http://thinkprogress.org/2010/11/05/burke-comcast-msnbc/
QuoteEarlier today, MSNBC declared that it would be suspending progressive host Keith Olbermann because he violated NBC's ethics rules by donating to three Democratic candidates for Congress. As many bloggers have noted, conservative MSNBC host Joe Scarborough has donated to Republican candidates for Congress while promoting the same candidate on air, but has never been disciplined. Moreover, Gawker notes that MSNBC has been exempt from the formal NBC ethics rules for years. It is still a mystery why MSNBC selectively applied NBC's ethics rules to Olbermann. However, it important to realize that MSNBC has undergone a fundamental change in leadership in the last two months.
Late last year, Comcast — the nation's largest cable provider and second largest Internet service provider — inked a deal taking over NBC Universal, the parent company of MSNBC. Comcast moved swiftly to reshuffle MSNBC's top staff. On September 26th of this year, Comcast announced perhaps the most dramatic shift, replacing longtime MSNBC chief Jeff Zucker with Comcast executive Steve Burke. Burke has given generous amounts to both parties — providing cash to outgoing Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) as well as to Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) and other top Republicans. But as Public Citizen has noted, Burke has deep ties to the Republican Party. Public Citizen's report reveals that Burke served as a key fundraiser to President George Bush, and even served on Bush's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology:
Comcast – the country's largest provider of cable TV and broadband Internet services – has increased its political giving along with its mergers and acquisitions. CEO Brian Roberts was a co-chairman of the host committee at the 2000 Republican Convention. Comcast Cable President Stephen Burke has raised at least $200,000 for Bush's re-election campaign. [...] Comcast's political giving has increased along with its mergers and acquisitions. The company was a "platinum sponsor" at the 2000 GOP convention, and Roberts was a co-chairman of the host committee at the Philadelphia event. Burke was appointed to the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology in 2002.
Why would Comcast be interested in silencing progressive voices? Historically, Comcast has boosted its profits by buying up various telecommunication and media content companies — instead of providing faster Internet or better services (overall, American broadband services are far slower than in many industrialized nations). Many of these mergers, as Public Citizen and Free Press have reported, have been allowed by regulators because of Comcast's considerable political muscle. Comcast's latest regulatory battle has been to oppose Net Neutrality — a rule allowing a free and open Internet — because the company would prefer to have customers pay for preferred online content.
Olbermann has been a strong voice in favor of a free and open Internet. Republicans, on the other hand, have supported the telecommunication industry's push to radically change the Internet so corporate content producers have the upper hand over start-ups like blogs, independent media, small businesses, etc. As Reuters has reported, the incoming Republican Congress has signaled that it will vigorously side with companies like Comcast against an open Internet.
It is not clear why MSNBC has selectively suspended Olbermann indefinitely without pay — but the move showcases the limits of the corporate media. While modern technology has created a seeming multitude of entertainment and television choices, the reality of corporate media consolidation has resulted in fewer investigative news options and less voices in the media with a critical perspective on powerful business interests. Olbermann has stood out as a voice for working people in a media universe dominated by "reality television" and business lobbyists posing as political pundits. It is unfortunate that Comcast and MSNBC have chosen to suspend him.
I heard about this. Thought I must have misheard because the whole thing sounds *insane*.
Just goes to prove that absurdity is a bad indicator of reality.
Well, there goes the concept of the "liberal" media, eh?
I hope KO starts a blog and keeps shouting. Or better yet, joins BoingBoing.
Quote from: Sigmatic on November 06, 2010, 01:12:25 AM
I hope KO starts a blog and keeps shouting. Or better yet, joins BoingBoing.
He'll get picked up elsewhere. ABC, probably.
Rumors are flying that he will never go back on the air at MSNBC.
I'm canceling my cable, this is the last straw... netflix and hulu will have to be enough
Quote from: Pēleus on November 06, 2010, 02:31:46 AM
I'm canceling my cable, this is the last straw... netflix and hulu will have to be enough
But what about the History Channel? Sure they've given up on cool stuff like the Romans, the Civil War and the Third Reich in favor of Bible Code, Naked Archaeologist, Nostradamus and UFO stuff, but it's the History Channel!
Quote from: Doktor Blight on November 06, 2010, 03:28:10 AM
Quote from: Pēleus on November 06, 2010, 02:31:46 AM
I'm canceling my cable, this is the last straw... netflix and hulu will have to be enough
But what about the History Channel? Sure they've given up on cool stuff like the Romans, the Civil War and the Third Reich in favor of Bible Code, Naked Archaeologist, Nostradamus and UFO stuff, but it's the History Channel!
