Folks GET A DAMN GRIP re: Olbermann being bumped from election anchoring. . .

. . .I love Keith and think he is the best thing MSNBC/NBC has going for it but he has no business, NONE, anchoring election night, debates etc.

There is no need to freak out, we are talking about 4 dates at most. They are not canceling COUNTDOWN, or for that matter Hardball.

Keith is my boy but he has no business in the anchor chair when viewers expect non-partisan objectivity, he is commenting through partisan lenses (which I share).

If MSNBC/NBC wants to be taken seriously this is the best move.

True dat...

If MSNBC tilts right ... I'll be leaving soon after.

David Gregory hardly supplies "non-partisan objectivity". Have you actually watched him? He's one of the biggest McNut cheerleaders at MSNBC.

You're joking.

Dick Gregory is a rightwing partisan hack. That is not fair either.

Actually, he'd be damn good. he was funny as hell even though he subscribed to some pretty weird ideas.

He went down to Mississippi after Cheney, Goodman and Schwerner were killed and shocked the hell out of officialdom their because he refused to kiss ass.

i think you mean David Gegory, though.

please don't be pissed. everybody should hear his raps

I meant David. But then this Gregory is such a dick!

I love him. I hate David Gregory.

Keith and Matthews are not anchor types. They are commentators on the news and issues.

I don't think that team was doing the liberal cause any good as an anchor team.
Too many times, they sounded too over the top.

They chose right.

Therefore, they no longer get my business.

Perhaps you hadn't noticed Gregory's obvious turn towards the right, but I have. And replacing one bias with another is not acceptable.

If you want to move up in MSM, be a cheerleader for the right and slam the left.

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.

If they want to be taken seriously as a real news organization, then they can't allow themselves to be pressured into changing how they decide to cover the news.

Oh wait, that's right this is the CORPORATE media we're talking about.

Sayonara MSNBC. And fuck you.

It sucked way hard. Can Gregory be worse? Maybe, but that's a crapshoot.

I guess that's what they wanted.

like KO after 8 years of Bullshit Crap Corporate Media Whore$ cheerleading for bushcheney and now mcpalin.

remember when he was a White House reporter and he gave Scottie a heart-attack on a daily basis?

did.

if a network wants to put someone on who many on the left AND many on the right think is slanted the opposite direction for some perceived balance in the "news" aspect of the debates.

Don't you have a football game to watch?

unbiased is silly.

Everybody has a bias whether they want to admit it or not, the moment somebody claims to be an unbiased source of information they instantly lose credibility. It is human nature to be biased, and I would rather trust someone who makes their bias clear than someone who pretends they aren't biased.

They just chose dry, single-reporter coverage of the election over lively squabbling we were eating up. Whatever happened to the networks' mantra, "ratings uber alles"? They just gave up lots of viewers, word-of-mouth to gain even more viewers, and even YouTube virals. Makes no sense, except that the media is politics' lapdog, now afraid to offend. Sad!

Christ, I would almost prefer Mrs. Greenspan to him.

Every year the corporatemedia has anchors all over the election night who are mediawhore$ doing the bidding of their corporatemasters.

It would be refreshing to have our side doing some straight shooting for a CHANGE.

I respectfully disagree with your assertion that 4 days is not important. Think about the events that are occurring during those four days. We will have a republican shill representing us. I am sorry but we as democrats should stop taking this type of shit from the media. McCain pressured MSNBC and they caved in to that pressure. We should boycott their advertisers.

and yet you are.

He doesn't have to worry about being politically correct and can come out with guns blazing!

I was depress until this post and then I realize that as an analyst it will be no holds bar.

Imagine Keith going after pat Buchanan. Can't wait!

KO and tweety are probably happier then:)

let the fun began.

they have 2 fill in their asshole quota. I can't wait for Keith to go after his old, tired, racist ass.

olberman is not objective and cannot be trusted when he speaks? I cannot think of one thing he has ever said in the anchor's chair that is not true...the truth hurts sometimes....

That's actually pretty funny.

Initial reports suggested that it's not the fall of the hatchet everyone makes it out to be. Besides, MSNBC would be cuckoo to shed Olbermann at this point.

In spite of KO's popularity MSNBC again finsished dead last in the convention coverage ratings again.

part of the basic cable service. To get MSNBC I had to upgrade to the digital package.

