1/6/09 1:05 PM

Monday Links & Open Thread

Latest cable news links [updated through the day]:

Greta tonight: live from Wasilla.

Friday's numbers.

Inside The Strategy Room (via TV Newser).

Did Scarborough stay in the tub?

Olbermann and Matthews replaced by David Gregory. More: AP, Howard Kurtz.
Reax:

J$P flashback. MSNBC at sea.

Q&A: Howard Kurtz.
Q&A, profile: Rachel Maddow.

Tucker Carlson exits early.

New FNC/Rasmussen battleground polling.

Campbell Brown's firestorm.

J$P 24-Hour Poll:


Use our valuable bandwidth to comments on any and all cable news topics in today's open thread. Standard rules apply.

9/8/08 12:38 AM, posted in: links & open (Permalink) |



Cecelia
Kurtz has his nerve. The most he did when MSNBC made Olbermann political anchor was to simply quote Olbermann's and Griffin's assurances that the arrangement was nothing out of the ordinary and that Olbermann would have no trouble "changing hats".
 
Howie only took issue after others in the media began to criticize Olbermann and Matthew's behavior.
 
BTW-- The AP's piece is priceless. Remember Olbermann telling that AP reporter to "find a new line of work"?  
 
Payback...  
September 8, 2008, 1:19:42 AM EDT – Like – Reply

johnny dollar
I updated the Chickaboomer link to a new piece that is worth checking out.
September 8, 2008, 1:29:26 AM EDT – Like – Reply

Cecelia
GREAT Chickaboomer piece, Johnny!
 
Yeah, baby!
September 8, 2008, 1:39:33 AM EDT – Like – Reply

Scott
Keithina can't keep his hatred for Bush out of the BNBC Sunday football show. But, his RACIST COMMENT'S flowed freely during the halftime show. Even his boyfriend at TVCRAPPER caught it. Over an hour after it occured but when Keithina's boyfriend post's stuff calling her out you know life is getting VERY BAD.
September 8, 2008, 2:11:14 AM EDT – Like – Reply

Fox Fan
I can't believe that lengthy Q&A was written with Maddow without once mentioning her transgender status. Are they trying to cover something up? If (s)he went to all that trouble to make the conversion, (s)he might as well be upfront about the whole *package*.
September 8, 2008, 7:13:00 AM EDT – Like – Reply

cee
The experiment failed for 2 reasons. Olbermann is almost totally incapable of being professional....that's an easy and obvious one that Griffin and Capus should have known and they should be held accountable. Serious coverage of political events deserve better skilled broadcasters who can keep their agendas, tempers and tongues in check.
 
The other reason the experiment failed relates to the events of the last two weeks. To a smaller extent, the success of the RNC and concomitant energizing of the party's base (a total surprise to the media), put the press' leftist partisans, like Olbermann, in a defensive frame of mind. To a greater degree, the Palin nomination, and the subsequent feeding frenzy, justly exposed the press' priorities. They are mostly concerned over their own agenda, their own role. There are varying degrees of partisanship and/or narcissism in the media, Olbermann but one example of the extreme. His outburst Thursday night was THE example of how his radical worldview and ego is so close to the surface. That was the final nail in his coffin and the demotion was well earned.
 
I like the fact that this occurred with COUNTDOWN's coming Obama infomercial. Olbermann's likely softball questioning will look good against this current backdrop of demotion and internal NBC NEWS angst.
 
Great coverage of this hit to the left's cheerleader, J$. I am sure the reactions will continue.
September 8, 2008, 7:48:38 AM EDT – Like – Reply

locomotivebreath1901
Dooood! My leg is tingling!!
 
But, ultimately, I think it will make little diff.
 
I'm sure Soros will simply have these cranial diarrhea twins ooze out from some other outlet shortly.
September 8, 2008, 7:55:30 AM EDT – Like – Reply

Mark
Cee, in your use of religious themes and imagery to denigrate political and broadcast individuals and personnel, you have become deeply, deeply offensive. As a Christian, I am particularly offended by your far too casual use of "Messiah". I do not believe you intend to be sacreligious, but that is certainly the effect. I would find it a positive move if you would cease this, and I think your arguments would be enhanced if you did so. By way of example, I think Bill Maher is one of the most creative and clever artists on television, but I can't bear to watch him because of his lack of respect for my faith and the faith of millions of other Americans and people throughout the world. You language is becoming just as offensive, and, as I said, I am sure this is not your intent.
September 8, 2008, 8:33:21 AM EDT – Like – Reply

vstol
Mark,
 
Please remove your head from its sunshineless abode,
 
Messiah literally means 'the anointed.'
September 8, 2008, 10:20:53 AM EDT – Like – Reply

johnny dollar
Very interesting prediction at the end of the Portfolio article that's just been linked...
September 8, 2008, 10:30:42 AM EDT – Like – Reply

