The Thrill is Gone
16 June 2010 2:41 pm by Taylor Marsh
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It’s quite interesting to watch the media come out of their collective swoon. The clip here is really stunning coming from Olbermann and Matthews, though less so of Fineman.
Some concrete news just breaking (3:04 pm eastern) from Politico is that BP will pay “no further dividends to shareholders this year.”
The White House also says that BP has “tentatively agreed” that the oil company will create a $20B fund to pay claims. “Pay czar” Kenneth Feinberg who mediated the 9/11 victims fund will reportedly administer it. As an aside on one other matter covered in the article linked above, I honestly don’t know how the Administration can legally compel BP to pay the lost wages of workers laid off due to the federal offshore drilling moratorium in the Gulf. It seems like a preposterous gambit on the Administration’s part, especially when it comes with the backdrop of Obama’s offshore drilling policy, which Interior Sect. Salazar set into motion, unleashing more acreage for drilling than ever before, while okaying BP’s ultra-deep water drill without a second thought. It reeks of Administration cya.
Two blunders from the White House political office, because both of the above announcements should have been part of any Oval Office Address. What’s one day?
All of this played out this morning on “Morning Joe.” You know they’re in trouble on a day when only Mike Barnicle is making sense, and Mika goes on a full shrill drill. I know, there’s that word, but she was like the thought police today, protecting Pres. Obama from bad reviews he’d earned. (Robert Reich called the speech “vapid.”) For those of you who didn’t watch “Morning Joe” this morning, the only political show I never miss, it was Joe and especially Mika tiptoeing through self-imposed etiquette landmines trying not to notice the content lameness that only Chuck Todd managed to analyze with any clarity this morning. That is until Chris Matthews poured cold coffee in the “Morning Joe” crew’s cup. Not a good morning today for Joe and Mika who whipsawed between Mika’s journalistic defensiveness of Obama, and Joe Scarborough’s new countenance, which seems to now be focused on eschewing his signature straight talk, instead adopting a middle-of-the-road stance that amounts to mush. Joe deciding to ride some moderation rail, which may be a shot at bipartisan hosting, something that never works, doesn’t suit him, especially since his real value is blunt assessment from a man who’s been there and knows politics. The “Morning Joe” joviality aspect is the board on which the show was made popular, so when they disagree it’s like watching a dunk tank dip. Not pretty.
Meanwhile, no one knows how to plug the hole stop the ever changing amount of oil gushing into the Gulf… as the ecological and environmental holocaust continues.
This post has been updated.
Wow… yeah… when you’ve lost Olbermann y’know, you’ve lost the country
Well, as you should all know by now I am a proud KO supporter. And as he said last night Obama didn’t aim at all. He got that right too.
Now, about that $20 billion fund, let us wait until the dust settles before we begin uncorking the champagne. Where corporate power is concerned nothing ever goes as Obama says it does.
Moreover, no one ever listens to him anyway. The bankers found a way to shell out even larger bonuses after he warned them to stop; the Hondurans went right ahead with their coup and got away with it and he backed down and did nothing; Bibi went ahead with his settlements after Obama vowed he was not going to tolerate any more settlements, why then should BP be the only fools to toe the line? WHO fears him?
I long ago let go of Olbermann’s primary bias. You might appreciate his defense of what he said and his “smartest political leader I have ever seen” defense of Obama. On that, I think we can all say, at the very least, the jury is still OUT.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/16/keith-olbermann-defends-c_n_614307.html
I enjoy his show, but he’s no Lawrence O’Donnell (getting a 10 pm show, by the way).
Heh Heh! I know you did.
I did not like what he did to Hillary either. But in time, I was able to overlook it; other qualities (loyalty) override. Matthews was a hell of a lot worse. Moreover, I think KO needs the support of progressives.
I think Lawrence O is brilliant. I have been waiting for this. Starting with Keith I think the MSNBC line-up is now complete.
heh… Nobody is worse than Matthews!
LO after Maddow is some block.
Great news — I love LO.
Yay!
I know. LO actually beat out Olbermann’s ratings last time he guest hosted. After all these years that might have been the tipping point.
The criticism was that Obama is all talk and no action.
Last night, Obama went on National TV and said he’d make BP pay. And he did.
$20 billion. BP will not pay any further dividends this year. And there is no cap or limit on liability.
This doesn’t make up for the Administrations failings in this disaster. But as people have been saying, that’s one butt kicked and many media elites humiliated. Watch how fast these guys change their tune.
um…. no.
In the coming days and weeks, these efforts should capture up to 90% of the oil leaking out of the well. This is until the company finishes drilling a relief well later in the summer that is expected to stop the leak completely. – Pres. Barack Obama
Some of what he said was not only stretching, but unprovable and unsubstantiated in any way, including that BP hasn’t delivered on squat as far as the oil blowout. Not to mention that Obama is acting like the relief well is a (ahem) slam dunk when it is anything but.
Today they delivered on cash and halted dividends for now. Great news, absolutely.
Though, again, what the hell his political team is thinking by sending him out there last night saying prayers and opining we don’t know how we’ll get there, the day before the BP meet, is malpractice. The latest developments only prove our case where last night’s OOA is concerned.