I was away during the convention and the hotel was faux and cnn---all the time. Any other time I've been in a hotel, bank, lobby, etc., it's been faux and cnn--I was on a cruise and it was ---holyjeebus----glenn beck ALL the time.

so it makes a huge difference. we can't watch what we want to watch, so we either don't watch or muddle thru and take it.

pisses me off.

During the debate coverage Kieth will be an analyst, rather than anchor.

His job on those nights will be to give his opinion.

FOX?
CNN?

These guys fold like cards...somewhere Murrow is weeping

oh sure. Pass me the Kool-Aid please.

just kidding.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Some DUers just kill me

I can't say I watched every minute so I might have missed something he said. Did Keith Olbermann at any time utter a partisan untrue statement about anything that went on during the Republican convention? Or did he just point out facts (facts which to Republicans are like sunlight to a vampire)?

and the Chicken Little's are collectively breaking out in assholes and shitting themselves to death as we speak.

David "Where were the protesters" Gregory is a tool of mammoth proportions.

Right now, the focus should be on making sure Charles "Look at my chipmunk cheeks, aren't I adorable" Gibson gets a journalistic spine. (Not that he ever had one).

That's my problem. If they'd been replaced with a truly non-partisan anchor, I wouldn't have liked it (because I do like watching Keith) but I would have understood it and not said a word. But this is bullshit!

Are we all supposed to just sit here and take it? Email MSNBC and give them an ear full, perhaps a few thousand angry emails will make them think twice about bending their programming further to the right.

If you ignore Keith and Rachel's shows MSNBC = FOX news.

of intelligence would call that jerk a journalist.

AS does every other commentator.

There was only ONE Liberal voice in these events and that was Olbermann.

Now, it's nothing but rightwing toolery, so fuck MSNBC.

It really bothers me tho' that the McCain campaign can dictate this change. If we feel that way then KO and Tweety must feel it too....I for one will be looking for evidence of it ....

Sometimes I think people on this board have nmo understanding of how the media functions at all.

But, if sabotaging a liberal voice in the media is so goddamn important to you, I don't expect you'll care.

Of course you'd scream bloody murder. What about Dick Morris? You'd be spitting blood.

Olbemann made his name being the scourge of the GOP. There's no way you can call him objective.

And Tweety? He's totally unstable. He'd start rambling about how McCain smelled or the color of Obama's socks.

It scares me that people don't seem to be taught or even to realize the difference between news and commentary anymore.

Anchors aren't supposed to give opinions. Commentators do. The blurring of these boundaries is exactly the reason for all the righteous rage against FOX; they redefined "fair and balanced" in an Orwellian way, by murdering objectivity and replacing anchors with commentators.

We need to FIGHT this slide of news into opinion, no matter who is doing it.

I think a remedial course in journalism and journalistic ethics is in order for the people screaming about this. You can argue all you want about whether Gregory is an objective replacement, but we should all be able to agree that Olbermann belongs in a commentator's chair, not an anchor's chair.

If you want to retain the ethical authority to condemn what FOX is doing, you have to agree that MSNBC is doing the right thing here.

There are many, many partisan media resources. Democracy Now. The Nation. Should we condemn them? Frankly, that would be idiotic.

There's nothing wrong with having news sources that are slanted towards a particular point of view. It happens everywhere, and a number of the news agencies provide important journalism. We should dismiss them because they aren't "objective"? What a bunch of crap.

Most people these days do. Of course there is no such thing as perfect objectivity, but the disappearance of any attempt at it should scare us all.

I know what I'm talking about. Thanks.

Olbermann doesn't do news. He does commentary.

I guess you have no problem with FOX, then. Or else partisanship is just fine, as long as it reflects YOUR opinions.

Your comments are very sad to me. I wish the press would poll re: Americans' comprehension of journalistic ethics and the purpose of objectivity in news. I think FOX and their ilk have done more damage than people even realize, in getting people to accept and expect this crap.

Thank goodness the people at MSNBC value journalistic integrity a little more than you do.

Jesus Fucking Christ on a fucking pogo stick.

Hope David Gregory works out for you.

and about 7 million FOX News viewers.

What company you keep.

And you were the one so concerned about "objective" journalism. Shows how principled you are.

We are having a conversation here. Or at least I am. You, on the other hand, are misrepresenting my edit and pretending it was significant to my meaning.

