stealing the election for the pugs. I will now only turn to MSNBC to watch Kieth Olbermann and never even fly over NBC.

I totally thought of that when I learned he was black irish.

A channel’s perceived shift to the political left? RUN!

...so they're saying GREGORY is an unbiased anchor?????

This is sad news...

Sigh! I don't need to turn the TV on at all now for the elections. I will just monitor my computer like I did for the last one.

He's been so even-handed that he doesn't let truth become too intrusive. It is unfair to the liars.

He's too much of a Beltway *player* to be that.

I guess that's incendiary.

Other than that, he's great.

Keith is FAR more professional.

can't sing from his center to right seat.

in the anchor seat? Their ratings will tank.

The suits at NBC are idiots. People watch Olbermann because he is one of few voices on the left. Why the hell can't people on the political left be represented? This kind of shit pisses me off no end.

Simple. Because the CEO of NBC is a Repub and when President Obama will raise taxes on the have-ever-more class, he will not like it at all, so he is scared shitless about the idea of a future President Obama and Vice-President Biden will come true. So he's doing all he can for that not to happen. But he will fail.

Hope it's clear enough, now.

OTOH, who cares for TV stations when We Have The World Wide Web?

they have a financial interest in the outcome of the election.

But pissing off Keith's viewers will inevitably lead to lower ratings which means less ad revenue. They are cutting off their nose to spite their face.

If that happens, they'll just find another way to rip-off the lower classes even more.

That's how they've always done it in the last 30 years, and they R sure they'll do it again and again.

They know there are un-educated suckers born every second...

Proof : look at McInsane's curent numbers!

Fuck 'em.

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. Fuck everything else. Catch the debates on C-Span or PBS.

Then they get some real numbers to play with.

My cable company Comcast doesn't even carry MSNBC, having dropped that station early this year in my market.

it, either. In fact, CNN is the only cable news channel it carries for the basic package.

That is the tactic. Through negative resistance we can convert Olbermann and Maddow into the networks flagships.

Boycott absolutely EVERYTHING else.

Unless you have a Nielsen Box to record what you're watching.

I'm guessing many DUers do not and so all the boycotting in the world will not be known.

A big assumption, sometimes.

When I see boycott, people always mean it by just "not watching".

As I think the poster below you thought, too.

DirecTV/Dish/etc?

It is my understanding that with modern cable boxes, they do not need a nielsen bo obviously only with cable viewers). I would be happy to be corrected.

My choices actually are exponated for my demography. However, Neilsen isn't the only thing they go for. It's all the telephone calls, emails and letters that figure in too.

Ostensibly to give you suggestions due to your preferences. Those lists are available. I worked with Tivo for a few years.

It may not be included in the Neilson ratings, but they have that information.

such as DirecTV or Dish what you watch is used and often received by the networks as I understand it. So, what we may not necessarily need to be neilson families in order to have our watching patterns count.

Are you suggesting that home satellite receivers transmit viewership data back through the satellite? Satellite bandwidth is way too expensive to use it to measure millions of channel selections in real time, IMHO.

The two-way feature is ostensibly to authorize pay-per-view requests and such, but they also use it for audience measurement.

My company once had a half-hour program on the local cable system. After the show, they would show us graphs depicting viewership levels through the whole show. "You lost 100 viewers when you changed to that subject" - that sort of thing.

Satellite viewing or off-the-air rabbit-ears style viewing cannot be measured.

I really don't think your overeaction is helping.

Just boycott David Gregory debate coverage. Easy.

Like others say, don't stop supporting Keith and Rachel, the two who have dared to issue scathing criticism of the worst presidency in US history.

but now that he will be sidelined I'm going back to CSPAN just as I did in years previous.

Any other brilliant ideas for us???

Keith is about the only guy who speaks truth to power and now he's going to be "removed." Methinks this is just part of the Pukes strategy to steal the election yet again.

