A question about K. Olbermann and MSNBC

[Saturday]

In the threads here that have discussed the bias MSNBC has towards H. Clinton I noticed that many of you give Olbermann a pass. Many have said Tweety, Scarborough etc do it but Olberman does not. Has anyone noticed that indeed, Olberman does not bash the Clintons but he continually has guests on that do and leads them into Clinton bashing conversations. As an example, in the segment just before he did the apology the other night his guest was Jonathan Alter and their discussion was about Bill Clinton's SC remarks. Old news being discussed yet again so Alter could get a few licks in against the Clintons? I'm curious if any of you have noticed this.

[MadBadger]

1. But he has Craig Crawford on just as much who is a Clinton Apologist

[Saturday]

2. My question is...is he leading his guests to...

bash the Clintons without actually doing it himself? I want to know if anyone else has noticed that.

[MadBadger]

3. I think Keith has been relatively fair. In the beginning he was taking Hill's side

Lately its been switched.

[neutron]

16. Olbermann is a Fraud

For over 7 years I have been an Olbermann fan, and felt
like my best friend knifed me in the back when he started
deceiving his viewers against Clinton.

I realize that he doesn't believe his own "liberal" hype and
just found a marketable niche for himself.

I'd suspected this - because he never touches on environmental
subjects - this is in keeping with Daily Kos, who is suspected
of being paid off to make sure environmental diaries
don't get "recommended."

If KO were truly liberal, he would do more than just hack
on the same subjects night after night.

This is his niche and there isn't much heart behind it.
He's a pro making his big bucks.

[newmajority]

36. Nevermind

I see that DU tech support took care of the problem ;)

[stillcool]

48. I'm glad I stayed up late to see it!

[Iceburg]

Yes ...leading questions, but he has not stooped to overt sexist commentary

However, the leading questions to known Obama supporters -- getting them to say what he would like to say (but dares not) is tarnishing his Edward R Merle brass ring.
I hope he wakes up before he destroys the legacy of quality journalism in cess-pool times he has acquired.

[peacetalksforall]

27. YES, this is the MSNBC strategy. Olberman is genuine, but his paycheck

is from GE/NBC - THEY are anti-Clinton and Olberman gave his bosses more viewers because of himself. Let no one be deluded by the GE/NBC strategy. They are part of the corporate talkeover of your life, my life. They don't mind you enjoying Olberman and talking about Olberman, but they don't want you talking against their agenda.

[Saturday]

18. I thought about having Crawford on and it made me think

that most of the time Crawford is given questions in which he is put in the defensive position. Will this hurt the Clintons, why did the Clinton campaign do that blah blah blah. KO always leads the questions to bashing Clintons even with any pro Clinton guests.

[peacetalksforall]

26. I disagree unconditionally about Crawford. He has a ten year record

of being vile toward the Clintons.

[asjr]

4. I certainly have noticed. But it

seems to be a regular routine with all of them. The straight man sets them up and here comes a torrent of abuse on any one candidate. This is the sort of thing that has me passing up CNN and MSNBC and watching HGTV or The Discovery Channel. I want something informative--not back alley garbage dressed up as "criticism" or punditry. I used to like Alter, but he seems to have gotten on the same train the other pundits boarded. As always, it is all about them. The media seem to have a very low opinion of the public.

[neutron]

5. Keith started pumping out Cliinton Hate Propaganda

about a month ago.
I was shocked to find that he had completely distorted Fairy Tale Gate.
He took it totally out of context.

When Dan Abrams showed the full Clinton speech, I saw there
was nothing at all to Clinton's Fairy Tale comment. At that moment,
I realized that Olbermann was a fraud.

[neutron]

7. self delete

self delete

[Gloria]

11. Exactliy right....Abrams really did a good job on this...

[neutron]

20. Abrams turns out to be the One guy with Integrity

over there.

He was bumped from his CEO job for being too liberal.

I remember that when he was CEO, Daily Kos trashed him
and encouraging their readers to get him fired.

It was weird - because you could see how liberal all of the
shows had moved under the Abrams reign.

I had always suspected Daily Kos was on the dole from
the right wing, and this for me, was the proof.

Corporate money is behind Obama bigtime.
They do not want that Health Plan of Hillary's and that
is why all of this is going on.

[Gloria]

35. Your comments on health care are intriguing and believable...

Coporate money has cleanly dispatched any threats...and I'm thinking even Clinton is a threat in some ways...

