AP's TV reporter, a man by the name of David Bauder, has written an article that is designed to discourage NBC/MSNBC from using Keith Olbermann as a participant in presidential debates. The rationale for this attack on Olbermann is that he is biased as is evidenced by the statements he makes in his "special commentaries" (a recent Olberman commentary addressed Giuliani's demagoguing of the national security issue).
As best as I can determine, the only difference between Olbermann and the other NBC/MSNBC talking heads is that Olbermann has been forthright in stating his political views. The others all hold them and, in most cases, their biases tend to be in the direction of the Republicans. Their biases sneak into the questions selected and how they are asked instead of being expressly acknowledged and are in a sense more insidious . . .
Here's a particularly troubling passage in the AP "news" story where we learn that the Giuliani camp objected to Olbermann's role in the debate:
Olbermann's popularity and evolving image as an idealogue has led NBC News to stretch traditional notions of journalistic objectivity. The danger for MSNBC is provoking the same anger among Republicans that Democrats feel toward Fox News Channel.
The Giuliani campaign privately expressed its concern to NBC News about Olbermann's role in the days leading up to last Thursday's debate.
Regardless of Tim Russert's and Chris Matthews' long ago work for Democratic politicians, my sense is that most of us would view both of them as trending strongly in the direction of the Republican Party regardless of Democratic leaning they may have had 25 years ago. And while we know very little about Brian Williams' background, he was certainly comfortable in the role of delivering barely concealed Republican hits on various Democratic candidiates during the Democratic presidential debate 10 days or so ago (Edwards' $400 hair cut, Dodds' sleaziness, etc.). I could go on but I suspect that most would agree that the NBC/MSNBC talking heads generally have thinly veiled contempt for the Democratic Party and its candidates. Or at least that is what I took away from that sham that was the Democratic debate moderated by Williams.
Now comes Keith Olbermann, a breath of fresh air for most of us, and it's time for the print media to attack him for his bias??? The notion implicit in this AP attack on Olbermann is that he was the only moderator or post-debate host of the two MSNBC debates who was biased. I would say that Matthews and Williams are equally biased but in the other direction and in a very dishonest and disingenuous way.
So this might be a good time to let AP know that the Olbermann story is nothing but a bunch of Republican propaganda and that if AP cares about truth and honesty in journalism, it should work on exposing the biases of Matthews and Williams. It should be noted, for example, that Matthews failed to ask Giuliani about his mishandling of NYC security prior to 9/11 or his sordid relationship with Bernie Kerik. The AP reporter who penned the Olbermann story can be reached at dbauder@ap.org. AP's entertainment editor (and presumably Bauder's supervisor) is Jesse Washington - I believe that his e-mail address is jwashington@ap.org.
Similarly, this might be a good time to let MSNBC know that we expect participation by a full array of the NBC/MSNBC stable - not just their favorite right wingers -- as debate moderators and post-debate hosts in any future debates. And that we expect them to rebuff requests from candidates (such as the Giuliani request) to exclude certain television personalities from participating in debates as moderators or post-debate hosts. Here are a couple of MSNBC e-mail addresses: viewerservices@msnbc.com (MSNBC)and hardball@msnbc.com (Hardball).