Top Corporate NBC Fox Truce Called In O’Reilly Keith Olbermann War

Here's my problem with the agreement:

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"Then the orders went out to the troops — meaning, to journalists, now being told what true things they should avoid saying or investigating, because it was not in the interests of their corporate parent companies. Or at least that's what the Times' sources say:

Phil Griffin, said on a daily conference call with producers that he wanted the channel's other programs to follow Mr. Olbermann's lead and restrain from criticizing Fox directly, according to two employees. At Fox News, some staff members were told to "be fair" to G.E."~ from link to article
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The Olberman phenomenon arose out of the audacity in reporting fake news on Fox's behalf. Keith would have no story to harp on at all if Fox demonstrated a modicum of keeping its facts straight and its mouth shut if it didn't have the whole story. Fox News is the mouthpiece of the GOP. MSNBC is the mouthpiece of the dems. Everyone knows this. The rancor comes about not on MSNBCs behalf but only then in reaction to the absurd lengths Fox News goes to in dispensing what can only be called blatant and obvious propaganda for the GOP. Americans shouldn't stand for it and the minute Fox News starts up again I expect MSNBC to punish them as they deserve. If they don't, I'll be tuning in elsewhere.

the only thing oberman is good for is to throw his papers at the end of his show. Myabe they should throw him out with his papers?

Fox Wins

Here's what happened. Olbermann attacks Bill O'Reilly's media practices. He does this for years and gets under his skin. O'Reilly isn't stupid--whatever else me may be--and attacks the business side of the corporate parent GE. Some of the attacks are clearly below the belt. But this is all part and parcel of Fox's way of reporting the news. Fox doesn't have a corporate parent to answer to like GE. It's a full-blown, vertically integrated news organization and can weather anything Olbermann brings.

Finally, Immelt cries uncle. That's the only conclusion I can come to, although the way the article is written, in that soi disant news-style which presents both sides as being equal and both as valid, makes it out to have been a two way war. But it wasn't. Olbermann attacked O'Reilly's politics and news persona. O'Reilly attack the parent. And when the parent had enough Olbermann was muzzled. It would be like two boxers in the ring, one trying to make head shots (Olbermann) and the other (O'Reilly) hitting below the belt and in the kidneys. The refs just look the other way. Or wring their hands at how violent boxing is, while enjoying the spectacle.

Your Liberal Media at work...

MSNBC is the mouthpiece of the dems.

Not Quite, like NBC, CNBC MSNBC is the mouth piece of General Electric.

The Big Six
The National Entertainment State

Scarborough shills GE stock on GE-owned MSNBC

Why media ownership matters

Americans believe these lies not because they are stupid, but because they are good media consumers. Our media have become an echo chamber for those in power. Rather than challenge the fraudulent claims of the Bush administration, we've had a media acting as a conveyor belt for the government's lies.

As the Pentagon has learned, deploying the American media is more powerful than any bomb. The explosive effect is amplified as a few pro-war, pro-government media moguls consolidate their grip over the majority of news outlets. Media monopoly and militarism go hand in hand.

When it comes to issues of war and peace, the results of having a compliant media are as deadly to our democracy as they are to our soldiers. Why do the corporate media cheerlead for war? One answer lies in the corporations themselves — the ones that own the major news outlets.

At the time of the first Persian Gulf War, CBS was owned by Westinghouse and NBC by General Electric. Two of the major nuclear weapons manufacturers owned two of the major networks. Westinghouse and GE made most of the parts for many of the weapons in the Persian Gulf War. It was no surprise, then, that much of the coverage on those networks looked like a military hardware show.

The Surrender Of MSNBC

While "Donahue" does badly trail both O'Reilly and CNN's Connie Chung in the ratings, those numbers have improved in recent weeks. So much so that the program is the top-rated show on MSNBC, beating even the highly promoted "Hardball With Chris Matthews."

Although Donahue didn't know it at the time, his fate was sealed a number of weeks ago after NBC News executives received the results of a study commissioned to provide guidance on the future of the news channel.

That report--shared with me by an NBC news insider--gives an excruciatingly painful assessment of the channel and its programming. Some of recommendations, such as dropping the "America's News Channel," have already been implemented. But the harshest criticism was leveled at Donahue, whom the authors of the study described as "a tired, left-wing liberal out of touch with the current marketplace."

The study went on to claim that Donahue presented a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war......He seems to delight in presenting guests who are anti-war, anti-Bush and skeptical of the administration's motives." The report went on to outline a possible nightmare scenario where the show becomes "a home for the liberal antiwar agenda at the same time that our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity."

A source close to Donahue claims that while he wasn't aware of the specific study, the tone and outcome aren't surprising.

"It's not a coincidence that this decision comes the same week that MSNBC announces its hired Dick Armey as a commentator and has both Jesse Ventura and Michael Savage joining the network as hosts. They're scared, and they decided to take the coward's road and slant towards the conservative crowd that watch Fox News."

War can be a very profitable enterprise for the weapons maker...

It is correct that Fox wins because Fox [the GOP mouthpiece] has no intentions whatsoever of slackening their pace of dispensing propaganda. And it will lose no viewers in continuing to do so. MSNBC however will be good little boys and girls and will lose their viewers. MSNBC if it allows Fox to reneg [as it surely will do in a week or less] without renegging their end will be seen as, pardon the expression, "Fox's btich" and whoa wont' they lose the viewers then! My goodness..lol. That's certainly what I and my friends are saying anyway. Maybe the fighters in the middle and middle left will admire MSNBC for cowing down to their overlord...

Not!...lol..

They're both opinionated blowhards whose job is to sell commercials. The only reason people watch them is to have their own biases parroted back to them. Today's story just gives people something else to be outraged about until the next news cycle.

