Still think MSNBC is our friend?

[Stinky The Clown]

I have been railing against them for a long time. Most posts I put to that effect get unrecced into oblivion.

MSNBC is WORSE THAN FOX.

Is that unclear to anyone?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40030687

[slackmaster]

1. MSNBC is in the business of selling advertising time

They run whatever shows they believe will draw the audiences that its advertisers want to attract.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. I award you the degree of Master Of the Obvious

[uncommon]

19. Which is exactly why cable news should be outlawed.

It has nothing to do with news.

[gateley]

25. Same with Network news. If one word could be an oxymoron... :-) nt

[slackmaster]

26. I'm uncomfortable with the idea of outlawing something that involves free speech

How about forcing them to call it something other than "news"?

I'm OK with "Infotainment".

[uncommon]

32. Well yeah, obviously that would be the solution. They can't be kept from having a channel or shows

but they shouldn't be allowed to call it news.

[jpak]

3. I will tweet Keith and Rachel with this astounding news!!!1111

THEY ARE NOT MY FRIENDS!!!!1111

:rofl:

[Stinky The Clown]

9. You can do your stupid ROFL thing, but your surmise is wrong

Typical, to be sure, but wrong.

The on air personalities are not the issue. The ownership and corporate intent of the ownership is the issue. And you think they're your pals, you're in deeper denial than you appear.

The on air people are to hired help. When its time to hold or fold, they do what they're told or they quit. They can effect NOTHING.

[jpak]

11. Yeah - Obama=Bush, Dems=GOP, MSNBC less than FOX

:rofl:

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

23. "hired help"?

Are you saying Keith and Rachel just take their marching orders and recite whatever script is handed to them?

That seems kinda harsh.

All this time I thought we watched because they were independent thinkers. Now it sems they are little more than corporate drones.

This is worse than the end of that movie Network with the guy ranting all the time.

[Stinky The Clown]

29. No I didn't say that at all.

They tend to have a very wide latitude on what they cover. But if you watch them with any regularity, you know they sometimes (admittedly rare) simply don't cover certain stories.

They are, indeed, hired help. They are employees, not owners.That's what hired help is.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

30. OK, but not covering something isn't the same as spiking a story.

Unless they're spiking I don't see the point.

[Stinky The Clown]

36. My issue with MSNBC is about the sneaky way they do what they do.

They don't spike. They subtly twist or ignore. They use obvious right wing phrasing. They accept basic right wing framing as the premise from which they start to talk about things. Ignoring the worst stories allows the right wing meme to stand, even as it comes from other outlets.

The problem with all this is that they;'re regarded as the "liberal" voice. People who are generally liberal, but uninvolved as we are, hear it. They hear, by omission or repetition, certain right wing frames or phrases and accept that they must be true if MSNBC is also using them. The net result is a subtle but critical support of the Fox News perspective.

If they did straight news with no commentary, that would be good. But to wear a liberal mantle and still continue to support right wing ..... let's call it what it is ..... propaganda harms us immeasurably. At least with Fox, there's no pretense.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

39. Interesting view. I saw this sort of thinking once before

after my grandfather stopped drinking.

Is everything really a conspiracy?

[Stinky The Clown]

48. Not at all

Did you ever consider that not everything is black and white?

[polichick]

4. As long as they keep Rachel, Lawrence and Big Ed on the air...

...we are better off with msnbc than without it.

[tabatha]

7. Agreed.

I would have a catatonic breakdown, if Rachel, Lawrence and Ed have no place to go.

[w8liftinglady]

5. ...and here's the link to let all know how you feel at msnbc...

make sure you include his team mates...they need to support him in solidarity...it will be them,next

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3096434/

[arbusto_baboso]

6. Not worse. But at least with Fox, it's obvious where they stand.

MSNBC has some issues. I knew they weren't really on our side when they hired Ed Schultz. He does our side far more harm than good.

[JuniperLea]

8. I'll not join the knee jerk party on this one...

Until we learn what the rules of employment were and if Keith did indeed break those rules.

We just don't have enough information yet.

