When Censorship Comes to America...

I'm not buying the Keith Olbermann was suspended because he knew the terms of his contract and he knew the rules spin. Keith Olberman is a liberal but he's not stoopid. And it would be different if MSNBC didn't have a pattern of firing progressive voices in favor of go along to get alongs. Remember Phil Donahue?

Gabriel Sherman's piece in New York magazine (10/3/10) on the cable news wars includes a bit of history on MSNBC's firing of progressive host Phil Donahue in 2003; an internal memo at the time worried that the show would be "a home for the liberal anti-war agenda at the same time that our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity." Sherman focuses on MSNBC personality Chris Matthews--who sometimes claims he was opposed to the Iraq War--and his desire to get Donahue fired:

Like LiA blogger Dragontide, I wonder if MSNBC was just looking for a reason to get rid of KO;

From the NY Times link:

"The suspension comes at a particularly tricky time for MSNBC. NBC Universal is in the midst of a change of ownership, with its potential new owner, Comcast, seeking final federal approval for the sale. It hopes to conclude the deal by the end of the year."
Maybe Comcast wants a completely different NBC. Seems to me that the proper thing to do would have been to ask Olbermann to not contribute to anymore campaigns and leave it at that. In any event, it's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Then we have Rick Sanchez who was fired from CNN after giving a satellite radio interview in which he called Jon Stewart a “bigot” and suggested that Jews run CNN and the news media in general.

Keith Olbermann was suspended after POLITICO reported he made three campaign contributions to Democratic candidates. POLITICO recently hired former republican Congressman Joe Scarborough and they have a daily segment on Morning Joke, I mean Joe.

Starting on Oct. 1, Politico will run weekly opinion columns by Joe Scarborough, the MSNBC host and former United States representative, and Michael Kinsley, a columnist for The Atlantic.

I smell a rat too.

So let me get this straight; MSNBC suspends Keith Olbermann for donating money to dumbocratic candidates, and their rivals, Radio Rwanda, allows their on air personalities to run for republican office? I swear liberals are getting softer and softer by the day. You all have got to get hard core like the republiclowns. Do you think Radio Rwanda would fire one of their biggest earners over some s^&t like this? Hell News Corp gave over a million dollars to that racist- right out of central casting- Haley Barbour, and didn't even sweat it.

Still, like Aaron Goldstein, I smell a rat. You know the world is upside down when conservatives are ripping MSNBC for suspending Olbermann.

It ought to be against network policy to use the public airways to spread lies and misinformation but I digress. Did Keith Olberman actually violate NBC policy?

Check out the fine print of what NBC policy said, as of 2007, about political activities on the part of NBC employees:

"Anyone working for NBC News who takes part in civic or other outside activities may find that these activities jeopardize his or her standing as an impartial journalist because they may create the appearance of a conflict of interest. Such activities may include participation in or contributions to political campaigns or groups that espouse controversial positions. You should report any such potential conflicts in advance to, and obtain prior approval of, the President of NBC News or his designee."

Emphasis mine. This is a bit difficult to parse. But this does seem to say that those who are worried that their "standing as an impartial journalist" would be jeopardized by political activity should report it. Last time I checked, Keith Olbermann doesn't pretend to be an "impartial journalist."

So let me see if I have this right(pun intended), MSNBc employees have to ask permission from management to donate their own damn money to political candidates? What if management says no? I guess only anonymous corproations are allowed "freedom of speech".

The story behind is the story is Keith Olberman got Dan Rathered by GE. Scared of losing influence with the Republicans in Congress, GE Executives cravenly did what they do best: protect their bottom line. Suspending Olbermann had nothing to do with drawing "a distinction between the journalistic standards of their news division and the standards of Fox." GE's own record of political contributions makes that very clear.

The difference between Keith Olbermann and Juan Williams is that Olbermann is in trouble for putting his money where his mouth is. Williams was putting his mouth where his money is. h/t AllesKlaar

Psst Keith, Rick and Dan! I feel your pain. You should join forces and start your own Network.

I keep on asking: WHERE THE H.... IS THE PRO-DEMOCRATIC MEDIA? (specially radio). I can drive through Texas and listen to at least dozens of Spanish radio stations and I can't find 1 pro-democratic station (only 1 in Dallas).

As long as we don't have "Pro-democratic" (liberal) radio in every major city in the US. Republicans are going to keep on ruling this country.

President Obama needs to speak on this.

Update~Redeye's DADT Blogstroll

We can all live in Alabama

The Republican Party has a proposal for you. With your hope and change frustrated by their obstruction, they would like you to blame the president, stay depressed instead of volunteering, and forget to vote on November 2nd.

In return, they'll make the entire country into Alabama. Remember the scene in Demolition Man where Sylvester Stallone finds out that in the future, all restaurants are Taco Bells? It will be just like that, and exhibit A is California. Really, I'm not kidding. If you want to see what America will look like should tea party Republicans take Congress, come pay "the Heart of Dixie" a visit.

Breaking News! Radio Boy, aka Dale Jackson "went before a jury of his peers" for his role in Voter Suppression with the State Seal of Approval. According to him the jury said it wasn't wrong to use the State Seal of the Secretary of State of Alabama if you weren't the Secretary of State of Alabama. Who knew? Funny how he was one of the main ones pushing the so called New Black Panther Voter Intimidation meme.

