By Dan Kennedy • The press, politics, technology, culture and other passions

Bitterness and hate at MSNBC

Jon Stewart’s got some great clips (move it ahead to around 11:30) of the meltdown at MSNBC. It turns out that Rachel Maddow’s upbraiding of Pat Buchanan has been the least of it.

One other thing I saw late last night, following Joe Biden’s speech: Keith Olbermann asked Brian Williams a question about whether McCain might use his vice-presidential announcement to take away from Obama’s moment. Except that he asked his question following an elaborate set-up in which he said something to the effect that he didn’t want to put Williams in the awkward position of seeming partisan. Williams semi-acknowledged that some sort of conversation had taken place.

It seemed clear to me that Williams must have been complaining that he and other NBC journalists feels as though they’re getting sucked into the liberal talk-show atmosphere that has led to MSNBC’s rise in the ratings.

It also seems clear that Tim Russert was the only personality strong enough to keep all this backbiting from spilling over. Another reason to lament his passing.

By the way, it’s mainly MSNBC, but not only MSNBC. The other night on Fox News, Brit Hume took the crossover from Sean Hannity and said — I’m sure I’ve got this almost word for word — I’ve always wanted to be on “Hannity & Colmes,” if only for a moment. The contempt on Hume’s face was palpable.

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11 Comments

  1. Rick

    Olbemann at about 9:30pm last night”. . .Remember we were worried, or, they were, uh, the Obama camp and the Clinton camp were both worried he might be booed coming out?” Straight down the middle with MSNBCChris Matthews couldn’t be reached for comment,he was in the bathroom touching himself after the speech.

  2. Nial Liszt

    There’s never a Fairness Doctrine around when you need one.

  3. DevorahLeah

    Umm, how is what MSNBC doing any different from what Faux News does? So Keith and Chris are the opposite of Bill-o and Sean. So what? Oh and as for “fair and balanced,” on Monday night, Brit Hume and Chris Wallace on Faux basically said the convention was a waste of their time and why should they even be there? So are they journalists or rightie shills? I rest my case.

  4. Dan Kennedy

    Devorah: So you don’t want anything better than Fox News for liberals?

  5. Bill Baar

    …Brit Hume and Chris Wallace on Faux basically said the convention was a waste of their time…Can we have some links to support this? They seem like real junkies for this stuff.It was Gergen and Carville over at MSNBC complaining the first days were a waste of Democrat’s Time…not theirs, or anyone elses; but of Democrat’s own time.They were probably right.

  6. Rick

    DevorahLeah I don’t think “Bill-o and Sean”Hosted the convention coverage on FOX.

  7. Rick

    Faux News hahahaha.I just got it. How original.

  8. Peter Porcupine

    Rick – don’t be a spoilsport – if you SAY it often enough, people will believe it. Only conservatives are challanged to provide links and empirical support – liberals are merely stating what ‘everybody’ knows. Sure, O’REILLY was host, yeah…

  9. Dan Kennedy

    PP: The proof that O’Reilly was one of Fox’s hosts for convention coverage was available to anyone who turned on FNC between 8 and 9 p.m. this week.

  10. luvbigones

    Here is a gr8 picture of our hero Keith Olbermann in a movie he did a few years back:http://inlinethumb52.webshots.com/42291/2266002780099010655S600x600Q85.jpg

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