I cannot believe that McSame had the nerve to file a complaint about MSNBC coverage...when every other network in the world is fawning and drooling over him...

If this isn't Fascism...I don't know what is...

stuff as it almost causes the gag reflex. Extremely slanted!

Keith and Rachel are really the only points of light out there. Oh yeah and KARE 11 news, a CBS station in Minnesota. I'm from Minnesota and ppl there call it the DNC support channel. It's so slanted towards the left, it's slightly amusing.

Hate to be picky but...

Kare 11 is an NBC

Wcco 4 is CBS

Which of the two are you talking about? Neither of them seems all that liberal to me, but I admit I haven't watched television news much lately. Let me know.

I mean WCCO through CBS. Sorry for the error.

Though I never noticed them being all that liberal. They do accomplish a bit more investigative journalism than other local outlets.

I'm a political junkie and flip between channels from CNN to C-Span to MSNBC and ever since McBush canceled the interview with Larry King they (CNN) have gone negative on him as if to say: "This is what we do to the Democrats - and what we'll do to you if you don't agree to appear on King's show."

I'm pretty sure the moment McSame agrees to go on King's show, it's all lovey-dovey once again and Obama will be vilified just as originally planned.

Welcome to FASCIST America! Mussolini would've pinked a tear away were he alive today. His dream society has come true.

They included Olbermann, Matthews and one piece where Scarbrough got into a big pissing match with someone (I can't remember who it was). They made it sound like MSNBC's coverage was just one big pissing match among the commentators and anchors.

With Davis Shuster. I won't watch if Keith isn't going to anchor the elections.

I figure no one will ask any hard questions, and they'll get off on stupid stuff.

Gregory is worse than CNN, but better than Fox. I still fucking hate him.

And, doesn't try to hide it.

The internet opens up a wide array of different ways to get news (and entertainment), and if you use it right, without tons of mind-numbing corporate sponsorship.

You may want to do some checking into the effects of television on the human brain. Not good. A big part of why we're here today.

Let them know if you liked Keith doing the anchoring.

that lurching to the right won't work. The Nazis already have the rest of the broadcast media in their pocket. By refusing to cater to the majority, they exhibit poor business acumen. If you own any GE stock tell the board of directors you're very unhappy with this moronic decision.
it just means spending more time on line and Comedy Central where the fake news has more validity than the propaganda pushed by all the others.

viewerservices@msnbc.com, countdown@msnbc.com, hardball@msnbc.com, letters@msnbc.com

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10285339/

after they fired most of the reporters, and get their stories from AP. We all know how unbiased AP has become.

...ever since he canceled his appearance on The Larry King Show because the McPain camp thought Campbell Brown was too mean to Tucker something or another when she asked him to name ONE thing Pontius-Palin did in command of the Alaskan National Guard.

She was persistent but not half as obnoxious or tough on that Tucker guy than Brokaw was on Biden today on MTP.

I'm so thoroughly disgusted.

I wonder how Chris and Keith are taking this-- they ought to be pretty pissed. Don't they anchor 2 of the top rated evening news commentary shows? Don't they have something to argue with?

How will I survive election night?

notice that "perceived shift to the political left" and DO NOT watch it when it is the usual RW nonsense that befits our corporate-ocracy.

Oh, and watch FSTV.

They aren't dropping their No. 1 show.

Y'all know that, right?

eom

The linked article makes absolutely no mention of them cancelling "Countdown."

Y'all do understand that, right?

eom

Olbermann won't take this lying down.. He walked away before from "the Big Show"..

This is MSRNC wanting it both ways.. obviously the RNC is calling the shots , since any dem presence at their little shindig last week was tepid at best, and mostly absent...and this after a week of rabid scumbaggery by the repubilicans who infected OUR convention.. I predicted it would be that waym but deep down I had hoped for some parity..

