Media Snake Oil: Ignore Republican Hypocritical Howling About Keith Olbermann! 
To show the "objectivity" of parent station NBC as the McCain campaign files a formal complaint to the network's news division, a senior staff member of the network, who asked to remain anonymous, was quoted in the September 8 New York Times:
"MSNBC is behaving like a heroin addict. They're living from fix to fix and swearing they'll go into rehab the next week."
To set the record straight, and bring the discussion back to reality, there is no record of any MSNBC talk show hosts having addiction problems. Perhaps the confused "anonymous executive" was mistaking MSNBC's personnel with the confirmed drug addiction of the darling of right wing talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, someone who has never and will not ever be subjected to scrutiny by Republicans.
When the network announced the same day that Sarah Palin was chosen that the Alaska governor was the "likely pick" as running mate to John McCain, the Arizona senator's staffers warned that nobody had been selected as one official "went so far as to say that all of the candidates on the short list were on their way -- which MSNBC then reported."
The big flap concerning Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews stemming from their co-anchoring of campaign 2008 events such as primary nights and both political conventions has resulted in both of MSNBC's weeknight program hosts being replaced for the remainder of the election season in those assignments by David Gregory.
Republicans had no problem with Matthews during the 2004 campaign season after he delivered solidly pro-Dick Cheney comments such as the former Halliburton CEO "driving a stake through the heart" of the Democratic ticket as Cheney spoke about national security.
There were no complaints after Matthews delivered what turned out to be a decidedly minority view that Cheney had been "masterful" in his debate appearance against 2004 Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edwards.
When Sarah Palin in her nominating speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul delivered a complaint symbolic of the 1964 Republican conclave that nominated Barry Goldwater, and at which NBC News commentator John Chancellor was arrested on the convention floor, denouncing "media bias", the response was predictable.
The 97% white audience that had earlier booed Barack Obama's name repeatedly and laughed cynically as the Democratic nominee was ridiculed for being a "community organizer" on Chicago's South Side, responded to Palin's media criticism by chanting, "NBC, NBC."
How surprising that NBC has been a target of that practitioner of coolly objective, thoroughly dispassionate political commentary at Fox News.
That would be Bill O'Reilly, who cuts off those with whom he disagrees with "You're out of line, this is the no-spin zone!" and in his most infamous rage cut off a guest, Jeremy Glick, whose father had died as a first responder to the 9/11 attacks.
Actually O'Reilly did more than that. After Glick was cut off by O'Reilly, the rabid talk show host shouted, "Get out of my studio before I kick your teeth in."
Then the man who settled rather than contest a sex harassment suit leveled against him by former Fox News and O'Reilly producer Andrea Mackris lied about Glick, claiming, without evidence, that the guest that infuriated him had alleged that George W. Bush was the source of the 9/11 attacks.
It will be recalled that it was Fox News that assigned George W. Bush's cousin John Ellis in charge of the desk that made state victory calls that historic Election Night of 2000.
It was Ellis who made the initial network declaration for his own cousin pertaining to Florida after Poppy and Young George had earlier received an unprecedented opportunity to question the call earlier in the evening by CBS, NBC and ABC to Al Gore in the Sunshine State.
McCain campaign operatives, wasn't it that one and the same Fox News that in 2004 had its "newscasters" deliver in mantra fashion the number of days remaining prior to the "re-election" of George W. Bush? Did Keith Olbermann ever make such a partisan pre-election declaration in the manner of Ellis and others at Fox News?
Since Keith Olbermann has dared to call Bill O'Reilly on repeated falsehoods and to ridicule him as a toothless bully, it is Olbermann that the chanting Republican delegates along with Fox chieftains are howling about, including studio head Rupert Murdoch, for whom Olbermann once worked.
Olbermann also has the Republican Party's number on the exploitation of 9/11 and called them on it when the supposed "documentary" was aired in prime time at the Republican Convention. In the preservation of good taste, Keith Olbermann had the courage to slam the Republicans for presenting 9/11 carnage during prime time.
Keith Olbermann stated his regret that children may have seen the tasteless footage and issued an apology for MSNBC having shown it. What a pity that he was not joined by more mainstream media commentators in his quest for decency and unyielding pursuit of truth and justice.
If the blowhards of the Republican Party and Fox News had any real evidence against Keith Olbermann they would have used it long ago.
In the manner of toothless bullies, such as the loud, unrelenting propagandists as Fox News, they huff, puff and threaten while fearing to confront Keith Olbermann openly.
KEYWORDS: Keith Olbermann, Republican Party Media Hypocrisy, 9-11, Bill O'Reilly
Sign up for a Complimentary Member Account... Join the community! It's fast. And it'll allow you to take advantage of all this site's great features!
| < McCain Voted for the Bush Agenda 90% of the Time | Bush Did Not Win in 2004 Either: Part 3, the Clinton Campaigns > |
