Friday, November 5, 2010

Olberman Suspension Good For NBC?

NBC suspended Keith Olberman without pay today for contributing to 3 Democratic campaigns with his personal money.  NBC has a policy where anchors have to inform the network of any money they intend to donate.  While Olberman may have a point that the network is overracting, I think it's a smart move by NBC to set the precident that they hold their anchors to a higher standard than FOX.  Personally, I avoid both of them most of the time, but I think this could be great for the public perception of NBC, even if people initially attack them for denying Olberman his right to spend his money how he wants.   

In contrast, I wonder how much money Fox folks have donated to campaigns during this election?  According to this article, more than 30 Fox newsers have raised money or contributed to campaigns in 600 instances this midterm.  All Republicans.

So like I said, this could go down as a victory for NBC.  Their popular guy contributes to a campaign and he gets suspended, while Fox seems to hold themselves to a lower standard.  But will Olberman help people to see it this way? 

1 comment:

  1. Note the time stamp on this post. 5:51pm. Jerry Ballwell called it folks! Rachel Maddow made me a prophet today, or maybe she just read the same writing on the wall that I did: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/05/maddow-keith-olbermann-su_n_779851.html

    ReplyDelete