Olbermann-O'Reilly feud spreads; Parent companies embroiled in grudge match

[DeepModem Mom]

Variety: Olbermann-O'Reilly feud spreads
Parent companies embroiled in grudge match
By BRIAN LOWRY

....(A)nyone with a taste for mud wrestling or a pissing match has to enjoy the back-and-forth that has sprung from MSNBC host Olbermann's fateful decision to "punch up" at O'Reilly, Fox News' top-rated personality and his time-period rival. As for whether viewers or something so quaint as journalistic standards are "winning" in the eye-poking Three Stooges act that has ensued -- maybe not so much....For those who have somehow ignored this food fight, Olbermann started it by regularly jabbing at O'Reilly and naming him the "Worst Person in the World," a nightly segment on his MSNBC talker.

Thin-skinned in his best days, O'Reilly has grown especially sensitive to criticism (or as he's prone to call it, "vicious personal attacks," emanating from "vile left-wing smear sites") since the embarrassment of having a sexual-harassment suit filed against him in 2004. That irritation has rather transparently led him to retaliate against NBC higher-ups, including NBC News and even parent General Electric, going so far as to have a producer ambush GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, stretching to accuse him of shady dealings with Iran and, this week, of personally despoiling the Hudson River....

News Corp.'s assault, whether coordinated or not, is now happening. The company's New York Post Page Six column has joined the fray with several unflattering items about Olbermann. Those rumors are then parroted by Fox News' dimwitted morning show, "Fox & Friends," creating a circular echo chamber....Critics have long muttered about Murdoch -- more than any other mogul -- openly using his corporate assets to buttress each other and lash out at his foes. Even if it's not an orchestrated campaign -- as opposed to like-minded foot soldiers simply knowing what the boss wants -- the collaboration by Fox News and the (New York) Post in this particular endeavor has a bilious odor and doesn't provide much comfort to nervous journalists seeking reassurance that Murdoch won't lead his newest toy, the Wall Street Journal, stumbling down a similar credibility-sapping path.

NBC News, meanwhile, risks allowing its talk-driven personalities -- the mother's milk of cable, where loud and inexpensive is the formula -- to eclipse what little solid journalism the news division still generates. And while it was initially amusing watching Olbermann playfully try to nudge O'Reilly off the deep end, there's a significant difference between that and self-indulgently using his forum as a pulpit to bash enemies, which actually makes him more like his Fox counterpart than he would care to admit....

http://www.variety.com/VR1117988241.html

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. There's no business like show business ...

Actually, everything is show biz ..

[Faygo Kid]

2. Yes, Keith and O'Reilly are equally at fault. NOT.

I stand with Keith. Fuck O'Reilly, Murdoch, Faux News and the New York Post. Fascists who Goebbels would admire, but a threat to each and every decent citizen and our rights.

Dead enders for George W. Bush.

[tularetom]

3. Bullshit - it's STILL amusing watching Olbermann try to nudge O'Reilly off the deep end

When it comes to sheer pomposity and large fragile egos Billo has no equal in the world. Everybody's waiting for an on-camera meltdown complete with f-words, guys in white jackets and an extended vacation in a "rest" facility for treatment of a nervous condition brought on by overwork. We know it's gonna happen and we're like kids on christmas morning waiting for it. Probably half of the behind the scenes staff at the factor if the truth were known.

[World Citizen]

5. they are nazis...

oreally, fox and their ilk! Their tactics are an affront to the human race. Applause for KO's courage.

[Downtown Hound]

4. At this point, engaging in a sludge match with the likes of O'Lielly

and Faux Nooze is journalistic standards. Balance and objectivity is dead in the corporate media. Even though it had been dying for years, Fox was really the final nail in its coffin. At this point it's a brawl, and Olbermann didn't make it that way. We need more warriors like him to stand up to the fascists that ruined our media.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

6. Democrats!

booga booga booga... They all hate it when we fight back.

I will always stand with Keith.

[pacalo]

7. Just because Keith uses humor to get the truth out doesn't make it childish.

What's childish is the way O'Reilly responds to it; he can't fight back without lying because Olbermann is simply telling the truth.