MSNBC gives Olbermann and Matthews the boot....

[MobBoss]

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/0...-matthews-booted-from-political-night-duties/

Keith Olbermann may be the “voice” of MSNBC, but network executives have decided to yank the talkmeister off its politican anchor desk after the cable channel finishing dead last in the Nielsen rankings of all news coverage during the two weeks of political conventions.

The network announced Monday that Olbermann and Chris Matthews have both been booted as co-hosts on political night coverage in favor of David Gregory, whose White House press corps experience may make him better suited to deliver sober and less opinion-driven assessments of the news.

All summer, MSNBC executives have fought off complaints that Olbermann and Matthews, the network’s top commentators, could serve in the role of impartial newsmen. Those complaints reached a crescendo last week when Olbermann, reporting on the Republican National Convention from New York rather than St. Paul, apologized to the audience after the channel aired a Sept. 11 video tribute crafted by the RNC.

I guess they werent 'fair and balanced' enough for your average viewer.

Cause if they were....they would see this:

FOX News Channel topped all broadcast and cable networks with 9.2 million viewers on each of the last two nights of the convention. MSNBC got barely more than a quarter of Fox’s total –2.5 million viewers.

Ding! We have a winner.

Even Jon Stewart got his licks in:

Asked about the internal fighting at MSNBC, NBC anchor Brian Williams tried to smooth ruffled feathers during an appearance on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” last week.

“Is there no control?” asked host Jon Stewart. “Is it ‘Lord of the Flies’?”

Williams replied that every family has a dynamic of its own.

“But does MSNBC have to be the Lohans?” Stewart said.

Ouch.

So, despite all of our membership lamenting over Foxnews...it does seem to be winning the ratings wars. Is this because it is indeed more balanced than most? Or is it because the country is filled to the brim with conservative pinheads?

 

[Erik Mesoy]

So, despite all of our membership lamenting over Foxnews...it does seem to be winning the ratings wars. Is this because it is indeed more balanced than most? Or is it because the country is filled to the brim with conservative pinheads?

I have a third option: conservatives watch more TV, liberals use more computer.

 

[Abaddon]

So, despite all of our membership lamenting over Foxnews...it does seem to be winning the ratings wars. Is this because it is indeed more balanced than most? Or is it because the country is filled to the brim with conservative pinheads?

Or that the masses are idiots?

Its sugar coated candy pop ~ no wonder it appeals to those not wanting to think

 

[mrt144]

MobBoss, where did you draw these illogical conclusions from?

 

[GenMarshall]

I have a third option: conservatives watch more TV, liberals use more computer.

I second that statement.

 

[LesCanadiens]

So, despite all of our membership lamenting over Foxnews...it does seem to be winning the ratings wars. Is this because it is indeed more balanced than most? Or is it because the country is filled to the brim with conservative pinheads?

You guys have all the respect, BUT WE HAVE ALL THE MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/rightwingblowhard]

 

[Mark1031]

So, despite all of our membership lamenting over Foxnews...it does seem to be winning the ratings wars. Is this because it is indeed more balanced than most? Or is it because the country is filled to the brim with conservative pinheads?

I'll go with number 2 for the win Bob.

I like Olberman and Mathews shows but you can't have 2 egomaniacs co-hosting. Throw in that obnoxious Scarborough and it is a mess. They need to stay on their own shows where they are king. David Gregory is a putz. Chuck Todd is the best straight up political reporter they have. They should go with him and that woman, the young one not Andrea.

 

[downtown]

This was absolutely the right call. Keith and the rest of the stupid fights they were having has become a distraction for the network, and turned MSNBC's coverage of the conventions into a running joke in the media community. Keith should be banished to Sportscenter, and Mathews and Chuck Todd (one of the straight up bests in the industry), ought to take the lead.

 

[Mark1031]

Keith provides a perspective that is absent from mainstream media and really has at times done what reporters should, confront BS. Mathews is too even moreso and in a more balanced way, he humiliated an Obama supporter who couldn;t name anything Obama had done. That is their job to confront BS and I like both of them. They both tho have annoying personalities and massive egos that are not appropriate for the guy in the anchor seat running a show like the convention. And together it is a disaster.

 

[MobBoss]

I have a third option: conservatives watch more TV, liberals use more computer.

Nah, tons of liberals watch tv too (Oprah anyone?), perhaps they just dont watch news.

Or that the masses are idiots?

No, I dont think thats it as its way too easy a cop-out. Not to mention quite elitist to actually believe.

Its sugar coated candy pop ~ no wonder it appeals to those not wanting to think

Again, I disagree and this description is in of itself a strawman to the actual issue at hand. If it appealed to those not wanting to think, they would be watching Jerry Springer or some other crap.

I'll go with number 2 for the win Bob.

Of course you would. Do you describe your students as a bunch of conservative pinheads too?

I like Olberman and Mathews sho

Why am I not surprised? And yet, you would take someone to task for watching Hannity or Bill O?

This was absolutely the right call. Keith and the rest of the stupid fights they were having has become a distraction for the network, and turned MSNBC's coverage of the conventions into a running joke in the media community. Keith should be banished to Sportscenter, and Mathews and Chuck Todd (one of the straight up bests in the industry), ought to take the lead.

A fair and balanced observation DT. I applaud you.

 

[MobBoss]

Keith provides a perspective that is absent from mainstream media and really has at times done what reporters should, confront BS.

Olbermann is merely the Michael Savage of the left. Thats about it.

 

[GenMarshall]

Nah, tons of liberals watch tv too (Oprah anyone?), perhaps they just dont watch news.

Ever heard of newspapers? They're still around .

 

[LucyDuke]

Nah, tons of liberals watch tv too (Oprah anyone?), perhaps they just dont watch news.

If conservatives are watching FNC, they're not watching news either.

 

[LesCanadiens]

Ed Murrow too had to deal with constant smears of being a leftist hack in his day.

 

[skadistic]

If conservatives are watching FNC, they're not watching news either.

Except when they are. Otherwise they are watching the prime time editorials.

When FOXnews runs an AP report it is news just like when CNN runs the same report.

 

[Abaddon]

Ed Murrow too had to deal with constant smears of being a leftist hack in his day.

What kinda stuff got pulled about him?

 

[z_step18]

Olbermann is merely the Michael Savage of the left. Thats about it.

Except he doesn't spout out quite as absurd statements as "kids diagnosed with autism are faking it" and he doesn't give money to soldiers involved in the Haditha killings. Keith Olbermann, as annoying as he is, has a little more decency than that, in my opinion.

That being said, I think what MSNBC did was the right thing.

 

[LucyDuke]

Except when they are. Otherwise they are watching the prime time editorials.

When FOXnews runs an AP report it is news just like when CNN runs the same report.

Joke, dude. All the networks air garbage with their news. FNC just airs the highest proportion of garbage to news.

 

[LesCanadiens]

What kinda stuff got pulled about him?

When he took on McCarthy, the right wingers in the media started claiming he was a Communist/Soviet agent working to discredit McCarthy. Completely fictional.

It turns out, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Because Keith Olbermann mentions Bush's failures, that must mean that he's a left wing hack, just like Murrow. It can't be that Bush has actually done bad things, just like McCarthy.

 

[DragonHawk]

Boo.. there goes the entertainment value of MSNBC. Watching the bickering between the co-hosts is more entertaining than the actual coverage.