Well… we are a faith based nation after all. I thought KO was a hack before the primaries, and still do. Maddow is the cream of the crop over there. Matthews is a bonehead, and Ed Schultz couldn’t argue his way out of a paper bag. Howard Fineman is just another whore trying to stay in front of the conventional wisdom. Hell, come to think of it that description about covers them all.
I hear ya, but actually I think Fineman is pretty good. I always want to hear what he has to say.Matthews has been very good on the oil spill,although that does not keep him from being a bonehead in other ways.
Maybe he didn’t have the deal yet?
The only thought I have is that he made the address a launching point to follow up with actions and not for bragging? It’s just a guess.
I can’t answer the question regarding the politics behind the decision. If you had asked me what I would suggest beforehand, I would have said to secure the deal today and then come to the Oval Office tomorrow with good news to report. But then again, there’s a reason why I’m just an engineer and I don’t have a job in the Obama White House. It’s because I don’t know what I’m talking about.
By my calculations, $20 billion translates into $5 million per mile of gulf coast line. As for the relief well?
Well, here is where that prayer part comes in:) And I’m telling you this as an engineer. That relief well is your only real hope right now. Thankfully, the Administration made them drill two, the second one started 14 days after the first. BP only wanted to drill one unsurprisingly. There was talk about the relief well leaking, but all wells in the gulf, relief or otherwise, leak profusely. The gulf itself actually leaks up methane and oil naturally.
What I and other people ranging in political inclinations talked about today was the media. Someone said that Keith Olbermann didn’t even wait for the President to finish speaking before he started telling people what to think. I predicted there would be backlash against our disconnected media bubble, and sure enough, the behavior of Keith Olberman and Chris “vuvuzela” Matthews already made it into a Newsweek Column:
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/16/pundits-like-that-are-the-only-people-here.html#
I actually turned to Faux to watch the Frank Luntz panel. I never, ever thought I would defend Faux, but at least they had the decency to ask people what they thought. First they were in a swoon bubble. then they were in a hatred bubble. It’s still a bubble.
I got a coupon for free Kool-Aid today. I laughed.
Guess President Obama still thinks we will trust his wink and nod like we did over Health Care….I’ll pass on that…It is time to show and prove
Isn’t that what he just did today?
really??? When he can be descriptive about how we’ll get 90 percent of that Oil out if the gulf with a straight face then maybe I’ll take him seriously. A good step today is that 20 billion in escrow…next step is that any oil collected from the Gulf by BP should be forfit. And more importantly…when he starts taking Green energy, technology, and jobs seriously then maybe he’ll restore his credibility.
I think Rachel Maddow is still the best over on MSNBC, I quit watching Keith Olbermann along time ago and I used to watch Ed Shultz but he gets way too carried away with his rants !! I have to admit I watch all three networks at different times. Whatever show interests me I watch. I am glad and about time that some of president’s supports call him out on certain things. It great that people express their point of view !!
If you aren’t watching Dylan Ratigan you’re missing the most important coverage on the financial sector, as well as the BP oil blowout. It’s must see TV.
Al Gore said it in 1998, but now a former oil man says we have to get rid of the combustion engine. Ratigan has been the most important broadcaster on finreg & the BP blowout no matter the network.
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Totally agree !!
I know, he’s just fantastic. No bs. No frills. Just in your face, without the bread. Political protein at its best.
I can’t believe what he gets away with,incredible,just says it like it is!He had Bernie Sanders cracking up today at his audacity.
I agree Taylor. Dylan Ratigan is awesome. He seems to be fair to people which is new in this media world !! I forgot Chris Matthews, well maybe I just didn’t want to mention him !! LOL
I just wish Mica would go eat a cheeseburger and take a nap. She is shrill ALL the time. She has turned into a very unpleasant person. I feel sorry for her family. I guess the good thing for them is they never see her.
I like her role, especially when she talks about the importance of diet, etc., though her policewoman role on the show is overused. But today she was just…
I think she could do a lot more educating if she was not such a snotball about it. I agree about Joe but I don’t think it will last long. He’s pretty irrepressible. I think they both get heavy lobbying from the WH everyday.
bp says they are helping the “small people” of the gulf. may bp rot in hell. im actually glad obama has frmr ms guv mabus overseeing the plan to rebuild the gulf. mabus is well respected by folks in the gulf and he grew up with its beauty. i wouldnt trust obama and his hacks to come up with a in touch policy on rebuilding the gulf.
“The Small People” like were beneath him !! I guess thats what they talk about at his country club. Pointing at hardworking citizens, laughing. The corporate types are so far from reality is disturbing !!
This media manufactured outrage about Obama’s emotional indifference to the oil crisis has finally paid dividends via the Oval Office speech…congratulations, wish granted. Now that we’ve received our optics hug, can we allow the man to do his job without distracting him with any more imaginary problems?
Fareed Zakaria sums this up quite nicely:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaejBVWifV8
“Now that we’ve received our optics hug, can we allow the man to do his job without distracting him with any more imaginary problems?”
BWAHAHAHAHA! You call what he’s been doing, doing his job?
BWAHAHAHAHA!