This is Countdown

This is Countdown

This is Countdown; the third day since Keith Olbermann has been suspended indefinitely by MSNBC.
Olbermann got caught by Politico, in a story published late last week, donating the maximum amount of 2,400 dollars to three different Democratic candidates. Shortly thereafter, by midday on Friday, it was announced that Olbermann had been indefinitely suspended without pay from MSNBC. The resulting internet uproar was deafening. Senator Bernie Sanders wrote an irate entry for The Huffington Post, demanding MSNBC return Olbermann; his sentiments were echoed by journalists and talking heads, liberals and conservatives alike.

NBC news policy prohibits journalists from donating to political campaigns. The policy- at least insofar as the public knows- was never officially extended to the whole of MSNBC, though insiders claim that the policy was understood to apply to the network.
This sort of policy is put in place to ensure the public non-opinion, transparency, and lack of conflicts of interest of journalists. It is arguable that straight-news reporters ought not to donate to political campaigns (though they should not be either explicitly or implicitly banned from doing so), but one would be hard-pressed to find anyone who believes Olbermann is a straight-news reporter. Olbermann's biases are clear, well-publicized, and completely disclosed. Is anyone surprised that Olbermann donated to Democratic candidates? Not really.
Perhaps Rachel Maddow put it best on her Friday, November 5 show:

I understand the rule. I understand what it means to break it. I believe everyone should face the same treatment under that rule. I also personally believe that the point has been made and we should have Keith back hosting Countdown.
Here's the larger point, though, that's going mysteriously missing from the right-wing cackling and old media cluck-cluck-clucking: I know everyone likes to say, "Oh, cable news, it's all the same. Fox and MSNBC -- mirror images of each other. But if you look at the long history of Fox hosts not just giving money to candidates, but actively endorsing campaigns and raising millions of dollars for politicians and political parties... They can do that because there's no rule against that at Fox. Their network is run as a political operation. Ours isn't. Yeah, Keith's a liberal, and so am I. But we're not a political operation -- Fox is. We're a news operation. The rules around here are part of how you know that.
Back before it was politically safe to do it, Keith Olbermann attracted the ire of the right-wing and a lot of others besides when he brought to light and raged against what he saw as the errors and sins of the previous presidential administration. Keith was also the one who brought to light Fox News's water-carrying for the Bush Administration; he was the one whose point-of-view journalism exposed and put exclamation points on the problems of disguising a political operation as a news one, the model embraced by the guys across Sixth Avenue, at Fox.
Now, weirdly, it is Keith who is once again illustrating the difference between what he does at MSNBC -- what we do here -- and what goes on across the street.

Over the weekend, over 250000 people signed a major online petition for Olbermann to return. Well, the petition worked. Olbermann's suspension has been lifted, starting with tonight's show. It's a little incongruous for the network executives at MSNBC to suspend Olbermann on principle of the rule and to return him this quickly, but his ratings power makes it unsurprising.
Here's the other piece of Olbermann's suspension: he's not the only one who donated. Joe Scarborough, host of 'Morning Joe', donated at least 9,000 dollars to Republican candidates in recent elections. Apparently, though, Scarborough asked the network for permission first. And as you may note, Scarborough is still on the air.

[Photo credit: The Huffington Post]

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Please Don't Drill Baby, Drill

Please Don't Drill Baby, Drill

It is approximated that only six percent of the world's crude oil lies in the United States- and about a fourth of the world's crude oil can be found in Saudi Arabia. However, America is the top consumer of oil in the world. Thus, even if America was able to harness all of the projected oil resting in its reservoirs, the oil found would not be anywhere near enough to make a true difference in oil cost for Americans, and it would be a huge expense and an even bigger step backwards for clean energy efforts in America.
President Obama has proposed, in his new energy plan, to begin drilling in and around several stretches of American coastline. "The likely return... [is about] two week's supply [of oil]," Keith Olbermann said on his show tonight. Obama's plan, which is seemingly a grab for some Congressional support from Republicans, will not provide any substantive energy to Americans.
Congressional Republicans don't seem interested in offering support, however. Some have begun to make statements against the plan, and other Republicans, outside of Congress, have done the same. Sarah Palin tweeted against the plan, and others have had similarly negative reactions. This proposal will decrease support from both liberals, who don't want to see any increase in drilling, and conservatives, who also oppose the plan for either not being sweeping enough or, quite simply, for being Obama's plan.
Several environmental leaders have spoken out against the proposal. Obama's plan would allow America to continue to rely on oil, rather than promoting new, 'green' energy methods. "We are seriously disappointed with the President," Eric Pica, of Friends of the Earth, said, although he noted that if this was attached to a green energy bill aiming to reduce climate change the proposal could be accepted by the community.
Still, any increase in drilling is negative. President Obama must remember that he was elected on a platform that focused on energy efficiency and that he was elected instead of a man whose vice presidential pick made a name for herself by calling out "drill baby, drill."

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GOP Leadership

GOP Leadership

Michael Steele, the contentious chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), is, in all technicality, the official leader of the Republican Party nationally. Rep. John Boehner and Sen. Mitch McConnell are the highest ranking congressional Republicans, and Sen. John McCain is the party’s most recent presidential nominee. However, Republican leadership has been attributed to everyone from Rush Limbaugh to Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck to Mitt Romney.

The future of the GOP is an incredibly uncertain one, as current obstructionist tactics are unlikely to propel Republicans through either the 2010 midterms or the 2012 presidential, and the question of who will emerge as a Republican Party leader and candidate going into the 2012 election will be highly discussed. Potential candidates, including Romney, Palin, Mike Huckabee, and Tim Pawlenty, have all already been considered by the media as a new Republican leader, but none have really taken ownership of the party.

Romney, a more moderate conservative, would have a hard time achieving the GOP nomination if the tea party objects to his slightly more right-of-center beliefs, and the same goes for Pawlenty, although he appears to be becoming consistently more conservative. Palin, on the other hand, would have a contrasting problem. Her controversial actions and far-right beliefs would make her nearly impossible to market as a mainstream candidate, even to very conservative Republican voters.

Currently, no Republican in national office has complete leadership over the party. It is in Republican’s best interests to enter the 2012 elections united under one candidate. The inclusion of a tea party candidate or a struggle during nomination between traditional Republicans and the tea party will give massive advantage to the Democratic Party.

In order for Republicans to be united in 2012, a leader needs to emerge. Whether this leader is Palin, Romney, or even Beck doesn’t matter, as long as Republicans are in complete support of this leader. Otherwise, as Keith Olbermann said on his show Monday in a Special Comment, they will go from being “the party of no… to the party of no relevancy.”

 

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Quote 12/2/09

Quote 12/2/09

Keith Olbermann

"I’m not a liberal, I’m an American."

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