Meltdown at MSNBC
The “P” is for Panicked!
MSNBC, the left-wing basket case cable network, is in full meltdown mode. After several weeks of on-air sniping and tantrums from the Spittle Twins, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, executives at NBC apparently staged an intervention.
They will no longer anchor political coverage or the debates. The fair and balanced savior?
Former White House press corps yapper David Gregory.
Savor the quotes from the NYTimes piece. Schadenfreude-licious:
In interviews, 10 current and former staff members said that long-simmering tensions between MSNBC and NBC reached a boiling point during the conventions. “MSNBC is behaving like a heroin addict,” one senior staff member observed. “They’re living from fix to fix and swearing they’ll go into rehab the next week.”
The employee, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity because the network does not permit it people to speak to the media without authorization. (The New York Times and NBC News have a content-sharing arrangement exclusively for political coverage.)
Mr. Olbermann, a 49-year-old former sportscaster, has become the face of the more aggressive MSNBC, and the lightning rod for much of the criticism. His program “Countdown,” now a liberal institution, was created by Mr. Olbermann in 2003 but it found its voice in his gnawing dissent regarding the Bush administration, often in the form of “special comment” segments.
As Mr. Olbermann raised his voice, his ratings rose as well, and he now reaches more than one million viewers a night, a higher television rating than any other show in the troubled 12-year history of the network. As a result, his identity largely defines MSNBC. “They have banked the entirety of the network on Keith Olbermann,” one employee said.
Triple-snorter:
Mr. Griffin, MSNBC’s president, denies that it has an ideology. “I think ideology means we think one way, and we don’t,” he said. Rather than label MSNBC’s prime time as left-leaning, he says it has passion and point of view.
Stay self-delusional, MSNBC.
***
Reader Brian M. e-mails:
Hi Michelle,
I sent this to MSNBC tonight:
Demoting Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, from the anchor chair is like putting a butterfly bandage on an Artery wound.
MSNBC just doesn’t get it.
”Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, said in a telephone interview Saturday. Fighting the ratings game, he added, “the bottom line is that we’re experiencing incredible success.”
Yes, journalist students for generations to come can study MSNBC’s grand experiment in trying to redefine the definition of success.
You may want to invest in a book on Complex Numbers and study the chapters on imaginary numbers, it may give you insight into your ratings.
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Trackbacks
- Could This be True: Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews O-U-T Out! | Right Voices
- Swamp Hermit’s *QUICK* Bits « The Swamp Hermit’s Report
- Michelle Malkin » What’s on pages 4 & 5 of Us Weekly’s Palin-bashing issue
- MSNBC Drops Bias Hosts Keith Olbermann & Chris Matthews From Election Anchor Chair to | Scared Monkeys
- Jules Crittenden » Biased Network Seeks Figleaf
- The doctor says I'm much better, now.
- Blogs of War
- The Dan Lee Report » Blog Archive » Olbermann & Matthews have been removed from political coverage over biased reporting & bad ratings.
- Anchors Away | Stuck On Stupid
- MSNBC’s Olbermann and Matthews sidelined from anchor duties « The Political Page
- Sarah Palin and The Press–UPDATED « Blog Entry « Dr. Melissa Clouthier
- No one was forcing you to watch them « The Old Right Daily
- MSNCB Meltdown - a Good Start « ~ NonBlondQT ~
- Media Bias Biting Them Back « Tai-Chi Policy
- Get Olbermann Off NBC Football! « The Dude’s Blog
- Memory Lane: Keith “Left-wing Ranter” Olbermann Rails Against Michael Jackson « Frugal Café Blog Zone
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Categories: Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann
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» Surrender, he whispered
K.O. has been KO’ed
Someday soon, demented Waldo is going to have a total on-air meltdown. He’ll make Howard Beale look like Alistair Cooke.I expect him to climb atop the RCA building and start picking off passersby with an AK47.
MSNBC can still try to salvage something out of this. How about making a reality show by placing Olbermann and Matthews on some deserted island together….
A fourth hurricane, Hurricane Sarah, is going to be their demise.
