Olbermann suspended for political gifts - Philadelphia Inquirer

Keith Olbermann, host of "Countown" on MSNBC , gave money to three Democratic candidates, one on the day he was a guest on the show. Posted on Sat, Nov. 6, 2010 By John Timpane

Inquirer Staff Writers

Cable news channel MSNBC has suspended Keith Olbermann, host of its most popular program, without pay. It took the action after news site Politico revealed Olbermann had donated money to the campaigns of three Democratic candidates.

Olbermann, host of Countdown, which airs from 8 to 9 weeknights, sent $2,400 apiece to U.S. Senate hopeful Jack Conway in Kentucky and Reps. Raúl Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona. (Conway lost his race, Grijalva was announced the winner of a very close race Thursday, and Giffords was barely leading as of this writing.)

Researchers for Politico learned of the donation to Grijalva in a campaign finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission. When Politico contacted MSNBC for comment, Olbermann issued a statement confirming the Grijalva donation and detailing the other two. Olbermann donated the money Oct. 28, the same day Grijalva appeared as a guest on Countdown.

MSNBC president Phil Griffin said in a statement Friday: "I became aware of Keith's political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay."

According to a 2007 summary on MSNBC.com, parent company NBC warns each staff member to avoid activities that "could jeopardize his or her standing as an impartial journalist because they may create the appearance of a conflict of interest."

True to the blurring of news and advocacy throughout the cable-news universe, Olbermann is an ambiguous figure at best. Angered at the Bush administration's Iraq war policy, he started taking Countdown from straight news toward leftward advocacy. He and hosts Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow have helped make MSNBC's weeknight lineup competitive with leader Fox News. Countdown, which often draws more than 1 million nightly viewers (good for cable, but not as good as Fox News leader Bill O'Reilly) is by now aggressively liberal. And yet Olbermann was the coanchor for MSNBC's election coverage this week. He has had several clashes with Griffin and other higher-ups over editorial decisions.

The three major cable-TV news channels - MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN - remain locked in a grim struggle for dominance, with Fox News in the lead. Many commentators see Fox News as heavily biased toward Republican and conservative causes. CNN, avowedly centrist, often lags in prime time. MSNBC has taken what some analysts see as a center-left approach. In October, it began an ad campaign with the slogan "Lean Forward," which some find biased to the left.

Standards regarding political contributions vary in the media industry. CBS, ABC, and NPR forbid staffers to make political donations, while NBC/MSNBC TV requires staffers to get permission from the president of NBC News. (Olbermann apparently didn't do so.) Reuters allows staffers not working on political material to make contributions.

Fox News allows contributions as long as they are not from corporate funds. Personal involvement in political activity "is permitted as long as the activity does not interfere with or impair the performance of the employee's duties for the company."

Fox News commentator Sean Hannity donated $4,800 to the campaign of House hopeful John Gomez (R., N.Y.), who lost, and $5,000 to the political action committee of Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R., Minn.), who won. Hannity has also appeared at several political rallies. In turn, political figures such as Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee are regular contributors.

News Corp., the company that owns Fox News, gave $1.25 million to the Republican Governors Association and another $1 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber was aggressive in pro-GOP campaigning in the election season just past.

Many media blogs were critical of the MSNBC move, on a variety of grounds. Derek Thompson of the Atlantic wrote that news of Olbermann's contributions "reaffirms the biases we all knew he had. But does it jeopardize his standing as impartial?"

Calling the MSNBC move "hypocrisy," the Daily Kos pointed out that Joe Scarborough, conservative host of MSNBC morning show Morning Joe, has contributed to Republican candidates for years, including a much-publicized $4,200 to Republican House candidate Derek Kitts of Oregon in May 2006 - a week before Kitts appeared on Scarborough's show. Pat Buchanan, a conservative commentator often on MSNBC, donated repeatedly between 2005 and 2008.

Inquirer policies and procedures make clear that "staff members may not make contributions of money or time to candidates, parties or groups taking a partisan stance." Staff members also are instructed to "avoid activity that could create the appearance of a conflict" with their professional duties.

Roy Peter Clark, vice president and senior scholar at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., says that while the NBC policy is "pretty clear," it is also likely to have been "formulated in an earlier time."

"No one should expect journalists to be civic celibates," Clark says, "but you can't put a campaign sign on your lawn or bumper sticker on your car. If I'm supposedly nonpartisan, I shouldn't wrap myself in public in the flags of partisanship." Contact staff writer John Timpane at 215-854-4406, jt@phillynews.com or twitter.com/jtimpane.

Staff writer Jonathan Storm contributed to this article.

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Obama rallies his youth brigade in Philadelphia - Washington Post

PHILADELPHIA - With the debates over, ads flooding the airwaves and an election that's shaping up as a $4 billion contest finally coming to a close, Democrats are looking to something very basic for an edge: phone calls and door knocks.

So President Obama took his get out the vote message to Temple University as he made a closing argument for his party's agenda.

His speech was short and his message simple.

"I want everybody to get out there, knock on doors, make phone calls, volunteer, talk to your friends, talk to your neighbors, go into the beauty shops, the barbershops your church," he said. "If you do that, I am confident, we aren't just going to win this election, but we are going to keep on moving this country forward."

The crowd of 1,000 - mostly young people chanting campaign slogans and wearing Obama T-shirts circa 2008 - are exactly the type of voters that Democrats will need to stave off a midterm rout. This weekend, Obama's schedule has stops in four urban areas.

Obama has visited this city, which is key to Democrats' chances of victory in statewide races, four times over the past six weeks, and first lady Michelle Obama will hold a rally here Monday.

And the Democratic National Committee has poured more than $50 million into the get-out-the-vote effort in a bid to get at least a share of the 15 million young and first-time voters from 2008.

Over recent weeks, Obama has drawn an audience of about 185,000 people with 10 rallies in different states, and party leaders said they see some momentum.

"If you look at the polling in Pennsylvania and California, after the president's visits there, Democrats either closed the gap or in some instances widened their lead," said Mitch Stewart, executive director of Organizing for America, the DNC's grass-roots branch. "These events are a real shot in the arm for our organization specifically, but also to the candidates that are running there."

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter who said that 2010 is about 2012, said that "we are going to drive turn out aggressively in this city."

"Every elected official is focused on this election," he said. "They are mobilizing all over Philly and the suburbs."

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett in remarks Thursday suggested that his aim is to keep turnout in Philadelphia down, comments that Nutter said have galvanized the base.

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