Saturday, August 30, 2008

MSNBC: NOT FAIR AND BALANCED


Screen grab from MSNBC's breaking news coverage of McCain's VP announcement

What is going on at MSNBC?

Not many people know what happens on that cable network. It doesn't have much of an audience.

I think that's why executives there are allowing, or even encouraging, its hosts to go off the deep Left end. It's either a desperate attempt to improve ratings or it's just extremely poor journalism.

In the process of this blantant cheerleading for the Left, tremendous damage is being done to the reputation of the NBC News division.

MSNBC has become a televised version of Air America.

What MSNBC did today during its coverage of John McCain's VP running mate announcement is inexcusable.

While Sarah Palin was speaking, there was a breaking news banner and a question: "HOW MANY HOUSES DOES PALIN ADD TO THE REPUBLICAN TICKET?"

Of course, that's a swipe at John McCain for his uncertainty when he was asked about how many houses he and his wife own.

As Bill O'Reilly points out, that question was under a breaking news banner. It wasn't used during some commentary segment. It is NBC News' version of hard news coverage.

Even for MSNBC, it's beyond the pale.

O'Reilly wonders how General Electric and Jeffrey Immelt, the chairman and CEO of GE, can allow this.

How can Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams not be horrified that NBC News has sullied their personal reputations as journalists by putting something like that on screen as John McCain announced his running mate? Why don't they demand that MSNBC clean up its act.


Would Tim Russert have let something like this pass without comment?

The reputation of NBC News is being destroyed by the Left-wing extremists calling the shots.

It's disgusting that MSNBC would attack John McCain and Sarah Palin in this manner. The Leftist bias of the network couldn't be more overt, nor could it be more inappropriate.

I think an apology to John McCain and Sarah Palin is in order.

I suppose only far Left-leaning people watch MSNBC in the first place so an apology to the viewers isn't really necessary.

However, I do think it would be wise for the network to make a statement.

The NBC News division is fast becoming pure Leftist propaganda.

Remember the offensive banner was under breaking news coverage. It wasn't some concoction by Democrat partisan commentators Chris Matthews or Keith Olbermann.

6 comments:

Bill Rothschild said...

MSNBC is an excellent example of an organization that doesn't know who it is, why it exists and what is trying to do... it is clearly trying to be the opposite of FOX, but FOX has a strategy, consistency and a message... the "stars" of MSNBC are all negative people trying to show they are smarter than the rest of us mortals.

This is an example of a component of the NBC UNIVERSAL portfolio that should be changed or discarded.

Bill Rothschild, author of the most comprehensive and objective view of GE, THE SECRET TO GE's SUCCESS (now in six languages, including the most recent simplified CHINESE) and the on-going blob GEWATCHER...www.strategyleader.com

Anonymous said...

Precisely why no one with any sense is watching MSNBC. This blatant bias is despicable.

Anonymous said...

Liberals have been feeling this way about Fox News for about a decade.

CNN and MSNBC are considered liberal by the right (and MSNBC is now more liberal than most), but remember that all cable stations are fairly conservative when it comes to economic issues and foreign policy.

None of the stations wanted to question the President in 2003 about his reasons for going into Iraq because they didn't want to appear unpatriotic and risk their ratings and ad revenue.

So yes, Fox is blatantly right wing and now MSNBC is blatantly supporting the Democrats, but a larger issue is that none of the networks on our monopoly media cable lineups offer anything more than ratings driven infotainment.

This is why we need the convergence of the internet and television as soon as possible.

I want to watch news videos and news reports from hundreds of sources instead of four corporate sources. I want to have access to thousands of history channels instead of one history channel that shows episodes of Ice Road Truckers and The Axemen. I want to see some music videos instead of only having access to the reality programs being shown by our monopoly media music television channel.

Bob Keller said...

You are so very right about this! I wrote an essay (blog entry) a few days ago on the same subject: A Tale of Two Conventions.

And that was long before the Palin banner. What really scares me is that they don't even realize how totally biased their coverage has become.

I'm going to update my blog entry with a link to your blog here.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately much of the news media today is run by uneducated people with no understanding of history. They think the media is to be used to foist their elitist, self-important sophomoric agendas.

They are using their perceived power to try to elect one of their own. Meanwhile profits and revenues plummet. Pretty soon these dodos will be out of a job and they won't begin to understand why.

Mary said...

MSNBC is really imploding.

For all the talk of FOX being so biased, I don't recall the network ever putting up anything remotely like "HOW MANY HOUSES DOES PALIN ADD TO THE REPUBLICAN TICKET?" to accompany a breaking news banner.
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Thanks, Wizard. :)