I love it!!!
They should throw a net over Olbermann and drag him away before he bites someone.
MSNBC…. just doing the biased reporting that respectable organizations refuse to do.
On September 7th, 2008 at 11:29 pm, rowsdower said
That was funny.
I was hoping for an escape, watching Sunday Night Football, and who do you think joined Bob Costas and Chris Colligsworth on the half time show…. Olberman! I nearly lost my dinner, but fortunately the remote was at hand and I only caught a few words before quickly switching to something else… anything else!
there.
Talk about denial!!
What’s great is that the bloggers have really held the networks accountable and helped show the American people just how biased the networks are.
When I watch old re-runs of my past favorite TV shows like “Murphy Brown”, “The Wonder Years”, etc. I am shocked at how biased they are to Liberalism and that I had no clue about it back in the late ’80’s and 1990’s when I watched these shows. I thought everyone felt the same way about issues.
Thanks to bloggers, I have learned to pick up on the bias and end my support of these networks.
And their ratings show I am not alone….
Now only if someone can tell CNN that painting Piper Palin as Paul Wolfowitz isnt a winning strategy either
David Gregory…now there’s a “fair and balanced” replacement for ya’. Although Olbermoron and Tingly Legs won’t be anchoring, they’ll still be doing “analysis.” Not much has changed folks…just a couple of pawns moved on the board, is all.
Can we get Fox to ship Alan Combs to MSNBC so the birds-of-a-feather can all reside under one resplendent peacock dung heap?
Folks must be so proud to work at such a professional news organization.
But what would you expect from anyone who would employ Olbermann.
This was from Rolling Stone, March 07, quoting a letter of apology from Olbermann to his former coworkers at ESPN:
Trust your instincts, Keith.
I can’t top many of these comments. Are you guys former stand-up comedians? I’ve haven’t laughed this hard since the photo came out of Ooompa Loompa Kerry. Thanks!!
On September 7th, 2008 at 11:29 pm, rowsdower said:
Someday soon, demented Waldo is going to have a total on-air meltdown. He’ll make Howard Beale look like Alistair Cooke.I expect him to climb atop the RCA building and start picking off passersby with an AK47.
—-
Umm, the AK isn’t accurate over sufficient distance for that. Unless the kook is firing into a crowd using the “spray and pray” technique favored by middle eastern terrorists, he or she is likely to just be guilty of littering.
Mew
That was a typical Jeanne Moos piece on CNN. No harm. Not like the rancorous tools on MSNBC.
I hope to be alive to vote for Piper when she runs for POTUS in 30 to 40 years.
Yeah but if Moos wanted funny she should have compared it to the John Edwards “Silky hairstylings” video that was much funnier
The campaign has already started for Piper …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKuwa2QRIPo
Piper has my vote and so does her mother.
That is comedy gold!!!! Home run!!!
I stopped watching MSNBC after the 2004 election. It was just too much.
But now…MSNBC coming apart at the seams? Wow.
Sarah Palin ….the gift that just keeps on giving.
Life is good. YOu can’t make this stuff up. Just reporting on these prima donnas is an exercise in lol-ology.
I can’t watch the pre-game on NBC’s “Football Night in America” because of Olbermann. Last year, you could tell Costas and the great Chris Collingsworth weren’t sure what to do with him. They stood him off to the side and gave him his 2 to 3 painful, cringe-inducing minutes of airtime, but they never bantered with him.
What must it be like to be such a professional pariah? Yet my pity can’t seem to overtake my distaste, just like his common sense can’t seem to win out over his sanctimonious self-righteousness.
I can’t disagree with that W.A. It would have been funnier to use Edwards.
Me thinks that MSNBC is trying to save Obama’s race to the White House. KO and CM are apparently the two idiots that are not helping the cause. And Gov Palin managed to root out two corrupt yahoos from MSNBC without ever lifting a finger. Must be an Alaskan thing.
Karma’s a bitch.
Anybody for a delicious Olby burger? Personally field dressed and prepared by Palin.
