The Olbermann Train Wreck
08 September 2008 7:01 am by Taylor Marsh
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 theThat 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.
It began when Keith Olbermann began to personally target Hillary Clinton during
the primaries.
As I said not long ago, it’s a shame that Olbermann was so over the top with
his commentary, because Democrats had never had anyone so openly in our corner.
So, just when Democrats and Obama need it, Olbermann’s commentary is being questioned
in every way. It was bound to happen, due to the outrageous coverage that Keith
often offered, targeting Clinton personally and viscerally for months. But he
was by no means the only one involved. Richard Wolfe of Newsweek, Eugene
Robinson of the Washington Post, Jonathan Alter, all of the men Keith
continually had on delighted in tearing down Clinton. That it was all about helping Obama was blatantly obvious.
It’s not just that Olbermann, who led with the bias on “Countdown,”
was openly backing Obama, which he was. It was that he wouldn’t admit it.
This same behavior, however, was repeated throughout the traditional media,
extending to new media, with some of the biggest blogs pretending they were
unbiased, when they were not. It was nonsense, as was proven here, as well as
other places, particularly by Big Tent Democrat at TalkLeft, an Obama supporter
who was able to most of the time heap scorn when it was due. Classic point to
prove this fact is his post tonight about Oprah, the biggest public Obama supporter
of them all. BTD calls out others on the Oprah – Obama issue, for ignoring
her partisan preferences for Barack. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that, especially
since she declared in the primaries. But to say that Oprah not having Palin
on isn’t because of her Obama support is ridiculous. She’ll have to pay the price, though unlike Olbermann, at least her choice was stated.
As for Chris Matthews, the other anchor slapped by the NBC, well, his Hillary hatred,
as well as his deep bias against Bill Clinton, has been obvious for a long time for anyone paying
attention. But any grown man
who is willing to talk about a tingle down his leg when hearing a politician,
and do so on camera, deserves whatever his network boss levels.
During it all, I continued to watch “Countdown,” though it was difficult,
as well as “Hardball.” I saw it unfold, then unravel. I wrote about
it often and at length, with more links in my archives than I can possibly offer.
So this latest development doesn’t surprise me at all.
Keith Olbermann is why I dropped any interest in supporting the Fox boycott.
Because Fox’s Bill O’Reilly had the ratings and the reach out, so when Hillary
needed to get both and draw attention to her primary fight, they were there
and fair. Yes, I realize the larger Fox network anchors never miss a chance
to hit Democrats, almost always unfairly and below the belt, but O’Reilly treated
Clinton with respect, something she could never get on “Countdown”
or “Hardball,” two of the top rated shows on MSNBC.
Chalk this one up as a win for the GOP, who knows how to work the refs and has a huge team
behind them to help, including right-wing and Christian broadcasting. This is
going to raise the media bias issue, the “liberal media” canard even
higher for the public. It’s called blowback, which plays into Palin’s candidacy
and further helps John McCain.
