Awww, so sorry, Keith

[96Qowner]

Keith Olbermann may be the “voice” of MSNBC, but network executives have decided to yank the talkmeister off its political anchor desk after the cable channel finished dead last in the Nielsen rankings of all news coverage during the two weeks of political conventions.

http://elections.foxnews.com/2...uties

[The Wicker Man]

I never liked that douche

[96Qowner]

One of the times "douche" is the perfect description.

And in the spirit of non-partisanship, lemme add that Hannity is a stupid jackass.

Unfortunately, Hannity has high ratings, go figure.

[Jesda]

Hannity is the Nathan Lane of the right.

[wingFeather]

Why would he apologize for airing the 9/11 tribute Is he one of these wackos that thinks Bush demolished the towers?

[srellim234]

Olbermann's "Countdown" show is entertainment, not journalism. He is not a professional journalist capable of keeping his personal opinion out of reporting a story. I do, however, use some of what Olbermann presents on his show to stimulate me to go out and research something that deserves followup research. Sometimes he's right, sometimes he's w-a-a-a-a-y off base and out of context.

As soon as Matthew expressed his personal preference of Democrats in this election he should have been replaced. No longer objective.

Same as O'Reilly. If you like confrontational self absorbed blowhards, O'Reilly is great entertainment. But we should know better than accept what is presented at any of those shows as remotely true until we do followup research elsewhere, totally unrelated from MSNBC, Fox, or any other host of totally partisan sites.

MSNBC desperately needs to find another Tim Russert somewhere.

Journalists should be doing the news shows and anchors. Entertainers should stick to their own shows.

[rn79870]

Maybe they'll offer the job to Rush Limbaugh.

[szh]

Maybe they'll offer the job to Rush Limbaugh.

I certainly hope not! Ew ...

Z

[srellim234]

Maybe they'll offer the job to Rush Limbaugh.

I don't think he could pass the drug test....

[telcoman]

Keith Olbermann may be the “voice” of MSNBC, but network executives have decided to yank the talkmeister off its political anchor desk after the cable channel finished dead last in the Nielsen rankings of all news coverage during the two weeks of political conventions.

http://elections.foxnews.com/2...uties

Using the news as entertainment is not new. Robin Quivers has been doing it on the Howard Stern show for more than 25 years. The comments and sound effects are sometimes very funny.Saturday Night Live has also been around for around 30 years doing skits based on current newsJon Stewart and the Daily Show not only attracts a young audience but gets them to begin reading newspapers in order to get some of the jokes.Keith Olberman can also be very funny at times and I happen to enjoy watching him.The management at NBC still has no balls to defend Olberman same as they fired Howard Stern over 25 years ago for some of his thoughts. Failure of Infinity Radio management to defend him against the FCC finally drove him to Sirius XM Radio where he can rant F the FCC

Will Keith Olberman be next?

Telcoman

[srellim234]

telco- if the network wishes to put on the news, or have an anchor who is a journalist, they are not going to put an entertainer in the position of anchor.

The various entertainers you cite are not journalists or presenting themselves as journalists. Any more than Jay Leno cracking political jokes in his monologue.

MSNBC was trying to pass off Olbermann as being one. It was time to get his unobjectiveness out of that particular position.

Where are the modern day Huntley-Brinkley teams or Walter Cronkites when we need them?

[96Qowner]

Where are the modern day Huntley-Brinkley teams or Walter Cronkites when we need them?

I'm afraid most viewers would find them boring and wouldn't watch the commercials. Everything on TV is about watching the commercials. People tend to gape at shouting heads and are therefore watching when the commercial comes on -same reason they have the loud fanfares and blinky lights just before the break.

[telcoman]

telco- if the network wishes to put on the news, or have an anchor who is a journalist, they are not going to put an entertainer in the position of anchor.

The various entertainers you cite are not journalists or presenting themselves as journalists. Any more than Jay Leno cracking political jokes in his monologue.

MSNBC was trying to pass off Olbermann as being one. It was time to get his unobjectiveness out of that particular position.

Where are the modern day Huntley-Brinkley teams or Walter Cronkites when we need them?

Countdown was never considered a hard news program such as meet the press or face the nation nor is the O'Reilly Factor

[96Qowner]

Odd that NBC chose the Keithster to do political commentary at the conventions, then, huh?

It's all a joke, as far as NBC is concerned?

[telcoman]

Keith Olbermann may be the “voice” of MSNBC, but network executives have decided to yank the talkmeister off its political anchor desk after the cable channel finished dead last in the Nielsen rankings of all news coverage during the two weeks of political conventions.

http://elections.foxnews.com/2...uties

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Here is some more from the left

Why MSNBC/NBC/GE caved on Olbermann and Matthews by kos Mon Sep 08, 2008 at 01:29:29 PM PDTAs I'm sure most of you have seen, MSNBC has removed Olbermann and Matthews as anchors of their political coverage.

After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage.

We know that MSNBC had been under pressure from the McCain campaign over their political coverage, since of course, only sycophantic pro-GOP voices should be allowed on the air.

More recently, though, McCain, 72, has accused news organizations such as the New York Times, Time magazine and the NBC television network of being unfair to him. The campaign even considered pulling out of one of the three presidential debates because it would be moderated by Tom Brokaw, a former NBC News anchorman.

In fact, read that last sentence above again. That's apparently why MSNBC caved. McCain would pull out of that debate unless MSNBC ensured that there would be no progressive (or semi-progressive) voices to comment immediately following the debate.

So while Dems continue to go on Fox News, legitimizing them, and while Obama gives O'Reilly a ratings bonanza, showing the whole country how he can abuse, talk over, and interrupt the Democratic presidential nominee, Republicans are playing hardball and winning.

Just more evidence that their side plays the game far better than ours. Politics is a contact sport, which puts us at a huge disadvantage when only one side seems to grasp the rules.

Permalink :: Discuss (481 comments)

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Seems the left is now at a disadvantge from whiners on the right?

Telcoman

[srellim234]

telco- you missed the point. Countdown is fine. MSNBC tried to pass Olbermann and Matthews off as journalists when they stuck them at the anchor desks for the conventions. It didn't fly, and now they've been replaced as anchors. Rightfully so.

[rn79870]

telco- you missed the point. Countdown is fine. MSNBC tried to pass Olbermann and Matthews off as journalists when they stuck them at the anchor desks for the conventions. It didn't fly, and now they've been replaced as anchors. Rightfully so.

They replaced them, not for what they said or did, but because their ratings were so VERY low. If they had the lion's share of the ratings, do you think they would have been replaced? I doubt the networks care how controversial their newscasters are as long as they pull in the ratings.

[srellim234]

True. It's all based on ratings. Fortunately the viewers saw through the charade and went the direction of favoring journalism over partisan antics for the conventions. Who knows what we would have had next if it had succeeded. Mayby Rush, O'Reilly or that doofus Doocey anchoring the network "news" on Fox to compete.

My head is spinning thinking about it. Bring back some legitimate journalism. PLEASE!

[96Qowner]

Who knows what we would have had next if it had succeeded. Mayby Rush, O'Reilly or that doofus Doocey anchoring the network "news" on Fox to compete.

My head is spinning thinking about it. Bring back some legitimate journalism. PLEASE!

DITTO!

To me, the jokes and shouting , and the sound effects and blinky lights just aren't better than facts and reasoned opinion. I don't want to be entertained by the news - I want to learn something from the news.