Leave it to Politico. It pairs its story on Keith Olbermann’s suspension from MSNBC with a photo of him looking like a loonball – pinching his spectacles like a British squire, his eyes startling, his lips pursing. Tighty righty screws leftie loosie.
Politico broke the story this morning of Olbermann’s donations to three Democratic candidates, and was back later today with its denouement, an indefinite suspension of the anchor of the top-rated “Countdown”on MSNBC. With its usual lopsided equivalence, Politico compares Olbermann’s maximum $2,400 donation to each candidate -- Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway, and Arizona Reps. Raul Grijalva, and Gabrielle Giffords -- to his criticism of News Corps giving $1 million each to the Republican Governor’s Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. News Corps is the parent company of Fox News. Let’s see: $7,200 in three donations that adhere to the spirit and letter of campaign finance limits, versus a $2 million bonanza that a year ago would have been illegal but for the activism of the Roberts court.Yeah, that’s close. Way to compare apples and oranges and get kumquats.
UPDATE: OK, so, before I was able to post this item, Politico apparently thought better of its judgment on two of the points I made above, and a few others I hadn't gotten to yet. They now have a more appropriate, if equally unflattering, photo of Olbermann up on their website, this time of a pimple-faced fat head, not a haughty elitist. It also downplayed the association between Olbermann's and News Corps' donations, moving Rupert's rupees further down. Other omissions since amended: whether anyone else in Olbermann's position inside MSNBC has given to campaigns and been spared (Joe Scarborough) and whether the host of an opinion show should be judged the same as a newsman.
Politico wanted to use this photo, but thought it would be too obvious:
That second photo is hilarious.
ReplyDeleteI have to tell you, I was shocked, SHOCKED, to discover that Olbermann was a supporter of a few democratic candidates. I never would have seen that coming from an impartial guy like him. Next thing you know, they'll reveal that journalistic equal Mike Huckabee has some sort of political action committee (A HUCKPAC if you will) providing support to conservatives.