[Poboy]

10. I have been told MSNBC is just like Fox. Jon Stewart said so!

MSNBC is the mirror image of Fox.
:sarcasm:


Half the posters here agree with that, so I guess they'll be fine with this. Our side has no use for people who fight to combat the nutbags.

[Stinky The Clown]

12. Jon Stewart learned that from me.

Except he went after the hired help and not the owners . . . . who also own him.

No sarcasm intended.

[brooklynite]

13. Unrec'd

MSNBC isn't our friend; and it isn't our enemy. It's a commercial enterprise who's goal is to deliver an audience to its programs to watch it's advertiser's messages. It does believe that that equation can be best met by appealing to a more liberal political audience, and hence it hired Mr. Olbermann in the first place. It has not fired Mr. Olbermann, and I have no problem with suspending a political commentator for engaging in political activity, especially if they are going to utilize program time to interview them without revealing the potential conflict of interest.

[Stinky The Clown]

17. Oh no. It is our enemy.

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2003/04/47530.php



("Mr. Olbermann"??? What are you? Their PR flack? :eyes: )

[alsame]

14. Double standards.......

Back in April, Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice took a long look back at Mr. Scarborough's political career: "In 2004, MSNBC allowed him to appear—in the middle of a presidential campaign he was covering—at the side of George W. Bush and John McCain at a rally in Pensacola, where the president singled out Scarborough, his wife, and his daughter to cheers," added Mr. Barrett. "‘I appreciate Joe Scarborough,' Bush declared. ‘I'm glad to know he's still standing and making a living.'"

http://www.observer.com/2008/joe-scarborough-extends-contract-msnbc

[Stinky The Clown]

20. Thank you. You're right

Just one of those inconvenient facts . . . . .

[sufrommich]

16. I don't think of TV channels as "friends". nt

[Greyhound]

18. Wow, the corporate supporters have really jumped onto this one quickly

You must have struck a nerve. I don't think an "Obama is an extraterrestrial African spy" thread would be unrecced this fast.

[RamboLiberal]

21. I never though MSNBC is our friend

but KO, Rachel, Ed, Lawrence & even Tweety at times are.

If they got bad ratings MSNBC would fire them in a heartbeat which was my argument that we had to support these hosts. Not MSNBC!

[EFerrari]

22. Agreed. MSNBC is not our friend. n/t

[gateley]

24. I don't agree, Stinky - MSNBC allows a variety of voices and opinions (luckily for

us they're mostly pretty progressive) - Fox doesn't. It's really the only network that in essence 'speaks' for us.

It's a business which is why this surprises me -- I'd imagine KO's show was a good moneymaker. :shrug:

But I absolutely hate this. I'm still flying around DU trying to learn what this 'rule' is.

And someone posted Uncle Pat made contributions, too. As infuriating as he is, we need those voices from the Right that MSNBC brings us if for no other reason than to know what they're thinking and be outraged! :7

I'm pissed and disappointed about Shuster and SHOCKED about Keith, but I still think MSNBC is a good resource for us. Entirely different animal than Fox.

[Urban Prairie]

35. MSNBC is the only network that permits people like Maddow and Olbermann

to speak to and for us, although in a way they just inform, reinforce, and update many of us, especially those of us who work long hours, and who don't have the time to read, research, or watch online about what has, is or may/will happen, from a refreshingly and reassuringly progressive/liberal point of view. Of course, absent Keith and Rachael, I could instead simply watch the unfair and unbalanced "Faux Noise" and believe the complete opposite of most, if not all of what they report.

I subscribe to conservative as well as liberal news feeds and email using two different Gmail addresses, because I really want to know what "both sides of the US coin" are up to, and thus, keeping my "friends close, and my enemies closer"...heh!!!

[Stinky The Clown]

37. That's commendable .... and quite apart from my essential thesis.

The personalities on MSNBC's prime time are fine. Good people.

It is their daytime and interjecting their daytime into the prime time, that starts to illustrate (not completely) how I see them as an insidious right wing helpmate.

