Keith Olbermann has been suspended indefinitely from MSNBC, without pay. Sounds pretty serious right? As it turns out, Olbermann made some political contributions to Democrats - and that apparently crosses the line at MSNBC. Are you with me in saying "Really?"
Let's look at this for what it is. MSNBC was wildly criticized for assembling a partisan panel to cover the November 2nd elections in the United States. It was a news event full of weird accusations - Christ Matthew's observation that Michelle Bachman looked 'Hypnotized,' for instance - and lots of background snorts and chortles as the prevailing Republicans tried to make their case to the panel. So it's safe to say that every individual in the MSNBC executive branch knew what they were putting together here. Since MSNBC wasn't shy about putting together a pro-liberal hit squad to cover the event, why does it matter to them that one of their overtly liberal-supporting news hosts donated money to candidates. In short, direct terms, this is an colossal double standard.
Ironically, MSNBC.com published a breakdown of the policies of various networks and news outlets when it comes to donating to politicians. FOX allows employees to donate at will, while ABC, CBS, and a host of others forbid it.
The only way anyone should accept the 'ethics' argument here is if MSNBC were to truly begin reporting from a bipartisan point of view. If that doesn't happen, then any insinuation from NBC that it was acting to protect MSNBC's ethical standing is hollow.
The donations aren't illegal, they aren't even large according to the Huffington Post, and NBC doesn't even actually have a policy against it - they are perfectly okay with their employees donating, as long as the proper people within the executive branch are given the heads up and approve of the donation. Would MSNBC disagree with these donations? Given their programming lineup, probably not.
There are glaring insinuations that what really happened here was a power struggle between Olbermann and his boss Phil Griffin. Olbermann has challenged Griffin's authority publicly numerous times, so it is not a huge leap to think that Olbermann might have been on his hit list. Griffin personally announced Olbermann's firing by saying "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."
If this is true and Griffin is acting partially out of his frustration with the rogue Olbermann, the MSNBC president may have just shot himself - and MSNBC - in the foot. MSNBC, which has long positioned itself as the liberal counterpart to the conservative routed FOX News, is consistently number two in primetime news ratings and - you guessed it - Olbermann is their number one draw beating out competition from CNN and Headline News in the adult demos, but falling far behind his FOX nemesis Bill O'Reily.
Chris Hayes will be filling in for Olbermann tonight.
Soucres: Huffington Post, Politico
Wasn't he a sportscaster at one point?
I'm pretty sure that was his claim to fame.