:rimshot:
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on November 06, 2010, 02:12:47 AM
Quote from: Sigmatic on November 06, 2010, 01:12:25 AM
I hope KO starts a blog and keeps shouting. Or better yet, joins BoingBoing.
He'll get picked up elsewhere. ABC, probably.
Rumors are flying that he will never go back on the air at MSNBC.
Never doesn't exist in politics.
Quote from: Doktor Blight on November 06, 2010, 03:28:10 AM
Quote from: Pēleus on November 06, 2010, 02:31:46 AM
I'm canceling my cable, this is the last straw... netflix and hulu will have to be enough
But what about the History Channel? Sure they've given up on cool stuff like the Romans, the Civil War and the Third Reich in favor of Bible Code, Naked Archaeologist, Nostradamus and UFO stuff, but it's the History Channel!
some of that stuff im sure is on netflix as they also have tv series
and im trying to get Thetis to agree to this by telling her what we pay for cable we can get a dvd boxset per month.
FUCK NBC, first Conan now Keith, it will only get worse if FCC lets them merge with comcast
and what happen to having channels going À la carte? why am i paying for 500 channels of crap when i mostly just watch two or three networks and maybe surf a show or two.
I've got no love for Olbermann, but this is still pretty shady.
I personally think all reporters who are willing to shill, monetarily or otherwise for a political party should get fired...but that's why I'm not allowed to run a major news company.
Quote from: Liam on November 06, 2010, 11:57:01 AM
you can pirate history and natgrap from pretty much any streaming cast of the sop variety, other than that hulu eztv and torrents do for us.
Yeah, I got a bigass 1.5TB external harddisk and download all the shit you can think of onto it.
Even legally without torrents there's a LOT of documentaries out there for free, on places like Google Video. All you need is a little tool (http://rg3.github.com/youtube-dl/) so you can download those big streaming videos for offline viewing. Not entirely necessary, but I prefer it that way, get a link to some interesting two hour long documentary, I save the video to my HD for watching later. Easier than bookmarking it, having to see if it's still there, get distracted by the shiny browser internets, plus you get to use a proper video/media player (like VLC) making rewinding, fastforwarding and skipping easier, and it's all in the same formats as your other movies/clips.
I dunno, maybe I'm being slightly old-fashioned, but I generally don't like watching streaming video in the browser. I even download most Youtube links posted here, for watching later on. Though recently I saw Youtube has this new (maybe just new to Opera) feature where you could queue videos. It could be a bit more user-friendly, but it was a nice touch. Is it new, or is it just that they only recently activated it for Opera? (Google does that) Though I could only figure out how to queue new clips that were in the "related" videos and by surfing around on Youtube adding them, not sure how I'd queue, say, the last 5 videos posted in the Youtube-thread ... anybody?
BTW when you're just downloading streaming videos, you don't need a bigass 1.5B harddisk, they are generally compressed a lot, and less than half the size of a torrented movie of similar length.
Strangely enough, I never really liked history documentaries. I always prefer books, when it comes to that subject.
Quote from: Cain on November 06, 2010, 01:36:29 PM
I personally think all reporters who are willing to shill, monetarily or otherwise for a political party should get fired...but that's why I'm not allowed to run a major news company.
Olbermann's job is pretty much solely to shill for the Democrats though, so there's a bit of an inconsistency here.
I'm fully aware of that.
That's why I qualified my sentence with "all journalists" and placed the emphasis on the all, instead of saying I agreed with his sacking.
Please, give me a little credit for not being a total moron.
Quote from: Cain on November 06, 2010, 01:36:29 PM
I personally think all reporters who are willing to shill, monetarily or otherwise for a political party should get fired...but that's why I'm not allowed to run a major news company.
I couldn't agree more, I just think it's shady that they shit on Olbermann about it after letting Scarborough get away with it forever.
Quote from: First City Hustle on November 06, 2010, 04:03:26 PM
Quote from: Cain on November 06, 2010, 01:36:29 PM
I personally think all reporters who are willing to shill, monetarily or otherwise for a political party should get fired...but that's why I'm not allowed to run a major news company.
I couldn't agree more, I just think it's shady that they shit on Olbermann about it after letting Scarborough get away with it forever.
Journalistic integrity has been dead for years now, replaced with journalism as a mouthpiece, or journalism as entertainment.
Absolutely. That's why when I want actual news, I tend to get it from the BBC or the Singapore Strait Times.
