Nakebba:
Left wing and right wing journalists (Anchors) are being fired because of ethical issues. You remember Williams of NPR, Rick of CNN and now Keith. What's going on?
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
-----Original Message-----
From: Haruna Darbo <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2010 20:45:29
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List
<[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Olbermann suspended after donations
Ndokeh,
I was saddened today when I learned of Hayes' decision to suspend Mr. Olberman.
The idea that a journalist's independence in news coverage is salvaged by his/her banishment from contributing to political campaigns or candidates is the biggest connard I've ever heard. I'm terribly disappointed in Hayes and the board of MSNBC who must have believed in that connerie. Name one news corporation in America or any other country that is independent????? Contributing to political campaigns or candidates is a civil right for anyone who so desires. To make that a determinant of employment as a journalist is terribly idiotic particularly in American journalism.
A professional standard can only be implemented when it is done across the board. Therefore, if this "standard" is a standard of the American Press Association or union, most of the anchors and journalists on most of the networks should be suspended right away. There are those who contribute via surrogates, family members, friends, and indirectly through third party PACs. Plus there are journalists (many) who contribute in kind by favorable coverages, skewed polling and questions. Who're you kidding?????
It would occur to the MSNBC board and Hayes that we watch Keith Olberman and subscribe to MSNBC NOT because we think it is INDEPENDENT, but because we think MSNBC, unlike FOX and CNN, does her best to cover stories and political candidates in a factual and balanced manner with a view to inform us. Olberman has the balls to exercise his civil rights and maintain intellectual honesty. Olberman has many other values. My children and family appreciate Olberman reading a book on TV. My children and I are forever grateful to Olberman for that. Olberman has contributed immensely to the free-clinics at a time when thousands and even millions of Americans cannot afford or are denied access to such base care in a "developped" nation like the USA. Olberman has donated to other charities for years. If MSNBC evaluates Olberman's "INDEPENDENCE" from a cacamayme standard of NO cash donations to political campaigns or candidates, the joke's on MSNBC.
I therefore here and now submit my protestation to MSNBC and Hayes for their cacamayme dishonesty. I urge MSNBC to reinstate Mr. Olberman to his position and I am confident Olberman will resign honorably if he feels he is unwelcome at MSNBC. Gimme a fuckin break about Non-contribution to political campaigns and or candidates being a friggin determinant of journalistic independence.
I encourage Mr. Olberman and or friends of Olberman to contact me for a brainstorm session. This is sheer idiocy what MSNBC and Hayes are pretending to do.
Haruna. I'm sick of these and those pretences.
-----Original Message-----
From: pancmbai <[log in to unmask]>
To: GAMBIA-L <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Fri, Nov 5, 2010 7:08 pm
Subject: Olbermann suspended after donations
Source: http://mobile.politico.com/story.cfm?id=44734&cat=topnews
Olbermann suspended after donations
By Simmi Aujla | 11/5/10 @ 6:00 AM EST
MSNBC host Keith Olbermann has been suspended indefinitely without pay after
POLITICO reported that he made three campaign contributions to Democratic
candidates.
MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in a statement Friday: “I became aware of
Keith's political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and
standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay."
Olbermann made campaign contributions to two Arizona members of Congress and
failed Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway ahead of Tuesday’s election.
Olbermann, who acknowledged the contributions in a statement to POLITICO, made
the maximum legal donations of $2,400 apiece to Conway and to Arizona Reps. Raul
Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords. He donated to the Arizona pair on Oct. 28 — the
same day that Grijalva appeared as a guest on Olbermann’s “Countdown” show.
NBC has a rule against employees contributing to political campaigns, and a wide
range of news organizations prohibit political contributions — considering it a
breach of journalistic independence to contribute to the candidates they cover.
The network originally announced that Chris Hayes, the Washington editor for The
Nation, was going to fill in for Olbermann. But the network announced late
Friday that Hayes would not be the substitute host, after Hayes’ previous
donations to two Democratic candidates in 2008 and 2009 came to light.