Your snide and disingenuous response should not surprise me, from a person who prefers "journalism" to journalism.

or KO were moderating? There is such thing as good journalism... And thanks MSNBC for doing it. Chris Matthews, in my opinion, already shares way too much personal opinion when it comes to "news". KO, is a Bill O, that we all hate.... Just on a side we love, so we love him???

We hate Bill o'reilly ... but we love KO... that makes no sense! Either love free speech for what it is... or hate these guys on our news stations!!!

I for one LOVE free speech.

Don't give people a bad name about bitching about an EXTREMELY smart decision, and if you ask me... it wasn't ever a decision...

Please explain who gets the news wrong more often - Gregory or Olbermann.

In the few times I've watched Fox News, I've noticed their slant and I've also noticed their tendency to editorialize within their news coverage. I have come to expect that. However, what bothers me much more is their failure to present both sides of a story or to report it in depth. In fact, they seem to engage in providing just a certain amount of facts to mislead the viewer in the particular way they want the story to play out.

I think Olbermann is capable of wearing several hats. He makes special partisan comments on Bush and he spends great portions of his regular show ridiculing the right wing. But when I've seen Olbermann sit in the anchor's chair, I haven't to my recollection heard him distort the truth or inject opinion. What I get from Olberman when he's wearing his journalist's hat are questions, very probing questions that the right wing does not like to hear. I frankly haven't heard him lie or distort the truth in the way he presents the facts. I haven't seen him present a political figure or a political story in a false light, the way I've seen it presented on Fox News. Maybe I'm wrong about that and have missed some unfortunately opionated moments of his while covering news as an anchor.

Brokaw and Williams, face it, do not ask the tough, probing questions that a true journalist should not be afraid to ask, such as their tepid performances at the recent conventions. They are nowhere near Edward R. Murrow in their questioning. They do not raise tough issues with important figures, whether on the left or the right. They're content to not make waves and to simply schmooze with the important people at major events. I don't think I've ever seen anyone get angry or annoyed at either Brokaw or Williams which I think is a very telling sign that they are not pushing the story forward to get to the truth. They are playing the celebrity game. Matthews and Olbermann, however, do play hardball.

the only thing that I can think of as news on my television is what is the local news. Perhaps the reason I can't tell news from commentary is because of the 'news' that is being reported, and the accuracy of those reports?

:kick:

But that is not the goal or the end result of this change. And anyone who's been around this country the last 8 years knows it. They need a fearless and objective truthteller, a true Newsperson. Instead they will put in a wishy washy lisckspittle, and the tilt will go right instead of left.

Yes, this is just the kind of professional journalist needed to anchor the debates.

August 29, 2008, 12:08 pm
Conventions: CNN Claims Ratings Milestone
By The New York Times

http://tvdecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/conventions-cnn-claims-ratings-milestone/

CNN is claiming a milestone in the network’s history this week, as it beat ABC and CBS in head-to-head competition for three days of the Democratic convention and, depending on how you parse the ratings, also beat NBC on Wednesday.

“In nearly three decades, CNN has never beat all three broadcast networks in viewership when competing directly,” the Associated Press reports:

This year on Wednesday, CNN had 5.38 million viewers from 10 to 11 p.m. ET, while NBC had 5.36 million, ABC had 3.48 million, CBS had 3.46 million, Fox had 2.7 million and MSNBC had 2.3 million, Nielsen said.

Yet NBC was actually on the air covering the convention until 11:03 p.m., and when those extra three minutes are added in, its average reaches 5.46 million. Nielsen is unable to break down CNN’s viewership for those three minutes, so the true victor remains unclear. CNN was second to NBC on Monday and Tuesday.

”It is extraordinary for us to beat the broadcast networks,” said Jon Klein, CNN U.S. president. ”This signifies what people have known all along about where to get news.”

Four years ago Fox News Channel beat the broadcast networks for each night of the Republican convention that nominated President Bush for a second term.

.............

But give me Keith and Twitty anytime - I will have to watch CNN now though. David is too starchy! No fun there!

He'll be stating his opinions because that's what he's there for. And you can just imagine what those opinions might be :)

unless you're like me, a stenographer, whatever quotes you pull out will and discuss will make an impact on the judgement of those watching.

Olberman should be left on there to give his views with Matthews, and Fox News should have Hannity or whatever other neanderthal they want to discuss the debate or election night.

They'll both have plenty of opportunity to make comments on their own shows and I think it's highly unlikely that the bosses will try to gag them.

Thanks!