Arizona Shooting What Happened Cnn
Keith Olbermann Suspended From MSNBC TV
I heard the news about Keith Olbermann getting suspended from MSNBC for contributing to three Democratic candidates as I was driving back from lunch with the Israeli TV newsman Shlomi Eldar, who’s made a new documentary called “Precious Life.” I’ll have more to say about “Precious Life” next week, but at one point during our interview, Eldar made a compelling point about the 2008-09 Israeli military blockade of Gaza. He’s a big critic of the Israeli military for not doing more to ensure the safety of Palestinian civilians, many of whom were killed in Israeli bombing raids. When fellow Israelis said to him, “So what? Hamas was shooting off hundreds of rockets, often killing our civilians,” Eldar’s answer was always the same: We don’t have to be like them.
I think the same logic applies in the case of MSNBC suspending Olbermann. His defenders, sounding an awful lot like Eldar’s Israeli critics, point out that Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Neil Cavuto have contributed to Republicans in the past. And of course Fox News’ parent company, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., recently gave $1 million each to a pair of organizations trying to defeat Democratic candidates during the midterm elections.
So why should MSNBC hold Olbermann to such a high standard, especially when he’s clearly a commentator, not a newsman? Because MSNBC doesn’t have to be like them — them being Fox News. If liberals want to brand Fox News as a propaganda wing of the Republican Party, which it surely looks like 90% of the time, then they need to cling to some moral high ground, starting with not opening themselves up for charges, as Olbermann has, that they are doing the same thing themselves.
As Politico, which broke the story, reported Friday, Olbermann gave $2,400, the maximum legal donation, to Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva on Oct. 28, the same day Grijalva appeared as a guest on Olbermann’s “Countdown” show. There’s no way that should happen, for the very reasons stated in NBC’s rules against employees contributing to political campaigns–it’s a breach of journalistic independence to contribute to the candidates that you’re covering.
Not objectivity, since no one is arguing that Olbermann is objective, but independence. How can we, the viewers, possibly expect Olbermann to ask a candidate the toughest possible questions if he’s giving him money at the same time? Or even worse, it could be perceived as pay-to-play: I give you money, you appear on my show. The same goes for Fox News, which now has a host of leading 2012 GOP presidential hopefuls all serving as paid on-air contributors. When I see them being interviewed by Fox newsmen, that exchange looks a lot more like media back-scratching and self-promotion than journalism.
The Olbermann mess simply highlights the dilemma MSNBC faces as it plays second fiddle to the Fox News juggernaut. If it wants to be a liberal advocacy network, fine, then it can reinstate Olbermann and start shaping the news to benefit liberal causes, the way Fox does on the right. But if it wants to be taken seriously as a real news network, then it should make Olbermann serve a suspension, make sure its other anchors understand the rulebook and, most important, say loud and clear: Unlike our competition, when we say we practice independent journalism, we really mean it.
MSNBC has suspended star anchor Keith Olbermann following the news that he had donated to three Democratic candidates this election cycle.
“I became aware of Keith’s political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay,” MSNBC president Phil Griffin said in a statement.
Politico reported Friday that Olbermann had donated $2,400 each to Reps. Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, and to Kentucky Senate contender Jack Conway. While NBC News policy does not prohibit employees from donating to political candidates, it requires them to obtain prior approval from NBC News executives before doing so.
In a statement earlier Friday, Olbermann defended his donation, saying, “I did not privately or publicly encourage anyone else to donate to these campaigns nor to any others in this election or any previous ones, nor have I previously donated to any political campaign at any level.”
Griffin’s statement underscores that it was Olbermann’s failure to obtain approval, and not the actual political donations, that prompted the suspension.
The move is doubly significant in that it represents a major development in the relationship between Griffin and Olbermann, who once told the New Yorker, “Phil thinks he’s my boss.”
“Keith doesn’t run the show,” Griffin told New York Magazine recently. “I do a lot of things he doesn’t like. I do a lot of things he does.”
In recent months, Griffin has taken several bold steps to declare his authority over the network and its sometimes unruly talent: he sent a stern memo warning hosts to not publicly fight with each other, he suspended David Shuster indefinitely for filming a CNN pilot, suspended Donny Deutsch, banned Markos Moulitsas from the network, and reprimanded Ed Schultz for threatening to “torch” the network.
The New York Times’ Brian Stelter and Bill Carter report that, according to one NBC executive, Friday’s suspension is “not a step toward firing” Olbermann, though a source also told the New York Observer that there was “no time frame” for Olbermann’s potential return. The Nation’s Chris Hayes will host “Countdown” Friday night, the network said (according to a tweet from Yahoo’s Michael Calderone). (UPDATE: Stelter later tweeted that Hayes will not host Friday’s show after all. MSNBC has not announced who would be replacing him.)
Predict It, Will Keith Olbermann Really Resign from MSNBC?
*** Yes
*** No
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