Keith Olbermann & Chris Matthews NO LONGER ANCHORING ELECTION COVERAGE: WE NEED A MAJOR BOYCOTT

[debbierlus]

Write ALL MSNBC advertisers and tell them you will be boycotting their products until Keith is returned.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080908/pl_politico/20838

Less than two weeks ago, MSNBC president Phil Griffin was still defending the network's anchor team to Politico, despite reports of turmoil behind-the-scenes and on-air squabbles. At the time, a high-ranking MSNBC journalist told me the network was "about to blow up."

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Well, here's the blow up! The NY Times reports tonight that Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann will no longer anchor during upcoming political news events, as network insiders reveal more about what's been happening.

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.
And there's more.

In interviews, 10 current and former staff members said that long-simmering tensions between MSNBC and NBC reached a boiling point during the conventions. “MSNBC is behaving like a heroin addict,” one senior staff member observed. “They’re living from fix to fix and swearing they’ll go into rehab the next week.”
The Times also reports that "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."

[H2O Man]

1. It's not MSNBC,

it's NBC that made this decision. There are serious tensions between NBC and the staff at MSNBC.

[annabanana]

2. This is unfortunate.

MSNBC started putting the dissemination of accurate information above the desires of GE's need to keep the bottom line for it's Pentagon contracts strong.

[H2O Man]

4. Right.

It involves people from the republican machine working overtime to silence CM and KO -- because they were putting accurate information before the public. It is very similar to previous attempts to stop them from reporting. The obvious example was when Cheney, Libby, and Wolfowitz tried to stop CM from reporting on the yellow cake & Plame scandal.

[AllexxisF1]

41. Exactly...

If you were going to try to steal an election what better way than completely controlling the desk.


There is an easy way to fix this.


Put a monkey in the desk chair and have Olberman, Matthews, Maddow, Buchanan, The Guy From The Washington Post who is always there and the other African American woman anchor that regularly visits the panel.


Have the monkey stick out his tongue alot and toss papers in the air than immediately cut to the panel for analysis.

[DrDan]

3. a boycott? . . . . hmmmmmm . . . . .

who else calls for boycotts . . . . . . .

[H2O Man]

5. Martin Luther King, Jr?

It is a democratic tradition.

[chimpymustgo]

6. It's the right move. Huckerserism has no place here. Bring journalism back.

KO and Tweety have been acting like bratty children. And overt political operatives.

[dionysus]

40. yeah, lets get rid of the guys on our side and replace them with GOP hacks... boy thats the ticket..

:puke:

[TheWraith]

44. Whatever you're smoking, you need to stop. nt

[PADemD]

7. David Gregory? Ugh! I'll be watching CSPAN.

[Barack_America]

38. I'll be joining you. Although it would be fun to see him burst into tears when McCain loses.

Poor widdle Greggy loves Johnny soo much!

[brooklynite]

8. You people are acting like chickens with your heads cut off...

Kieth Olbermann andChris Matthews andRachel Maddow (remember her?) are going to be on MSNBC every night of the week. All we're talking about is "hosting" activities, which boils down to asking everybody else what they think.

If the "Corporatist Masters" really wanted to rig the election, do you think they'd allow the regular programming to continue?

[alsame]

10. Except that Gregory is going to spin when

the debates are broadcast. KO would be challenging RW comments, Gregory won't.

[lamp_shade]

11. Gregory will "report"... limited commenting permitted. On the other hand,

Olberman and Matthews are journalists and it's probably best that their "comments" be left to their own shows. I love them both dearly and rarely miss a show, but I can honestly say that I felt uncomfortable a number of times during the conventions when they freely made personal comments. I loved it, mind you, but I wondered if the bosses were peeing on their shoes.

[brooklynite]

18. What we have here is a failure to communicate...

The entirety of these "special event" programs is commentary -- not the SPECIAL COMMENT stuff that Olbermann has made famous but "roundtables" and "expert panels" etc. Keith and Chris and Rachel will all be there; so quite frankly will Pat and Harold and Joe and all the non-liberals you know and love. The only difference I see is that Keith won't get into arguments with Joe as host; he'll do it as a panelist.

[spotbird]

39. So what?

If people want to watch right wing commentary concealed as "coverage" they have all the major networks, and all the major cable networks.

Are these views so frightening that they must be silenced?

[stillcool]

35. Did you feel uncomfortable...

with what was said during the DNC?

[WinkyDink]

12. What? All 2 or 3 above your post?

[brooklynite]

19. No - the 25 threads that came before this...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6982751

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=6983135

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=6982751

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=6979942

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=6980505

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=6979986

and so on...

[DemzRock]

9. As long as they haven't been cancelled entirely, I'm not too upset... n/t

[warrior1]

13. Since when is telling the truth

a bad thing. Keith reports what they do, and they punish him. Letter to the chief I say.

[Serial Mom]

14. You mean the David Gregory who danced on stage with Rove??

I just hate that washington d.c. reporters go to black tie dinners and associate with the white house people!

All I know is that I heard Rachel & Keith one time say they would decline those types of invitations!

