Good move. Keith deserves his own show, as does Matthews.
But their bias defines them both and neither ever belonged in the anchor chair for the big dances.
MSNBC Takes Incendiary Hosts From Anchor Seat
By BRIAN STELTER
MSNBC tried a bold experiment this year by putting two politically incendiary hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, in the anchor chair to lead the cable news channel’s coverage of the election.
That experiment appears to be over.
After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage.
The change — which comes in the home stretch of the long election cycle — is a direct result of tensions associated with the channel’s perceived shift to the political left.
“The most disappointing shift is to see the partisan at ude move from prime time into what’s supposed to be straight news programming,” said Davidson Goldin, formerly the editorial director of MSNBC and a co-founder of the reputation management firm DolceGoldin.
Executives at the channel’s parent company, NBC Universal, had high hopes for MSNBC’s coverage of the political conventions. Instead, the coverage frequently descended into on-air squabbles between the anchors, embarrassing some workers at NBC’s news division, and quite possibly alienating viewers. Although MSNBC nearly doubled its total audience compared with the 2004 conventions, its compe ive position did not improve, as it remained in last place among the broadcast and cable news networks. In prime time, the channel averaged 2.2 million viewers during the Democratic convention and 1.7 million viewers during the Republican convention.
The success of the Fox News Channel in the past decade along with the growth of political blogs have convinced many media companies that provocative commentary attracts viewers and lures Web browsers more than straight news delivered dispassionately. ........................
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/08/bu...nt&oref=slogin
Good move. Keith deserves his own show, as does Matthews.
But their bias defines them both and neither ever belonged in the anchor chair for the big dances.
I'm a fan of Olbermann, but even I was pretty turned off by his blatant Obama -sucking after the candidate's speech at the DNC. Good move by MSNBC if they hope to maintain a reputation as a moderately unbiased network.
about time someone gets the nads to say enough of the partisan BS.
I definitely get it with Olberman...I'm not quite sure why Matthews got bumped. Matthews is infinitely more likeable than Oblerman...and I consider Matthews to be much more of a true liberal.
Olberman is a disaster....I think I'd rather watch Michael Moore anchor the news.
He needs to be kept on his show so I know when not to watch.
I like the fact that Olbermann makes no bones about his biases and doesn't try to pretend to be objective in his reporting. That fact, however, suggests to me that it's journalistically wrong (and always has been) to have him be the primary news reporter for a major media outlet. I can understand the notion that Olbermann was intended to be a leftist foil to the right-ism (perceived or not) of Fox News, but I have thought for quite a while that Olbermann had taken that too far for someone purporting to report the news.
Olbermann is no wallflower and is not shy about tooting his own horn. He has rubbed others at MSobamaNBC the wrong way. Matthews was a big Hillary supporter and there were clashes with Olbermann in the past. There was another throw down on air with morning Joe and others . Lots of nasty stuff posted on U-TUBE.
If you think Gregory is unbiased, you haven't been paying enough attention
MSNBC and it's parent company, and war profiteer, GM, show their true colors and paint this move as 'the end of an experiment in bias news reporting' by replacing highly successful shows with a, you guessed it, wing-nut biased news reporter...
Greenwald, SalonMSNBC's announcement that it is replacing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews with David Gregory as anchors for its main political events (the upcoming presidential debates and election) vividly illustrates several long-obvious facts. First, nothing changes the behavior of our media corporations more easily than vocal demands and complaints from the Right, which petrify media executives and cause them to snap into line. From today's New York Times article identifying some of the causes for MSNBC's decision. In response to media criticism that the press is insufficiently substantive and adversarial to political power, the claim is frequently made that media outlets are simply driven by the profit motive, and that their programming choices are nothing more than a by-product of ratings. But in MSNBC's case, that is plainly untrue. Back in 2003, they actually canceled their highest-rated program, Phil Donahue's show, for purely ideological reasons -- because, at a time when the establishment "liberal media" were systematically amplifying the Government's pro-war views and excluding anti-war views, that short-lived MSNBC show was one of the only venues in America where one could hear anti-war viewpoints, and NBC's fear of angering the Government and the Right clearly caused them, first, to impose extreme and unusual restrictions on the show's content, and then to cancel it altogether.
Keith Olbermann said himself in a post on The Daily Kos that Donahue was not fired for ideological reasons. From what Olbermann said, Donahue's show was too expensive to produce and that Donahue was proving to be more and more difficult to work with.
...and Chris Matthews is a walk in the parK? Pleaze....
MSNBC is owned by General Electric...General Electric sells oil....Palin is a big-oil buddy.... ....Connect the dots.
'bout time they moved Matthews and Oberman, they were so annoying. Yet they were so "happy" at the DNC and "depressed as " at the RNC.
only good thing is Rachel Maddow. even though she's a lesbian she's a hottie and knows what's she's talking about. just as long as she keeps it neutral and not biased towards one side.
whoa whoa whoa. actually connect the dots from GE to Enron. then carbon credits and tell me who's in bed with whom.
Bwahahahahahaha!
They bumped Matthews and Olberman because they finished dead last in ratings
Spin that.
You never leave home without your tinfoil hat do you?
, I doubt you ever leave home at all.
I've connected the dots regarding your posts a number of times and concluded you are an idiot.
How's that alternative 9/11 theory, by the way?
Did Bush and Cheney plan it in a dark room in the Pentagon togther wit the EXXO and BP executives?
Don't stop there dan, only 3 more steps to Kevin Bacon.
Olberman's been disgraced, couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. All you Glenn Beck fans tune in, he's gonna have a field day with this.![]()
I concur. I think Matthews is not on the Palin/McCain bandwagon but Olberman doesn't belong as an anchor at all. Good move by MSNBC.
Yes, because it could not have been the pathetic weaksuace ratings MSNBC got during the RNC? They were dead ing last. They get 1.5 mil viewers, FOXNEWS gets 9.5 mil, NBC gets 7.5 mil.
It's a business, and their two main guys blew it. Olberman is a bag and Matthews is a jester. Time for CHANGE LOL
Oh, brother!
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Ironically, he got the boot the day after this little tantrum.
I agree with Whott that Matthews (even though he does get a "thrill up his leg" when he hears Obama speak) is not nearly as unlikeable as Keith Olbmermann.
so i guess if he's upset over that video that he wont be going to work all of this week for obvious reasons.
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