{"id":10725,"date":"2007-05-07T12:40:20","date_gmt":"2007-05-07T16:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/10725.html"},"modified":"2007-05-07T12:40:20","modified_gmt":"2007-05-07T16:40:20","slug":"the-ap-takes-on-keith-olbermann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-ap-takes-on-keith-olbermann\/","title":{"rendered":"The AP takes on Keith Olbermann"},"content":{"rendered":"

The [tag]AP[\/tag] ran an important piece<\/a> over the weekend about the media generally and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann specifically that deserves to be read. I describe the article as important because it captures the broader political dynamic in exactly the wrong way.<\/p>\n

In an angry commentary on April 25, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann accused Rudolph Giuliani of using the language of Osama bin Laden with “the same chilling nonchalance of the madman” to argue that Republicans would keep Americans safer than Democrats from terror.<\/p>\n

Eight days later, [tag]Olbermann[\/tag] hosted MSNBC’s coverage of the first debate among Republican candidates for president.<\/p>\n

Olbermann’s popularity and evolving image as an idealogue [sic<\/i>] has led NBC News to stretch traditional notions of journalistic objectivity. The danger for MSNBC is provoking the same anger among Republicans that Democrats feel toward Fox News Channel.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This entire analysis is misguided. Olbermann offered viewers a “special comment” criticizing Giuliani’s offensive comments a couple of weeks ago, which the AP suggests should disqualify him from the network’s GOP debate coverage. Consider, however, the flipside — MSNBC asked Chris Matthews to moderate<\/i> that debate despite having told viewers<\/a> recently that Giuliani “may well be the perfect candidate to replace” President Bush — who Matthews has memorably said “glimmers” with “sunny nobility.” Matthews also all but endorsed McCain, declaring that he “deserves to be president.”<\/p>\n

Why is Olbermann’s criticism noteworthy, while Matthews’ sycophantic praise not? For that matter, the same debate coverage also featured MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, who was not only a Republican congressman, but also an active Bush supporter<\/a> in 2004. The AP article seems to missed this little tidbit.<\/p>\n

But the Olbermann-Fox News comparison is even more bizarre.
\n<\/p>\n

Having Olbermann anchor — as he will continue, with Matthews, for big political nights throughout the campaign — is the MSNBC equivalent of Fox News Channel assigning the same duties to O’Reilly.<\/p>\n

Fox has never done that, perhaps mindful of the immediate controversy that would result. Fox has tried to differentiate between its news operation and its prime-time opinion shows, even as its critics believe strongly that’s bunk. In this case, MSNBC doesn’t try to separate news and opinion people, even as it tries to separate news and opinion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Olbermann may enjoy upbraiding O’Reilly, but that hardly makes them two sides of the same coin. The comparison is wildly off-base — O’Reilly is a demagogue and a bully, who routinely makes up “facts” to smear his perceived enemies. Olbermann is an anchor who, on occasion, helps cut through the he-said, she-said reporting that dominates American journalism, and actually tells viewers when one side is wrong.<\/p>\n

I suspect the right would find this controversial, but I’m not even convinced that Olbermann is particularly liberal. He seems to be disgusted by conservative demagoguery, extra-legal excesses, and general incompetence, but I’ve never seen him promote or endorse a Democratic alternative. Olbermann, it seems to me, would be equally likely to go after Dems, with the same degree of gusto, if they were equally reckless and irresponsible.<\/p>\n

Joan Walsh added<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Setting up Olbermann as O’Reilly’s counterpart is deeply unfair and dishonest.<\/p>\n

The ways that Olbermann differs from O’Reilly are too many to count here. First and foremost, he doesn’t run jihads against his enemies (well, except maybe Bill O’Reilly); he doesn’t invite people he disagrees with onto his show only to shout at and humiliate them; he rarely rants, and when he does, he labels it “commentary.” His “Countdown” is an opinionated take on the day’s top five stories that owes more to “The Daily Show” and “Best Week Ever” than the Nation. He is indeed a Bush critic, but I haven’t found him to be a Democratic partisan…. Certainly as an anchor, he’s far less partisan than Fox’s dark Brit Hume, known for regular slurs against Democrats. To compare Olbermann to Hume would be unfair; to compare him to O’Reilly is disgraceful.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I get the sense that Olbermann is drawing special criticism because he’s unique — he’s the only unabashed Bush critic to host a television show on any major U.S. news network. For that, he’s the subject of hackish articles like this AP piece. It’s a shame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The [tag]AP[\/tag] ran an important piece over the weekend about the media generally and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann specifically that deserves to be read. I describe the article as important because it captures the broader political dynamic in exactly the wrong way. In an angry commentary on April 25, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann accused Rudolph Giuliani of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}