[AX10]

38. What is this all about?

[Kceres]

41. CEO where?

He was GM of MSNBC. Is that what you are talking about? I also wasn't aware that he had gotten fired from that position. I thought he gave it up since he was enjoying his new show so much.

[Medusa]

45. He was pro-Clinton until the polls started to show Obama ahead

and then he jumped ship. Which tells me right there he has no convinctions other than what is politically expedient for his own career.

[Honeycombe8]

6. Discussing what many perceive as a campaign-damaging faux pas by a former Prez...

is not "dissing" Clinton. The things he said/did re S.C. (and before) were sooooo bad, and soooo unusual for a former President, that they will be discussed for years to come (as examples of what not to say/do).

It is not Olbermann, MSNBC, Faux News, or CNN that said/did those stupid things. It was Bill. You should look to him for any damage done, not the pundits and reporters.

[Gloria]

14. Actually, they weren't if you saw the WHOLE video and the reporter's

question.

Certainly, NO WORSE that Michele O announcing that it was time for a black president way back when to the black group she was speaking to....the first salvo.

Frankly, as a woman, which Yoko Ono called "the nigger of the world" I'm ready for woman...although I won't vote for either H or O...

[Saturday]

17. It can be over analyzed too. Don't you agree?

Many Obama people have screamed 'move on' regarding the Chelsea thing but Bill Clinton's words are still being discussed weeks after they happened?

[mmonk]

8. He certainly is not in the Clinton camp but do you want to shut him

down? He doesn't have as much overtness as Tweety.

[neutron]

10. MSNBC Propagandists have DESTROYED 4 CANDIDATES

Gore, Dean, Kerry and now Clinton.

If Obama is the candidate, we are going to be hearing "barack hussein"
over and over.

MSNBC and CNN should be shut down. We need balanced news
stations, not propagandists.

News stations should be closely regulated by an independent agency.

We cut off Cable weeks ago.

Why pay news stations to Swiftboat our candidates?

[mmonk]

23. If Olberman starts in on the Barack Hussein meme,

I'll do backwards cartwheels. He's one of few progressives in TV broadcast media. He won't go that far if asked.

[neutron]

25. He is indebted to he Daily Kos crowd

for ratings, and knows it, so he won't do anything obvious as that.
but when push comes to shove, he wants to keep his job.

[MadHound]

31. Gee, should have thought about that about a dozen years ago,

And screamed at Bill Clinton to stop backing the '96 Telecom Act that so drastically reduced our media diversity.

Actually I find this all rather ironic, what with Hillary being the "beneficiary" of her husband's actions that stifled free speech. As they say, karma's a bitch:shrug:

[fooj]

34. Don't forget Edwards.

Filthy bastards.

[Gloria]

9. I stopped watching him weeks ago....all cable is off my radar, all

network "news"....Thank god for Turner Classic Movies....

[Dogmudgeon]

12. Keith isn't that bad

I haven't caught him in that many spin cycles. I know to adjust about 5% to compensate for his mild pro-Obama bias. He's also pretty predictable about it, so it's not a big deal.

I don't know why people get so bent out of shape about the cable wonk networks. They cater to a small crowd (us) and even in their biases, they are usually insightful. I have become a fan of Tweety's, not because he's fair or logical, but because I get to see where his thought processes take him. He's quite amusing and educational if you don't adhere to his opinions.

The problem I have with Fox, on the other hand, is that it's just stupid. And I appreciate good conservative commentary, even though I don't agree with it. Scarborough and Buchanan are fine by me. But the Fox team is just plain stupid. I mean, really insultingly stupid. Never mind the political slant; they are dolts. It must be Rupert Murdoch's profitable idea of a joke.

--p!

[Buzz Clik]

Here we go again. "The media hates my candidate! wah wah wah!"

Does that ever embarrass you?

[Saturday]

19. We're having a discussion here. Go away.

[pathansen]

13. I saw his reaction when Clinton broke down & showed some emotion

I had always previously liked Keith O. However, the way he reacted was quite upsetting to me. In a surprisingly hostile tone, he immediately said she was just being calculating.
She didn't appear calculating to me when I watched the video several times.
If she never shows any emotion, she gets criticized for that too.
So my immediate response was "This man appears to be a sexist".

[neutron]

21. He does have a Sexist streak

Notice how many times women are the butt of his jokes.
Brittany et al.

