I was horrified to return home this evening to find two action alerts in my email that MSNBC has suspended Keith Olbermann for making private donations to three progressive candidates. Keith is far too important a resource for progressives to stand quietly by and say nothing, especially since MSNBC took no punitive action when Joe Scarborough did the same. So I’m passing on both and urging you to take action.
The first is from Bold Progressives:
BREAKING: MSNBC has suspended star anchor Keith Olbermann following the news that he donated to three Democratic candidates this election cycle.
Sign our emergency petition to MSNBC. Tell them to put Olbermann back on the air NOW!
Then, pass this to your progressive friends.
Media are writing about this breaking story right now, and our growing petition will display the public outrage. Sign here.NBC policy does not prohibit employees from donating to political candidates. But MSNBC president Phil Griffin is miffed that Keith didn’t get “prior approval” first. Seriously. His feelings are hurt.
Meanwhile, Republicans Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan also gave political contributions — but are not suspended. It must only be ok for MSNBC employees to give to Republicans, not Democrats.
The Democratic Party sadly saw this week what happens when you alienate your base. Tell MSNBC that if they want to keep their viewers, they must put Keith back on the air NOW!
Then tell your friends. Thanks for being a bold progressive.
— Julia Rosen, PCCC
P.S. It’s worth noting that Olbermann donated to 2 PCCC-endorsed candidates: House Progressive Caucus Chair Raul Grijalva (who was just declared the winner, after lots of PCCC help!) and Jack Conway in Kentucky (who sends his immense thanks to PCCC members). Good for Keith.
The second is from FAIR:
MSNBC host Keith Olbermann has been placed on indefinite suspension without pay in the wake of a Politico report (11/5/10) that revealed Olbermann had donated $7,200 to three Democratic candidates, in violation of NBC’s standards barring employees from making political contributions.
A journalist donating money to a political candidate raises obvious conflict of interest questions; at a minimum, such contributions should be disclosed on air. But if supporting politicians with money is a threat to journalistic independence, what are the standards for Olbermann’s bosses at NBC, and at NBC’s parent company General Electric?
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, GE made over $2 million in political contributions in the 2010 election cycle (most coming from the company’s political action committee). The top recipient was Republican Senate candidate Rob Portman from Ohio. The company has also spent $32 million on lobbying this year, and contributed over $1 million to the successful “No on 24” campaign against a California ballot initiative aimed at eliminating tax loopholes for major corporations (New York Times, 11/1/10).
Comcast, the cable company currently looking to buy NBC, has dramatically increased its political giving, much of it to lawmakers who support the proposed merger (Bloomberg, 10/19/10). And while Fox News parent News Corp’s $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association caused a stir, GE had “given $245,000 to the Democratic governors and $205,000 to the Republican governors since last year,” reported the Washington Post (8/18/10).
Olbermann’s donations are in some ways comparable to fellow MSNBC host Joe Scarborough’s $4,200 contribution to Republican candidate Derrick Kitts in 2006 (MSNBC.com, 7/15/07). When that was uncovered, though, NBC dismissed this as a problem, since Scarborough “hosts an opinion program and is not a news reporter.” Olbermann, of course, is also an opinion journalist–but MSNBC seems to hold him to a different standard.
Two years earlier, the Washington Post reported (1/18/04):
NBC chief executive Robert Wright has contributed $8,000 since 1999, including $3,500 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and $1,000 to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Andrew Lack, a former NBC News chief, gave $1,000 to Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) while NBC president, and Wright contributed $1,500–after the House committee Tauzin chairs held hearings on the networks’ election night failures. NBC spokeswoman Allison Gollust said the network allows its executives to make contributions and that Wright “does not make any decisions specific to news coverage.”Wright, however, was reported in a recent New York magazine piece (10/3/10) to have told then-NBC News chief Neal Shapiro to move to the right of Fox News in response to the September 11 attacks: “We have to be more conservative then they are,” the magazine quoted Wright.
