Olbermann fired: Are the crosshairs on Maddow now, or Matthews?

Well, isn’t it convenient for Herr Olbermann? Mere hours after a real business takes over NBC, controversial MSNBC host Keith Olbermann has decided to look elsewhere for employment.

It begs the question: Who’s next? Rachel Maddow, or Chris Matthews?

Which one has the crosshairs on them?

Oh, wait.  Those weren’t crosshairs.  They were survey markers.

 

Truth is, Olbie is probably being a good businessman. He’s seen his ratings. He knows the score. He knows that Comcast is probably already contemplating a new direction for the network, and that new direction doesn’t include wackos like Olbie, Maddow, Matthews, Laurence or anyone else so radically affiliated with the left.

Word is, he’s already contacted ESPN to get his old job back. I hope he isn’t holding his breath.

 

Media Catfight: Olbermann vs. Koppel, hilarity will ensue

Via Newsbusters.org

The Washington Post ran an op-ed penned by Ted Koppel yesterday, in which he bemoaned the transformation of television news into “a cable news universe that celebrates the opinions of [Keith] Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly.”

The overarching message of Koppel’s opinions is that “news for profit” does not bode well for the future of the republic, because the drive for ratings and profitability drives Fox, MSNBC and other broadcast media outlets to produce news programming that informs less and instead simply reinforces the partisan opinions and beliefs of the audience.

Only one of those mentioned however, has decided to hunker down and return fire: Keith Olbermann.  As Noel Sheppard reports in his Newsbusters.org article last night Olbermann posted the following to his Twitter account:

FYI Special Comment tomorrow night: Koppel, False Equivalence, and his part in the real "death of news" [sic]

What’s more hilarious—a legacy journalist mourning the death of “objective news,” a death he and his generation helped to bring about, or a new media “journalist” castigating the legacy journalist for fingering new media journalists?

Koppel and his crew steered this ship to the left from the 1970’s through the early 1990’s.  When Fox News was founded and launched in 1996, the center-right majority of the viewership had options that previous generations did not.  They did what any fed-up television audience would do—they changed channels.

The left’s domination of the media is coming to an end.  They are being forced to compete in an open marketplace of ideas, and they’re losing badly.  The Olbermann-Koppel catfight is a finger-pointing blame game between those who caused the death of objective journalism and those who thought they could profit from it.

MSNBC lets Keith Olbermann out of the Doghouse

MSNBC has decided that Keith Olbermann has suffered enough, bless his little heart. The sentence was commuted after two shows. A total of 120 minutes, or 40 minutes per campaign contribution.

Cheap publicity stunt?

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Keith Olbermann will be allowed to resume his nightly program on MSNBC on Tuesday, the channel’s president said Sunday night, after he was suspended for donating money to three Democratic candidates.

The policy at MSNBC’s parent, NBC News, says journalists cannot make political contributions without permission from the head of the news division. “After several days of deliberation and discussion, I have determined that suspending Keith through and including Monday night’s program is an appropriate punishment for his violation of our policy,” the MSNBC president, Phil Griffin, said in a statement. “We look forward to having him back on the air Tuesday night.”

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It’s certain to boost ratings for his triumphant return Tuesday night, one week after his beloved left got hammered by the Republican Tsunami last week. But will it last, or will MSNBC continue its slide into ratings irrelevancy?

The “professional left” blogosphere took Olby’s suspension as a cause celebre, generating petitions and using terabytes of bandwidth hammering MSNBC. Even some members of the professional right got into the fray.

Personally, I think Olbermann should have had his contract terminated. What’s good for Juan Williams and NPR should be good for MSNBC and Keith Olbermann, no?