Patterico's Pontifications

9/7/2008

MSNBC Names David Gregory as New Anchor; Olbermann and Matthews Remain as Analysts

Filed under: 2008 Election,Media Bias — DRJ @ 10:20 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

MSNBC has called a halt to the bold experiment pairing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews in the anchor chairs to lead the coverage of the 2008 election:

“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.”

NBC and MSNBC insiders offered a much more blunt assessment:

“In interviews, 10 current and former staff members said that long-simmering tensions between MSNBC and NBC reached a boiling point during the conventions. “MSNBC is behaving like a heroin addict,” one senior staff member observed. “They’re living from fix to fix and swearing they’ll go into rehab the next week.”

MSNBC claims its coverage is passionate, not biased or left-leaning. Nevertheless, the article confirms NBC anchors Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams were finding it “tougher and tougher” to defend MSNBC’s coverage.

It also suggests Keith Olbermann stayed in New York during the Republican Convention in part due to fear for his safety.

Olbermann probably had little to fear but the same can’t be said for Republicans. Recently published affidavits detail anarchists’ plans to stretch chains across a nearby highway, kidnap delegates and disrupt the Republican Convention with “burning tires, urine and feces, and explosives including Molotov cocktails.” Other plans included “posing as workers or volunteers to sneak into the convention hall and block its outside air intake vent, … using street puppets to hide weapons, and throwing marbles to trip up police horses and pedestrians.”

— DRJ

19 Responses to “MSNBC Names David Gregory as New Anchor; Olbermann and Matthews Remain as Analysts”

  1. Olbermann has paid the price for his lack of control. The fact that ABC is getting the first Palin interview has to have influenced the decision.

    Mike K (155601)

  2. “It also suggests Keith Olbermann stayed in New York during the Republican Convention in part due to fear for his safety.”

    In His Bath Tub!!!

    Keith’s sense of self-importance is way to inflated, sort of like SEK.

    daleyrocks (d9ec17)

  3. If Brokaw and Williams were finding it tougher and tougher to defend the MSNBC coverage, I’m wondering how they aren’t able to look at their own coverage and see the biases….

    But, that would be digressing, wouldn’t it???

    reff (b68a4f)

  4. There were also reports of thrown bleach.

    Al (b624ac)

  5. Olbermann stayed in New York so he could ‘console’ Andrew Sullivan.

    Icy Truth (a1fb87)

  6. I’ve been a big keith olbermann fan for a long time, but lately I do find myself wincing at his overt bias, especially over the last couple of months. Come on keith, reign it in a bit and tilt a little more toward the center. It really won’t hurt all that much.

    William Eisenhood (b8b177)

  7. Good luck with your advice to OlberDorkcome on keith, reign it in a bit and tilt a little more toward the center…he is way too far gone to heed any advice, he has become toxic even the foolish few of his ardent supporters are ashamed! Olberdork will be lucky to remain employed till election day.

    Moultrie (0c2c01)

  8. This is the MSM admitting that they are biased towards the loony left of the Democrat party. This is history!

    PCD (5c49b0)

  9. HaHaHaHa. DAVID GREGORY as the voice of moderation?!

    brobin (c07c20)

  10. The media will be relentless with their relentless attacks on Palin. I hope she can take it. Laura Ingraham said “you haven’t seen anything yet”.

    BTW, would you like a Link Exchange with my Site COMMON CENTS?
    http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com

    Steve (126192)

  11. I cannot think of a worse anchor or analyist than Olberman. There is not one.

    JD (75f5c3)

  12. Yeah, I am not a very good speller.

    JD (75f5c3)

  13. It also suggests Keith Olbermann stayed in New York during the Republican Convention in part due to fear for his safety.

    Comical…

    It would seem only the left assumes that the people in charge of safety won’t do their job and would allow such things. Hell, even I would have stepped up and slugged anyone taking a pot-shot at the Olberdouch, and I loath the man like few others.

    I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that people like Olberdouch assume the police would stand aside and allow them to be attacked… After all, they stand by while Michelle Malkin is assaulted and folks shouted “kill Malkin”…

    Scott Jacobs (a1c284)

  14. It also suggests Keith Olbermann stayed in New York

    In his Panic Room

    rhodeymark (e86321)

  15. …using street puppets to hide weapons, and throwing marbles to trip up police horses and pedestrians.”

    Flounder: May I have ten thousand marbles, please?

    capitano (211a15)

  16. suggests Keith Olbermann stayed in New York during the Republican Convention in part due to fear for his safety.

    This is the biggest pile of steaming cowdung I have seen in a while.

    JD (75f5c3)

  17. Maybe UberDemocratMann knew that MSNBC were passing out press credentials to Code Pink to disrupt the convention and figured that allowing him to get his just deserts would be the GOP retaliation.

    PCD (5c49b0)

  18. #12, JD said, “Yeah, I am not a very good speller.”

    It just proves you went to college. That’s all.

    Ropelight (49e412)

  19. “Hell, even I would have stepped up and slugged anyone taking a pot-shot at the Olberdouch…”

    Sorry, not me – I would’ve stepped aside and led him lead with his jawbone. That guy needs to understand that when you go over the line with this type of stuff, eventually real and actual human beings might eventually take offense. That’s why so many commentators on the left were surprised at those horrible balloons being pushed in Mitchell’s direction – “but why are they doing that? Are they somehow angry with her? What on earth for? What?”

    They need to step outside of their bubbles once in awhile – not only would they start to understand what decorum actually means, they also might become just a tad more circumspect the next time they begin tearing somebody down with incendiary language.

    Dmac (e639cc)


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