MSNBC ratings were up sharply over 2004 but that was apparently no match for the pressure the McCain campaign put on NBC. <link> Gregory will replace them.

Money talks.

Yeah, that's it....it was the money. It had nothing to do with the fact that nobody watches the station because both Olberman and Matthews are buffoons.

Jack

Man, I go to all the trouble to top-post . . .

So, the McCain-Palin campaign's got the big money? I thought that was Obama's strong suit.

bias was first brought to national attention by Olbermann and Mathews [on their separate shows] aggressively campaigning for Barack Obama and against Hillary Clinton. Their joint Hillary Clinton hatred degenerated into obscenities a time or two whereas both men very nearly proposed marriage to Obama. People noticed.

People also noticed when both men again aggressively attacked the woman politician, Governor Sarah Palin.

What's amusing is NBC's bewilderment as to why the nation generally approves of FOX New's mingling of hard reporting and traditional anchoring with blatant conservatives in the tank for Republican candidates and issues and policies. This is because FOX has NEVER made any bones about the fact that it considers itself primarily consevative in nature even though it strives for Fair and Balanced coverage [wink, wink].

NBC, however, denied that it was primarily liberal in orientation and to this day, doesn't label Olbermann or Mathews as hard core liberals.

NBC tried to be coy and have things both ways. Fox News, on the other hand, simply stated what it was and what it was trying to do up front.

As a result, most viwers admire FOX's honesty and dispise NBC/MSNBC's fakery.

there might have been some other people exerting some pressure as well - I'm not sure it was just money talking.

I'm looking at the polls and I'm seeing what looks to be a slow-motion trainwreck in the making. Though USA Today's is an outlier, even Rasmussen is showing a dead heat.

When I get more time, I'll post something on the relationship between Palin and what will likely be attributed to "the Bradley effect" come election day. In a nutshell, Weisberg was right - race is Obama's biggest barrier. Paradoxically, the more we talk about it, the less of an issue it is. If you grant 2.5% to Bradley (5% net shift), that electoral map suddenly looks much, much less optimistic for Obama.

Later, though.

'bout time. they are both ready for straight jackets..so over the top in a woozy tizzy of worshipping shilling to the point where they both act literally like they are having an orgasm on the air everytime they run a clip of Obama speaking. It's been such a odd thing to watch them.

Really two very strange dudes, those two.

Hardly people who extol any semblence of journalistic integrity.

I didn't think MSNBC had it in them as their manager, Todd something or other(never can remember his name) but he is often on the air on MSNBC as well as seems every bit as in the tank for Obama as they are.

I suspect the bigger journalists around NBC for years like Tom Brokaw has placed some pressure on the cable Stations owners..

...there's been rumors abounding that Brokaw has expressed real embarassment over the antics of Matthews and Olbermann and he may well have gone over all of their heads at MSNBC and complained about the really serious deviation from jouranlism on there by those two nuts.

I for one, am very glad to learn about this.

It's way over due.

The numbers ,too, demcon.... you're so right. I saw recently Fox was pulling in 9 million viewers to MSNBC's 2.5 million per night..or something quite comparable to that.

they were really sinking.

"You buggin the fuck out, man." Or maybe that was P-Diddy. But it's a paraphrase of what Brokaw said about their convention coverage.

As some MSNBC guy noted, the wheels came off when Tim Russert died.

against Sarah Palin and her family members is what's finally made the shark fins begin circling NBC/MSNBC's jointly sinking ship and has made the BIG BOSSES start kicking some spoiled and heretofore pampered behinds.

You can bet that despite Olbermanns four year four million dollars per year contract with MSNBC his little dingaling was also firmly smacked with the flat of a ruler. Ouch!

They went right after Obama on race with their mocking of Community Organizer. Catholics are livid over this baseless attack. But it plays to both the base and "Reagan Democrats". This was their Willie Horton ad.

pro-Obama biases, which were plain as day during the Hillary/Barack nomination contest went beyond any sane boundaries in their joint attacks against Governor Sarah Palin AND her family members.

Even MSNBC could not pretend that it was just the 'boys' being boys and NBC, frankly, experienced a first class panic attack when viewers began turning away from the MSNBC/NBC brand in droves.

Something had to give, but such is the culture of denial of reality at MSNBC/NBC that it's probably too little too late.

I agree. I think even the biased MSNBC can now see the writing on the wall.

Palin herself took the media to task in her speech.

They know the focus is on them now in regards to their bias.

And they also can see the polls turning sharply up for McCain and Plain and they are terrified their two biggest out of control anchors obsessed with Obama (matthews and Olbermann) most certainly will not have the disiplne or emotional charcter to hold in the all consuming rage against anything not pro Obama.

USA Daily Tracking poll today has McCain/Palin at 50%

Obama at 46%

no kidding.

;-)

link to where "Fox News, on the other hand, simply stated what it was and what it was trying to do up front."

"Fair and balanced"! Or haven't you heard?

Meanwhile, the notion of Matthews, at least (but Olbermann, too), as "hard core liberal" couldn't possibly be any more absurdly counter-factual (e.g., nothing whatsoever "liberal" about intensely sick, "hard core" misogyny).

Geez, that post was pathetic!

Oh I know! That P Diddy video was so pathetically funny.
I couldn't believe how lame that one was.

(almost as lame as Ryerson getting in a hissy fit because his dumbass theory about Palin not facing the press turned out to be another one of his big fat lies)

ha!

;-)

Olbermann was strongly in Obama's camp. That part you have right.

Matthews was openly sexist but has long been a big admirer of John McCain. He blasted Obama because he couldn't appeal to his Pennsylvania "working class whites". (Matthews brother was the unsuccessful candidate for Lt. Governor in PA in 2006). Matthews, in other words, is a "Reagan Democrat" that favors Republicans at the national level.