Olbermann: Some NBC, GE "hierarchy" don't like any criticism of Bush adm.

[DeepModem Mom]

NY Daily News gossip column, "Lowdown," Lloyd Grove


Quick & Dirty

BLOOD FEUD? MSNBC's Keith Olbermann deeply distrusts the top brass at NBC and its parent company, General Electric, judging by his interview with C-SPAN's grand inquisitor, Brian Lamb. "There are people I know in the hierarchy of NBC, the company, and GE, the company, who do not like to see the current presidential administration criticized at all," he claimed, without naming names. "Moral force and money often do not mix in the slightest." When Lamb asked about MSNBC President Rick Kaplan dressing him down last August for a commentary about Peter Jennings that featured a graphic account of Olbermann spitting up blood, the "Countdown" host explained that Kaplan "is a very emotional, very high-strung, gigantic man, also a very squeamish man. … He just was squeamish about blood."


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/399189p-338232c.html
(scroll down)

[Chimichurri]

1. Keith is a treasure! I'm sorry I missed the C-Span interview.

Hopefully it will the Span will rerun it.

[liveoaktx]

19. VIDEO of that bit

On Criticizing the prez

From CanOFun

[Chimichurri]

38. Thank you! That's why I love DU

[Julius Civitatus]

28. Jack Welch was a notorious Republican that ruled NBC with a

pro-GOP bent. He's been quoted as saying some very incriminating things as far as Republican bias goes, and his penchant for "turning liberals" into money-obsessed Republicans.

BTW, Tweety Matthews and Russert are his best pupils.

[Trevelyan]

2. Keep emailing Olberman and NBC to thank them for Olbermann's show and

sense of honor.

Olbermann has been kicking up a storm recently and has been unaccustomedly somber about our loss of civil liberties and the seriousness of our situation with the bush regime dictatorship and Keith could use some of our support.

:applause: :applause: :loveya: :loveya:

[Tuesday_Morning]

4. got an email address?

thanks!

[DeepModem Mom]

6. CONTACT INFO:

Countdown: [e-mail]
MSNBC: [e-mail]

[upi402]

37. done

:toast:

[The Witch]

3. Keith rambles incessantly.

And I could listen to it for hours. :loveya:

[BlueEyedSon]

5. Doesn't CSPAN have online archives of most (all?) their stuff?

I cant find it, i searched for "olbermann" and "countdown"

[Catchawave]

8. Here ya go:

http://www.q-and-a.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1067

[BlueEyedSon]

13. thx CaW!!

[progressoid]

22. Oooh THAKNKS! completely missed it when it aired!

[Brazenly Liberal]

7. Sensationalist out of context BS

I watched that interview and KO didn't say anything about any damned feud.

He was explaining that the suits make many/most decisions based on whether or not it makes money. He said some of the brass don't like seeing Bush criticized, but they like seeing the money he's bringing in by having a loyal following. Not the same thing at all.

Similarly, when he was talking about Kaplan freaking out over the blood, he also said that a few days later, Kaplan was just as effusive in his apologies as he had been in his complaints - something the NYDN neglected to mention.

Not that I'm defending the honor of the NBC suits - I just don't think KO needs some fabricated feud to keep his fan base.

It was a great interview. Interestingly, he dodged a bit when pressed on whether his show is liberally slanted. He said he just presents the facts. Well, I agree that he presents the facts, but even a huge KO fan like me can see the show is liberally slanted. Hell, that's why I watch it - to balance out some of the bias from mooks like Matthews.

[lostnfound]

15. Context from transcript; also, had to cover Lewinsky for 228 days straight

"But the protection of money at the center of everything, including news to the degree that it is now, is that as long as you make the money, they don’t care what it is you put on the air.

They don’t care. There are people I know in the hierarchy of NBC, the company, and GE, the company, who do not like to see the current presidential administration criticized at all.

Anybody who knew anything about American history and stepped out at any point in American history and got an assessment of this presidential administration would say, yes, I don’t know how much they need to be criticized, but they need to be criticized to some degree.

There are people who I work for who would prefer, who would sleep much easier at night if this never happened. On the other hand, if they look at my ratings and my ratings are improved and there is criticism of the president of the United States, they are happy.
If my ratings went up because there was no criticism of the president of the United States, they would be happy.

LAMB: What does say about moral force?

OLBERMANN: It says that moral force and money often do not mix in the slightest. They are often separate beams of light traveling through the universe, and you may have to jump off one to ride the other for a while.

Transcript
http://www.q-and-a.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1067

The inteview also says he had to cover 228 consecutive shows about Lewinsky, and on day 50, he was pulling his hair out.

[Brazenly Liberal]

24. Hey, thanks!

After I posted, I wondered if maybe I remembered it wrong, but I was too lazy to go look up the transcript and double check it. But there it is, I remembered it right.

[BonnieJW]

39. You're right

Keith discussed this last night on his show and he said he was misquoted in the NY Daily News. The people who did the misquoting wone Worser and Worst People in the World Awards. He played the tape of the portion of the interview that was in question, and he was most definitely misquoted.

[moondust]

9. Kaplan is a big Countdown fan.

According to KO. No feud. Just media bums trying to start wars.

