Bad Week For R13

[MikeJones]

First Boucher Loses then this

MSNBC suspends Olbermann over political contributions

MSNBC suspended "Countdown" host Keith Olbermann Friday after the news that he donated to three Democratic candidates.
"I became aware of Keith's political contributions late last night," MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in a statement. "Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay."
[Related: MSNBC's election night lineup criticized]

Olbermann gave the maximum individual donation of $2,400 to three candidates in Tuesday's election: Arizona Reps. Gabrielle Giffords and Raul Grijalva and Senate hopeful Jack Conway, who lost in Kentucky to Republican Rand Paul. (Grijalva appeared on Olbermann's "Countdown" on Oct. 28, the same day the host donated to his campaign; Conway was last a guest in May).
Olbermann, in a statement to Politico, said that he "did not privately or publicly encourage anyone else to donate to these campaigns nor to any others in this election or any previous ones." Also, Olbermann said he had not "previously donated to any political campaign at any level."
But the revelation raised clear ethical issues.
Olbermann, a liberal commentator, gives his opinions each night on the air. But NBC News editorial staffers -- like journalists at most news organizations -- are forbidden from giving to political candidates. Also, Olbermann anchored election coverage Tuesday night without disclosing that he'd given to candidates who were running for office.
By punishing the network's biggest star, Griffin showed how little tolerance there is for hosts to make undisclosed political contributions while covering those political races.
An MSNBC spokesman told The Upshot that The Nation's Chris Hayes, an MSNBC contributor who has filled in before for Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, will host Friday night's show. Hayes has spoken publicly before about donating $250 to a friend's Congressional campaign in Alabama.
MSNBC already attracted criticism this week for having its liberal hosts and commentators anchor election night coverage. Typically, nonpartisan journalists anchor major news events?such as election results?while commentators like Bill O'Reilly (Fox News) or James Carville (CNN) offer analysis.
It's ironic that Olbermann gave to political candidates after criticizing Fox News because its owner, Rupert Murdoch, gave $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association. "Fox News has put its money where its mouth is," Olbermann said in an August segment that questioned the network's impartiality.
In October, Olbermann again raised the issue of Murdoch's donations, during an interview with Democratic Rep. James Clyburn. Olbermann asked whether there was "a legislative response to the idea that there is a national cable news outlet that goes beyond having a point of view and actually starts to shill for partisan causes and actually starts to donate to partisan groups of one party."

[red66]

The related article MSNBC's election night coverage criticized is interesting too. I used to watch MSNBC from time to time, but ever since Mathews and Olbermann about started crying and getting thrills up their legs after Obama gave his speech at the Democratic convention in 2008 I just can't watch them anymore and take them seriously. Everybody gives Fox News crap about being too conservative, but these guys are just as far if not farther to the left that Fox is to the right.

[centennialdawg]

After thanking you for your post above, I will say this about r13. He is honest in his beliefs and hats off to him for believing in something so much that he is willing to go out and try and do something about it. His beliefs may rub us the wrong way and they often do rub me the wrong way, but he believes the way he does for a reason and is willing to defend those beliefs. Hats off to him, he has had a rough week.

[steer]

First Boucher Loses then this

What's the point of calling the kid out? Give him a break.

[Milk3]

It's about time somebody called Olbermann out. He spews as much BS as Beck. Don't get me wrong I like Beck but he's biased just like Matthews and Olbermann nobody likes to admit it tho.

[entr0py]

:coffeedrinker:
Excuse me for dropping some sense here, I'm new. However the Poster of this message is the kind I used to find amusing on another forum I was a part of in some capacity. I'm just not sure yet to label the person an attention wh*re or a troll. We didn't allow call out threads at that place but if it's allowed here, I can see this could get really interesting later.
:khan:

Olbermann, MSNBC. A network about as left as Fox is right. Not quite but almost. At least their obvious about it and keep it to their commentaries. Mainstream media. Is that the only source of news anymore? No. Especially to people that think for themselves. Nice to know we have a mainstream media fan so unafraid to show it, I bet the politics here must therefore be equally as marginalized.

The election in the 9th. Way to go SWVA. You just opened the door of I told ya so's for the next who knows how long. In not turning out to vote for Boucher who was doing things for the area, you put in a hit man sent by who knows who donated(we cant know that now can we) to make a statement against a currently unpopular president. The logic used, if he don't work for us (Griffith) we can always vote him out. No you can't. He's not going to work for us, he's going to work for the more populated Eastern Region of the 9th district and you will never be able to muster the votes to vote him out. I applaud your ignorance and look forward to the future call out thread "Mike Jones I told You So". If 13 doesn't post it, I'll be happy to do it myself.

:2thumbsup:

[CoeburnCane]

Normally, any political thread would be moved ASAP to the Politics forum...but I was a little more lenient about that rule since it was election time for the area. Looks like I shouldn't have been b/c some people can't handle it on here.

MikeJones--you recently asked for access to the Politics forum, and got it. Why not use it instead of posting crap like this to call out another poster on the Non-Sports Board? Not only that, but I don't see a lot of call-out threads on any of our boards, and that's for a reason. You're pretty dang lucky because 2-3 other mods want you to be banned for 3 days. I'm going to let this one slide, but be forewarned--next time, you have a week ban plus I'm going to take away all access to the other boards that you just received if you pull crap like this again.

1) Call-out threads aren't received well at all on here or other boards, so avoid them in the future.

2) You KNEW this was a politics related subject, but decided to post it here instead to rile R13 up...and to his credit--he hasn't chimed in.

I'm giving this thread til Monday here so everyone can see this and hopefully heed this warning towards MikeJones and take it to heart. Also, note that I'm going to be a lot more strict about both 1) call-out threads like this and 2) political threads being on the Non-Sports board. Anyone who doesn't like it--thank MikeJones.