ya win some ya lose some
MSNBC may have lost the American Mid Term Elections, but they've won the Keith Olbermann fight. Now MSNBC is a news network that most impartial people describe as "liberal", or even "left leaning". Among MSNBC personalities Olbermann is considered to be the most left leaning. He might not be so much leaning as limping like a ship sailing along with a visible list. In this case the iceberg comes in the form of $2,400 donations to the campaigns of Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway and Arizona Reps. Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords. Now that's a problem because MSNBC has a policy about that. It seems that in addition to publicly pillorying Tea Party candidates, they also like to maintain an official stance of impartiality! So they forbid their on air commentators from donating to political candidates unless it's cleared with the network president.
limbo lately
So when the brass found out about Olbermann's extra curricular activities, they pulled him from the air pending a decision on what to do with him. Conservatives must have been delighted - a mid term win and picking off Olbermann too must have seemed like double happiness. However liberal, calling themselves 'progressives', took to facebook to take up Olbermann's cause. After all if facebook can get Betty White on Saturday Night Live, and put the Social Network in a No 1 box office spot, then the awesome power of social networking media might be able to do something for Keith.
opinion in the unanimerse: include me out & in that I am unanimous
Keith had more than facebook going for him. Rachel Maddow also stood up on his behalf. The MSNBC host took to the airwaves to publicly demand Olbermann's reinstatement. Her bosses were informed of what she would say shortly before she went on air. Michael Moore also took to Twitter to voice his support for Olbermann, in 140 characters or less.
not good enough to host SNL but good enough to get your MSNBC job back
The facebook petition did well - over 300 000 signatures. Now that's not in the Betty White on SNL level - but must have made an impression on some one. MSNBC's chief executive Phil Griffin announced Sunday morning that Olbermann could get out of the doghouse and come back on the air again. He said that 2 days suspension was "an appropriate punishment for his violation of our policy." "We look forward to having him back on the air Tuesday night," Griffin said in a statement.
"Progressives" are "liberals" with "image problems"
"Progressives" are counting this as win. The online petition was organized by a group called the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. They made a cause out of Olbermann and repeatedly emailed Griffin with petition updates. The committee's Adam Green said "Progressives proved that when one of our own are targeted, we will have their backs." Olbermann is pretty pleased about this too. The freshly reinstated commentator took to the medium that saved his bacon - the Internet, and posted via Twitter: "Greetings from exile! A quick, overwhelmed, stunned THANK YOU for support that feels like a global hug." That should take some of the edge off of those mid term results. BTW "progressives" are the new "liberals" like "The Tea Party" is the new "same old same old". Not that all this new nomenclature is the same old attempt at political obfuscation.
newspeak doubletalk
The whole Olbermann brouhaha has raised some interesting questions about media impartiality. Olbermann defenders point out that he's a commentator, rather than a journalist. The distinction means that he's paid for his opinions. In effect that means he doesn't have to be impartial or objective. His FOX counter parts like Sean Hannity are clearly in the opinion game. Hannity has also donated to conservative politicians (he made a $5,000 donation to Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann's PAC this summer). His corporate masters at FOX have donated over 1 million to conservative campaigns. So did Olbermann really do anything that bad?
he's more than a commentator; he's a personality with opinions!
Critics point out that Olbermann in not strictly an MSNBC commentator, but often switched into the news/anchor role. That, they maintain, blurs the impartiality line. Other point out that the nature of the news media is changing. Hosts like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have made satirical commentary a part of the news coverage. FOX has thrown the notion of impartiality out the window. So do the rules governing journalists and their political affiliations need to be revamped? As off now MSNBC has no official plans to do so. However as American journalism gets more politically bifurcated, it's likely that this situation will arise again, and again. Especially around mid term elections!
