MSNBC is removing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as the anchors of live political events, bowing to growing criticism that they are too opinionated to be seen as neutral in the heat of the presidential campaign.
David Gregory, the NBC newsman and White House correspondent who also hosts a program on MSNBC, will take over during such events as this fall’s presidential and vice presidential debates and election night.
The move, confirmed by spokesmen for both networks, follows increasingly loud complaints about Olbermann’s anchor role at the Democratic and Republican conventions. Olbermann, who regularly assails President Bush and GOP nominee John McCain on his “Countdown” program, was effusive in praising the acceptance speech of Democratic nominee Barack Obama. He drew flak Thursday when the Republicans played a video that included a tribute to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, saying that if the networks had done that, “we would be rightly eviscerated at all quarters, perhaps by the Republican Party itself, for exploiting the memories of the dead, and perhaps even for trying to evoke that pain again. If you reacted to that videotape the way I did, I apologize.”
THis is typical of corporate controlled media. Oldermann and Matthews, while I may not agree with them, are about the only ones on MSNBC that have original thoughts. Choosing Gregory seems the right course for GE since he was on tape doing the electric boogaloo with Rove and the guys a a press dinner. Gregory also thinks that he and others in the media did all that they could to press the government on the run to war. He is the prefect choice to keep the message of crap alive. He will let the surrogates spout crap and never answer a question. Neutral? Does anyone truly believe that pile of steaming crap? If they were truly neutral they would not let McCain constantly get away with his screw ups, he would be called to task. And please do not let me get started on the crap that they are ignoring about Palin. Neutral? Now there is the joke of the day.
MSNBC has shown that it is NOT the place of politics that it claims.