No one who is not a reliable repeater of right-wing talking points is going to be near an anchor position, even on cable.  Telling the truth, if it hurts the right-wing or counters the corporate mythology, is 'too controversial.'  Lying and fraud, so long as it only hurts the left and promotes the corporate mythology is totally acceptable, even desired.

The guilty parties here are the American people. This is the point where there is no one else who can change things.  If they continue to buy into this bullshit, then we are well and truly screwed.

but Olbermann and Matthews have behaved unprofessionally for way too long. It was right for NBC to demote them.

Actually, my comment is that this is terrible for the voice of the left and that those who continue to make asinine statements about Mathews really don't watch him much.

Don't mess with Howard Wolfson:

On Fox News just now, Howard Wolfson unleashed a broad attack on MSNBC and its top on-air personalities, slamming the network's coverage of Bill and Hillary, hitting back at Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann for using his work for Fox to question his Democratic credentials, and blasting MSNBC as having been "taken over" by "antics."

Get these sexist pigs out of here!!!

I say Fire BOTH of them.

THANK GOD!

They should have done this a LONG time ago.

MSNBC lost us this election make no mistake.

Fair coverage in 2007 and 2008 would have led to a democratic president

CNBC's Kudlow is the fastest rising star in the NBC family, and well liked by GE chair Jeff Immelt. His ratings are through the roof, and he's gained a lot of kudos over the last few weeks for predicting the Sarah Palin choice back in June. A dark horse choice would be Erin Burnett; given the momentum behind CNBC as the strong link in the NBC family, look for the choice to come from CNBC.

From the Same Article:

But as the past two weeks have shown, that success has a downside. When the vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin lamented media bias during her speech, attendees of the Republican convention loudly chanted "NBC."

And (next page)

The McCain campaign has filed letters of complaint to the news division about its coverage and openly tied MSNBC to it. Tension between the network and the campaign hit an apex the day Mr. McCain announced Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

I see this as a coordinated Republican effort to suppress and muzzle MSNBC.  While you may not agree with Olbermann et al, the fact is that they are the only ones who represent a realistic point of view and have the platform to project it.  This is precisely why they are so popular.

Commercial Television companies (CBS, NBC, ABC) are now the lapdogs of the Republicans, under the guise of dispassionate evenhanded uninvolved reporting.  Perhaps if they had engaged in some passionate reporting eight years ago, we would have a stronger Nation. What NBC is engaging in now is known as appeasement.

FOX is simply a propaganda arm of the Republican Party.  

The rightful outcome of 2008 is Obama to win and Olbermann to lose. I've tried to resume watching his program, and manage a few minutes here and there, but overall I have no respect for him based on the primaries.

During our convention he was nothing short of a cheerleader. My right wing friends thrill to claim liberal media bias and they finally have a specific example again in Olbermann, particularly when he's allowed to host debates, conventions and election night. During our convention a conservative friend ripped Olbermann every day, literally laughing at his style; "practically in tears." There was no way I could deny it. I've posted here and elsewhere for more than a year that Olbermann had no business in a hosting role. His program is the ideal vehicle.

Matthews, now that one surprises me. He's schizo but he makes points favoring both sides.  

thank god. absolute jerks w/ zero intellectual integrity. when you have a station making Fox look good, you got problems.

My sense is that Matthews will be gone in 6 months. He's going to make a run for US Senate in Pennsylvania or simply shift to doing the Chris Matthews Show and taking up his newspaper column again.

Olbermann is still the golden child at MSNBC, but they are doing this to discipline him and keep peace between he and Scarborough.

There's a decent chance Gregory is taking over MTP -- this move demonstrates the network's confidence in him -- although I think Ifill still has to be in the running.

How people on this site can think this is a good thing.  At least with Olbermann we had someone who would call the right wingers on their BS.  

Even that one island of honest critique in an ocean of right wing talking points was too much.  And this change will be felt within NBC, MSNBC, and throughout the other networks.  

This is a victory for fox and its fans.

My first reaction, "ouch!" I guess it was fun while it lasted.  I KNEW SOMETHING WAS UP.... when I saw Matthews on Morning Joe Friday morning the day after the Republican Convention.  His face said it all.  He was discussing some point with his brother by his side.  Olberman is good when he's good, and bad when his off.  The dude sometimes takes his falufah  or whatever the hell he calls Bill O'reily  to the extreme.  Oh well, I'm looking forward to Rachel's show starting tomorrow.

Funny that we don't see FOX backing down from the appearance of ideological bias.

I'm sick of our side being right and being afraid of our own tails while the right-wingers lie and bully shamelessly.  It's time for us to stand up and hold firmly to what we believe instead of slinking away every time one of the thugs accuses us of being slanted.

is this a conservative site now?

I love Olbermann, and I like Matthews too.  They are what makes watching MSNBC fun.  And I love the on-air tension between all of the personalities.  All in all, I think MSNBC is the most honest network in that its commenters and newscasters wear their ideological badges on their sleeves.  

A lot of people think Matthews is some sort of closet conservative (I just think he is in love with his own idea of tough-guy politics), but how on earth is a liberal blog not happy about Keith Olbermann?

Losing Obama's two biggest cable anchor supporters certainly does not help.

As a partisan democrat, I have to admit that I enjoyed Chris & Keith's open slanted pro-Obama, anti-McCain daily commentary since the GE started.

As a Hillary primary supporter though, I hated their blatant anti-Clinton, pro-Obama performance during the heated primary.

But if I took my democratic thinking cap out the door & pretend I was a non-bias Independent, I would have to say that millions of independent, non-bias viewers probably find Keith & Chris way too pro-Obama, and anti-McCain for their cup of tea.

And since we democrats always hate  unfair, unbalanced coverage, we should then have no problems with the slap on these two men.

