Nov 05 2010

UPDATE! HE’S BACK !!! BREAKING NEWS! Keith Olbermann has been suspended indefinitely by MSNBC!

(Note new comments at bottom!)

This is INCREDIBLE, Olbermann has just been suspended for having made three individual donations (Grijalva, Senate hopeful Conway and Arizona Reps. Giffords and Grijalva), in the maximum amount of $2,400.

“I became aware of Keith’s political contributions late last night,” MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in a statement. “Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay.”

Olbermann, in a statement to Politico, said that he “did not privately or publicly encourage anyone else to donate to these campaigns nor to any others in this election or any previous ones.” Also, Olbermann said he had not “previously donated to any political campaign at any level.”

But the revelation raised clear ethical issues.

. . . .It’s ironic that Olbermann gave to political candidates after criticizing Fox News because its owner, Rupert Murdoch, gave $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association. “Fox News has put its money where its mouth is,” Olbermann said in an August segment that questioned the network’s impartiality.

In October, Olbermann again raised the issue of Murdoch’s donations, during an interview with Democratic Rep. James Clyburn. Olbermann asked whether there was “a legislative response to the idea that there is a national cable news outlet that goes beyond having a point of view and actually starts to shill for partisan causes and actually starts to donate to partisan groups of one party.”  

In the land of the ABSURD!!!!

Bold Progressives has a Petition to get Keith back on the air pronto!! Let’s get him back on the air!



                              (click on logo)

 

65 comments

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  1. BTW, Republicans Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan also gave political contributions — but are not suspended.

    So now corporations can give secretly as much as they want to election candidates, but an individual, giving in his personal, private capacity cannot?

    La, la, la la, la, la, la la!!!!!!

  2. employer and agreements come into play in a mishmash of

    gobbledeegook. I just popped in, and i gotta go, but I smell a rotten fish, real, real rotten. Later…

  3. N.Y. LAB. LAW ยง 201-d : NY Code – Section 201-D: Discrimination against the engagement in certain activities

    1. Definitions. As used in this section:

       a. “Political activities” shall mean (i) running for  public office,

     (ii) campaigning for a candidate for public office, or

    (iii) participating in fund-raising activities for the benefit of a candidate, political party or political advocacy group;  . . . . .

    2. Unless otherwise provided by law, it shall be  unlawful for any employer or employment agency to refuse to hire, employ or license, or to discharge from  employment or otherwise discriminate against an  individual in compensation, promotion or terms, conditions or privileges of employment because of:

    a.  an individual’s political activities outside of working hours, off of the employer’s premises and without use of the  employer’s  equipment or other property, if such activities are legal, provided, however, that this paragraph shall not apply to persons whose employment is defined in paragraph  six of subdivision (a) of section seventy-nine-h of the civil rights law, and provided further that this paragraph shall not apply to persons  who would otherwise  be prohibited from engaging in political activity pursuant to chapter 15 of title 5 and subchapter III of chapter 73 of title 5 of the USCA;

    . . . . .

    (h/t Night Owl for site)

  4. so what if he donated to candidates. Fox news just donated a huge amount to Republicans. Seems pretty stupid are they just going to be the Lock up channel. Jesus freakin christ somebody need to lock up the corporate dogs unleashed speaking of Lock Up. So Karl Rove who should be locked up, gets to get millions from undisclosed sources Murdock gets to hire total nutso pols and give millions and KO gets tossed by his own network who he brings in tons of money for. Donating and not clearing it with his corporate masters who don’t like his content, while Joe Scarborough funds his ex aide seems pretty much like liberal purging to me. I guess I’m canceling Comcast the only thing I watch is Comedy Central, MSNBC and HBO.        

  5. …. a PAC which gave money to people like Sen. Kent Conrad (North Dakata) ?  They’re from the same state, NY.

    Conrad was the one who pushed ex OMB Orszag and is a big warhawk in the Democratic Party, and has been one of the bastards pushing the Republican deficit obsession all along on the Democratic side.  Also was just basically against any real health care reform and probably did a little happy dance when Rove said energy bills were dead.  Voted to confirm Alito.

    NRCC and John McCain on that PAC’s disbursement list.  Inquiring minds want to know.  The wife does not share the same last name, but frequently ideologies run in families.

    Scarborough has given to Republicans in the past.

    Pat Buchanan solicits money to keep his website going and he also sends out a politically themed email letter. http://buchanan.org/blog/keep-…

    Griffin is just about a lifetime employee of the various news shows which play suck up to whomever’s in power.  Compete with Fox Faux News by making your shows more boring and “centrist,” Griffin, that’ll show ’em, by God.

    Idiot.

  6. tweeted it.  And then, and then I turned on the toob.  I am not watching this crap without KO.  Period.  So if the plan is to purge him, MSNBC is gonna lose me as audience.  Do they care?  Perhaps.  Perhaps not.

