Olbermann Mum on Stewart vs Cramer: KOmmies Outraged

According to TVNewser, MSNBC hosts were asked NOT to comment on the CONFRONTATION between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer. After all, MSNBC and CNBC are both part of the NBC parent company and money is at stake here. Therefore, NBC wanted as little attention paid to Cramer's pathetic performance defending himself on the Daily Show as possible. This was a moment of truth for Keith Olbermann who endlessly brags about speaking "truth to power." So did Olbermann pass the test? Well, I'll let this Daily Kos KOmmie THREAD, "Moment of Truth for Keith and Rachel coming up tonight" answer the question. So let us now watch the KOmmies blast Keith for chickening out in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble correspondent, noting that Olbermann is well aware of who signs his paychecks, is in the [brackets]:

Rachel and Keith are just hours away from a very important moment.

[They're going to mate?]

All their talk about Edward R. Murrow, the importance of a free press, and telling truth to power comes to a test in how each of these news programs are going to cover the Stewart/Cramer smackdown.

[Vee vill obey orders!]

The cable news networks are giving the story a very light coverage in both tv reporting and website coverage. I think last night's Stewart interview is a historic classic confrontation of corporate news bias that deserves to be in our history books for generations to come.

[Right up there with the Gettysburg Address...NOT!]

I will be watching Keith and Rachel closely tonight in hopes of seeing the clip of Stewart's interview, and the 2006 clip of Cramer admitting to questionable practices.

[Nausea always sets in when I attempt to watch Rachel closely. We're talking FUgly here.]

If this story is ignored, or given a light touch in passing such a Best Person in the World, we will know that even our best and bravest news shows have been significantly censored. We will know that Keith and Rachel are not free to report on the compormised state of television journalism in America. Please Keith and Rachel, take a page from Jon Stewart and hit it out of the park tonight, or it will be a very sad day for television journalism in Mudville.

[Disappointment is just around the corner for this KOmmie.]

If not now, then when.... will someone join Jon Stewart in standing up and speaking truth to the networks?

[And now a KOmmie update in which Rachel and Keith are graded on their responses...]

The results are in..

[How did the MSNBC hosts score in "speaking truth to NBC power?"]

Rachel mentioned the "dust up", gave a link to the video, and showed the Robert Gibbs reaction.

[I give here a lame D.]

Keith- No mention and he has commented in this diary that he did not feel the story to be especially news worthy, and he has been under no pressure from management to suppress the story.

[Keith earns himself an F for big Fat Failure. He should also get an L for Liar.]

I've got to say that I feel really sad about how this is turning out.

[Cry me a river.]

Keith and Rachel are regular companions in my home and I am very fond of both of them. When I wrote the diary, I had every expectation that Keith would have a special comment in store for us about the dire consequences from Iraq to Wall Street of the media being in bed with the powerful.

[I need to get that image out of my head. Keith and Rachel in a threesome with a KOmmie.]

As much as I love Keith, I've got to say that he is missing a big story.

[Keith is also missing a piston. And now to hear from the other broken-hearted KOmmies as well as a really lame excuse from Olbermann himself who is also a KOmmie poster...]

Both Rachel and Keith have discovered the line that they are not allowed to cross, and it's criticism within their own corporation.

I'm pretty disappointed in both of them, but I feel bad for Rachel. She left a venue where she could say pretty much anything that was on her mind, and not all that long ago. I'm sure she did her little "story of the story" piece because she wanted to do more but they wouldn't let her. Now she's in the corporate media, like it or not.

Keith's talked himself out of so many jobs over the years, I'm not surprised that he chickened out. He'd probably say the same thing as all the Democrats who've lately decided that working for Mayor Bloomberg is just swell: they've got kids in college, or a mortgage to pay.

[Pass the chicken feed. It's dinnertime for Keith. Cluck! Cluck!]

KO almost never stops himself from commenting on viral videos or stories.

[Except when his paycheck is on the line.]

Edward R Murrow must be turning in his grave knowing that awards in his name are being handed out to news hacks with no journalistic integrity.

[That pretty much covers the entire MSM.]

I love Olbermann; never miss a show. But right now without some statement from him, I believe MSNBC is suppressing the story on Countdown and every else, because they're just as much a part of the cheerleaders for the financial sector rather than doing the job they should have been doing.

[Keith knows where his bread is buttered.]

I can no longer watch MSNBC because COMCAST moved it to a digital tier that I can't watch unless I pay extra and get a converter box. I can watch clips online, but I doubt if online viewing affects the ratings. In the meantime, FOXNEWS remains part of the "basic" cable lineup here

[The only piece of good news I've heard about Comcast in a long time.]

given that Keith LOVES to point to the hypocrisy of FOX News personalities and their tendency to take orders from their Australian overlord, it puts him in iffy territory.

[Very iffy. If-he doesn't clam up as ordered he loses his job.]

Keith is part of the problem and...NOT the solution!

[A KOmmie makes an astounding discovery. And now Keith Olbermann himself leaps to his own defense in this thread...]

The assumption that we would automatically do a story on a story Jon Stewart did is not a good one.

