September 8, 2008
The Facts
MSNBC has removed Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as anchors of live political events. The move was due to a lot of criticism from without and within the network, but no specific names were given other than Tom Brokaw, who said “at times Olbermann and Matthews went too far”.
My View
By far, my biggest complaint about “news” organizations over the past several years has been their reporters and anchors arrogantly displaying their political biases when reporting the news. Even political biased innuendos do not belong in news reporting. These kinds of comments belong in “commentary” segments, or shows designated as personal opinions. Therefore, I am not disappointed these two have been removed from reporting at live political events. There’s too much of that already. That said, I have one additional thought on the matter.
The advent of the Olbermann’s and Matthews’ was perpetrated by the rise of Fox News. Until the latter came on the scene it was extremely rare to find politically biased reporters and anchors who displayed their biases during the so-called “reporting” of news. But because of Fox, those with views of the former saw a great need to start combating the obviously biased reporting at Fox News, especially as Fox grew in popularity. They felt someone had to start pointing out the latter’s biases, and give opposing views. They also knew what many of us know; that “silence is acceptance”. So they decided not to be silent. As one of my many old sayings goes, “be careful of the rules you make, you may have to live by them” (in reference to Fox News).
I did find one bit of sarcastic humor, along with added frustration, in this article by the Washington Post. The Post quoted John McCain’s top strategist, Steve Schmidt, as calling MSNBC “an organ of the Democratic National Committee”. I found that statement completely insulting in light of the fact that Fox News’ real acronym is RPBN (Republican Party Broadcast Network).
Shawn
// Sep 8, 2008 at 8:25 AM
At the end of the day the press should hate everyone equally. What these two clowns failed to realize by trying to influence the outcome of the elections is that they became propagandists not the reporters that safeguard our democracy. Good reporting is what safeguards the US from every other pseudo democracy/dictatorship. It is the “Freedom of the Press” that the founding fathers made because they knew how important it was to our democracy surviving.
fr haly
// Oct 8, 2008 at 12:01 AM
I tried to put a blog for McCain on the msnbc site and was rejected on 10/7/2008