Rachel Maddow on Keith Olbermann's Suspension

On Friday, Rachel Maddow reacted to MSNBC's suspension of Keith Olbermann by running through political contributions made by FOX News commentators, focusing much of her attack on Sean Hannity.

She suggests that MSNBC is a superior news organization because of its policy on political contributions, as if the rule somehow purifies what they do.

Ridiculous.

Maddow takes Olbermann's suspension and uses it to launch an assault on FOX. The deflection is sleazy.

Olbermann's suspension is an internal matter, solely an MSNBC thing.

Is Olbermann a FOX News employee? Did Olbermann violate FOX News policy regarding political contributions?

No, Olbermann is, or was, with MSNBC.

There's no reason to spout off about FOX and slam Sean Hannity and other FOX employees and contributors because MSNBC chose to take away the platform occupied by Maddow's comrade.

I don't see why Olbermann and other NBC News employees should be required to get permission to make political contributions, but if they are, then they are.

That has nothing to do with Hannity or anyone at FOX.

We know Olbermann is a raving Leftist and Left-wing propagandist, or at least he plays one on TV and parlays the act into a career.

We know Sean Hannity is a conservative and he's a commentator. He's not presented to the viewers as unbiased. He's pushing a conservative agenda. There's no deception whatsoever. No one tunes in to watch Hannity's program thinking that he's acting in the role of an objective reporter.

Maddow, however, acts as if there's something underhanded and unethical about Hannity's political contributions. There isn't, particularly since MSNBC and NBC hosts and staff are not banned from making contributions.

MSNBC AND NBC NEWS EMPLOYEES DO MAKE CONTRIBUTIONS TO POLITICAL CANDIDATES.

Video.



Transcript

RACHEL MADDOW: You may have heard today that my colleague and friend, Keith Olbermann, was temporarily suspended from his job hosting Countdown on this network because he made three personal political donations to candidates in this last election cycle.

The reason that resulted in Keith's suspension is that here at MSNBC there is an explicit employee rule against hosts making contributions like that. You can do it if you ask in advance and management tells you OK. That's what I understand happened with our morning show host's political donations in 2006 under previous management. But if you don't ask in advance for an exemption from the rule, you are bound by the rule.

For the record, the rule applies to us hosts here at MSNBC and to NBC News staff. CNBC is not under NBC News so CNBC staffers are not bound by the same thing.

I understand this rule. I understand what it means to break this rule. I believe everybody should face the same treatment under this rule. I also personally believe that the point has been made and we should have Keith back hosting Countdown.

Here's the larger point though that's going mysteriously missing from all the Right-wing cackling and the Beltway Old Media cluck, cluck, clucking about this. This is what I think is missing:

Let this incident lay to rest forever the facile, never true any way, bull-pucky, lazy conflation of FOX News and what the rest of us do for a living. I know everybody likes to say, 'Oh, that's cable news. It's all the same, FOX and MSNBC, mirror images of each other.'

Let this lay that to rest forever.

Hosts on FOX raise money on the air for Republican candidates. They endorse them explicitly. They use their FOX News profile to headline fundraisers. Heck, there are multiple people being paid by FOX News now to essentially run for office as Republican candidates. If you count not just their hosts but their contributors, you are looking at a significant portion of the whole line-up of Republican presidential contenders for 2012. They can do that because there's no rule against that at FOX. They run as a political operation. We're not.

Yes, Keith's a liberal and so am I, and there are other people on this network whose political views are shared openly with you, our beloved viewers, but we are not a political operation. FOX is. We are a news operation, and the rules around here are part of how you know that.

Before it was politically safe to do it, Keith Olbermann attracted the ire of the Right-wing and a lot of others besides when he brought to light and raged against what he saw as the errors and sins of the previous presidential administration. Keith was also the one who brought to light FOX News' water-carrying role for the Bush administration. He was one whose point of view journalism exposed and put exclamation points on the problems in the political operation disguised as news network model embraced by the guys across the street at FOX.

Now, weirdly, once again it is Keith who is illustrating the difference between what he does on TV, what we do here at MSNBC, and what goes on across the street.

What a load of holier-than-thou crap!

Olbermann is a "journalist." More than that, he's a saint!

Yeah, right.

The fact is hosts on MSNBC do exactly what the commentators on FOX do in terms of endorsing candidates.

A couple of weeks ago, Lawrence O'Donnell was on MSNBC endorsing Alvin Greene for the U.S. Senate.

MSNBC's water-carrying role for the "errors and sins" of the Obama administration and the Democrat Party is undeniable.

MSNBC host Chris Matthews gets a "thrill" up his leg when Obama speaks. The politicking is not only blatant, it's embarrassing.

Of course, MSNBC is a political operation. Disseminating propaganda is political activity. That's what MSNBC does. MSNBC is not a news operation.

Moreover, the NBC News policy regarding political contributions doesn't mean that the on-air personalities or other staff are more objective or professional or ethical than employees of FOX News.

The policy obviously doesn't translate into MSNBC or NBC providing unbiased news coverage.

Good Lord, the OBAMA WHITE HOUSE provides MSNBC hosts with talking points that they literally read on the air.

Perhaps the White House also had a part in Maddow's remarks on Friday.

News operation?

Really?

I don't think so, Rachel.
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Watch this video.

It completely debunks Maddow's claims that MSNBC is a news operation and not a political operation.



Very embarrassing for Maddow in the context of her pontificating on Friday. Very embarrassing.