But make no mistake about it, this move by MSNBC does not help the Obama campaign. They just lost two key allies who got demoted.

on the left are.

We should be up in fucking arms over this bullshit but all because some people couldn't do fucking math we've got all these whinny idiots ready to cut their noses off to spite our faces.

Olbermann has been the only fucking voice on cable news that wasn't to the right of Barry Goldwater. and all because he called Clinton on her bullshit you'd sit on yer fucking hands while yet another right wing blowhard is put in the anchor chair.

And you call yourselves progressives. THIS IS WHY THE DEMOCRATS KEEP FUCKING LOSING.

Both of them were becoming a joke.  Every night of both conventions was followed by some article about how the two of them were making fools of themselves and of the network.  They are both pundits, let them do what they do best which is commentary.  They have no business reading the news.  And to all the people who are seeing this as a huge blow to Obama and his chances, wake up and take a second look.  MSNBC has a tiny viewership and most of those people already have a liberal bent.  Anybody who was watching and wasn't decided was most likely turned off by there rush to kiss Obama's ass.  Most independents are that way for a reason, they don't like to be told what to think.  They will take an straight forward reporting of a situation any day, when they see this sycophantic crap they just change the channel.  When these two blow hards get up there and bend over backwards for Obama they are no better than rush and billo.  The difference is rush and billo are good at it and don't care that they are hacks.  We should be better.

I am completely for the democratic ticket, and I loved Olbermann when he started speaking truth to power with his passionate "Special Comments".  However, I have found myself drifting away from MSNBC coverage because of the lack of objectivity. MSNBC, and most notably Olbermann and Matthews have not only veered far left in commentary, but have at times actually mocked and sneared in an attempt to drive ratings.  Worse, they started to believe that they weild some power to influence outcomes.  That is not the purpose of news anchors. I had pretty much given up on CNN's quality, but I find myself watching it to find balanced views.  Fox and MSNBC have become caricatures. Fox has tried to pull back toward the middle, but they have so far to go that they can not kick the neo-con habit quickly enough for this election.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I hate David Gregory, now we're going to have someone GUSHING over McCain from the anchor chair.

Fuck.

rejoice everyone!

I am somewhat conflicted about this decision by MSNBC.

For some time I have felt they should fire Matthews.  He does have some virtues but his sexism was beyond the pale.  There were many, many instances, but the one that broke this camel's back was his leering at Erin Andrews ("lean in to the camera").  Disgusting.

Olberman I am much sadder about.  Not because his primary coverage was acceptable.  It often was not, from my vantage point.  And his frat boy antics and over-the-top snarkiness of late was at best unprofessional and at worst biased to the point of counterproductive.  But at one time I think he was a top-flight journalist, one of the best on television and erudite in an entertaining way.  I want that Olbermann back.  The country needs that Olbermann.

But I am very, very worried about the signal this sends to all the other reporters around.  Those who have been around the block understand the GOPers have been masterful at what Chomsky calls "flak", that is attacking the media as a method of ideological control.  And the outcome of their domesticating of the media has been disasterous over the past few decades at every level (though there are many other factors at play, obviously).  Massive increases in economic inequality, increasingly destructive foreign policies, coarsening of the political dialogue, lockdown law enforcement, corporate assaults on the environment, and on and on.

It has also been a factor in the rightward lurch of the Democratic party as well as all the tropes we have been fighting against for so long and only recently begun to make some progress against: Democrats dislike America, "soft on crime", and the whole Dems need to move to the center notion.

We do not know how much GOPer pressure on NBC, or fear of that pressure, was a factor in this decision.  The line in the Times about this being precipitated by the leftward lean is very troubling.  We need a major counterweight to Fox.  Even if GOPer pressure played no role, you can be sure they will claim credit, and worse, many reporters will perceive it as plasible explanation.

Any reporter thinking of attempting journalism with respect to GOPers will now think twice, look over their shoulder, and reign things in a bit, show some "deference" to the GOPers, as they have demanded for Palin.  I think the McCain-Palin media assault worked.  I am certain it will be perceived in that light.  We should all be worried.

but better late than freakin' never. i hope KO stays in his respective echo chamber known as countdown.

Shuster talking about Hillary "pimping her daughter", Olbermann saying that somebody should take Hillary into room and only they come out, and Matthews saying Hillary is only where she is because her hubby messed around.

They all need to go.  They are all disgraceful!

Sounds like the McCain campaign complaint against NBC was successful.  I thought Olbermann did a great job and seemed very reserved compared to his regular show.  Both Olbermann and Matthews know way more details about politics than what Tom Brokaw knows.  Brokaw is boring and often times obnoxious.

What would happen if the Obama complained about having Hannity and O'Reilly reporting their smear from the convention and every day during the programs?  Nothing because the Republicans own Fox.  Both Bush Presidents are buddies with the top guy and Limbaugh

If you read the story completely, MSNBC didn't give them the axe... the discussion on the matter was initiated by Olbermann himself, and he admits as much in the article.

I don't think he was comfortable in a role in which he was expected to hide which team he was rooting for, and to that end, it will be better for him now, because he will still be on the air during the upcoming events, only he will be sitting in the role of partisan political analyst, not non-partisan unbiased anchor.

Their ratings during the convention sucked, didn't they?  Look, I only have watched TV during the conventions over the past couple of months, and only CNN seemed worse than MSNBC. I wound up watching local CBS coverage, which had Jeff Greenfield on.

My problem with Olbermann is that he has no political knowledge at all. He's got ideological and partisan viewpoints, but on historical knowledge to carry it with.

Matthews, who does, has clearly become annoyed with him, I don't blame him.

6 months too late in my opinion

Good riddance!