GrandpaD
Interesting indeed! If Olbermann's agents could negotiate his reported salary no doubt they could negotiate clauses the make KO fireproof. But management can throw darts, like this one, at his ego. That will surely lead to a "mutual agreement" for his leaving before the contract expires.
September 8, 2008, 11:00:17 AM EDT – Like – Reply

Mark
Thank you, vstol, I know very well what the literal meaning of "Messiah" is, and I have known since the time of my First Communion, decades, ago. I also understand the connotation, and its centrality to Christian and Jewish theology. On both the literal and connotative levels, I find casual usage offensive. I suspect many mainline Christians do.
September 8, 2008, 11:23:31 AM EDT – Like – Reply

Mark
... interesting prediction at the end of the Portfolio article ....
 
---
 
Interesting and safe. I don't think cable news networks will be recognizable to us in another couple of years. Some will more likely go the straight news delivery route in the BBC World mode, some will likely be simple recitals in trash in the Grace mode.
September 8, 2008, 11:28:16 AM EDT – Like – Reply

Mike C.
The far-left meme seems to be "David Gregory is a right-winger because [improv actor Brad Sherwood brought him up to the stage at the 2007 Radio and Television Correspondents' Dinner and he] danced [backup] with Karl Rove [as Brad and Colin Mochrie rapped]." Am I wrong in making that assumption?
September 8, 2008, 12:17:13 PM EDT – Like – Reply

Mark
If I were placing Gregory on a continuum, I'd say right-of-center, but only in that Northeastern Republican sense, as we knew Northeastern Republicans in the '70s and '80s, all of the economic conservatism, with none of the social conservatism side. Those were the days! Personally, I'm not all that troubled with Gregory's politics. He can be neutral, objective, fair and balanced when faced with a news item. I don't imagine Rove had much to do with anyone's view of Gregory. Moderates, progressives and liberals probably thought that the Rove episode had something to do with Gregory asking tough, uncomfortable questions at White House press events.
 
My problem with Gregory is not his politics. It's his overpowering ego and his shameless positioning. All of it is a shame. Peter Principle at work here. A good, solid reporter, advancing into an area where he is decidedly uncomfortable.
September 8, 2008, 1:17:27 PM EDT – Like – Reply

cee
Oh Mark, like the song goes, "If You Don't Know Me By Now."
 
OLBERMANN WATCH archives where I am coming from regarding the last several years of activity on the left side of the aisle and the nature of the coverage, as shown in the extreme on COUNTDOWN.....
 
My intention of the adjectives is always reflective of the overstepping of the candidate himself and his zealous supporters (including Keith Olbermann).

Edited By Siteowner
September 8, 2008, 1:39:55 PM EDT – Like – Reply

Olby Sucks
Mark | 09.08.08 - 1:22 pm | #  
 
I distinctly remember you crowing loudly with glee when gregory got his own show, recently. You said you loved everything about it except the graphics. The wind is a swirling!
September 8, 2008, 2:18:34 PM EDT – Like – Reply

JC in OC
Will Obamann remember to wipe Obama's "essence" from his chin after the interview?
September 8, 2008, 2:41:35 PM EDT – Like – Reply

Mark
My dear, Jeff. Did you read what I said? I said that Gregory was a fine reporter who had been "Peter Principled" into a job ill-suited for him; i.e. anchoring. Guess what? I had to see him anchoring to know that. You really are a bit too much sometimes, Jeff.
 
And, speaking of being too much, I am surprised 1446 Hours survived "moderation". That's disgusting.
September 8, 2008, 3:59:16 PM EDT – Like – Reply

Mike C.
I left essentially the same comment that I made here a few hours ago at OlbyWatch. As soon as I said what I did, pup Patrick swooped in. Thank you for permanently ridding us of him, Johnny.
September 8, 2008, 4:20:51 PM EDT – Like – Reply

Fox Fan
I kinda like Patrick, Mike. He's like that retarded kid brother that you can make eat bugs and rabbit poo and you and all your friends can sit back and laugh at him while he fancies himself the life of the party.
September 8, 2008, 6:39:24 PM EDT – Like – Reply

Cecelia
Mark,
 
I felt the same way with your and Patsy's use of religious imagery at OW.  
 
