Keith Olbermann

The kerfuffle over MSNBC’s “indefinite suspension” of Keith Olbermann for giving contributions to three Congressional candidates is hilarious in one respect: That MSNBC’s brass thinks of Olbermann as a journalist and their own network as a “news” network. Puh-leeeze.

The rules at NBC News about political contributions by employees are not only sound, they are pretty standard throughout the world of journalism. Most news organizations think it’s important that the reporters, editors and producers who are responsible to telling fair and balanced stories don’t create the appearance of bias by working for a party or candidate or giving money to a campaign. In the case of NBC News there’s an exception with management approval. That seems totally reasonable and fair for journalists.

When I was a political reporter I never would have dreamed of giving money to a candidate. One colleague didn’t even register to vote fearing that the very act of making a private political choice would make him seem less impartial. That used to matter — in journalism — to journalists.

But who would mistake Olbermann — or any member of MSNBC’s prime-time liberal cabal — for a journalist? The only reason each has a show is because he or she has strong political biases and expresses those opinions with gusto and glee (OK, that Ed guy doesn’t seem very gleeful but the rest of them generally have fun). MSNBC in prime time is no more a network of journalism than is Fox. Both play flip sides of the same record. They fill hours and hours of airtime with bombastic, one-note hosts who “interview” (“jerk off” would be more accurate in most cases but I wouldn’t want to suggest that the supremely “manly” and homophobic hosts at Fox are in any way promoting the “gay lifestyle”) like-minded guests about issues and stories without ever bothering to acknowledge inconvenient facts. In this regard Olbermann goes toe-to-toe with his nemesis Bill O’Reilly every night — a mirror image echo chamber for liberal America. The New York Times got it right when it called KO the “anchor of…’The Democratic Nightly News’.”

Of course that’s not what the masters at Fox and MSNBC want the audience to think. These profitable networks promote the notion that what they peddle 24/7 is news and journalism. Despite the fact that Fox has insisted there’s a bright line between opinion and news, that seems awfully far-fetched when the network considers it’s latest blond star, Megyn Kelly, to be a “news” anchor and her bilious, hilariously hypocritcal show to be a “news” program. And so it is at MSNBC where NBC News personnel mix and mingle with their cable colleagues in sometimes uncomfortable ways. Uncomfortable at least for the journalists who believe their jobs in the Fourth Estate are actually important to the functioning operation of a democracy. Not that the audience would know the difference. But at least that tension exists at MSNBC. At Fox, news programming decisions appear to be made by the Republican National Committee and nobody bats an eye (partial props to Shep Smith here for being the only one at Fox to have the guts to at least try to report more than one side of an issue).

And so, back to Olbermann. MSNBC’s boss, Phil Griffin, had to act. Years ago local WNBC anchor Chuck Scarborough gave money to a favored Republican candidate and earned a slap on the wrist, but no suspension. But that was local TV news — hardly the place of high journalistic standards (Google “ratings sweeps TV news stories”). Had Brian Williams given money to those candidates suspension would have been warranted. But for Olbermann? It’s just silly.

Rachel Maddow waved the company flag Friday night, and bless her heart, it was almost convincing: “We are not a political operation. Fox is. We are a news operation. And the rules around here are part of how you know that.” That is, of course, poppycock. I fear Rachel’s been drinking a bit too much of the Kool Aid in the commissary. Sure, Maddow is the only host in prime time on MSNBC to work hard at bringing in guests who disagree with her on issues. And for that she deserves a lot of credit. In the vast sea of flabby reasoning, ridiculous lies and adversion to fact that is prime time cable “news”, Maddow is a beacon of reason. But she’s not a journalist and her network is not a “news operation.” MSNBC, like Fox, is in the business of entertaining political junkies. Their shows are acts in a circus. And to suspend the ringmaster for feeding the lions seems pretty absurd.