Hayes said on Twitter that his decision not to fill in for Olbermann tonight had
nothing to do with his donations – which he notes were made before he became and
MSNBC contributor, but because he “did feel comfortable doing it given the
circumstances.”
MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts is filling in tonight.
Olbermann is one of MSNBC’s most recognizable faces, and has emerged as one of
the country’s most prominent liberal commentators. A former ESPN star,
Olbermann’s “Countdown With Keith Olbermann” started in 2003 as a traditional
news show but evolved into a left-leaning opinion program – and in some ways,
led the network into its new identity as the cable-news voice of the left and an
attempt to be a counterweight to Fox News.
In his statement to POLITICO, Olbermann said he wasn’t using his influence to
solicit any donations for the candidates.
“I did not privately or publicly encourage anyone else to donate to these
campaigns, nor to any others in this election or any previous ones, nor have I
previously donated to any political campaign at any level,” Olbermann said.
Inside MSNBC, employees were shocked at the news of Olbermann’s suspension.
Despite a reputation for a prickly personality off-air, Olbermann was given wide
berth inside the network because of his stature – and his ratings.
Insiders were stunned that Griffin moved so swiftly to yank one of the network’s
true stars off the air, and some suspected that the recent tensions with NBC
News, which has grown increasingly uneasy with its sister network’s more
ideological stance, contributed to the swift decision. Some have even speculated
that Comcast’s coming merger with NBC Universal has heightened sensitivities
about MSNBC’s ideological profile.
MSNBC has branded Olbermann as a prominent face in its new “Lean Forward”
marketing campaign. He tripled MSNBC’s ratings at 8 p.m. In the past two years,
MSNBC’s more opinionated hosts have helped propel it past CNN in prime time, and
even lately during the daytime, too.
Despite MSNBC’s embrace of a more opinionated format, NBC News has a policy
against its employees making political contributions – and it appears that
Olbermann ran afoul of that policy, even by contributing to candidates he gave a
platform on his show, like Grijalva.
In addition, Olbermann has been a critic of the political donations made by Fox
News’s parent company, News Corp., which contributed $1 million each to a pair
of organizations trying to defeat Democratic candidates.
Griffin also tweaked rival network Fox over the contributions. “Show me an
example of us fundraising,” Griffin told The New York Times last month.
A 2007 MSNBC.com story laid out the rules for the network regarding such
contributions:
"Anyone working for NBC News who takes part in civic or other outside activities
may find that these activities jeopardize his or her standing as an impartial
journalist because they may create the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Such activities may include participation in or contributions to political
campaigns or groups that espouse controversial positions. You should report any
such potential conflicts in advance to, and obtain prior approval of, the
president of NBC News or his designee.”
Voices from both the left and the right have questioned the decision. Bill
Kristol, the editor of the Weekly Standard, came out with a blog post titled
“Keep Keith!” that argued: “He’s not a reporter. It’s an opinion show. If
Olbermann wants to put his money where his mouth is, more power to him.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also criticized MSNBC. “At a time when the ownership
of Fox news contributed millions of dollars to the Republican Party, when a
number of Fox commentators are using the network as a launching pad for their
presidential campaigns and are raising money right off the air, it is absolutely
unacceptable that MSNBC suspended one of the most popular progressive
commentators in the country. “
Media Matters for America quickly pointed out that Fox News hosts Sean Hannity
and Neil Cavuto had contributed to Republicans in the past. Former Republican
Rep. Joe Scarborough, co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” contributed $4,200 in
March 2006 to Derrick Kitts, Republican candidate for the House from Oregon.
At the time, a spokesperson for NBC, Jeremy Gaines, replied to questions sent to
Scarborough. "Yes, he did make a donation to Derrick Kitts. Kitts is an old
friend of Joe's. Joe hosts an opinion program and is not a news reporter."
