But as Salon and others are pointing out, the action raises questions about the entire GE owned NBC Media empire. Why do those same standards not apply at CNBC?
Like the fired Juan Williams* on NPR, Olbermann doesn't claim to be an impartial reporter...he's a commentator!
It is hard to take the high road! People start asking pesky questions about your "policies". So far as I can tell, NBC has taken a no comment stance about the issue, the ultimate irony, since the entire news business would be out of business if everyone just said no comment! True journalism hardliners argue that journalists should not only avoid making contributions, but shouldn't even vote, to remove them from the process entirely.
It seems the network news operations are trying to set themselves up as somehow purer than their cable cousins, islands of truly impartial reporting. But the links and leaks between the two are much too frequent for that wall to stand. It has, or will, fall under the weight of a lack of consistency. I've never contributed to anyone's candidacy. But that hardly means my brain is in some kind of lock-down mode as I do interviews or write stories. The proof of the journalism is in the reading or watching. It's the fairness of the product that's important. Unless your job is commentary, then Katie bar the door. Surely by now, nobody misses the irony of the "fair and balanced" slogan at Fox News?
[*An excellent discussion about Williams and the question of NPR funding can be heard on this week's On The Media...on NPR, of course. And speaking of public radio, I about fell out of bed this Saturday Morning when I turned on my radio just before 6:00am to hear APR say the high would be 90 degrees. Automation in radio has come a long way since my radio time, but there is still a dependency on humans giving the machines the right commands. The actual predicted high was 58.]
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]
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