Kieth Olbermann

I am posting this because I have long wondered some of the same things. Keith has done a great deal to lead a change in newscasting.

*ZNet | Mainstream Media*

*Is Olbermann on Thin Ice?*

*by Jeff Cohen; October 07, 2006*

I fear for Keith Olbermann.

Like so many others who hunger for some journalistic

independence on TV news, I often marvel at Olbermann’s dogged

reporting and unique commentary. In a cable news environment of

conformity and conservatism, the MSNBC host takes on the Bush

administration for “demonizing dissent,” for abusing our

Constitutional traditions, for “taking cynical advantage of the

unanimity and love [following 9/11], and transmuting it into

fraudulent war and needless death.”

Only Olbermann talks about Team Bush “monstrously transforming

[9/11 unity] into fear and suspicion, and turning that fear into

the campaign slogan of three elections.” He was virtually alone

on TV news in seriously reporting on 2004 election

irregularities in Ohio, and in exploring the pre-Iraq war

Downing Street Memos indicating White House deception. In

recent months, his prime targets seem to have evolved from

softer ones like Bill O’Reilly to bigger game: Bush and his

minions.

It’s worth noting that strong criticism of an extremist

presidency hardly makes Olbermann a leftist. I remember him as

the whimsical sports guy on ESPN. I remember his first go-round

on MSNBC in 1998 when he could have sued his bosses for

repetitive stress disorder for having to host scores of Lewinsky

episodes on the road to Clinton’s impeachment – an impeachment

that may well have been impossible if not for the complicity of

TV news.

It’s obvious his bosses at MSNBC/NBC/GE never envisioned the

increasingly bold Olbermann of recent months. It’s likely that

Olbermann himself could not have foreseen his current role as

the lone voice of those who feel assaulted by a cable news

business dominated by the O’Reillys and Hannitys.

So why do I fear for Olbermann? Because I know his bosses. In

the runup to the Iraq war, I too worked for MSNBC – as an on-air

pundit and a senior producer on the primetime /Donahue/ show.

As I detail in my book /Cable News Confidential: My

Misadventures in Corporate Media

/

the Suits at MSNBC/NBC muzzled us and ultimately terminated us.

They feared independent journalism and serious dissent. They

smeared Bush critics, with MSNBC’s editor-in-chief actually

going on air – without evidence – to accuse Iraq WMD skeptic

Scott Ritter of being a paid agent of Saddam Hussein.

Olbermann has been gaining in audience ratings. That provides

him some security. But perhaps not enough.

When /Donahue/ was terminated three weeks before the Iraq

invasion, it was MSNBC’s most watched program. Canceling your

top-rated show doesn’t happen often, but it happened to

/Donahue/. Who knows what will happen to Olbermann?

With /Donahue/, management cared less about building up audience

than tamping down dissent. While independent outlets and blogs

were soaring in audience by questioning the rush to war, our

bosses imposed straightjackets on us that prevented similar

growth.

In the last months of /Donahue/, management gave us strict

orders: if we booked a guest who was antiwar, we needed two who

were pro-war. If we booked two guests on the left, we needed

three on the right. When a producer proposed booking Michael

Moore, she was told she’d need three rightwingers for

ideological balance.

Olbermann’s increasingly bold dissent has been occurring at a

time when Bush’s approval ratings are low and Bush’s war is in

shambles. That gives him some added security.

During /Donahue/’s tenure at MSNBC on the eve of war, Bush’s

popularity was high. And media conglomerates were particularly

concerned about not ruffling the White House at that moment – as

they were lobbying hard to get FCC rules changed to allow them

to grow still fatter.

The day after /Donahue/ was terminated, an internal NBC memo

leaked out; it said that Phil Donahue represents “a difficult

public face for NBC in a time of war.” Why? Because he insisted

on presenting administration critics. The memo worried that

/Donahue/ would become a “home for the liberal antiwar agenda at

the same time that our competitors are waving the flag at every

opportunity.”

NBC’s solution then? Dump Phil, stifle dissent, brandish the flag.

NBC’s solution now? So far, Olbermann appears to be on more

solid footing – mostly because the political zeitgeist is much

changed from four years ago.

But MSNBC is still owned by GE’s conservative bosses, and

managed by NBC’s ever-timid executives. Olbermann knows this

reality as well as anyone; six months ago on C-SPAN, while

expressing confidence that good ratings would keep them at bay,

he remarked: “There are people I know in the hierarchy of NBC,

the company, and GE, the company, who do not like to see the

current presidential administration criticized at all.”

I’m pulling for Olbermann; I’m one of the multitudes who find

his commentaries online (perhaps more see them on the Web than

on TV) – and forward them far and wide.

But with each new broadside against the Bush administration, I

fear for his future. His best security is us, an active

citizenry. It’s media activism, organized heavily on the Net.

It’s media watchdogs like FAIR.org, MediaMatters.org and

MediaChannel.org. It’s the movement that resisted the FCC

changes in 2003, challenged Sinclair Broadcast propaganda before

the ’04 election, and recently exposed the 9/11 “hijacking” of

ABC by rightwing Clinton-bashers.

In the epilogue of /Cable News Confidential/, I laud this

movement: “My only regret was that such a potent movement had

not coalesced by 2002 – to flex its muscles against MSNBC brass

in defense of an unfettered /Donahue/.”

If Olbermann gets muzzled or terminated for political reasons,

it will be up to us to fight – not only for him, but for the

concept that without serious dissent, democracy is a sham.

* * *

Jeff Cohen http://www.jeffcohen.org/ is the founder of the media

watch group FAIR http://www.fair.org/index.php, and author of

/Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media/

http://www.cablenewsconfidential.com/.