Yes, this is thoroughly inconsistent with what is practiced, but not with what is claimed. I remember a post by Cain somewhere awhile back to the effect that the notion of truth in conservative news is pomo whereas that of liberal news is positivist.
I wonder if Olbermann didn't deliberately enact this in order to spark some outrage and add fuel to the fire on the Democratic side of things. If he was aware of and counting on the enforcement of the policy, his maneuver was well played.
000 you seen children of men doc? (Not talking about the movie)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7881563546997983623
Quote from: Cain on November 06, 2010, 02:11:57 PM
Strangely enough, I never really liked history documentaries. I always prefer books, when it comes to that subject.
Some of them used to be really good years ago, before ppl realized they could entertain instead.
Haven't watched cable in such a long time I don't think I would even enjoy it if I had it. It's funny how that works. Only thing I watch on cable is football, and I usually prefer going to the school pub for that.
Quote from: Thurnez Isa on November 07, 2010, 02:06:59 AM
Quote from: Cain on November 06, 2010, 02:11:57 PM
Strangely enough, I never really liked history documentaries. I always prefer books, when it comes to that subject.
Some of them used to be really good years ago, before ppl realized they could entertain instead.
Haven't watched cable in such a long time I don't think I would even enjoy it if I had it. It's funny how that works. Only thing I watch on cable is football, and I usually prefer going to the school pub for that.
Well, I admit a grudging respect for Adam Curtis, naturally, and I hear Simon Schama is good, though I've never gotten around to watching him.
I'd also like to point out ITT that MSNBC was totally in the tank for the Iraq War, to the point it fired it's only dissenting presenter. Yes, later on it hired Olbermann, Maddow etc but only once public opinion started to turn against the war
anyway.
I believe there is an ancient haiku which explains this problem quite well:
News corps are pussies
Only attack when weakness is sensed
Lay off entrenched pols and policies
So it's not so much than MSNBC has gone over to the dark side, it has been there quite a while. Olbermann and Maddow just made them look "fair and balanced" during the 2006-9 Democratic resurgence. In fact, I'm going to add to my additional statement and say not only should reporters who cannot even hide their political affiliations well be sacked (or moved to "Op-Ed" shows, with constant warnings about factual hazards that may result from watching them), but any manager who hires someone to bring "political balance" to their coverage should also be fired.
It occurs to me that, with the downturn in accurate reporting and foreign reporting in particular in the past twenty years, anyone who could actually make money off of accurate reporting, as opposed to producing pleasing hagiography for their political masters and favoured ideologies, would be an especially powerful and dangerous figure in world politics. I mean, even intelligence agencies suffer from problems of ideological contamination in their analysis and presentation of information.
Quote from: Requia ☣ on November 06, 2010, 03:25:18 PM
Quote from: Cain on November 06, 2010, 01:36:29 PM
I personally think all reporters who are willing to shill, monetarily or otherwise for a political party should get fired...but that's why I'm not allowed to run a major news company.
Olbermann's job is pretty much solely to shill for the Democrats though, so there's a bit of an inconsistency here.
Not really. When Countdown started, it wasn't what it is today. It was pretty much just a straight ahead news hour. It started to shift after he introduced the "Worsts" segment and he slowly worked in more and more commentary and material that was very critical of the Bush administration, particularily the Iraq War. So it really evolved to what it is today. As it turned out the ratings grew along with the evolution. If the ratings had gone the other way MSNBC would probably be a lot closer to Fox News today than it is.
I can respect that NBC has standards compared to organizations like Fox News who $2400 donations to three candidates. Unless those three were running piss poor campaigns, Olbermann's donations were drops in the bucket. But if he does resign, they should replace him with Lawrence O'Donnel. I wasn't too keen on him at first when he filled in for Olbermann but he seems to have come into his own. Pretty tenacious when it comes to questioning.
Quote from: First City Hustle on November 06, 2010, 04:03:26 PM
Quote from: Cain on November 06, 2010, 01:36:29 PM
I personally think all reporters who are willing to shill, monetarily or otherwise for a political party should get fired...but that's why I'm not allowed to run a major news company.
I couldn't agree more, I just think it's shady that they shit on Olbermann about it after letting Scarborough get away with it forever.
This.
Looks like the suspension is ending soon and he'll be back on Tuesday.
Looks like MSNBC blinked.
Quote from: Pēleus on November 07, 2010, 01:37:32 AM
000 you seen children of men doc? (Not talking about the movie)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7881563546997983623
Grabbing. Thanks :) Will let you know when I watched it (might be a couple of months though).