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| MSNBC/AP |
In general, it is always a very scary situation that brings up a lot of ethical questions when a journalist wants to take an active part in politics - due to the hope that journalists would be objective without publicly portraying their own personal biases while apart of a news outlet - news outlets such as MSNBC have their own specifics within the contract.
The AP article explains what NBC News contract entails:
"NBC News prohibits its employees from working on, or donating to, political campaigns unless a special exception is granted by the news division president — effectively a ban. Olbermann's bosses did not find out about the donations until after they were made. The website Politico first reported the donations."
Olbermann has made NBC aware that he donated $2,400 to the campaigns of Jack Conway, Raul Grivalva and Gabrielle Giffords.
It is interesting to note that Fox News is all for letting their hosts donate to politics - Sean Hannity is very open with his donations & News Corp (Fox's parent company) donated $1 million last summer to the Republican Governor's Association (Fox still claims not to have any conservative bias).
Jon Stewart says it best when he interviewed Fox's Chris Wallace and called MSNBC a "double-A ball" in comparison to Fox:
"You can't defeat Fox by becoming what they say you are. The only way you can defeat them is by an earned credibility, not an earned partisanship. They're making a mistake by becoming an equivalent to Fox rather than a brand new journalistic organization."
This is a quite controversial matter that will definitely be reported on more in depth in posts to come.
LOL Darn it - you beat me to it on this report!! Good Job!
ReplyDeleteIt is rare that I get humor, my dad said I was born without a funny bone. But I try and sometimes I find humor in Red Eye. That of fatigue makes me giddy. I agree with “writer” did they not know that Olbermann was a democrat, it is hard to imagine that over the years Keith never gave to a candidate.
ReplyDeleteIt come’s down to appearance. Also, NBC seems to find difficulty with their very unbiased sister network. Griffin wanted to look strong, that they would bust someone’s chops as opposed to FOXNEWS that hasn’t the same mandate of their talent. Although April 15 Hannity’s show was canceled from a teaparty event it blurred the issue and Hannity was also promoting his book etc.
I watched a bit of Maddow last night, and she addressed Keith’s suspension, oops NO, she addressed FOXNEWS at nauseam, showing all their questionable talent, money and contributors. How the hell does MSNBC always go to FOXNEWS before addressing their own misdeeds, Ms Maddow stick is getting really old.