MSNBC’s treatment of Olbermann is also in sharp contrast to Fox News’ handling of Sean Hannity, who was revealed by Salon (9/23/10) to have given $5,000 to the campaign of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R.-Minn.), a Tea Party favorite–without Fox expressing any public disapproval. Hannity has allowed Republican candidates to use his Fox program for fundraising (Mediaite, 10/17/10); as Salon noted, Hannity was this year’s keynote speaker at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual fundraising dinner.
If the concern is about how giving money to politicians threatens journalistic independence, then companies like NBC should explain why their parent companies can lavish so much money on political candidates or causes with no concern about conflicts of interest or the need to disclose these donations to viewers. The lesson here would seem to be that some of the workers shouldn’t make political donations, but the bosses are free to give as much as they’d like. Anyone who watches Olbermann’s show knows what his political views are. So what do the far larger contributions from GE tell us?
ACTION:
Ask NBC and MSNBC to explain their inconsistent standards regarding political donations.CONTACT:
MSNBC President
Phil Griffin
phil.griffin@nbcuni.comNBC News President
Steve Capus
steve.capus@nbcuni.comPhone: (212) 664-4444
MSNBC’s action is completely hypocritical and blatantly partisan. This is not a direct speech issue, because money is NOT speech, regardless of what SCOTUS has said. The direct issue is that MSNBC’s hypocritical policy violates Keith’s property rights to do what he sees fit with his own property within legal limits. He just gave it to the wrong people, in MSMBC’s corporate view.
I corrected my error and changed the word fired to suspended. My mistake.
25 Responses to “Action Alert: We Want Keith Back NOW!”
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For a comprehensive list of what Faux “News” folks contribute to Teapublicans, Media Matters comes through: “REPORT: More Than 30 Fox Newsers Support GOP in 600-Plus Instances During Midterms”
http://mediamatters.org/research/201010270005
And if you like reaching out to personally share your thoughts:
Phil Griffin
President, MSNBC
One MSNBC Plaza
Secaucus, New Jersey 07094-2419
Phone: 201-583-5000
Fax: 201-583-5819
Jeff Zucker
CEO & President of NBC Universal, General Electric
3135 Easton Turnpike
Fairfield, Connecticut 06828-0001
Phone: 203-373-2211
Fax: 203-373-3131
Source:
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/people.asp?privcapId=6513407
(And now that Comcast owns NBC Universal, right-wing actions like this will most likely increase. I have Comcast, and I HATE Comcast!)
Thanks Nameless. Great info!
Me too.
This is also a violation of Olbermann’s CIVIL rights which limits his free expression. He made these contributions privately, without fanfare, and without even mentioning MSNBC publicly. This is just another blatant attempt by a piggish major corporation to discredit and silence a major liberal; spokesperson. It is un-American. I also suspect this is an exercise in ego for Phil Griffin, corporate wimp that he is. It is an insult to every one of his viewers, and I suggest we progressives let him know that, until Olbermann is reinstated with full back pay and their ridiculously restrictive policy is discarded, we will BOYCOTT all non-liberal or moderate programming on that network, including Joe Scarbrough, Andrea Mitchell, and their wekend prison shows, and will also boycott Keith’s timeslot on that network as well! Maybe if CNN overtakes MSNBC in a few time slots we’ll get Griffin’s attention, and teach Griffin not to mess with hard-to-obtain regular viewers just so his ego can be stroked.
Jack, I’m more inclined to watch Keith’s time slot, call the advertisers, and tell them I will not trade with them, until Keith returns.
I’m not totally in KO’s corner – but mostly. However, rules are rules and while NBC is operating with a double standard, I’m not sure it’s wise for progressives – especially those who sling criticism at others for doing this very thing – to do likewise. The rule doesn’t say that NBC journalists can’t contribute to campaigns. It says that journalists have to run it by management first and get their okay. Had KO taken this very simple step, we wouldn’t all be in a dither about it today.
Menopausal Stoners brings up another interesting slant, which given KO’s flair for theatrics, is entirely possible and which was one of the first things that crossed my mind. That’s the ole PR thingy.
http://menopausalstoners.blogspot.com/2010/11/suspending-ko-effective-pr.html
It is possible, but at this point it’s just a hypothesis with only speculatation for support.
Leslie, I’m not saying that Keith was wise in this. But for MSNBC, it was OK when a conservative did not follow the rule.
