Opinion: Olbermann and Dobbs and election night coverage..
I’ve been watching some of the negative reaction to the announcement that Keith Olbermann would be a big part of MSNBC’s election night coverage. And the arguments against it seem to be the same thing…that FNC wouldn’t put O’Reilly on to anchor the results. Both Johnny Dollar and Extreme Mortman argued as much.
MSNBC is in something of a pickle. Olbermann is MSNBC’s ratings magnet…its biggest star. They would be stupid not to have him involved. But he’s crossed over from anchor/analyst into the role of activist/hack in recent months similar to the way Lou Dobbs has with his pet issues on CNN. Both bring un-needed baggage with them into their election night coverage. Both will be featured prominently on their respective networks but it isn’t clear exactly in what capacity. But if it’s in an anchoring role it will taint their networks’ coverage in some people’s eyes. But for others just their mere presence will be enough to taint the coverage. I think that’s a bit harsh. But there is something to be said about clearly defined roles of responsibility in covering news and it seems like those lines are getting more and more blurred, particularly on cable.
Here’s the thing, Spud. Olbermann continues to say publicly that he is non-partisan and a journalist without an agenda. NBC/MSNBC has never said anything to the contrary, either.
While any observer, liberal or conservative, smart or dumb would know immediately that Olbermann is far-left after viewing one night of Countdown, it’s a major blight on Olbermann and MSNBC that they refuse to admit the nature of his work and program in general.
Wednesday night’s vitriol, along with the rant on 9/11/06, leaves absolutely zero doubt that Olbermann will do anything other than bash Republicans and cheer for democrats on that night. Here’s the question, though: if Republicans hold both houses, will he air a “special comment” bashing American voters? Or will he just do what he did in 2004 and say the election was a fraud with zero evidence to back him up?
Few will be watching, that’s for sure.
Comment by Jamie — November 3, 2006 @ 3:53 pm
“Few will be watching, that’s for sure.”
You got that right. They may be watching now, but their ratings are going to be pretty mediocre on Election Night IMO.
Comment by Anonymous — November 3, 2006 @ 3:56 pm
I bet Rita Cosby is ticked she won’t be a part of all this but, of course, she is busy interviewing the guy who had an affair with the church leader which is just what we all want to see. I for one cannot think of a more unappealing scenario than watching Keith Olberman, Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough and their respective cronies, i.e., David Schuster et al, give their biased opinions of how the election is shaping up.
Comment by sophia — November 3, 2006 @ 4:13 pm
I honestly used to be a fan of Olbermann’s. And then he crossed over into being a screaming banshee and I just can’t watch him anymore. I think the dangerous thing with Olbermann is that his bias reflects badly on the NBC mothership and their talent. One thing is for certain, it’s made me question the bias of all newspeople. I think I’d have more respect for KO if he’d just admit that he is in fact, a screaming liberal. The “I’m not political” crap just doesn’t wash with me anymore. And lest anyone label me a Fox fan, let me state that I won’t be watching them either because I can’t stand there, “Rah Rah Rah Republican” happy talk either. So what does that leave for me? Either the internet or simply NOT to watch the election coverage. I thought 24/7 cable news channels were supposed to give us more choice, not less. I guess CNN is a possibility but honestly with Dobbs and Jack Cafferty, it’s almost as bad as MSNBC & Fox.
Comment by Alison — November 3, 2006 @ 4:35 pm
Obermann is really only suited for calling football games.
Comment by spiffo — November 3, 2006 @ 4:40 pm
You know what? I want to see Dobermann. I want to see him totally meltdown when the RATS don’t win either House or Senate. It’s going to be sweet!! lol
Comment by Lurker — November 3, 2006 @ 4:42 pm
Sophia, just out of curiosity… Was David Schuster biased when he worked for FNC?
Comment by Terance — November 3, 2006 @ 4:43 pm
I can’t take these screaming liberals on MSNBC - Chrissy and Olbermann.
I won’t be watching.
But I am curious. What role will Tucker Carlson play?
How could they leave him out of the mix? His inside the beltway knowledge is limitless.
Of course, Joe Scarborough has the same knowledge. But he has sold out. Thirty pieces of silver is not worth it, Joe.
Comment by cella — November 3, 2006 @ 5:29 pm
David Shuster when he worked at Fox was not given an opportunity to be biased or otherwise because he was simply a field reporter and didn’t do opinion pieces or carry water for pundits as he does now.
Comment by sophia — November 3, 2006 @ 5:34 pm
“His inside the beltway knowledge is limitless.”
Wow, limitless! That’s a lot of knowledge!
Comment by Arthur — November 3, 2006 @ 5:47 pm
Arthur,
Okay, I agree. I could have chosen a better word. But Tucker has been reporting on this beat for twenty years. He grew up among the powerful and really does have great insight into this world.