[Medusa]

46. And that's why I stopped watching him.

It amazes me that so many female fans spend so time defending him given the crappy things he's said about women. And their defense of him on this? "Oh those women are famous, they deserve it or they are sluts, he's right." WTF kind of sense does that make?

[cottonseed]

32. Woudn't Hillary rather be seen as calculating rather than soft?

There's only a couple ways to spin tears. If she's going to run as the national security Dem, than I'd think she'd rather be seen as calculating, cynical, or anything other than a teary eyed softee.

[Buzz Clik]

15. For a sharp contrast, watch This Week (ABC). George surrounds himself with Clinton staffers.

[Saturday]

22. Wasn't it you that just said....

"The media hates my candidate! wah wah wah!" and now you're doing it? ROTFLMAO

[Saturday]

24. I forget who did the interview with KO but...

he said in it he was going to be as hard on any political party that was not doing the right thing in his opinion. He said he was not a Liberal (or a Conservative).

[Buzz Clik]

28. Last week George had three Clinton staffers on his show at the same time.

That's a statement of fact. No whining, no claims of the media hating anyone. Just the facts.

Care to argue that fact?

[hill08]

29. Olbermann does have this not so well hidden anti-Clinton bias.

I have no idea why he is trying to ruin his reputation.

[mutant80]

30. Like all News Hacks, he does what he's Told.

[dansolo]

43. He is virulently against the war

Perhaps that is part of the reason for his so-called anti-Clinton bias.

[AtomicKitten]

33. Dan Abrams reads verbatim from hillaryhub ...

They all have opinions, some more veiled than others. It isn't practical nor democratic to try to shut opinions down.

[Yossariant]

37. Absolutely! And his being a lily-livered sneak about it makes it worse.

[GalleryGod]

39. Chris, Joe, Mika, and especially David are tops with me!

Chris lectures to my students.

Mika-licious!

[sfam]

40. I say just fire any pundit that slights our Candidate in the least...

Seriously, this is going way overboard. If we start wanting everyone's head who we perceive did anything untoward to our candidate of choice, we just won't have anyone left.

Olbermann is one of the best good guys we have had in forever. VERY few are given the platform he is to say straight out what many of us are thinking. To even begin starting a Hillary war against Olbermann is just loony. The guy is clearly biased for Dems, but I just don't see the candidate bias there. At all.

Tweety? Yeah - fire him. Fire him now. But not just for Hillary. His list is long. But for Godsakes, leave us Olbermann

[suston96]

42. I no longer watch MSNBC and have erased all saved KO Special Comments.....

....he is now "the worst person in the world" for me. I e-mailed MSNBC and told them so.

I switched over to Fox and now watch Hannity and Colmes instead. I know what to expect there.

[Radical Activist]

44. I just wonder why he stays on.

So many other liberals are never given a chance or fired and not because of ratings.

[AnnieBW]

47. I think if Olbermann were visibly biased toward any candidate

It was John Edwards. However, Keith seems like he's being scrupulously fair to both HRC and BO. It's a refreshing counterpoint to Tweety's orgasms over Fred Thompson and others.

[K Gardner]

49. Wow, just wow. And to think, when KO single-handedly spoke out with almost a LONE VOICE

against this murderous war and this murderous regime in the WH and started calling Bush out for what he is, he was labeled a progressive God, a hero.. had an entire Area in DU Devoted to Him. He was our Champion, as recently as a few weeks ago.

Now, Clinton lost a few primaries. Her supporters perceive ANYthing but glowing and blind praise as criticism and bias. Now he's scum. Now he's a RW Hack. Now people are watching Fox. Now he's the Devil Incarnate. Because he didn't coronate Hillary? OMG !

Are you people serious??

Should MSNBC fire him too and replace him with Clinton Staff? Just wondering where and when its going to stop.

[stillcool]

50. I can't believe what I read here....

the people that have been demonized is astounding. There's some kind of a psychotic break going on..or maybe just a lot of closet Republicans..or 'old-time' Democrats.

[K Gardner]

51. Yeah, agreed. I think I've seen enough for one night.. maybe for many nights :-)

[AnnieBW]

52. I'm not demonizing anyone

I was just saying that KO is being scrupulously fair with both of them. The reason that I think he was for Edwards was that John and Elizabeth were on his show a lot. Of course, the Edwardses admitted that they were fans of his.