I understand this but JFK said “life isn’t fair.” It’s not and “two wrongs” and all that bs. Anyway, I wrote about it with a link to PP. Now, I’m going out and shoot my neighbor’s cat because my other neighbor got away with shooting another neighbor’s cat. ; )
I agree, but that was never my point. I’m saying that MSNBC has no right to dictate his political life in the privacy of his own checkbook, and that MSNBC should enforce whatever policies they do have with equity.
A couple of things……..Keith has been “indefinitely suspended”……whatever that means. He hasn’t been fired. By phrasing that the way they did management is sending a message that none of their employees is above the rules they have concerning campaign contributions.
As the last night (when I stopped keeping track) more than 100,000 people have signed a petition to re-instate Keith, thousands more have joined a FACEBOOK page urging his return, Senator Bernie Sanders had a press release demanding his return, and MSNBC management is stuck trying to find a replacement because no one other than news staffers will fill Keith’s spot. Chris Hayes was asked yesterday, for one, and he delclined.
The latest ratings have shown Keith averaged 1.1 million viewers in October per night. That’s a huge number.
And I’ll say it because no one else has…..Barack Obama (nor any other politician) is not the leader of the nation’s progressive movement- Keith is. Olbermann saved MSNBC early in this decade from going in the tank, and management knows which way their bread is buttered. They’ve made their point. They may be hypocritical given GE’s corporate contributions to political organizations, and they may contributing to a double standard in cable news since FOX is a money making machine for the GOP.
Keith will be back, and fairly soon. Because MSNBC’s management may be hypocrites, but they’re not stupid.
Mea culpa, Hugh. I was exhausted when I wrote the intro and chose the wrong word. I have corrected it and noted my mistake.
I agree that, after MSNBC tried to goose step higher than Fox and failed, Keith kept them out of the toilet.
I hope yoiu’re right, but wonder how much pressure MSNBC is under from GE and other giant corporations to silence his voice, in light of their overreaction to this and non-reaction to Scarborough.
TC- I’ve not seen anywhere where Keith has been fired – it would be all over Huff Po if that were the case. I think he’s been sufficiently reprimanded and now he should be put back on the air and be done with this bullshit. Do you have a link saying where they fired him? 😡
PS – I already signed the petition. 😀
My mistake, Lisa. Now fixed.
Thanks!
They have not fired him. I have not signed the petition and don’t intend to. Why? Because we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard than those on the right. Here’s what Rachel Maddow has to say.
http://progressiveerupts.blogspot.com/2010/11/rachel-maddow-on-keith-olbermanns.html
That was my mistake, Leslie, and I corrected it. I saw this, but am evaluating it in this context: Were Rachel to express the anger I think she feels, she would be “indefinitely suspended” too.
Nowhere is it written in stone that we can’t be friends and allies, ifd you do not agree with me at all times. We are progressives, not Republicans. 😉
Sweetie – you will always be my friend. And I never make a mistake. ; )
{{{HUG}}}
Ri-i-i-ight! 🙄
Does this mean that Olbermann will be going to Fox News now? 😯
LOL, Jerry!
The ONLY way to send a clear and unmistakable message to Comcast is to do what I did and “cut the cable!” They’ll understand that, and quickly too. Sacking Keith Olbermann like that is nothing more than sending a strong message to Comcasts’ Far Right amen corner crowd, most of whom won election on Tuesday, that they are on board and the shutting down of progressive dissent has started in earnest! Why else do you think that all of the overnight programming on weekends at MSNBC is about prisons and incarceration? Yes, it is cheap to produce, but it is also sending out a ‘wink and a nod’ to those of like minds that something drastic is coming. This is only the very beginning people. Stay tuned. IMHO.
Ron, I agree in principal, but I have two problems with it in practice. First, in my location, I have two choices: Comcast or no TV at all. Second, without watching the time slot, I won’t know which advertisers to boycott, call and complain to.
Perhaps something went on behind the scenes at MSNBC that we don’t know about? I certainly do hope Olbermann returns.
That’s what I think, Ahab. And I think there was a Republican hiding behind those scenes.