MSNBC suspends Keith Olbermann

Not too long after Keith Olbermann railed against NewsCorp for donating to the Republican Governor's Association, he himself donates to three Democratic candidates, and MSNBC prez has suspended him for it.

Howard Kurtz on why it was the right call.

Looking at Twitter, conservatives ranging from Andrew Breitbart and Bill Kristol believe MSNBC was wrong to suspend him. Keith's not a journalist, and GE can donate to campaigns but their employees can't?

Meanwhile his replacement did really well tonight. If MSNBC wants to reinstate some journalistic cred, utterly trashed on Election Night, they should let him ride the chair a few days. Besides, MSNBC saves about, what, $34,000 each night KeithO's not there?

MSNBC comes to senses

The New York Times is reporting that for upcoming debates and the November presidential election, David Gregory will assume MSNBC anchoring duties, taking over for Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews. This comes after the network received much criticism for the biased reporting and on-air bickering during the convention weeks, and while it saw improvement in ratings, it was still in last place of the seven channels doing coverage.

MSNBC - Soul Officially Sold

“Look, when Keith anchors, he plays it straight down the line,” Griffin said.

I read that on Politico, where MSNBC president Phil Griffin addressed tensions between MSNBC anchors. Either Griffin is consciously lying, or he's blindly liberal. I've been flipping between all the networks for the Democratic convention this week, and Keith Olbermann has been up to his usual antics. If Griffin thinks what Keith's doing is straight down the line, then Sean Hannity's fair and balanced.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough - alive!

Morning Joe is the best morning show of the three cable news networks, and now that MSNBC has decided to be a left-wing outlet to counter Fox News's right-wing tilt, Joe is finding himself a one-man island. Keith Olbermann got Dan Abrams fired, and now he's fighting back. When Olbermann interrupted Joe to tell him to get a shovel when joe was reporting positive McCain news, Joe took umbridge and fought back. Then this morning when David Shuster referred to "your party" Joe had none of it. He said he was more down the middle than any host on any show and mocked MSNBC for all their reporters claiming they're independent.

There's hype around behind-the-scenes fireworks between Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, but the more edge-of-your-seat viewing is now coming from Joe Scarborough. Can't wait to see if anything happens when he and keith are on at the same time again. And if Joe gets fired, my guess is CNN and Fox News will get into a bidding war.

Fox News vs. MSNBC = CNN

In the 1990's it seemed like CNN was the Clinton News Network, Fox News was the Newt Gingrich Channel, and MSNBC was this little fledgling in between. With Brian Williams moved from MSNBC to NBC, with Tim Russert dead, and with Keith Olbermann now its highest rated show, MSNBC is now the liberal news network, Fox is still the conservative network, and CNN "No Bias No Bull" has emerged as the actual balanced channel.

Fox News I have a hard time watching more than a few minutes of any show on there. I like Fox News Sunday, and I can watch The Beltway Boys on the weekend, and that's about it. I don't think I've seen more than five minutes of Hannity & Colmes in years. It's hard to respect a network that hires Mike Huckabee to develop his own show. What will it be called? The "I Want to Run for President in 2012" Show? He could always go to ABC Family and take over Pat Robertson's 700 Club.

They hired Washington Times man Bill Sammon to be Deputy Washington Manager, so he's second in command to Brit Hume and just as conservative. I read his book "At Any Cost", about the 2000 recount and how the Al Gore team was willing to do anything and everything to "steal" the presidency. Basically it was the other side to HBO's Recount.

CNN has some good staff. I can't say I watch Larry King or Anderson Cooper, but I like Campbell Brown (formerly of NBC), and they have good field reporters.

MSNBC has Chris Matthews, and he's still my favorite one on that channel. He's a lefty but I still get the sense he wants to be fair. I like Morning Joe. Mornings are much better for Joe Scarborough than evenings. In the evenings he was a pale Bill O'Reilly. Then there's Keith Olbermann. Blecch. Now Dan Abrams low-rated show is getting dumped for a new show from Rachel Maddow, Air America cast-off and frequent Keith-O guest host. So if one hour a night of hating McCain isn't enough, now you'll get two. Not that O'Reilly and Hannity provide two hours of Obama Love Nation.

So there you have it. Fox panders right, MSNBC panders left, and that leaves CNN.

I never watch CBS News, although I like Bob Schiffer.

I like ABC's This Week. George Will & George Stephanopoulos keep the round table lively each week.

I record The Chris Matthews Show, Meet the Press, Fox News Sunday and This Week every week. I listen to the round tables, and I'll watch interviews if it looks like it'll be revealing. If it's with the spokesman for someone, I know everything they're going to say and fast-forward those.