Of course, I am a big fan of his. So do you think my opinion is unbiased? I don’t think so.
Comment by cella — November 3, 2006 @ 6:25 pm
I think Tucker would be great.
Comment by Goldfish — November 3, 2006 @ 8:54 pm
I am truly amazed at the commnents here.
Geez-Louise! What is it about this playing field that at lot of you folks don’t get? Yes, MSNBC leans left….so what? FNC leans right. Big deal.
I watch them all, including the major networks, plus I read blogs and newspapers, and listen to radio news to get a well-rounded input. Slam everybody, or slam nobody.
Don’t you get it? Unless its unanchored coverage by C-SPAN, EVERY outlet has a bias!
Comment by Bill — November 4, 2006 @ 1:08 am
I’m going to guess without having read the various press releases closely that they will be using Tucker on election night. He was at MSNBC HQ doing his show today, which is a rarity since they moved him to afternoons. So, he’ll probably be on the panel Matthews has or something.
Again, total speculation, but I could see Olbermann serving as the “reporter” who they toss to for results and so on, and Matthews will lead the discussion and do most of the interviews. Now, I know Spud/most of you were making the point that he’s not qualified to do that role anymore based on his actions. But I guess MSNBC thinks he is. We’ll see how it plays out and if it pays off on Tuesday.
Personally, I’ll probably be switching between the three cable nets through the night and probably over to the broadcast nets when they do their one hour (just one!?). Though after a certain point MSNBC will be the only one planning on being live, so that’s probably where I’ll end up if things are still interesting at that point.
Comment by Coreyback — November 4, 2006 @ 1:28 am
Those of you saying Olbermann won’t admit he’s liberal are wrong. He’s said it many times. Now the “screaming” liberal he doesn’t and won’t admit to.
Although Brit Hume and his panels lean right, they are the only ones who will give us the straight scoop without pointing fingers. Two years ago Shep hosted another panel on the Fox broadcast stations which was more ideologically balanced. I hope they will do that again, but I haven’t heard anything.
Out of all of them - including ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, C-Span, as well as the cable nets, FNC and Fox had the best coverage last time. FNC has had a policy of being up-front and honest about bias and trying to balance it out. All of the others need to come out of the closet and do the same if they want to compete.
Comment by erljr — November 4, 2006 @ 3:57 am
Johnny Dollar’s take on this was excellent (but the window on his site would not allow me to comment).
How MSNBC can put this type of one-sided “analysis” on on election night is “unknowable”, to borrow from Sec. Rumsfeld.
They can be sure that no conservatives will be watching.
Comment by Missy — November 4, 2006 @ 9:10 am
“Those of you saying Olbermann won’t admit he’s liberal are wrong. He’s said it many times.”
Post the quotes. Show us.
Comment by Jamie — November 4, 2006 @ 10:03 am
Missy, it’s not known what Olbermann’s role will be or what he’ll say. My guess is they’ll be playing it straight. This isn’t Countdown. NBC and MSNBC producers not affiliated with that program will be calling the shots.
Comment by Spud — November 4, 2006 @ 10:08 am
I agree with Coreyback in that I think KO will be at a news desk giving updates. I don’t think he will be giving us a special comment or doing much analysis.
Comment by Goldfish — November 4, 2006 @ 12:06 pm
I just read Johnny Dollar’s piece. It is the best dissection of the MSNBC absurdity that I have read.
Missy, for some reason I was allowed to comment at this site. Maybe the glitch you had has been corrected.
Comment by cella — November 4, 2006 @ 12:36 pm
The “glitch” was a comment spam attack on the site that made it difficult for everyone to comment for a couple of hours. It is the same Russian sites that have been spamming OlbyWatch every week since August which is why we are closing the comments more quickly.
I really just wanted to “correct” erljr who wrote:
“Those of you saying Olbermann won’t admit he’s liberal are wrong. He’s said it many times. Now the “screaming” liberal he doesn’t and won’t admit to.”
This statement is false. In fact, the complete opposite is the case. You can read the FAQ at OlbyWatch for more but the short version is that Keith not only does not admit to being a liberal but claims to be have no INTEREST in any particular electoral outcomes.
This is typical OlbyLoon behavior. There is not a single instance of Keith EVER copping to be a liberal yet erlyjr makes his claim AS IF he can back it up and hopes that the less informed reader will believe him. As the world’s leading expert on Olbermann, let me assure you that Keith has never made any admission about his liberal slant. How can you be sure? Because if he had we would have that quote emblazoned across the top of Olbermann Watch along with all of his other quotes claiming he has NO political agenda.