Olbermann, JUST as an example, is fine on his own. When he gets Chuck Todd on, there is the usual exchange among colleagues, but Check gets his say unopposed and Chuck is one of those propaganda catapults.

[gateley]

42. Rachel is the ONLY one who seems to actually engage in a conversation when

she asks questions -- the others (except maybe Matthews at times, when he actually let's someone respond) just ask the question, allow time for the response then move on to the next question. Rachel does followup which is impressive - like she's actually listening. Actually, I was thinking the same thing about Jon Stewart when he interviewed Obama. After Obama would give a (pretty much) standard response, when others would move on, Stewart asked for clarification and followed up. They're few and far between, I fear.

[handmade34]

27. would be seriously egregious

to think of any corporate entity as our friend... never did, never will

I have always believed that Keith Olbermann lives on the edge and love him for it. :patriot:

Appears Keith broke his contract rules and what people employed on Fox News do has nothing to do with MSNBC. We need to always deal with the facts and the relevant matter at hand (and not confuse issues)

Let's hope Keith ends up where he really wants to be... I will be a faithful listener/watcher wherever that is

[blondeatlast]

28. Can't because I ahven't for some time now. But worse than FAUX is

pushing it just a bit, IMHO.

[ipaint]

31. This is just the beginning.

They let the liberals play around for a couple years but time to get back to the real business of hoarding stolen taxpayer wealth in unprecedented amounts.

Corporations should never be trusted, ever. I don't expect the ever growing population of office toadies and ass kissers in this country to get it. Several decades of increasingly abusive corporate control and now most can't begin to question their masters. The human doormats we end up electing to "represent" us reflect that pathetic reality.

[HughMoran]

33. lol

Here we go with the hyperbole.

:eyes:

[Greybnk48]

34. I just shot those f*ckers and email

that was NOT polite. If he's gone, Rachel and Lawrence should pack up and go somewhere else with him. His audience would follow. He saved our sanity in 2004, and was the ONLY one who did.


This may be somewhat incoherent, but I'm really pissed.:grr:

[DainBramaged]

38. The unrecing crew is doing their dirty work

Standing there with ya Stinky, +1!!!!

[blindpig]

40. Television is worse than thinking.

No wonder people don't know their ass from first base.

[Joe Fields]

41. So, you're saying it's okay to flaunt the rules and not suffer consequenses?

IRL I always have to pay. Why should Keith be any different?

[Stinky The Clown]

45. This isn't about Olbermann. It is about MSNBC

As to rules, read elsewhere on DU. They have a most definite double standard

[xiamiam]

43. Turn off the tv..as long as it is on you are being programmed..nt

[Stinky The Clown]

46. Thanks for the advice

That's the ostrich response. Turning it off doesn't change a damned thing. All that happens is that thinkers turn it off. Thinkers aren't affected by it.

[xiamiam]

50. no, its not the ostrich response..current events are readily available

without the pundits, bought and paid for, without the ads or the influence. I turned the tv off one year ago. Too many personalities and distractions, none in which I have any interest. It IS programming and is one of the greatest threats to our culture and minds.

[Stinky The Clown]

51. All true, but *you* turing it off affects just you. Fixing the problem helps everyone

All turning it off does is about what sticking your fingers in your ears and making babbling noises does.

[xiamiam]

52. my suggestion is that everyone turn it off..it is possible to watch almost any clip available on the

internet.. minus rapid visuals and background music..minus idealogy..minus programming which influences every segment of our lives.

I am a fan of your posts but on this particular issue, I know that control enters our living room the second the tube is turned on...including who we are supposed to be annoyed with at the moment.

Tv is just not healthy for our minds, our psyche, or our bodies. It is violent and cultivates hatefulness and violence. There is more but I suggest that you try it someday.

[Octafish]

44. GE Brings Big Death to Life™

A mere cat's paw for Corporate McPravda, Keith Olbermann represents one of a very limited number of pressure valves in Allen Dulles' Mighty Wurlitzer.

[Swamp Rat]

49. The New World Order ©2010

:hi:

[spanone]

47. k&r

[RedCloud]

53. FSTV Go Amy!