“Rather than label MSNBC’s prime time as left-leaning, he says it has passion and point of view.”
Yes, and that ‘passion and point of view’ is extreme leftist batsh*t-crazy liberal.
MSNBC mission statement: inform, engage and innovate with the highest quality news and information, anytime, anywhere. [as long as it's extreme leftist batsh*t-crazy liberal.]
Yes, but these are not mutually exclusive, so be truthful and say that MSNBC has a socialist (it goes far beyond left-leaning) passion and point of view.
My God! Watching Woodward on 60 minutes talking about his startling discovery that President Bush actually wanted the military to kill the bad guys! Gasp! Shock! …Like that’s a bad thing?
This whole thing is the product of Jeff Zucker and Steve Capus…you got what you paid for boys.
About time – that situation was just plain toxic.
About the only TV I watch now is The History Channel, Sci-Fi, National Geographic, Animal Planet and the Weather Channel. Or a couple of the movie channels, but I get so sick of the amount of advertising they shove in that I don’t even bother with movies anymore. heh. Does anyone else find that the ads always come on super-loud volume? I usually have to mute the tv during ad breaks for that reason.
I’m sorry . . . Keith who?
Rowsdower,
Olbermann is no Howard Beale….
Beale actually had a mind to lose.
nyc –
you beat me to it!
Losers.
Ron, I gotta say, I didn’t think anything could top my fabulous weekend with my family here at the beach, but my heart actually leapt (please let that be spelled correctly) at the prospect of this, when I read your post. Thank you for the Sunday evening perk!
Olbermann and Matthews have had a ‘little’ set-down…
I’ll TAKE IT!!!
If I’ve learned anything from leftists it’s the ‘little at a time’ tactic (another
‘Bout time. While it’s likely the corporate folks are more focused on the bottom line than spin or ideology, at least these 2 are getting a time out. Hopefully they did something outrageous enough – like providing credentials to Code Pink at the RNCC – to get them fired.
Even with both of them publicly booted, you couldn’t PAY me to watch either network for news. It’s not news, just infotainment.
Yet another Obamadrama meltdown.
He’s quoted on DRUDGE……read it!
States “his Muslim religion”.
Keep inserting those big feet of yours, bama!
Pull the plug on MSNBC..surely Bill Gates realizes a money loser, doesn’t he?
Ouch. Nice trending for Sarracuda/McCain since her big speech!
Oops, sorry for the bad link.
This comes from the latest USA/Today poll through Sunday night.
I’m feeling a thrill go up my leg reading about MSNBC in full meltdown mode
Since Russert passed away, it became a race to the bottom for those two Obama shills. Brokaw’s not much better.
Sure will miss Tim and his whiteboard, though. That was good stuff.
Michelle is loving this. An added delight is their demotion with respect to election coverage less than 60 days before the most exciting election of their lifetimes. They must be dying! Michelle must be giggling!
MM,
I tell you, Zell Miller became my overnight hero after that shameless “interview” you were subjected to. I really miss Zell from this election season!!
And after that debacle, I stopped watching MSNBC.
Sad that they haven’t learned or changed in the intervening 4 years.
PMSNBC – the network where the inmates truly run the asylum….
If the election does not go the Messiah’s way, I’d expect Mr. Zucker to be clearing out his office…and GE/NBC to be asking their legal counsel to find a way to terminate Bathtub Boy’s 4 year, $4 million/year deal….What a waste of money!
This is funny! What’s the difference between the three? They’re all biased, uber-liberal egomaniacs who consider themselves “clever.” MSNBC could put a no name in that spot, and the message would be the same…McCain is Bush, Obama is the only one who can save America, Palin is more like Bush than McCain, blah, blah, blah…Boring!!!
I got a big snort from this when I read it earlier.
I wasn’t aware (P)MSNBC still existed.
And I thought the ‘PMS’ part stood for something entirely different.
We all miss Russert. Gregory and Brokaw are about as moderate as the NBC stable but they still make Mao look like Reagan they are so far left.
PMS-NBC, losers no matter who sits at that desk.