There is no interaction between his show and mine, and while it's possible that we did some significant segments on any of his previous smackdowns or vivisections (as good as they might have been), I don't remember when that would've been. So it's either not happened, or it hasn't happened in a long time.

Also the premise of corporate no-touch orders to keep what happened "quiet" is silly. That horse (in fact, an entire stable-full) left that barn as soon as the video hit the internet. My understanding is Rachel's doing a little something on this.

There is also - and of course I know this from being on the other end - the element of competitive gamesmanship about this. If there had been anybody of Cramer's heft on Fox Business, subjected to Stewart's hammering, I don't know that ABC, CBS and Fox would've been quite so interested in covering it. Conversely, I recall Stewart doing a lot of hammering of Foxies and it's not like I've turned all of those into 10-minute segments on this show.

[Declared Keith from within the doorway of MSNBC Obedience School. And now an Olbermann encore...]

I threw Santelli in twice to Worst Persons, played clips, and called him "Sick Rantelli" - an internet nickname bestowed upon him from way before his Marie Antoinette moment... and I never heard a word of criticism from management.

[But now that you have been ORDERED to lay off, you laid off.]

Keith, with all due respect, a post on TVNewswer by a right-winger doesn't alter the fact that this story was not covered by MSNBC today. All you had to do was to rely on your own eyes to see that MSNBC had an almost total black-out of the story. And when you have almost a total black-out of one of the most popular stories of the day it doesn't take much to figure out that someone at NBC made sure to communicate that they didn't like the story. They may not have come right out and told you not to cover it but it looks like everyone got the message just the same. A lot of us have worked for corporations so we know the drill.

[Keith slapped for denying reality.]

You just gave a fairly long-winded explanation about not covering something covered on the front page of Huffpo, FT, CNN, CBSnews, MSNBC.com, and countless other sites, where you could've mentioned it at a minimum in passing in Best Persons, and we're NOT supposed to be skeptical about a possible corporate gag order when it preceded the deafening silence on the matter? Alrighty then.

[This KOmmie doesn't buy Keith's lame excuses.]

Sorry Keith. I do not buy it. Kramer/Stewart was the headline for the BBC tonight. The fact that it was ignored all day long on MSNBC is obvious. Corporate shill is not becoming.

[OUCH!]

I am a huge fan, Keith, but you can put me in the very disappointed column on this. This is a big news story regarding the biggest issue on deck for the US right now. The fact that most media outlets seem to be covering the story in some fashion but not a single one of the MSNBC news/hosts has had one word whatsoever to say about it (other than here and on Twitter) very clearly indicates you were all told not to touch it. To expect me to believe otherwise would indicate MSNBC thinks I'm some kind of dunce.

[You are a DUnce but on this you're right. Even a broken clock is correct twice a day.]

Keith, the fact that you came here and posted a comment right after your show aired would tend to support the idea that you were very much aware of the interest in this story yet in your comment here you try to downplay the story. Why is that and why are you here on a Friday night posting a comment about something you didn't cover on your show?

[Because Keith got scared when even the KOmmies saw him for the fraud that he is.]

Today David Schuster indicated on Twitter - in a reply to someone else - that he wasn't able to cover the story. So he was gagged but you weren't?

[LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!!!]

If you really had the freedom to cover this and chose not to, then that was a very bad decision on your part because in my eyes, you lost credibility today and I know I'm not alone.

[That credibility left the gate long, long ago.]

We watch TV. We follow politics and political blogs and know a big story when we see it. You may have had your reasons for not even mentioning the story, but the ones you cited don't add up.

[Keith Counts Down which is why he doesn't add up.]

Keith, much as it pains me to say it, this is the first time I can honestly say that I don't think you are being entirely honest and truthful about a situation.

[First time? I guess this KOmmie has had his blinders on until now.]

Bullsh!t Keith, you are so full of it. I can't believe you would try and claim the story is not newsworthy! How am I supposed to believe that, when your show spends five minutes a night covering American Idol? You bill your show as "what news people will be talking about tomorrow." Stewart-Cramer was hands down THE BIGGEST news story of the day -- it was all anyone was talking about. I don't buy your BS, not for one minute. You, SIR, are part of the problem. You're no better than Cramer.

[Calling BS on Olbermann. Something that can be done over and over and over...]

MSNBC will be known as the hypocrite: Always ready to "call out" others who misbehave, but not their own.

[Look for your Kewpie Doll in the mail.]

If Keith thinks that's unimportant than he is surprisingly dumb. However, I don't believe that is the case. I believe Keith sold out to his bosses to save his ass. He and Rachel were obviously threatened by corporate executives. They acquiesed. Everyone can be bought if the price is right. KO sold out!!

[Keith never sells out...except for money.]

Keith you've wasted plenty of hours of TV time spouting off on things one could consider not "newsworthy" and yet here is a potential home run tee'd up just waiting to be blasted out of the park and you won't come out and play. You're silence speaks volumes...SIR.

[Speak silence to power.]

I notice that nobody on MSNBC ever gets "worst persons" its only Fox people and Lou Dobbs. Sometimes I also wonder if he would have the guts to report an important story that MSNBC tells him not to.

[When the paycheck is on the line, Keith goes MIA.]