    Hurricane Tomas is bouncing things around in Haiti.  So we care about who’s on the toob.

    Pardon me while I scream.

    • melvin on November 6, 2010 at 02:23
    • #

    that she’s gonna talk about it. This should be interesting.

  8. at think progress

    Why would Comcast be interested in silencing progressive voices? Historically, Comcast has boosted its profits by buying up various telecommunication and media content companies – instead of providing faster Internet or better services (overall, American broadband services are far slower than in many industrialized nations). Many of these mergers, as Public Citizen and Free Press have reported, have been allowed by regulators because of Comcast’s considerable political muscle. Comcast’s latest regulatory battle has been to oppose Net Neutrality – a rule allowing a free and open Internet – because the company would prefer to have customers pay for preferred online content.

    Olbermann has been a strong voice in favor of a free and open Internet. Republicans, on the other hand, have supported the telecommunication industry’s push to radically change the Internet so corporate content producers have the upper hand over start-ups like blogs, independent media, small businesses, etc. As Reuters has reported, the incoming Republican Congress has signaled that it will vigorously side with companies like Comcast against an open Internet.

  9. We’re about to see a full court press. The Great Right Alliance is reborn  (at least in their own minds) and smell blood in the political waters. There going to jump all over this media orchestrated bullshit and try to make their wet dreams real. They’re going to throw out every trick in the book and more. They smell MOmentum.

    I smell MAdness.

    Shutting up KO (or at least chilling him out) is about the same thing as going after Martha Stewart while Goldman Sachs rigs the stock market. You better hold on to your heads the next few years, because they’re going to be spinning.

  10. raising the question, “Will she be next?”

    You can find the link here.

    If you aren’t too big to fail, your too small to succeed. — curmudgeon, November 5, 2010

  11. Something is definitely strange in the air: The Supreme Court just gives corporations unheard of 1st amendment rights, but their employees, who are they? What actually constitutes a corporation for the purposes of speech?

    Is it the CEO hired by the board of directors? What about the shareholders? Where does speech reside in the magical, corporeal, unified body of this incorporeal entity?

    I’ll tell you where it resides. It resides in the shadow of authority, in the hands of those who wield power, in the hands of those who write the contracts: The take it or leave it aristocracy. The Olberman thing is an expression of a power relationship. The tarnishment is completed.

    No broken fingers here. Not yet. No need to when the voting booth itself with its ballots are now merely reflections of the electronically controlled semiosphere.

  12. At the Rally For Apathy last week, Stewart used a word regularly used by Beck, Limbaugh and Hannity to strike fear into listeners (Marxist).

    Stewart should know better than conflating a non-existent Marxist “threat” with the very real threat of right wing extemeism.

    “Why would you work with Marxists actively subverting our Constitution or racists and homophobes who see no one’s humanity but their own?” Stewart asked.

    http://dandelionsalad.wordpres…

  13. Now msnbc’s Lawrence O’Donnell is trying out-liberal Greenwald?! Heres a GOS diary praising him for doing so.

    Kinda glad Im too busy IRW today to try to keep up with this.

    • Edger on November 8, 2010 at 04:27
    • #

    according to Jeralyn at Talkleft…

  15. There were over 300,000 signatures on Bold Progressives Petition to get Keith back on the air — it worked!!!!!

    Want to congratulate KO?





                (click on and send him a congrats!)

     

  16. From K.O. on Bold Progressives:

    Statement To The Viewers Of Countdown!

    I want to sincerely thank you for the honor of your extraordinary and ground-rattling support.

    Your efforts have been integral to the remedying of these recent events, and the results should remind us of the power of individuals spontaneously acting together to correct injustices great or small. (emphasis mine)

    …I also wish to apologize to you viewers for having precipitated such anxiety and unnecessary drama. You should know that I mistakenly violated an inconsistently applied rule – which I previously knew nothing about — that pertains to the process by which such political contributions are approved by NBC. (emphasis mine)

    Certainly this mistake merited a form of public acknowledgment and/or internal warning, and an on-air discussion about the merits of limitations on such campaign contributions by all employees of news organizations.

    Instead, after my representative was assured that no suspension was contemplated, I was suspended without a hearing, and learned of that suspension through the media. (emphasis mine)

    You should also know that I did not attempt to keep any of these political contributions secret; I knew they would be known to you and the rest of the public. I did not make them through a relative, friend, corporation, PAC, or any other intermediary, and I did not blame them on some kind of convenient ‘mistake’ by their recipients.

    When a website contacted NBC about one of the donations, I immediately volunteered that there were in fact three of them; and contrary to much of the subsequent reporting, I immediately volunteered to explain all this, on-air and off, in the fashion MSNBC desired.        

    I genuinely look forward to rejoining you on Countdown on Tuesday, to begin the repayment of your latest display of support and loyalty – support and loyalty that is truly mutual.

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