Accusations fly that MSNBC pundits pre-planned Obama criticism for ratings

[BluegrassDem]

"One commenter on the Daily Kos, where Olbermann has frequently blogged over the years, speculated that the pattern of hosts generally sympathetic to the president bashing the administration was too consistent to be a coincidence.

“Can’t verify, of course,” the commenter began, “but a friend in the news biz tells me he got a damaging e-mail from one of his pals at NBC. Something to the effect that their anger was pre-planned because ‘beating up on the president has been good for ratings.’ I haven't checked, but I'm hearing that Olbermann slammed the speech on Twitter before it even started.”


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38676.html

[WCGreen]

1. Rumors, innuendos and unverifiable comments.

Sounds like high school dating speculation fodder...

[Ken Burch]

7. Oh...for a moment I thought you wrote "high school dating speculation FOLDER"

I was trying to figure out if we had a forum like that.

[Uzybone]

2. meaningless...liberals shouldn't care this much over pundits

this is ridiculous. Let the cable show blowhards say whatever they want. They feed on ratings, not news.

[winstars]

3. POLITICO... NUFF SAID!!!! nt.

[grasswire]

6. word n/t

[Sherman A1]

4. Shocked!

That there is gambling going on in this establishment!

That one of the pseudo news organizations would do something for ratings? Well, that would be just soooooo surprising...... NOT.


This is the best reason to watch these events on C-Span and not on any alleged "news" source. I can make up my own mind and don't need BillO, KO or any of them telling me what to think.

[grantcart]

5. what utter bullshit

[Lasher]

8. Accusations fly that Politico pulled story out of ass for ratings.

Can't verify, of course.

[leveymg]

9. Politico is no more reliable than The Washington Times.

More agitation prop from the Right-wing poops out of power.

[Tarheel_Dem]

10. KO made this into a bigger issue than it should have been. He must

either grow a thicker skin, or stop telling presidents what they should & shouldn't do. He could have responded dismissingly about the diary, or said nothing at all. Now he'll have to deal with his rightwing foes making a much bigger deal of this.

[Uzybone]

12. Its Keiths' MO

from his days at ESPN...he has always been divaish.

Folks shouldn't take cable personalities so damn serious. They are mostly acting.

[Tarheel_Dem]

13. Agreed completely. (nt)

[WeDidIt]

23. I don't believe a single one of them truly gives a shit.

Beck, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Schultz, Olbermann, Matthews,...

Not a single one of them truly gives a shit beyond the money in their pocket.

[Turborama]

11. The title of that *article* is now "Keith Olbermann leaves Daily Kos"

Not sure if they've changed it since you posted the OP...

----

By ANDY BARR | 6/17/10 1:33 PM EDT

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38676.html#ixzz0rC6G1R2c

Keith Olbermann announced Wednesday night that he will cease blogging for the liberal Daily Kos over a comment directed at the MSNBC host’s coverage.

Olbermann and some of his MSNBC colleagues surprised their left-leaning fans on Tuesday with eviscerating critiques of President Barack Obama’s Oval Office address on the oil spill spewing off the Gulf Coast.

“It was a great speech if you were on another planet for the last 57 days,” Olbermann said of the president’s remarks, echoing similarly negative comments from fellow MSNBC hosts Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow.

One commenter on the Daily Kos, where Olbermann has frequently blogged over the years, speculated that the pattern of hosts generally sympathetic to the president bashing the administration was too consistent to be a coincidence.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38676.html#ixzz0rC6BZ7af

[vaberella]

16. That's a bit childish of KO if true. n/t

[Phx_Dem]

24. If he's that thin-skinned . . . see ya!

:hi:

[Cha]

28. Pundits are the ones who were

out of touch..the President was addressing it to the American people..specifically those who were most affected by BP's oil gusher.

Everyone I talked to about his speech..loved it..and so did the Environmentalists.

And, the next day Obama got a lot of what his "commitment" was to the people of the Gulf Region.

Ed Schultz carved out his niche early by liking the speech and then going over it the next night.

[Sky Masterson]

14. I think they just go off of each others cue

Kieth started the avalanche and the other host joined right in.Someone at CNN had a few negative comments to add and everyone fed off of the early narrative. You never know what the host talk about off air. Maybe they were discussing it with each other as it was going on.
I think Obama was handed a bum rap on it.

[blogslut]

15. Does this mean the Politico won the day?

As for accusation(s) flying, yawn. One diary on KOS does not equal accusations in the plural. More cut-and-paste drama from the kids at the Albritton yellow sheet.

How Olbermann deals with the Kossacks is his problem. Internet swarms get on my nerves too. Regardless, that rumor was total bullshit.

I don't agree with Keith's assessment of the president's speech but I am a grownup who understands that people won't always see things my way.