Comment by Robert Cox — November 4, 2006 @ 1:48 pm
Republicans will be mostly watching FOX and everyone else won’t. The polls show most people agree with the views expressed on MSNBC and CNN. Who is celebrating will depend on voter turnout. The fact the Bush KNOWS Republicians makes we wonder about the safety of voting machine votes.
Comment by ladyone — November 4, 2006 @ 4:00 pm
Uh oh….tinfoil hat anyone?
Comment by spiffo — November 4, 2006 @ 8:18 pm
Jamie and Robert Cox’
The one that comes to mind is his last appearance on the Tonight Show. As I said, he’ll never admit he is the bleading heart looney leftist liberal that he is. He just says he leans that way. And in all of his appearances and interviews the MSM has given him he has been asked about these accusations (by the new media) several times. Please don’t read more into what I said than what I said.
Comment by erljr — November 5, 2006 @ 2:16 am
The polls show most people agree with the views expressed on MSNBC and CNN.
Not so fast ladyone,
Have you ever wondered why such a large percentage of Americans don’t like the way the President is handling the war in Iraq? The pollsters are mostly liberals, or they would be asking WHY we disapprove. Most of the people I know are MORE hawkish than the President and Rumsfeld. They take more of a Bill Crystal view. They think not killing Muqtada al-Sadr and not bombing mosques full of weapons and killers at the beginning of the conflict was a big mistake and continues to be a mistake; and we feel that making a course correction in that regard and that direction would change our minds about the “handling of the war” question.
Comment by erljr — November 5, 2006 @ 2:29 am
Jamie, Mr. Cox,
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2005/cyb20050610.asp#4
Asked by the Houston Chronicle if he’s “liberal or conservative?”, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann admitted that “a lot of my personal world view is unmistakably sympathetic to things in a liberal play book,” but he insisted “my point of view is about delivering information and context. It has nothing to do with a political point of view.”
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/09/11/olbermann/index2.html
“you’ve become something of a hero to the liberals in the blogosphere. Was there a conscious choice made to reach out to them?”
“No, I don’t think so. I had gathered for a while that they had felt themselves very underserved in the media, and a reasonable analysis would suggest that’s true overall. But you can go out and, I think, find a certain kind of person who wants to sit there and be told what to think by the television. These tend to be authoritarian personalities, as John Dean has suggested in his book. I don’t know if it’s true for other political people. I don’t think you can get a bunch of liberals to watch one television network, because they’d be sitting there arguing the nuance of it. So I’m not courting the liberals.
I also, I don’t think in these issues that I’m a liberal; I think that I’m an American. I think I’m acting almost as a historian on these particular things, with the Rumsfeld commentary and now the Bush commentary. I get nauseated when I see someone perpetually wrap themselves in the flag — which is the logo that appears on Fox, that’s what they’re doing, and many other people do it.”
Now your OBSCESSION with getting Olbermann to say the exact words you want is as pointless as those, including Olbermann, who used to obscess about getting President Bush to admit a mistake. Once he did, they pounced. Of course, most of us heard him admit mistakes years before the looney left did.
Olbermann continues to get under your skin because he and MSNBC won’t come out and hold a press conference to tell you straight up that, yes, Keith Olbermann is liberal and he lets out his liberal viewpoint in what he says on his show. Duh! He proclaims it every night on his show. Do you have any doubt that Aaron Brown is liberal? Lou Dobbs, except on illegal immigration? Do you have any doubt that Brit Hume is conservative? Oh, yeah, Brit Hume has actually said the words!
If anyone reading this has any doubt about Keith Olbermann being liberal, I have some swampland in Arizona I’m selling. Any takers?
Comment by erljr — November 5, 2006 @ 4:33 am
“my point of view is about delivering information and context. It has nothing to do with a political point of view.”
“I also, I don’t think in these issues that I’m a liberal; I think that I’m an American. I think I’m acting almost as a historian on these particular things”
What a joke, you’re an American altright Keith an extemely liberal American.
erljr, thanks for the quotes and I for one don’t need to hear Olbermann state that he is a liberal, that much is obvious.
However, back to the subject at hand, whether he is merely anchoring tomorrow night and Abrams is able to keep him on a tight leash, we will have to wait and see. However, I’m sure it will be extremely difficult for Keith to restrain his partisan hack rhetoric, particularly if the Republicans retain the Senate (a very real possibility) and/or retain the House (a long shot). Olbermann has no place in MSNBC’s plans for the elections if they want to at least convey the appearance of non-partisan coverage.
I’m sure the usual suspects will disagree, but judging by the lineups for tomorrow, FNC has the fairest and most well rounded panels and anchors of any.
Comment by Buck — November 6, 2006 @ 4:04 pm