After reading Glenn's piece, it just underscores for me the importance of blogs. (Please try to ignore the grammatical dubiousness of that first sentence.) I was genuinely shocked by the news of Richard Wolffe hosting Countdown after taking a paid job as a political consultant (and not disclosing it). I actually thought better of him.

Blogs and independent journalists like Amy Goodman (mentioned in Glenn's post) are more important than ever.

Glenn buries his point at the end, when an emailer suggests that this will result in a silencing of O'Reilly's criticism of GE. That is arguably the only relevant issue; otherwise the Olberman/O'Reilly feud is a pair of circus clowns donning the giant boxing gloves.

Keith Olbermann is agitated trash, taking MSNBC notably far to the left of the liberal media's standard liberal position on the political spectrum. O'Reilly merely is old and stale. O'Reilly and Fox win, easily.

"Blogs and independent journalists like Amy Goodman (mentioned in Glenn's post) are more important than ever."

Yes, if, for some strange reason, you believe the true extremists on the far left are especially "important."

Clarification (and inherent correction) made.

"[T]he only thing [Olbermann] is good for is to throw his papers at the end of his show."

He's the most notorious far lefty characterizing the newly-edgy farther-left-for-distinction MSNBC.

Fortunately, even MSNBC will likely realize that while they're more blatantly liberal than the rest of the liberal media to distinguish themselves (putting them at the logical forefront to attack anti-PC heretical liberal-media exception Fox), they also, by shifting leftward, risk alienating the mainstream audience at the same time they begin to appeal to the farther-left flirting-with-extremist audience closest to MSNBC's farther-left-shift political position.

And the most silly, childish on the far left (comparable to Olbermann in poor behavior, or not worse) will likely be disappointed that no major network will become so extremist as to mimic FAIR (whose name as a lie, as is its extremist "corporate right-wing media" [sic] bashing show, "Counter[-]Spin" [sic], or "Democracy [sic] Now!" (complete with childish exclamation mark) or "Alternative Radio" or programming of the failed nature largely consigned rightly to the dust bin along with "Air America" [sic].

And if play-pen leftist self-absorbed little bloggers aren't enough to satisfy the kids, there's always, e.g.,

http://www.wsws.org/

[a more entertaining source from Canada than Michael Stickings's childish and diseased rantings]

http://www.globalresearch.ca/

etc.

Kathy, good point about the importance of blogs. They may not be controlled by corporate interests, but many do have a personal agenda. I'm glad there's a wide variety out there representing opinions all across the spectrum.

The reason The Daily Show is the most trusted news source for Americans is that it is openly fake news, as opposed to the clandestinely fake BS on the uber-left MSNBC & the rightist FoxNEWS, which at least has token-left-of-center viewpoints aired, if only to be shot down by the hosts. MSNBC is straight leftist treacle. CNN is MOR treacle, vaguely left of center. Jake Tapper is the only network news dude I can stand to watch, although Gibson occasionally is halfway decent....

I was an assistant producer on several news projects for the three major networks in the early '80s and journalistic integrity took a distant second to business considerations in most cases---although a 20/20 project was surprisingly the best among the several I worked with.

They may not be controlled by corporate interests, but many do have a personal agenda.

Oh, they definitely have personal agendas, but at least in most cases those agendas are out in the open and not hidden under a false veneer of "objectivity." Blogs are supposed to be opinionated, but that's different from allowing their content to be controlled and influenced by corporate interests.

"MSNBC is straight leftist treacle. CNN is MOR treacle, vaguely left of center. Jake Tapper is the only network news dude I can stand to watch, although Gibson occasionally is halfway decent...."

Tapper reminds me of the word "journalist," Dave in Boca. You know, a vague recollection of what a journalist should be doing.

CNN (Clearly Not Neutral) is the one source I can currently spot on teevee during off-hours, and it is really low-grade lefty info-tainment. MSNBC has moved left of the media's standard leftward position to be, as I have described it elsewhere, newly edgy in order to distinguish itself from the rest of the lefty-media field in info-tainment.

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"Kathy, good point about the importance of blogs. "

Their theoretical advantage lies in individual liberty (the thing that so many of them engage in PC-lockstep to disparage and vilify in defense of government, Obama and the Dems, and authoritarian collectivism for all the "good" reasons). I say "theoretical" because in practice, this is a right that is godwafully abused, not only because of the widespread play-pen leftism found on blogs but because of the (befittingly accompanying) self-absorption and childishness rampant among the bloggers (so ridiculously overhyped).

"MSNBC has moved left of the media's standard leftward position to be, as I have described it elsewhere, newly edgy in order to distinguish itself from the rest of the lefty-media field in info-tainment."

It's not merely to exploit the liberal media's hatred and demonization of Fox (to be the anti-Fox), either.

http://www.wsws.org/

Billions in bonuses for bailed-out bankers

The nine banks awarded the bonuses—the largest in history—despite recording combined losses of $81 billion, and lining up to receive $165 billion in cash infusions from the US government. Citigroup and Merrill Lynch lost $55 billion combined and still awarded $8.9 billion in bonuses. The three most profitable firms, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, awarded bonuses that amount to approximately double their 2008 profits: $9.6 billion in combined profits compared to $18 billion in bonuses.

People who have a far greater grip on reality than you do...

Daveinboca makes a good point. I get a lot of my condensed "fake" news from The Daily Show too. Although I must say that it's less fake than Fox and slightly left of center. MSNBC does pull a strong left swing but imbalances in nature seek balance. Fox cries out for MSNBC balancing. When it stops crying out I imagine MSNBC will stop appearing so radical too.

But why not get the Daily news and laugh your butt off while you're catching up on stuff? No harm, no foul. At least they try to cover everything newsworthy.