http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2010/11/05/keith-olbermann-suspended-for-making-political-beliefs-clear Comments On: Keith Olbermann Suspended for Making Political Beliefs Clear by Dominic Holden en-us Copyright 2013 Portland Mercury. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Portland Mercury readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Portland Mercury. webmaster@portlandmercury.com (Portland Mercury Webmaster) Sun, 19 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Sun, 19 May 2013 17:00:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by Commenty Colin]]> Mon, 08 Nov 2010 10:53:29 -0800 Portland Mercury
http://www.nbcuniversal.presscentre.com/co…
Posted by MonkeyBeat]]> Sun, 07 Nov 2010 23:28:36 -0800 Portland Mercury
Um, campaign contributions are already public....
Posted by extramsg]]> Sat, 06 Nov 2010 14:05:59 -0700 Portland Mercury
I hope Keith O. rejects any negotiations on the part of NBC and gets another show on another network. Remember the Conan fiasco? K.O. will land on his feet and will be able to speak unrestrainedly -- and write a boffo book about HOW the corporations control the message. There's a lot of dirty laundry there, in the process of news control, and we should know about it.

Posted by Eurydice]]> Sat, 06 Nov 2010 12:17:14 -0700 Portland Mercury
As for what I said earlier about NBC policy not applying to MSNBC and extramsg's link, I'll take Rachel Maddow's word about MSNBC policy over an anonymous source. But I still have a major problem with the policy as it applies to opinion guys. Olbermann is an advocate, he has people on his show to advance his advocacy, there is no conflict of interest in also privately exercising his constitutional right to also contribute to them monetarily. However, being silenced by his employers for supporting the wrong people, that's just disgusting.
Posted by guspasho]]> Sat, 06 Nov 2010 12:14:01 -0700 Portland Mercury
You can sure bet Andrea Mitchell and husband (oh yeah, Alan Greenspan, the father of our current economic woes) gave some bucks to someone.


Posted by Eurydice]]> Sat, 06 Nov 2010 12:13:40 -0700 Portland Mercury
Ok ... so is he in trouble for having them on his show ?
Or for giving them money ?
Posted by daddycool]]> Sat, 06 Nov 2010 02:26:19 -0700 Portland Mercury It seems like a personal vendetta against him for supporting someone who might be in direct opposition to someone else's favorite.

But he might also have volunteered for this drama as a way for MSNBC to make a point against Fox.

Also .. Does anybody really consider Olberman to be a " news anchor" as Stu suggests ? I think Olberman is just another talking head in a stuffed suit.
He's not my favorite on MSNBC, but he's OK.
Personally, I like Ed Schultz better. And Chris Matthews too. I've seen both of those guys just tear people up. Rachel Maddow isn't as sharp tongued as those guys, but she's smart as hell.


Posted by daddycool]]> Sat, 06 Nov 2010 02:23:36 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by extramsg]]> Sat, 06 Nov 2010 02:22:15 -0700 Portland Mercury
He actually had all the candidates he gave money to on his show.
Posted by extramsg]]> Sat, 06 Nov 2010 02:20:32 -0700 Portland Mercury
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/05/m…
Posted by extramsg]]> Sat, 06 Nov 2010 02:19:42 -0700 Portland Mercury
Now .... If Olberman was taking money from one of the campaigns, THAT would be a conflict. If that was happening, one could argue that he was being paid to shine a brighter or more positive light onto the candidate via the network. ( aka Payola)

But it's just the opposite. Olberman must have felt that his favorite candidates needed help. Since it would be unethical and probably illegal (not to mention obvious) to promote the candidate on the network, he did what he thought was the next best thing.
Cash money.
Maybe he was even approached by these campaigns and they asked him for more attention or publicity. He may have declined to give them special treatment on MSNBC, but offered a personal cash donation instead.

If it violates his contract ... however petty and inconsequential it may be ... he should have known it was there. If you sign a big dollar contract like his, it's your responsibility to know what's in that contract and adhere to it. I guess he should be punished in some way for violating his contract.
Posted by daddycool]]> Sat, 06 Nov 2010 01:55:31 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by guspasho]]> Sat, 06 Nov 2010 00:55:31 -0700 Portland Mercury
Also, it would appear these rules haven't applied to *anyone* at MSNBC for years. Apparently the rules are NBC rules, and since the whole network became very opinion-ey NBC spun off MSNBC and MSNBC has never had those rules since then.

(http://gawker.com/5682789/nbc-news-source-…)

The rule about political contributions don't apply to anyone at MSNBC, they haven't for years and MSNBC never enforced them against anyone when "infractions" did occur, until now. So Olbermann never did anything wrong and Phil Griffin is lying about why he suspended Olbermann, indefinitely and without pay. That suggests to me that this is about Phil Griffin's personal vendetta.

And other people make an excellent point about how chilling the idea is that businesses might regulate the political activities of their employees in their private lives such as to even ban contributions, especially when businesses are now allowed to make unlimited contributions of their own, and in secret. That is SCARY.
Posted by guspasho]]> Sat, 06 Nov 2010 00:46:29 -0700 Portland Mercury
We get the media we deserve -- as in the media we watch and support -- just like we get the politicians we deserve. If you want better media, then don't watch shows like Beck or Olbermann and do watch shows that are more reasonable and fair minded. Convince your friends, family, and neighbors to do the same. And then write emails or letters to the media you don't support, telling them why you stopped watching, and write emails or letters to the media you do support, telling them why you are watching.

You know, take responsibility for the world you live in, instead of having papa-gubmint be our dom daddy.
Posted by extramsg]]> Fri, 05 Nov 2010 18:21:28 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by Stu]]> Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:42:22 -0700 Portland Mercury
The other issue is that this is apparently a one-way street. GE and NBC are pouring MILLIONS of corporate dollars into lobbyists to support their chosen positions. Here are _their_ donations by year:

http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/totals.php…

Apparently, their top donations to an individual this year went to Republican Senate candidate Rob Portman from Ohio. Source: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4192
Posted by more like hasslevania lol]]> Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:27:10 -0700 Portland Mercury
I don't like him either, but that doesn't really factor into what I'm saying.
Posted by Commenty Colin]]> Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:12:35 -0700 Portland Mercury
I wonder, though, if there are legal issues here that we're not aware of. Perhaps they're worried that it could appear that his guests are receiving, essentially, campaign contributions and free advertising when he has them on if he's also giving them in-kind donations.

If something like this isn't a factor, though, the suspension is totally lame. And I despise the guy. He's no different than Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, or Glenn Beck -- just a leftist.
Posted by extramsg]]> Fri, 05 Nov 2010 16:57:15 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by TSW]]> Fri, 05 Nov 2010 16:20:14 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by atomic]]> Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:24:27 -0700 Portland Mercury
And the rules are dumb. It's fine for people to make political donations. It's not as if there's some kind of conflict of interest in attacking conservatives and promoting liberals on TV, then giving money to liberal politicians. As long as it's legal and disclosed, no problem.
Posted by eldepeche]]> Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:21:11 -0700 Portland Mercury So he just got a "suspended" vacation, and a day or two of press coverage. Plus MSNBC gets to make a grand jester that they are not equal to Fox.
Posted by MonkeyBeat]]> Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:16:01 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by Commenty Colin]]> Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:06:18 -0700 Portland Mercury http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/bR…

But these guys host *opinion programs* and therefore aren't news journalists, whereas Olbermann obviously doesn't host an *opinion program*. Right.
Posted by guspasho]]> Fri, 05 Nov 2010 14:49:28 -0700 Portland Mercury