18 thoughts on “Twitter: The Great Shellacking …”

  2. B. Minich

    How is this the right thing to do? It isn’t some kind of mystery which party Olbermann supports! He’s paid to bash Republicans! How is donating to Democrats a conflict of interest here?

    Just not getting this. It’s stupid.

  3. Brendan Loy

    David, I think Fox actually has the same policy. Are you aware of information suggesting either that they don’t, or that they disregard it? I’m not talking about their TV personalities being “biased” or “partisan,” I’m talking specifically about donating to campaigns, which is what’s at issue here.

  8. Brendan Loy

    Gahrie, you beat me to it. The Joe Mama-linked Kristol article notes:

    GE, the corporate parent of MSNBC, gives money to political organizations. GE executives and, I’m sure, NBC executives give money. Why can’t Olbermann?

    So David’s wrong to change the subject to Fox’s corporate contributions; if that’s the topic of discussion, NBC fails the test, too.

    That said, I find this line of argument utterly unconvincing in any event, as to both GE and News Corp. There’s a huge, honking difference between the corporate owners of journalistic outlets, and the journalists themselves. Corporate ownership of the media does raise very some important conflict-of-interest concerns, mind you, but they’re DIFFERENT from the concerns raised by journalists actively supporting or opposing political candidates.

    The far more convincing argument is that Olbermann isn’t a straight-news journalist at all, he’s a talking head who wears his opinions on his sleeve, and so the application of this policy to someone like him is ridiculous. I’m inclined to agree with this point, and think that the only reason to have such a policy apply to people like Olbermann is a concern that it becomes a wishy-woshy line, difficult to define, between opinion journalism and straight journalism… which leads to the whole Juan Williams “analyst” nonsense, blah blah blah. But I’m not sure that’s enough of a reason to enforce such a policy in this circumstance. And I’d feel the same if it was O’Reilly making contributions to Michelle Bachmann or whatever. Now, if it was Brit Hume or Brian Williams…different story.

  9. gahrie

    I hate myself for typing this, but I totally support Olbermann in this case and think the suspension should be immediately overturned.

  10. David K.

    I was not aware NBC’s parent company engaged in the same behavior, I had only seen information about News Corps doing it, so in that sense you are correct, both are guilty. I considered Olbermanns transgression and News Corps to be the same issue, an entity that is supposed to be providing the news to be clearly biased. However, Brendan is probably correct that individual vs. corporate donations are different issues and I apologize for conflating them.

    I think NBC did the right thing in suspending Olbermann IF as reported they have a policy prohibiting it. Based on past behavior and general attitude I would expect Fox News to not bat an eye if O’Reilly donated to a republican campaign, but that is my opinion, I do not have any examples where they have violated that principle, so on that I stand corrected as well.

    I disagree though that he should be allowed to make contributions and stay employed in the position he was in, but thats not a legal thing its more of a lets try and keep it clean thing.

  11. gahrie

    I would much prefer that journalists, newscasters and opinion commentators donate their money and support their causes openly, than foster the canard that they are objective.

  12. David K.

    Just because you aren’t used to seeing objective journalism on Fox News doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen elsewhere gahrie.

  14. Alasdair

    gahrie – David K seems to be at his happiest while publicly micturating on Fox News and conservatives … who are we to deny him his most significant pleasure in life ?

    I, too, support Olbermann staying in public view at MSNBC – after all, he makes pretty much *every* other newscritter and opinioncritter seem so sensible by comparison … (he used to be tied with Ms Thomas, and then she ‘retired’) …

  16. David K.

    BTW gahrie, Matthews isn’t a news anchor, and Rather had a stellar carreer with a mistake at the end. Of course neither show that journalists can’t put aside personal biases when reporting, in case you hadn’t noticed there have been hundreds of other reporters who have done just that.

  18. Alasdair

    David K – while the UK has its share of davidkians (the davidkian newspaper is the Grauniad (The Guardian, for those unfamiliar with its incredible accuracy and attention to detail)), I would not want to deprive you of the enjoyment of the knowledge that we live in the same country …

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