Wow! The war between the cable news channels is escalating on an almost daily basis. The latest issue? Keith Olbermann from MSNBC was suspended without pay because he gave money to political campaigns. Do I think that's a big deal? No. He didn't go over the maximum amount and he has a right to support who he wants to support. However, the people at NBC have policies against that sort of thing and Olbermann violated the policy. Is that wrong? If it is, it's something the employees there need to take up with management.
Now why do I care? I just got done watching a 7 minute clip of fellow MSNBC host Rachel Maddow go on and on and on and on about how some of the people at Fox News gave money to certain campaigns and also endorsed people on the air. Fox News has no policy against it, which is their choice. But instead of taking on MSNBC management in a tactful way for Olbermann's suspension, Maddow does a laundry list of things going on at Fox.
This is a prime example of why Fox News Channel overwhelmingly leads in the cable news ratings. The best the people at MSNBC can do is cry and moan and complain. (Did you watch on election night? Perfect example)
In her rant, Maddow stated that Fox is a "political operation" while MSNBC is a "news operation." She's only partly right. Both networks are actually both news and political. MSNBC leans left and Fox leans right.
For many years, liberals had a lock on TV news. Rupert Murdoch, being the smart businessman that he is, saw an opportunity and ran with it, and it has paid off. Conservatives now have a TV voice through people like Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glen Beck among others. Liberals hate this.
For all the complaining that goes on about conservatives on the radio and cable news, the core issue is simply this. Liberals can't compete either locally or nation wide. Here in Wisconsin we have several popular conservative radio hosts just in Milwaukee. Charlie Sykes, Jeff Wagner and Mark Belling are the top three. Nationally there is Rush Limbaugh.
The left can't seem to produce voices from their side that can be successful like that and they are jealous. But they also don't realize what impression they themselves create.
Not too long ago, Bill O'Reilly appeared on The View on ABC. In explaining why there is such a disconnect between President Obama and the American people, Bill talked about the opposition to the proposed mosque near ground zero. He made the statement that Muslims killed us on 9/11. This threw the hosts of the view into a tizzy. Whoopie Goldberg and Joy Behar got up and walked off the set of their own show, making themselves look like three year old children throwing a temper tantrum. They could learn a thing or two from Barbara Walters. I don't agree with Ms. Walters politically, but she is a class act. She remained calm and professional even though she also disagreed.
That story sort of quieted down with the election but the last I saw, Whoopi and Joy were still defending themselves. Whoopi claims she "wasn't in the mood" to deal with it and Joy Behar still believes she did the right thing. Okay ladies but you looked like idiots.
The liberals in the media need to sit down and look at footage of themselves and compare it to footage of the conservative hosts. If they could see the difference and make improvements, they might actually gain some ground, but I'm not holding my breath. Liberals have a real hard time admitting when they're wrong.
In the meantime, I agree with one thing Rachel Maddow said. MSNBC needs to end this suspension and let Olbermann back on the air. Like Ms. Maddow, Olbermann being on the air only helps the conservative movement and drives more people to watch Fox News.
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