GE's silencing of Olbermann and MSNBC's sleazy use of Richard Wolffe

[a kennedy]

By GottaLaff

Yesterday I posted about GE and Fox exploiting the Olbermann/O'Reilly feud. Glenn Greenwald goes there, too, but then delves much deeper. This is a must-read:

On a very related note: this week, former Newsweek reporter Richard Wolffe was a guest-host on MSNBC's Countdown while Keith Olbermann is on vacation. When Olbermann is there, Wolffe is a very frequent guest on Countdown, where he is called an "MSNBC political analyst" and comments on political news. All of this, despite the fact that Wolffe left Newsweek last March in order to join "Public Strategies, Inc.," the corporate communications firm run by former Bush White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett, its President and CEO.

I posted about that when he made the move, here.

According to the Press Release they issued to announce Wolffe's joining the company:

Wolffe, most recently Newsweek's senior White House correspondent, officially assumes his new position as a senior strategist on April 13, 2009. He will be based in the firm's Washington office, where he will advise several of its top clients. . . .

Public Strategies, Inc. is a business advisory firm that serves a diverse clientele including some of the world's largest and best-known corporations, nonprofit organizations, associations and professional firms. Public Strategies helps forward-thinking organizations assess public opinion and risk, and develops strategies for managing corporate reputation and uncertainty. Much of its practice involves managing high-stakes campaigns for corporate clients, anticipating and responding to crises.

Having Richard Wolffe host an MSNBC program -- or serving as an almost daily "political analyst" -- is exactly tantamount to MSNBC's just turning over an hour every night to a corporate lobbyist. Wolffe's role in life is to advance the P.R. interests of the corporations that pay him, including corporations with substantial interests in virtually every political issue that MSNBC and Countdown cover. Yet MSNBC is putting him on as a guest-host and "political analyst" on one of its prime-time political shows. What makes that even more appalling is that, as Ana Marie Cox first noted, neither MSNBC nor Wolffe even disclose any of this.

full article: <http://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/2009/08/ges-silencing-of-olbermann-and-msnbcs.html>

[KittyWampus]

1. Richard Wolffe does an outstanding job. He was the ONE person who did a piece on Repub disrupters

at Townhall Meetings this past Friday.

His comments and analysis actually are relatively fair and balanced.

This comes across as bullshit guilt by association.

I am not buying it.

And it's interesting that a day after Wolffe exposes those Astroturfing assholes a piece like this gets written about him.

[madaboutharry]

3. I agree with you.

Richard Wolffe is an exceptionally intelligent journalist. I don't believe in guilt by association either.

[timeforpeace]

14. True. How do they know they are Repub disruptors?Checking ID? Some Dems are plenty pissed off right

now and for good reason. These claims should not be allowed to let our reps run from meeting with us and hearing our support for health care, otherwise they won't pass it.

[MADem]

7. My defense below is less fulsome, but your points are salient. nt

[texanshatingbush]

9. I agree with you, KittyWampus!!!

Just after that particular program (Wolffe in for Olbermann), I turned to Mr THB and said that Wolffe had just done a GREAT job of asking razor-sharp questions about the leaked Repub plans for disrupting townhall meetings while Sens and Congs are home during recess (the strategy being to make it look like LOTS of people are against the proposed health care/insurance plan changes, instead of just the smattering of protesters who are scattered throughout the hall and very vocal).

Until proven otherwise by his questioning or lack thereof, I am assuming Richard Wolffe is one of the good guys.

[spanone]

2. our foul cesspool of 'media' is worthless

[Buzz Clik]

4. A hit piece on various personalities in the media by someone calling himself "GottaLaff." Oh, my.

Well, Mr. Laff, I find Richard Wolffe compelling. Your column -- not so much.

[KharmaTrain]

5. But He's Got A Blog...

So ya know it's gotta be true... :sarcasm:

Joining a corporate communications company is not being a lobbyist. It's sucking the juice from them. If he's a corporate shill he's sure been doing a lousy job.

[MADem]

6. RW is a pompous ass, but I just don't see what his halfassed little "title" as a Political Analyst

has to do with his other job. Yes, he worked politics at NEWSWEEK, and he worked politics at NBC. Does that mean, because he takes a job with a business advisory firm, that everything he's learned he's forgotten?

I'm sorry--I just don't take this writer's first point (that the guy shouldn't have the job) at all. Most of the Talking Head commentators on retainer to ALL the networks (the guest military expert, aviation expert, NASA expert, etc., etc.) have "other" jobs. Many of these jobs are in the private sector, in the defense industry, in manufacturing, in financial services, etc., etc., and so forth. Do they always reveal their other loyalties? Often, not. Is it right? Probably not, but it's not like Wolffe is "special" here, or a great exception that proves some magic, nonexistent rule.

Here's the ultimate clue--if you find that pablum they're dishing out over at the Cable Peacock to be a great big load of wet, sloppy shit, TURN THE TV OFF. It's way better for the blood pressure than shaking one's fist at the Tee Vee and telling people what they already know.

I mean, really, for fuck's sake--It's General ELECTRIC that owns the NBC-Universal franchise. They make WEAPONS as well as refrigerators. That's a 24/7 "lobbying" franchise. Their entire day of programming day is "turned over to a lobbyist" of sorts.

And, let's note this this--Wolffe used to work for NEWSWEEK. Ana Marie (who made her "fame" making dumb jokes about "ass fucking"--and no, I am not making that up) Cox works now for TIME.

Does Macys love Gimbels???

Poutrage, poutrage. Vote with your remote. It's all shitty opinion, anyway. You get very little "fact" on those shows anymore.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. That's hilarious!

Are you under the impression that the hosts of Countdown write their own copy and simply speak what they wrote? Countdown with Keith Olbermann is a show, that gets written. Howard Dean did not write his news copy. Keith does not write every word either. Others write the 'supers' which are often witty in themselves. It would be fair to say that Keith has far more influence on what is written there when he is on vacation than a guest host has in the chair itself. His show, his writers. His slant.
Wolfe was pretty good, because he's not bad a reading the words off the prompter, like the newsreader he is being paid to be. There is far more of Wolfe in his role as guest analyst than as guest host.

[Medusa]

10. Is no one getting the full implication here?

That Olbermann used Dr. Tiller's murder as a cover story for why he wouldn't be talking about Bill O'Reilly anymore on air (and that O'Reilly would not attack GE-Universal every night in return)? The news is fixed people and it's not just Fox that does it. They all do. And that is reason #1 not to watch ANY of them.

[Berry Cool]

12. I have posted in every other thread on this topic that I think this is bullshit

and I will post it here, too. KO just isn't the kind of person to shut up and do what he's told. I think he quit the Billo feud his own self, and if he lets the suits pat each other on the back and take the public credit, it will ONLY be because he's learned to pick his battles, and likes having a show on which he can get away with a hell of a lot of murder (despite the corporate imprint under which it appears) better than he likes being an unemployed man of ideologically pure principles.

As for Richard Wolffe, I think that's a bogus story too.

Ordinarily I trust Glenn Greenwald, but lately he's starting to sound a lot like the Daily Howler, and as a result he's losing some cred with me.

[Medusa]

15. That timing wasn't coincidental.

Not by a long shot. You can believe what you want but the facts spell out something to the contrary: he is a corporate puppet just like all the rest of them.

[global1]

11. When Will MSNBC Start Silencing Rachel & Ed?.......nt

[MadBadger]

13. Its clear you and the author have never seen Richard Wolfe on Countdown and MSNBC

He does a fantastic job.