NBC Caves to GOP

In case you haven't heard, NBC has decided to pull Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews out of their anchor chairs during future election coverage on both NBC and MSNBC. They will instead provide analysis, with the bland, cookie-cutter-newsman David Gregory taking over the anchoring duties.

The change appears to be a direct result of tensions between NBC and MSNBC about the perceived shift leftward of MSNBC. Olbermann specifically has been highly critical of the current Bush administration and has called out both John McCain and Sarah Palin for what he believes are outright lies about their positions and their attacks on Barack Obama.

Olbermann has also sparred, sometimes on-air, with some of his co-workers, and after the the GOP used stark images of 911 and other graphic visuals at their convention, Olbermann apologized for airing it, claiming it entirely inappropriate and disrespectful to the victims and their survivors. That caused quite the kerfuffle, to which Olbermann responded, "I found it ironic and instructive that I could have easily said exactly what I did say, exactly when I did say it, if I had been wearing a different hat, and nobody would have taken any issue."

While Faux News has gone gangbusters by taking a clearly partisan, pro-conservative viewpoint, NBC has decided that their own experiment with putting professional journalists who vocalize their strong opinions strays too far from the middle of the road. The McCain campaign had threatened to boycott one of the scheduled debates that is to be hosted by Tom Brokaw, so NBC folded their tent.

I hope that MSNBC continues to provide an alternate viewpoint to the existing network coverage that, since the first Gulf war, has been too ready to accept administration talking points instead of doing actual reporting. They've been abdicating their journalistic responsibility to challenge those in power by providing a bright light, focused on the people and the process, so that we can hopefully see what the hell is really going on. When the National Enquirer is breaking stories like with John Edwards, it's game over.

Now that news has become a business instead of a calling, we're less and less informed by the traditional media. It's up to the new media to pick up the mantle that has been dropped. Network news is officially dead.