What’s hot/What’s not: 1/20/08
What’s hot:
Ratings rise for the primaries - All the wall to wall political coverage is paying off with what so far is the most contested primary season in a generation. Everybody’s up and everybody is cramming in as much politics as possible to take advantage of the situation. For a change, however, I don’t think this is a manufactured media event (like tabloid gossip news sagas like Paris Hilton and O.J Simpson) but an honest to goodness attempt at covering a major story of real value.
Keith Olbermann starts blogging on Daily Kos - Olbermann’s critics will point to this as yet another sign of MSNBC giving the Countdown host too much latitude. Olbermann supporters will point to this as yet another sign that Keith is going his own way in a refreshing manner. Your mileage may vary…
Fox News to do pre-Super Bowl programming on Fox Broadcast - Fox News will be airing Fox News Sunday followed by two hours of political/sports coverage anchored by Shepard Smith on Fox Broadcast before the Super Bowl on the Fox Broadcast network.
“Keith runs MSNBC” - That quote in Men’s Journal wreaked all sorts of havoc this week. First, Fox and Friends went off on the quote. This was followed by Olbermann putting the FNC program on his worse, worser, worst list and suggesting the quote came from someone who was recently “fired” by the network. This was followed the next day by an anonymous tipster quote showing up on TVNewser pinning the quote on Davidson Goldin, recently departed from MSNBC as part of the December cutbacks. Goldin has vehemently denied being the one making the quote. However, and I don’t think many people picked up on this from reading TVNewser’s entry, what may have gotten lost in all this is, according to the TVN timeline as it’s written, that anonymous tip came before Olbermann’s on the air swipe. And that detail is one that suggests an interesting pattern. A very interesting pattern…
Update: I’ve gotten a few emails on this asking me what exactly I’m refering to. I thought it was rather evident but apparently it wasn’t. I was referring to the timing (anonymous quote first going to TVN and then later on Olbermann’s on-air spiel). Nothing definitive can be concluded from this but it’s co-incidental enough to raise a flag for me.
What’s not:
MSNBC’s political hosts’ actions distract from their network’s coverage - Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann and other MSNBC analysts ridiculed McCain’s New Hampshire speech last week. Another round of guffawing occurred after Fred Thompson’s very odd speech after South Carolina including a “What the?” from an offscreen voice that I believe was Joe Scarborough. There are two ways of looking at both events. One is to say they’re calling a spade a spade as both speeches weren’t the best prose we’ve ever heard from either candidate. The other way is to say that even though the speeches were bad or confusing, piling on just puts the focus on the hosts’ conduct rather than the speeches themselves. I’ll leave it to you to decide which is the more accurate way of looking at it. However, there really isn’t much dispute over Chris Matthews’ comments on Hillary Clinton that he was forced to address later on in the week.
Playboy solicits opposing feedback to balance negative reaction to Olbermann interview - Eyebrows were raised this week by the news Playboy openly solicited feedback in opposition to the negative feedback that came in to its Keith Olbermann interview. The feedback you get is the feedback you get. To then look for different feedback because the feedback you got isn’t what you expected or wanted smacks of activism to me.
Playboy has been getting a LOT of opposition to their left leaning interviews and articles. Which is odd, since the right wing has been trying to shut down Playboy since they went after their distributor in 1956, and the “Playboy Philosophy” put out by Hefner was very left wing, and right wing institution like the Wall Street Journal still vilify him:
http://opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110008169
Comment by Cory!! Strode — January 20, 2008 @ 9:40 pm
Expect a flood of “pro-Olbermann” letters in next month’s issue, just the way Playboy (and Olbermann) wanted it.
the laughing at the political candidates is just rude. I wouldn’t expect Fox News to openly jeer the Democratic candidates and it shouldn’t be anything that a professional journalist would do no matter what their personal politics. Oh–right—MSNBC is home to hack amateurs, obviously.
Comment by Alison — January 20, 2008 @ 10:04 pm
Olbermann’s claim is that the Playboy letters were all generated by Olbermannwatch readers and that Playboy “got played”. Does this mean that he’s bragging that nobody read the article?
Comment by Jim — January 20, 2008 @ 11:54 pm
Yeah, I’m sure it had nothing to do with him saying:
“Al Qaeda really hurt us, but not as much as Rupert Murdoch has hurt us, particularly in the case of Fox News. Fox News is worse than Al Qaeda–worse for our society. It’s as dangerous as the Ku Klux Klan ever was…”
Comment by ImNotBlue — January 21, 2008 @ 12:21 am
Is there a posting on this site that you don’t “donate” your much sought after commentary INB? Honestly.
Comment by Shaun — January 21, 2008 @ 1:07 am
Why is there so much K0 in the What’s Hot?
His ratings are definitely in the What’s Not!
Losing to HLN, the 2nd place ride is over.
Comment by A tree falls in the forest — January 21, 2008 @ 7:16 am
Aw, Shaun… I’m sorry. I’ll do my best to keep quiet from now on, as to not upset you.
I guess I didn’t read the fine print that said, “Please COMMENT in this COMMENT SECTION only if your COMMENTS pleas Shaun. Otherwise, it’s too difficult for him not to read them, and it distresses him greatly to think of people disagreeing with him. Thank you.”
Seriously Shaun… Grow up, or go away.
Comment by ImNotBlue — January 21, 2008 @ 8:38 am
Wow, Shaun, IMB merely cited one of the more inflammatory quotes from the article. Not really a commentary at all.
Comment by Jim — January 21, 2008 @ 8:52 am
Shaun,
Imno is the gift that keeps on giving.
Comment by elmonica — January 21, 2008 @ 1:38 pm
Aww… love you too Elmo. Kisses!
Comment by ImNotBlue — January 21, 2008 @ 2:42 pm