[quaker bill]

17. Perhaps

and perhaps not, but their criticism was poorly crafted and tone deaf in either case. It was so tone deaf that I wonder whether they had decided on their approach in advance, as they did not seem at all open minded to different interpretations. The speech was not one of Obama's best, but it was truthful and more than adequate to the circumstances.

[treestar]

18. They will do anything for ratings

These people have no loyalty and sympathy for any politician or issue; they have no principles at all. Their entire goal is to get attention. Just because they appear to agree with you now and then does not mean they are sincere.

[Bluenorthwest]

19. So you are spreading gossip and unsupported allegations?

Is this you, Joe McCarthy? Are you making a list? Of all who disappoint you? Spreading some vicious rumors of absolutely low ethics from our best journalists. Without a shred of substantiation. If this is to be the standard, well, 'flying allegations' are very easy to launch, against anyone, at anytime, if all we have to do is insinuate, speculate, and make arch comments. That is the Glenn Beck standard, and I congratulate you on sinking so low.

[Phx_Dem]

25. How is posting an article from Politico any different than posting

one from Huffington Post? Except that in this case, the headline of the story is correct, as confirmed by Olbermann. Often not the case with Huffington Post headlines.

It's just an article to be read, discussed and disseminated.

[Beacool]

20. Oh, please............

The left has become as loony as the right............

:crazy:

[WeDidIt]

21. I have no clue if it was planned or not

but I certainly would not be surprised if it was planned.

Speculation, rumors, and innuendo, howeer, do not mean it was planned.

[Vattel]

22. well, at least he said he couldn't verify it.

some, of course, are rpepared to believe it without verification.

[AngryOldDem]

26. What bullshit.

[Cha]

27. They all got called out in an online Newsweek article..

Kicked Ass and took names.

"Pundits Steal the Speech"

<snip>

"By the time Obama appeared, CNN and MSNBC had done a thorough job of telling the audience how to judge what he said. (I imagine Fox did the same, but it’s so riddled with its own pathologies I didn’t check.) Did the president “get it”? Well, he studded the speech with the language of war, referring to his “battle plan” and describing the spill as “a siege.” Was BP “held accountable”? He failed to use the head of a BP executive as a paperweight, but he did say in plain terms that the company “will pay for the impact this spill has had on the region.” Characteristically, he seemed most engaged not during the backward-looking stuff about assigning blame, but the forward-looking stuff: offering a big-picture look at a clean-energy initiative. “We cannot consign our children to this future,” he said, neatly evoking a kind of inverted Mad Max scenario, with oil spills everywhere.

In the postgame show, the pundits judged Obama’s success by how well or poorly he fulfilled the expectations that pundits like themselves had set earlier. On MSNBC, Keith Olbermann knocked him for “not addressing what many expected tonight: a bigger picture for America’s energy future, not even much of a pitch for his own energy bill . . .” The more Olbermann talked, the more disgruntled he grew. First he said the president aimed low, then he bid himself up, declaring that the president “didn’t aim at all.” He asked, “It’s startling to have heard this, isn’t it?”—which is the sort of question that has only one answer."

<more!>
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/16/pundits-like-that-are-the-only-people-here.html

[DFLforever]

29. This reads to me like Politico trying to divide the Dems

again, much like they did after Lincoln's victory in the Arkansas primary with their anonymous White House sources.

Some of the pundits made fools of themselves last Tues, including MSNBC's. But what's new about that - whatever their motives.

[mmonk]

30. Actually, I think pundits of pundits want something to fit their narratives

such as KO and Rachel being in the tank for the Democratic Party and the Democratic presidency the same way Fox is for the Republican Party and Republican presidencies.

[Berry Cool]

31. You said it. No one on the left trusts anyone in the MSM, no matter what they say.

At their first sign of disagreement, they get accused of being "corporate flunkies" and "mere entertainers." It must hurt quite a bit to be serious and dedicated to your work, yet be constantly accused by people who are ON YOUR POLITICAL SIDE of being a flunky and a stooge.

[DFLforever]

36. Gee, I wonder if our President ever feels like that?

[AtomicKitten]

32. More horseshit from Politico. nt

[Vinca]

33. It sure seems the bashing was a tad overblown and overwrought.

I listened to the speech and didn't listen to the pundits. It wasn't until the next day I realized I was supposed to think the thing sucked. It was just a speech. What do they expect from Obama? I've been rather hard on him lately, but it seems the talking heads expect seas to be parted and water to be walked on.

[realitythink]

34. Probably planted

Scarborough and Politico are in cahoots. Enough said. This is a stupid story and post.

[NJmaverick]

35. It wouldn't shock me if the allegations were true

[muffin1]

37. And your response doesn't shock me.

:puke: