MSNBC gossip reaches all the way to Immelt: When peacocks attack

[DeepModem Mom]

The Business Sheet: Did GE CEO Jeff Immelt Order Keith Olbermann Demotion?
Hilary Lewis | Sep 9, 2008

Rumor has it that GE CEO Jeff Immelt personally ordered MSNBC to remove Keith Olbermann after a host of shareholder complaints -— a charge NBC and Olbermann deny. Whatever the reason, Olbermann was given a raise, which should ease the sting:

"Page Six: NETWORK execs mollified the cantankerous Keith Olbermann as they demoted him by promising to sweeten his $4 million-a-year contract...

Olbermann told reporters he initiated the demotion. 'So he threw Matthews under the bus,' said one insider, who added, 'This has (GE chairman) Jeff Immelt's fingerprints all over it - if not his fists.' GE is the parent company of NBC. 'Unequivocally untrue,' an NBC spokeswoman told Page Six. 'Jeff Immelt does not get involved in these decisions.' However, Immelt did get involved in the decision to fire radio legend Don Imus last year.

One knowledgeable source told us: 'Shareholders were calling up NBC and GE - a lot, maybe thousands. They were saying, "What the (bleep) is wrong with these guys?" . . . Chris Matthews just got stuck in the middle of it all.'"

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JOSSIP: Is Jeff Zucker Hanging Jeff Immelt Out on the Olbermann-Matthews Fiasco? When peacocks attack
Sep 9, 2008


GE chairman Jeff Immelt, NBC chief Jeff Zucker

If GE chairman "Jeff Immelt's fingerprints (are) all over" a supposed deal to beef up Keith Olbermann's contract while letting Chris Matthew's ride out his agreement until it expires next year, than Jeff Zucker's fingerprints are all over the Page Six item saying it's so.

Zucker, the NBC chief and notorious New York Post leaker, has much to gain from the item, which fingers an Immelt-Olbermann coup that put David Gregory in the anchor chair while demoting Olbermann and Matthews, but leaving only Matthews with nothing to show for it. The Z Man wants to distance himself publicly from the Phil Griffin-sponsored in-fighting at MSNBC, and by assigning blame to his boss Immelt, Zucker shows shareholders that any possible dissolution of NBC Universal from GE — the endless will-they-or-won't-they scenario — would be entirely on Immelt, leaving the GE head open to criticism while Zucker can play innocent, and wise, bystander.

Lending more evidence that it's Zucker feeding this info? This, from the P6 item: "One knowledgeable source told us: 'Shareholders were calling up NBC and GE - a lot, maybe thousands. They were saying, 'What the (bleep) is wrong with these guys?' . . . Chris Matthews just got stuck in the middle of it all.'" Funny, because that's the sort of thing Zucker would know about, and be able to enthusiastically exaggerate.

And if this isn't a Zucker-led plant? Well then Z is either kicking up his feet while others do his dirty work, or he better start convincing Immelt & Co. that he's not behind the bus throwing.

http://www.jossip.com/is-jeff-zucker-hanging-jeff-immelt-out-on-the-olbermann-matthews-fiasco-20080909/

[ErinBerin84]

1. according to jossip, everyone at MSNBC hates each other.

I'm sure that 95% of their "insider" gossip is false, but the drama queen within me would like to believe it...especially the jossip items about David Gregory :)

[lxlxlxl]

5. look at their sources

the only gossipy stuff about msnbc is coming from a specific place. it's very "out in the open" and works.

see "sweet smell of success"

[tblue]

2. If it's true that they responded to calls, it proves that we have to FIGHT for the

media we want. We should all be demanding that Olbermann be reinstated and tell them to keep Countdown WITH KEITH OLBERMANN on the air!

Immelt can only push back at shareholders if he has ratings and viewer demand to back him up.

[Speck Tater]

3. By law, MSNBC's first responsibility is to the share holders.

That's the way corporations work. And that's what's wrong with corporate media.

[lxlxlxl]

4. Page Six.

It's Page Six. If you lived in NY in the 90s you would realize that NY Post was THE Bible for TV Late Night Comedy. It is a popular tabloid in NY, because the only good dailies are the Times ($1) and the Post (.25 cents). It's "popularity" was manufactured by its price in the market, and that it had "hot babes" and outrageous rightwing op-eds. It is owned by News Corporation. It is the print daughter version of Fox News.

Paris Hilton was born out of the pages of the NY Post.

NY Bloggers like jossip/gawker basically write their blogs as auditions for the NY Post and tabloid journalism. I know I worked with a bunch of them.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. I did live in NYC in the Nineties. I wouldn't post anything from any of these sources...

in LBN, but with a story like this, gossip is about all we have. I did also label the content of the post as gossip in the subject line. And I don't know that the question of whether Immelt or Zucker was responsible for demoting KO and Tweety is a left/right issue.

Beyond that, though, it was interesting to me to follow the media introspection after the Edwards story surfaced in the tabloids, and then was proved true, and the MSM had a big internal discussion about whether they should have pursued the story. I'm still not sure exactly what I think about the whole thing, and what the role of tabloid journalism should be.

[Berry Cool]

7. Jossip and Page Six both hate Keith.

With Page Six, it's the Rupert Murdoch connection, obviously. I don't know what it is with Jossip. But they're both lying gossip rags anyway.

[DeepModem Mom]

8. I labeled it "gossip." This is not as much about KO as about some kind of weird...

power playing possibly by Zucker, and/or possibly by Immelt -- two men whose power pygmatizes (is that a word?) the power of anybody at MSNBC. We have some info about how all this went down from legitimate news sources, but not all of it, I'm guessing. Either GE heard from shareholders, or they didn't. It would be interesting to know.