Geez, I hope MSNBC’s using condoms when they shoot up. Wouldn’t want them catching AIDS from a dirty needle.
Anyone is better sitting there than those two butt pimples. at least now I can flip channels for a look, if I feel the need to do so.
MSNBS’s chickens coming home to roost!
Putting fox David Gregory in the hen house is a great idea.
One thing these two clowns were good at was baiting their interlocutors. Yep, they were master baiters.
It’s their brand that is going down the toilet … NBC, anything NBC. It now stands for fertilizer, NBC — Nothing But Crap.
I guess we won’t hear about the tingles running up Matthews’ leg anymore.
You mean the Collingsworth that tried to get Kobie Bryant to hate on America at the olympics.
Never much cared for Kobie, until he shut Collingsworth down with his proud to be American reply, in China no less!
I, too, shut off NBC’s “Football Night in America” when Olbermann showed up on the screen. I wound up wasting an hour and a half on the truly crap-tastic “Pearl Harbor”, instead. By the time I tuned back in to football, halftime was over, so I knew I was safe.
Does NBC realize how many viewers are reflexively reaching for their remotes every time Olbermann’s face appears on the screen?
Quite astute, Koko…Then depending on the election results, they may/may not get their own shows. If McCain/Palin win they have a job. If Obama/Biden win, they write books…
I don’t even have to ask if the Dems’ “Fairness Doctrine” proposal exempts cable networks. Herr Olbermann and Mighty Mouth Matthews would have company at MSNBC if they had to be “fair”.
By the way, the “MS” stands for MicroSoft; I often wonder what Bill Gates and his partners think of this channel’s content?
Did you watch the same Olympics that I did, Rooster? Collingsworth did no such thing. He gave Kobe the opportunity to make a statement about his patriotism. Geez, he set the guy up for it so he could make a positive statement. All very softball and pro-American.
But like sharks to chum, some idiot pundit assumes liberal bias and, voila, Collingsworth is unpatriotic? Laughable nonsense.
Cris Collingsworth is a patriot. The exchange with Kobe was intended to let Kobe speak as a proud American.
I’ve been a fan of Collingsworth since he came to the NFL nearly 30 years ago. The guy is one of the few intelligent thoughtful and least flamboyant sports broadcasters out there. He is the anti-Olbermann.
Oh, and he’s a Republican.
Woodward on 60 Minutes? There is a pair to draw to. Robert Woodward got caught in lie after lie about his supposed interview with CIA Director William Casey for Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA. I would have thought 60 Minutes went off the air years ago. But the Left Wing Ding Bats still keep these two relics of something. Oh well.And now the Deification of David Gregory. There is a man child who could use a good whipping.
Um, isn’t that what US Weekly said about their magazine? Is there a memo going around telling all the left leaning liberals to use this statement when asked about their magazine, TV channel, etc? *rolls eyes*
Olberman? Nearly all Americans have no idea who he is. Thankfully, I’ve never bothered to watch MSNBC other than to see what trash they were spewing and how far it wandered from reality.
And I love this tidbit from the NYTimes…
“Show me your lies and propaganda… and I’ll show you mine.”
surprise surpise.
Well Doug, I guess I viewed it differently and how he thought it wasn’t right to be patriotic. Besides he does work with Olberdorf, so he could be infected?
HA HA HA HA HA HA — (INHALE) — HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
I hear Olbermann went into a fetal position and wet himself.
Invoking a Michael Moore and the DNC - “This proves there is a God.”
#1 – Obama’s poll numbers are in a free fall.
#2 – Hurricane Gustav did not take out New Orleans giving the Libs another excuse to race bait.
#3 – Keith Olbermann was sacked
Considering this lucky streak I advise Pelosi and Reid to watch out for falling pianos this week.
I don’t think he’s infected. I really believe he and Costas can’t stand the guy (KO).
If you get a chance to see the Kobe interview again, try the perspective that Collinsworth is trying to help Kobe make a strong pro-USA statement. Listen to the background music. The effect is intended to make it Kobe’s moment. To make us, the viewers, proud of this team.