The sad mess that our media has become, is sickening.. There is NO "major" news venue that is not overrun with right wingers..and ANY voice that threatens their stranglehols, in the least, is shouted down, and silenced

This is like firing Donahue all over again. Fucking NBC. Watch them shit can Keith and Rachel very soon....wouldn't want them influencing the election in any way!

repugs hammer away at management until management caves. Dems think that sending letters and making phone calls doesn't make a difference, so they don't do it. I have a friend who is a news director for a local station. She has also worked with major news agencies in DC. She says that if the station gets ten or more HARD COPY letters on an issue, the management takes notice. The GOP gets this, but we still haven't caught on. That's why they are the small-but vocal-minority that has become the squeaky wheel that the media heeds.

McBush's camp wrote formal letters of complaint to the network and pummeled them relentlessly till they caved. This "work the umps" strategy is a staple of their playbook for many years, but not a lot of work is required on their part usually since the corporate media is so Republican friendly. However we seem reluctant to do the same. When I say we I don't mean people here at DU but the campaign staffers who make these decisions. As exNewsweek reporter Robert Parry has long documented at consortiumnews.com the corporate media bends over backwards to favor Republicans, yet we never call them out publicly for it and hammer them during campaigns like we should for their self evident bias. Obama's campaign should file the exact same letters of complaint with MSNBC when inevitably Brokaw and Williams bend over to curry favor with McBush and company, as well as other networks that do the same. The last two Presidential campaigns should have put to rest the notion that the corporate media is a fair arbiter. So while a deluge of hard copy letters from us is a good thing and a good idea, I think involvment by the campaign is a must as well. They cannot continue to pretend this bias does not exist.

You could see the big shift right during the whole evangelical convention. The only person who was really calling the McCain campaign out was Rachael other then Keith when they tried to imply Iran was responsible for 9/11. This is not good news. I hope Rachael does not let them shut her up.

<snip>

The McCain campaign has filed letters of complaint to the news division about its coverage and openly tied MSNBC to it. Tension between the network and the campaign hit an apex the day Mr. McCain announced Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. MSNBC had reported Friday morning that Ms. Palin’s plane was enroute to the announcement and she was likely the pick. But McCain campaign officials warned the network off, with one official going so far as to say that all of the candidates on the short list were on their way — which MSNBC then reported.

Some staff members said the tension led to the network’s decision to keep Mr. Olbermann in New York for the Republican convention, after he ran the desk in Denver during the Democratic convention. MSNBC said that he stayed in New York to anchor coverage of Hurricane Gustav. But some workers say there were other reasons — namely, that Mr. Olbermann was concerned about his safety in St. Paul, given the loud crowds at MSNBC’s set in Denver.

NBC Universal executives are also known to be concerned about the perception that MSNBC’s partisan tilt in prime time is bleeding into the rest of the programming day. On a recent Friday afternoon, a graphic labeled “Breaking News” asked: “How many houses does Palin add to the Republican ticket?” Mr. Griffin called the graphic “an embarrassment.”

According to three staff members, Jeff Zucker, chief executive of NBC Universal, and Steve Capus, president of NBC News, considered flying to the Republican convention in Minnesota last week to address the lingering tensions.

<snip>

Glad to see him go.

too are taken off the air. Then I will never tune in again.

This is ridiculous.

Pukes must be in a much worse situation than they appear to be are if they are really resorting to these kinds of tactics.

Strange that CNN seems to be the only network in the last couple days really calling the pukes on their BS.

I will watch their until they abandon objectivity once again.

So NBC/MSNBC, you say good bye to this raw number: .|..

General Electric and Universal did not become conglomerates by rocking the boat.

coverage. I'm glad they'll both be analysts.

The corporate media is now reigning in their talking heads to do their job: deliver the White House to the GOP again.

All of a sudden right wing analysts started complaining that news anchors and the media were "liberal" and didn't respect gov. Palin. There may be a link. We should definitely send hard copy letters. Who's with me?


NBC News
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