Keith Olbermann Leaves MSNBC and Progressives Lose a Voice

I am not entirely shocked by Olbermann's departure from MSNBC this week. The timing is perplexing, but not so much the thought that Olbermann would be leaving. The writing, so to speak, was on the wall.

Another reason that it was not a shock is because it backs up my belief that establishing Progressive voices and a Progressive media infrastructure in this Country seems almost impossible. This has been the case for the past few decades. It is difficult for Progressive media to really take root.

I suspect that part of the reason for Olbermann's difficulty...and the problem with MSNBC as a whole has to do with the fact that it is hard to embark on a truth-telling enterprise using a purely corporate for-profit model. There are too many divergent and conflicting viewpoints & interests among stakeholders, which guarantees the butting of heads.

The Olbermann fiasco also exposes what most who have been paying attention already knew.... but exposes it for more to see - that there is a clear double standard in news/political media in this Country. Progressives and even Centrists (like most at CNN) are held to one standard, while Fox News, and Conservative talk radio (collectively the Republican media) is held to a completely different standard. In an organization like MSNBC/NBC (and now Comcast)... There is no loyalty to truth... all loyalty is reserved for shareholders. At NBC, there are so many different people to answer to. The ideology of board members, the company President, VP's, Department managers, executive producers etc, may not match up with the world view of the host. In fact, I would venture to guess that many of those higher ups are Republicans. So it is hard to create the conditions for good synergy. The experiment was doomed from the start. This is the fundamental cause of the double standard. This is why everything that a Keith Olbermann, a Rick Sanchez , a Rachel Maddow or Ed Schultz...or any other Progressive host says is examined down to the atom level. Company execs are overly sensitive about everything and are in a constant state of paranoia, because they don't want to get in trouble with shareholders or with the bullies of the media - the Right wing Republican media- which dominates the airwaves.

Progressives like Keith Olbermann are sent packing (often fired immediately) for minor - even trivial - issues, while Fox and Conservative talk radio hosts are allowed to make the most outlandish, ugly, racist & offensive comments as a matter of routine...and are allowed to stick around. Why? Because at Fox and with AM radio, the synergy is impressive. Everyone from Rupert Murdoch to Roger Ailes, and the executive producers down to the hosts are, more often than not, generally on the same page ideologically. Everyone has bought into the belief system of the organization. All of the stakeholders support the mission.

This double standard puts Progressive media at a distinct disadvantage. This is why there should be an effort to build Progressive media from the ground up. Progressives need their own media infrastructure that does not leave those like Keith Olbermann (and his supporters) beholden to the interests of a corporation.

Countdown was one of the few political news programs that I really enjoyed watching on a regular basis. Although I would prefer to see something more along the lines of a 60 minutes... (call me old school). We need more serious, trusted, investigative reporting. But I enjoyed Keith Olbermann's contribution.

I have a funny feeling that he won't be the only host leaving. When you get rid of the Captain of the ship.... the man who had the top political program in the line-up... well that to me is an indication that the execs at NBC may be looking at other changes. Part of it may be a reaction to the results of the November elections. MSNBC is one of those networks that reshapes itself based on the changing winds. Again... it goes back to the corporate business model... there is nothing that drives any ideological belief system..no mission based on values like honor, truth, etc... the only belief system driving these cable networks is the belief system of making money.

Here are his final remarks on Countdown. According to whispers on the twittersphere.... he may be interested in going back into sports broadcasting..... wow. Interesting. But I can't say I would blame him if he did decide to go back into sports. The American voting public is a source of disappointment & hopelessness for me... not to mention the politicians who are supposed to serve in the public interests. I can definitely see why people would want to get out of politics.

The Idiocy of American News Media

I find myself agreeing with this point (almost reluctantly) about the fiasco surrounding the BP Chairman's comments & how American media too often diverts attention to the wrong issues, wasting precious time that could be spent educating/informing the public on much more important facts and events. Just to be clear though, I basically hate BP & companies like it and am not a fan of the practices of greedy corporations. (anyone who has read this blog for more than 6 months should know how I view corporations). So i'm not defending them one bit.

But this comes at a time when the mainstream news media (more & more a venue for info-tainment) already spends too much time on nonsensical non-news stories on the level of cats stuck in trees. (this is national news i'm referring to..even in times of crisis/turmoil). I have contacted news agencies on a few occasions over the years to get them to cover real news... only to be told that they weren't interested. This is one reason why I lost respect for mainstream news (or for what imitates news & journalism these days) and decided to start blogging.

This is why Americans are clueless about oil spills in Nigeria, war & genocide in Sudan and Congo (several orders of magnitude worse than in Kosovo...for which Bill Clinton was willing to start WWIII), the ongoing Cold War in Central Asia and the Caucusus, life for troops in Iraq & Afghanistan, modern day slavery, the American health care system and American Democracy as compared to other nations, the time leading up to the financial crisis and how Bernie Madoff Made-off w/ so much money, Americas upcoming day of reckoning regarding its ballooning debt (what could be coming will make 2008-09 appear minor), the shady oil & mining industries, the lack of labor protections/labor regulations to protect workers, etc, etc.

As far as the news business is concerned, I wish we could go back to the days of Ed Bradley, Walter Cronkite & Bernard Shaw. Unfortunately, a lot of the really good journalists who are still left have had to go online and/or independent, and can't reach a wide audience. It just seems that with the Fox News Faux News model leading the way, we are stuck in a race to the bottom in terms of news coverage... and we have a less informed/educated populace as a consequence.