BUT Dale, What is voter intimidation?

Voter intimidation involves putting undue pressure on a voter or group of voters so that they will vote a particular way, or not at all. Absentee and other remote voting can be more open to some forms of intimidation as the voter does not have the protection and privacy of the polling location. Intimidation can take a range of forms.

Uh, why reinvent the democratic party and turn it into the new democratic party? What's wrong with the old democratic party? You know, the one that stands for civil rights, women's rights, labor, public education, the middle class, the disenfranchised, human rights, jobs, and protecting the environment? We don't need to reinvent the democratic party, we just need to kick the infiltrators out.

Re-inventing the Dem Party?
1. Stop singing from the Republican Party hymnal!

2. Stop taking money from corporations and fatcats and become "the party of the working man" again. As we've seen in recent years, all those small donor $10, $20, and $50 contributions can turn into hundreds of millions of dollars.

Move towards a completely grassroots party and start a concerted national movement to end corporate control of government through campaign donations. Let the American people know that your candidates are "non-Wall Street owned".

3. Do this before the American middle class is completely extinct, due to more "brilliant" conservative theories like NAFTA, CAFTA and mass de-regulation.

4. Define what you are as a party and don't ever forget it again!

Score one for the Teachers Union! Black Chicago Teachers Win Discrimination Lawsuit against Arne Duncan's Mass Firings. Could this be why the right doesn't like Teachers Unions?

Back in June of 2009, BAR told the story of activist teachers who sued the Chicago Public Schools to reverse the firings of hundreds of committed, experienced, mostly black and female teachers in dozens of schools and their replacement with less experienced, younger, whiter teachers at lower salaries. This pattern of discriminatory firings and school closings has since been replicated across the country, and is a core element the Obama administration’s education policy. Since then, some of those same teachers have won the leadership of Chicago's 30,000 strong teachers union. Earlier this week, a US District Court judge ruled in their favor.

What's that you say? Politico Uses News Stories to Push It's Deficit Agenda? I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you! Not.

Politico wrongly told readers that: "voters tells pollsters they’re worried about all the red ink in the federal budget, and Democratic centrists have grown more urgent in telling Obama it’s time to rein in federal spending." This is not true.

A recent NYT-CBS poll found that just 9 percent of respondents said that the deficit was something that they were angry about. It is also inaccurate to identify Democrats who raise concerns about the deficit as "centrist." They can more accurately be identified as Democrats with close ties to corporate interests. Their financing base is a far more obvious way to distinguish their ideological leanings

The New Black Panther Party sends Poll Monitors to largely African American Neighborhoods in Chicago. Oops! I mean Mark Kirk (r.) sends Poll Monitors in largely African American Neighborhoods in Chicago to make sure those darkies aren't up to no good.

In a private phone conversation that was secretly recorded, Mark Kirk, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Illinois, told state Republican leaders last week about his plan to send "voter integrity" squads to four predominately African American neighborhoods of Chicago "where the other side might be tempted to jigger the numbers somewhat."

Gasp! South Carolina republican Senatorial Candidate Jim DeMint, one of the Senate's most conservative members, is using campaign finance laws to legally get around traditional limits on how much individual politicians spend supporting other candidates.

In a sharp departure from typical campaign practice, South Carolina GOP Sen. Jim DeMint has used a leadership political action committee to spend $1.5 million dollars on behalf of 15 conservative Senate candidates in this year's midterm elections.

Dress rehearsal for Halloween or how they will govern if elected?

Apparently Eric Cantor is doing his best to distance his party from Rich Iott. What an interesting and colorful character. It seems the republicans are full of interesting and colorful characters running this November. Maybe that's why they are slated to pick up so many seats. A-merry-ca loves interesting and colorful characters. Compared to the republicans democrats are so boring. I mean witches; fake hillbillies; hitmen; headless corpses in the desert; illegal housekeepers. Hollywood cant touch these folks for excitement. The poor boring dumbocrats don't stand a chance.

Now run tell THAT homeboy!

Ever since Antoine Dodson's TV news interview from Huntsville, Ala., when he sounded off about an intruder who broke into his sister's apartment and allegedly attempted to rape her, he has become a media spectacle, if not a celebrity. His televised rant has been remixed and Auto-Tuned in music videos viewed millions of times online. On Oct. 2, Dodson performed at the BET Hip Hop Awards show, which airs Oct. 12 at 8 p.m. on BET.

I hope Homeboy is being paid for THIS.

Just watch and wait for it so you too can see what they did there. Also, what the hell? How are you going to work in references to Antoine Dodson's viral video about his sister's near sexual assault in a POLITICAL ATTACK AD!?!?!?! What's next? Ads for bug spray? ("They're climbing in your windows, spreading Lyme Disease, trying to kill you so you better spray the yard! Spray the house! Spray the yard! Spray the house! And use some OFF too because they biting everybody out there!") I give up. I give up on everything.

Don't give up, get up! This is is why we must get off our Donkey's and VOTE for HOPE and CHANGE we can believe in.