One can only imagine how Olbermann would have handled this interview.
Side note: You would think that if I were such a big fan of Cris Collinsworth, I would at least be able to spell his name correctly: No “h” in Cris, and no “g” in Collinsworth. Yet I can remember the double “n” in the “unqualified and incompetent” Olbermann’s name. D’oh.
The liberal media is trying its best to elect a man who is not equipped, either by experience or ideolgy, to lead a free, capitalistic society. They think they are intelligent and above all of us right-wing hicks. They use transparent and offensive tactics and think they are doing a good job of convincing the masses. We all know the libs are delusional and this is just one more example.
Zucker really got over his head trying to reshape PMSNBC into the anti-FOX, and I’m glad! It couldn’t happen to a more deserving news organization -
FYI: PMSNBC aka DNC-TV
(or is CNN = DNC-TV?)
Let’s see, Bob Costas does his homework before he talks, is polite to people even when he disagrees with them, hmmm why would he have a problem with the blowhard, moronic Olbermann? hahaha, reading the sports blogs and news blogs over the years, as well as articles in the NY Times, it has been clear that Olbermann has been disliked wherever he works, he allegedly treats the staff like slaves, so I don’t anticipate any tears when he is gone. As for Matthews, he was a good writer when he was with the San Francisco Examiner, I enjoyed hos columns, he is definintely smarter and hopefully, after wasting a year shilling for Hillary, he will learn from the experience and reign in the partionship or just become a full time talking head and scream at Pat Buchanan etc.
I’ve noticed this too. I had no idea that I was being indoctrinated by tv my whole life. Have you noticed that even the older shows, 70’s, there is always a liberal family who deals with a conservative that is made to look like a jackhole.
Fixed it.
Regarding Gridlock’s comment:
I occasionally use my remote to take a peek at Herr Olberdoom, but only in the way one forces oneself to look at a mutilated corpse.
I can tolerate it for a few seconds, and then it’s back to Fox or C-Span.
Can you just imagine what it will be like if he (Olberman) is actually given the chance to speak his mind concerning his “demotion”? I can hear it now. All the blaming and slandering about how it is all the Conservative Attack Goons have caused this to happen, how it is a way for the Vast Right Wing Conspiricy to silence the opposition, how it is all just like Hitler and his Brown Shirts, why I even would go so far as to say the name “Eichmann” could end up being used.
See, because it is never the fault of the bigotted, racist, sexist angry and hypocritical Liberal when they get in trouble or get caught. Noooo…because if they were going to be the type that accepted responsability for their words and deeds and lives, they wouldn’t be Liberals. They would be Conservatives.
I can’t wait until he is relegated back to the Sports Desk where he should never have been brought from. He can tell us al how sports stars using banned substances and performance enhancers is not a bad influence on our children.
It’s probably time again to resurrect those wonderful Gregory snipits dished out by Pres. Bush and Tony Snow.
Not a big deal, a big change, except for the seismic abuses that this will generate in the egos of Matthews & Olberman. It will take awhile but these two bloviators will act out over this slight to their reputations. Hang on, folks; it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.
Unless the network really cleans house, what does it matter… Chrissy and Olbergoon will still be there. The ideological perspective is wide-spread throughout the network. It’s going to take more than just switching around faces to blunt sagging ratings.
Can you just imagine what it will be like if he (Olberman) is actually given the chance to speak his mind concerning his “demotion”? I can hear it now. All the blaming and slandering about how it is all the Conservative Attack Goons have caused this to happen, how it is a way for the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy to silence the opposition, how it is all just like Hitler and his Brown Shirts, why I even would go so far as to say the name “Eichmann” could end up being used.
See, because it is never the fault of the bigoted, racist, sexist angry and hypocritical Liberal when they get in trouble or get caught. Noooo…because if they were going to be the type that accepted responsibility for their words and deeds and lives, they wouldn’t be Liberals. They would be Conservatives.
I can’t wait until he is relegated back to the Sports Desk where he should never have been brought from. He can tell us all how sports stars using banned substances and performance enhancers is not a bad influence on our children.