Scarborough recently began writing a column for POLITICO.
Liberal bloggers pounced on the handling of the Scarborough case in 2006 as a
double-standard compared to Olbermann’s suspension. Jed Lewison at Daily Kos
wrote: “The bottom line here that both Keith Olbermann and Joe Scarborough both
host opinion shows. They both made personal contributions to political
candidates. But Olbermann supports Democrats, and Scarborough supports
Republicans, so even though Olbermann is the network's top-rated host, and even
though Scarborough hides his ratings sheet in a little box in the basement, it's
Olbermann that gets silenced.”
As for Hayes, who had been slated to fill in for Olbermann Friday night, his
contributions of $1,750 went to his college friend Josh Segall in 2008 and 2009
when Segall was running for Congress from Rhode Island. Hayes also donated $250
in January 2009 to Thomas Geoghegan, who ran a primary for Rahm Emanuel's House
seat. Hayes had previously filled-in for Rachel Maddow.
POLITICO discovered the Olbermann donation to Grijalva in a Federal Election
Commission filing, and when MSNBC was asked for a comment, it forwarded a
statement from Olbermann:
“One week ago, on the night of Thursday October 28 2010, after a discussion with
a friend about the state of politics in Arizona, I donated $2,400 each to the
reelection campaigns of Democratic Representatives Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle
Giffords,” Olbermann said. “I also donated the same amount to the campaign of
Democratic Senatorial candidate Jack Conway in Kentucky.”
Under FEC rules, an individual donor may give only $2,400 to a candidate per
general election campaign. The FEC filings for Olbermann’s contributions list an
address that is a Mailboxes Etc. storefront in New York, and it also lists his
occupation as a newscaster for NBC Television.
News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, came under fire from liberals during
the past election cycle for its contributions to the Republican Governors
Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
On Oct. 7, Olbermann had House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) on his show to
discuss the donations. At one point, he asked Clyburn: “Is there a legislative
response to the idea that there is a national cable-news outlet that goes beyond
having a point of view and actually starts to shill for partisan causes and
actually starts to donate to partisan groups of one party?”
Olbermann’s contributions came amid a brutal campaign season for Democrats.
Giffords had appeared on Olbermann’s program in May, as did Conway. During his
more recent broadcasts, Olbermann also made frequent references to the “Aqua
Buddha” controversy involving Conway’s Republican Senate rival, Rand Paul, who
handily won election Tuesday.
Grijalva, a prominent liberal who was just declared a winner in his race
Thursday night, was in a tight contest against tea-party-backed candidate Ruth
McClung when he appeared on "Countdown" — one of several appearances he made on
the show.
Grijalva had seemed to be in a safe race until the month before the election,
when he became targeted by outside groups. In mid-October, national Democratic
interests began putting money into his district to compete with fundraising for
McClung from outside conservative groups.
On Oct. 28, Grijalva went on Olbermann’s show and fielded questions about a
story linking profit motives of private prisons to Arizona's new immigration
crackdown. It was the sixth time Grijalva had appeared on "Countdown" in a
little more than the past six months.
Grijalva not only opposed the immigration law — known as S.B. 1070 — but
inadvertently put himself in electoral jeopardy by calling for an economic
boycott of his own home state in response, a move that didn't go over so well
with cash-strapped Arizonans.
"It's almost extraordinary to believe that once we got past the original phony
reason for it, which was security at the border, when obviously it didn't
pertain to that whatsoever, that the real reason behind that was well, this is
to intimidate people of Hispanic descent. Well, it turns out there's an even
more base, cynical reason behind it. Am I wrong about this?" Olbermann asked.
"Is there anything you can tell us about the relationship between these private
prisons and the lawmakers who supported this monstrosity of a bill?”
Grijalva responded: "It is a wonderful I-told-you-so moment."
Keach Hagey contributed to this report.
SHARE:
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web
interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
|