[DeeDeeNY]

15. One of the most disturbing paragraphs in the piece --

But as the past two weeks have shown, that success has a downside. When the vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin lamented media bias during her speech, attendees of the Republican convention loudly changed "NBC".
I can't believe they care what those right-wing nutballs at the RNC thought. These are the same idiots with "drill now" hats, who wore purple ribbon bandaids to the 2004 convention, who booed and yelled during the speeches like a bunch of 7 year olds, and the media takes note like they're worried about them????
I guess if any of the speakers at the DNC had started talking about media bias and the audience chanted "FOX" or "ABC", that's all it would have taken for them to change? :sarcasm:

[K Gardner]

16. Is there some reason Fox can lean right and another channel can't lean left?? WTF? I saw on CNN

where they did a whole segment on the MSNBC anchors "feuding", and a big emphasis was placed on "liberal agenda".

I don't have to worry about boycotting. Half the month, I live in central California. Comcast out here doesn't even carry MSNBC.. on any package.

It really is like living in an alternate universe without MSNBC, as bad as some of them piss me off sometimes, its ALL we've got. When I go home, after nothing but CNN/Fox for 2 weeks, I have to re-acclimate to THE TRUTH.

[WinkyDink]

17. Well, at least Gregory has a filled dance card:

[Higher Standard]

20. Issue goes beyond Olbermann and Matthews...

I've sent an e-mail to MSNBC stating that the issue is clearly about caving to pressure from a political campaign to skew coverage in their favor. Where it seems quite clear that this move is a result of that is the fact that, in an effort to remain "unbiased", they've removed two perceived Obama supporters, yet have done nothing about the "perceived" McCain supports, ie Patrick Buchanan, Joe Scarborough, and David Gregory. Which, in essence, creates bias in their coverage rather than balance and fails in their journalistic duty. I've made it quite clear that, without balance, they will not get my viewership.

[Serial Mom]

22. That's almost the message I left them after I called.

[secondwind]

21. STICK TO THE ISSUES!!

[bridgit]

23. MSNBC may not matter, they reported some of the lowest viewership during...

convention coverage it was reported. MSNBC will be tinkering with their format big time. They're just not getting sustainable numbers in what is an election cycle with very high interest oh well

[glancingthefuture]

24. I read they came in last of the cables-once again

[bridgit]

26. I'm just say'n, there's allot of money in salaries and equipment over there...

not to mention ad dollars. Or should I say will there be ad dollars with a viewership posting last or near the bottom. Funny how we here rail against MSNBC and Matthews in particular till KO is caught up in the melee. And by extension Rachel. Either way, MSNBC exec' will be doing what they think they need to do to raise their demographic even if it means airing non-stop Happy Days reruns x(

[Medusa]

25. I just posted a new thread on this. It was Olbermann's idea.

Per the Washington Post. The article say this will leave them free to comment as they wish and offer analysis.

[gordianot]

27. I wondered if this was not the case it allows Olbermann the freedom to say what he wants.

MSNBC is the only network that comes close to balance.

[bridgit]

29. Matthews & Scarborough are irrelevant and got into a couple on air snits with KO...

really ugly stuff; Olberman began to pierce their veil in invincibility and they reacted like the shitty little boys they are. It should have been easy for KO to walk in with clips of the tape and ask them if those were the kind of pissy, argumentative , misogynistic faces MSNBC really wanted on the front door of their media empire

[woo me with science]

28. No we don't.

KO is a commentator. They are putting him in the right place. Just calm down.

[ShortnFiery]

32. Charlie GOPson is also a commentator but that doesn't stop the M$M corporate masters and the GOP

from kissing his ass. :grr:

[ShortnFiery]

30. No, KO and Matthews are moderates. This country has been pushed to the insane Corporate Right so

far that those who are truly moderate and intellectually curious have been labeled as "leftists."

DAMN THE CORPORATE M$M ... let's make them irrelevant. :thumbsdown:

[sunnystarr]

31. If I was with NBC News I would be demanding the same thing ..

News and opinion are two separate things. The fact is that the the Republicans hate for the liberal views expressed on the opinion shows on MSNBC (opinions we agree with) is spilling over to NBC News division. So NBC is taking the heat from the right and it's undeserved.

The move is a good one and KO, RM, and Tweety will be able to give their opinions during the election coverage instead of forcing themselves to appear impartial.

[stillcool]

36. What 'news' are we talking about..

Is there a place for 'news' on my tv?

[DS1]

33. Been boycotting cable for 2 years now

:)

[WeDidIt]

34. Boycott David Gregory's Advertisers

and let them know wy.

[Barack_America]

37. Total boycott of MSNBC and NBC in this household.

Even the NBC shows have been given the "promote McCain" message.

So they'll not get my business.

[SaveAmerica]

42. How about a shift to the political TRUTH!! Freaks.

[ericgtr]

43. CNN would nab Keith if he was interested

and I would follow him there.

[samsingh]

45. tell me what to boycott and i WILL DO IT

[samsingh]

46. tell me what to boycott and i WILL DO IT

[bunkerbuster1]

47. On the night Maddow's show debuts? You're out of your fracking mind.

Boycott GE, expose corporate media ownership, for fuck's sake. Boycotting the only cable news channel that has two (2) whole hours of non-shitty news analysis programming per day (an increase of 100% over last week's one (1) hour) makes no sense at all.

[David Zephyr]

48. My email to MSNBC: You cowards are wrong thinking Olbermann's audience will watch David Gregory.

I hope everyone will take time to let MSNBC and NBC have it.

Keith Olbermann saved that shitty little cable network from ruin. He built up the 1 million viewers night after night.

And that audience that the executives need for advertising dollars, that audience that Keith Olbermann gave them, will not go to David Gregory and nor should they.

America already has one Fox News. I'll watch either Fox or CNN on election night out of my great respect for Keith Olbermann.

May David Gregory fall on his face.

Pass it on.