[gkhouston]

26. agreed, and KO said as much

he did say the words quoted in this gossip column, but the columnist completely missed (on purpose, IMO) Keith's attitude and tone of voice when he said them. The stuff about his parent company -- it's scary, but it's the nature of broadcasting and I got the impression that he doesn't think that's the way he thinks things should be but he wasn't leading a mob with pitchforks and torches about it; it was a completely civil discussion. And the stuff about Kaplan was not feud material -- KO was explaining that Kaplan's one of those larger-than-life kind of people who tends to have oversized reactions to things and KO unwittingly upset him. A few days later, Kaplan was just as gracious about apologizing as he'd been hostile when ripping into him. I didn't see any real gossip fodder in this show. The only thing that really tickled me was the clip of Roger Ailes. Their makeup guy must have a perverse sense of humor, because the makeup job on Ailes made him look like some sort of demented overblown cherub.

[Catherine Vincent]

10. Here's the Q&A session of Olbermann with Brian Lamb:

http://www.q-and-a.org/

[KyuzoGator]

11. The gist I got from him was that profit trumps all.

He said that if no criticism generated profit, they'd be for it. If criticism generated profit, they'd be for it.

[NoAmericanTaliban]

12. Article is trying to make something out of nothing..

I saw this part of the interview on Cspan & there was a lot more too it that what is in that blurb. This was my first exposure to KO & I liked him. He blasted Fox a lot & explained that he started on the air when the Clinton Sex scandal broke out. He critized Clinton then just like he is Bush now. Of course the thin skinned GOP doesn't like it. They can dish it out, but cannot take it.

[Norquist Nemesis]

14. I learned something important from that interview

If we want to reach them about a story, it's best to email the producer. Olberman said he no longer chooses the stories; he lets 'the staff' do it.

Just an FYI!

[spuddonna]

16. Is that the countdown @msnbc.com addy?

That's the only email I've ever had for KO...

[Norquist Nemesis]

17. I'll have to check for sure

but I think the producer(s) can be found through the MSNBC link. I'll try to check on that this afternoon. :)

[spuddonna]

25. Thanks much!

I've emailed countdown several times, and would rather the info not go into a proverbial black hole! :)

[Norquist Nemesis]

29. Looks like you have the correct addy

At least as far as I can tell. A google search might elicit the name of the producer, but not necessarily the email.

However, maybe keep in mind that the audience you're writing to is the staff. :hi:

[spuddonna]

32. That's how I usually direct it...

Keith and Staff at Countdown.... :)

Thanks for the legwork! (Google work?!) lol :) Appreciate it!

[AndyTiedye]

18. GE Bought RCA So Jack Welch Could Control NBC's Editorial Policy

He even said so in an inteview for one of the major newsweeklies back when the deal was going through.

[blm]

20. Exactly - and that's why the Dem party needs to expose the GOP control of

newsmedia before 2008. Who else will?

[AndyTiedye]

21. Howard Dean Tried, Once

They nuked his candidacy for President the very next day with the "scream" thing.

For some reason neither he nor anybody else on the political scene has raised the subject of media ownership/consolidation again since that day.

[blm]

23. Nah -

Kerry put up a senate resolution against the FCC's media consolidation measure in June 2003 - media responded by spending the rest of the year calling his campaign dead in the water. They didn't go after Dean till they thought they had Kerry buried.

Kerry went after Hardball last January and also said shortly after that he knows that corporate heads tell the newsrooms to hold back criticisms of Bush as he has been told this directly.

[merbex]

27. The only one who ever does on a some what regular basis is

Bernie Saunders

[wildwww2]

30. The media moguls helped install Bu$h. Only and idiot would think

that they would not continue to protect their investment. This sure as hell is not news to me. Old news maybe.
Peace
Wildman
Al Gore is My President

[ClintonTyree]

31. Something even MORE interesting in the NY Daily News.......

further down in the same column.......... "Is John McCain a lesbian? Maybe we'll learn the answer from Edward Klein, who insinuated as much about Hillary Clinton in his 2005 biography — largely a clip-job of hit pieces, reviewers said — and is apparently hard at work on a poison-pen book about the Arizona senator. According to Crain's New York Business, Klein claims he'll chronicle the Republican presidential front-runner's "sexual infidelity, chronic gambling and anger management." I can hardly wait."

A tell-all on some Republican's supposed front-runner could be VERY interesting. There's quite a few skeletons in McCain's closet, this might dampen his parade a little!

[dodger501]

33. Keith Explains it all

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/from/RS.5

[Catchawave]

34. Thanks for posting his response to that article !

I'm thrilled he'll discuss this on his show tonight...Worst Person In The World...discuss :rofl: Go Keith!

[harpo]

35. I love how he slams the new york daily news for misquoting him

[amitten]

36. It's too bad that someone's words can be so misconstrued. I

would have a hard time working in such a public field. You'd be walking on eggshells all the time with the way you phrase things.

I see this all the time with politicians lately. You can tell they are carefully weighing each and every word. They can't even speak like normal human beings half the time...they're afraid to, and rightfully so. The smallest slip-up can be used as a career-crushing sound bite. It's just beyond ridiculous anymore.

I'm glad Keith cleared this up on his show tonight. No one should have to sit by while their own words are twisted into the OPPOSITE of what they actually said.