MSNBC's Surprising Move
MSNBC surprised everyone Monday with its announcement that the struggling channel will now be headed by an executive tag team of "Today" chief Phil Griffin and one of its own show hosts, Dan Abrams. The appointment of Griffin didn't exactly come as a surprise; last week's scuttlebutt had him being given the top spot. Abrams's elevation did. It also gives insight into what MSNBC's strategy to…
All Three Cable Networks Featured Nick Berg's Dad, Who Compared Bush t
In May of 2004, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi participated in the beheading of Nicholas Berg, a businessman working in Iraq. His father, Michael, emerged in the aftermath of that crime as an outspoken liberal activist and is now running for Congress in Delaware on the Green Party ticket. So who better to bring on for a discussion about Zarqawi’s death? Michael Berg appeared on all three cable channels…
Kaplan: FOB Who Hailed Dan Rather as 'Meticulously Careful to Be Fair
Rick Kaplan, who as reported earlier by Matthew Sheffield, announced his departure Wednesday from MSNBC where he’d run the least-watched cable news network as its President since February of 2004, has a long record of friendly relations with former President Bill Clinton and hostility to conservatives -- as well as admiration for Dan Rather combined with condescension for conservative critics of…
Fear and Loathing of Fox News
The runaway success of Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel, founded on
the premise that other news outlets are biased, is the source
of much anger to lefty journalists. Most elite journalists I've encountered hate the network and the fact that it's broken through the liberal glass ceiling of news.A great example of this was a Monday column
in the LA Times by Scott Collins which instead of leading…
WaPo’s Dana Priest Doubts Accuracy of 'Hardball' Report on Plame/Ira
As reported by NewsBusters, MSNBC’s David Shuster declared on Monday’s “Hardball” that the “outing” of Valerie Plame Wilson negatively impacted America’s ability to track the development of nuclear weapons by Iran. Stephen Spruiell of National Review’s “Media Blog” reported Saturday that the Washington Post’s Dana Priest doubts the accuracy of Shuster’s claim. Apparently, during a WaPo live chat…
Will Media Praise Administration For Giving Valerie Plame Wilson a Bet
The New York Times reported on Saturday that Valerie Plame Wilson has been given over $2.5 million for her memoirs: “The book, whose working title is ‘Fair Game,’ is scheduled to be published in the fall of 2007 by Crown Publishing, an imprint of Random House. Steve Ross, senior vice president and publisher of Crown, said the book would be Ms. Wilson's ‘first airing of her actual role in the…
Olbermann’s Ignorance Makes Laura Ingraham Tuesday’s “Worst Pers
Tuesday night on MSNBC’s “Countdown,” host Keith Olbermann once again demonstrated why he is one of the most unprofessional and undisciplined journalists on television today. In his regular “Worst Person in the World” segment, Olbermann chose conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham. In this case, Ingraham won the award because Olbermann clearly has no understanding of how race impacts…