There you employed it to denigrate people of faith by routinely insulting Sharon as being Mother Superior or Sister such-and-such pejorative and Cee as being a pharisee, and the rest of us as being Crusaders out to put all Muslims on the rack.
 
One can't help but be amused at your own quasi-religious imagery that you use as you speak about something akin to a new world order where the lion lies down with the lamb upon the instillation of a Pres. Obama.
 
One could suggest that the most appropriate response to you would be on the order of Jesus' admonition to take the plank out of your own eye before admonishing others to take the moat out of theirs.
 
However, that presupposes that you don't know your plank is there and that there is some part of your heart which truly would reject your own as well as other's hypocrisy.
 
That's not the case with you, of course. It's just one more device. It's a little slither around Cee leaving some eel slime.
 
Cee is right in simply wiping you off.
September 8, 2008, 7:02:41 PM EDT – Like – Reply

Cecelia
Patrick has recently been launching into the "I'm nuts but you guys made me this way" line of personal redemption via recrimination, over at OW.  
 
Though I can certainly understand how he'd need someone to blame for being an embarrassment, his sort of offer to fess up to being one if others accept blame for it, is very short lived.  
 
In no time at all, the group hug is over and he's back in business. You've merely accomplished his task of justifying his outrageous behavior and his hatred and slander of you.
 
He has nothing to offer but craziness. Thanks for booting him, Johnny.
September 8, 2008, 7:14:26 PM EDT – Like – Reply

Mark
Your usual and expected kindness is greatly appreciated, Cecelia. I remain in your deepest debt, and I wish you all the very best in this life and the next.
September 8, 2008, 7:51:24 PM EDT – Like – Reply

Fox Fan
On a more serious note, I have to agree with Cecelia here. Patrick was a troll and offered no substance or coherent argument. His grasp of the English language was also pathetic.
 
No surprise for a confessed NH moderator.
 
Thanks for booting him, johnny.
September 8, 2008, 8:06:50 PM EDT – Like – Reply

Olby Sucks
and the rest of us as being Crusaders out to put all Muslims on the rack.
 
by Cecelia
 
You mean we're not :?:
September 8, 2008, 8:27:41 PM EDT – Like – Reply

Cecelia
Mark,
 
And as someone who has never sought to rain on your and your fellow lefties parades via trolling a website until gates had to be installed or simply planting myself on one because I think I"m raining on Sorros' (in your case-- Roger Ailes...)... without caveat...spin....handling... or manipulation... I wish you the same.
September 8, 2008, 9:03:27 PM EDT – Like – Reply

Mark
Quick lesson here, Jeff: The Crusaders were soldiers. You don't qualify.
September 8, 2008, 9:04:34 PM EDT – Like – Reply

Cecelia
FF, if Patrick wrote like a first grader but wanted to do more than to throw rocks at "right wingers" or "fox fans', his writing skills would be of no interest to me.
 
So the converse is true too.... if he "spoke in the tongues of men and of angels" but had the same mission-- his writing skills would still be the last thing that concerned me...
September 8, 2008, 9:13:28 PM EDT – Like – Reply

Fox Fan
Incomprehensible rhetoric is incomprehensible rhetoric. There is a point where writing ability DOES matter because the point cannot be properly made otherwise.
September 8, 2008, 9:45:48 PM EDT – Like – Reply

tony
I just watched Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. Although I dont think that I agreed with a word that she said, i give her credit for having guests who dont agree with all of her views. She had on a reverand who disagreed when she tried to make a comparason between a guest speaking at sarah palans church and obamma attending reverend wrights church for 15 years. She later battled it out with pat buchanon. Maybe she can give lessons to olbermann.
September 8, 2008, 10:08:12 PM EDT – Like – Reply

Mike C.
To me, the Crusaders are a jazz band.
September 8, 2008, 10:32:18 PM EDT – Like – Reply

puck30
From NYP's Page Six
 
"NBC news legend Tom Brokaw recently said, "I think Keith has gone too far. I think Chris has gone too far."  
 
An insider told The Post that Olbermann responded by pushing to have Brokaw banned from MSNBC".
 
If True, Yikes! I take back the open mike thought.
September 8, 2008, 10:35:41 PM EDT – Like – Reply