Questions About MSNBC Host Olbermann
ANTI-O'REILLY CAMPAIGN?
Alioto Says She Was Bumped For Not Playing Along
Does MSNBC host Keith Olbermann expect guests to observe a strict anti-O'Reilly line?
After new allegations by former San Francisco Supervisor and Democratic Party activist Angela Alioto, some are wondering if that's the case. Alioto claims she was bumped from a guest slot on Olbermann's "Countdown" program Tuesday evening, after refusing to call for O'Reilly's outright FOX News Channel termination.
That comes after O'Reilly's controversial comments about San Francisco's election-day hostility to military recruiters, previously covered here:
And, according to a NewsMax report, Alioto was instead replaced by ultraleftist firebrand Chris Daly:
Upon her arrival in Washington, DC last night, the Radio Equalizer reached Alioto via email:
"Brian, I think Bill's words were unfortunate to say the least, but as a staunch supporter of the First Amendment, I believe that it goes both ways and not just when the left wants it to," Alioto remarked.
"I do not believe for one minute that Bill wants anyone dead. I believe that he is a passionate conservative and to me that is important as a passionate liberal.
"See, I am a moderate, so the bottom line is that San Francisco is a great city and any comment wishing her harm will always be vigoriously contested, especially from me.
"But calling for Bill's termination is intolerant of his ability to speak and I do not support it. So Amy at Keith Olbermann's show called and cancelled my planned appearencee because I also told her that if she wants someone to slam Bill, period, then that's not me," Alioto concluded.
While we were on the subject, I asked Alioto about the extreme nature of contemporary San Francisco politics. Isn't it odd to be called a "moderate"?
Her response: "the comment in the paper was that I am a moderate in San Francisco, meaning a liberal anywhere else."
The Radio Equalizer also contacted MSNBC producer Amy Sutre today for her account of the incident. Sutre didn't comment, other than to say she was aware of Alioto's allegations, and indicated she would call back later with a statement.
Any subsequent information from Sutre will be added here in an update.
While one could expect cable news channel competitors to spar, there are signs of increasing conflict between Olbermann and O'Reilly, even if it primarily originates with the former.
There's no question about one thing, however: ratings for O'Reilly are several times higher than Olbermann's.
On Wednesday, for example, "The O'Reilly Factor" had 2.8 million viewers in its 8pm airing, compared to 517,000 for "Countdown", according to TVNewser.
UPDATE-- Thursday evening cable ratings are in, here's how O'Reilly and Olbermann compare:
At 8:00pm EST Thursday:
O'Reilly Factor: 2.5 rating, or 2,221,000 homes
Olbermann: .4 rating, or 330,000 homes
The 4am EST "O'Reilly Factor" showing (which is the second rerun) beat Olbermann's first 8:00pm EST airing.
UPDATE: No subsequent call from Olbermann's producer.
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Alioto Says She Was Bumped For Not Playing Along
Does MSNBC host Keith Olbermann expect guests to observe a strict anti-O'Reilly line?
After new allegations by former San Francisco Supervisor and Democratic Party activist Angela Alioto, some are wondering if that's the case. Alioto claims she was bumped from a guest slot on Olbermann's "Countdown" program Tuesday evening, after refusing to call for O'Reilly's outright FOX News Channel termination.That comes after O'Reilly's controversial comments about San Francisco's election-day hostility to military recruiters, previously covered here:
O’REILLY: You know, if I’m the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, “Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you’re not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead.” And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.
And, according to a NewsMax report, Alioto was instead replaced by ultraleftist firebrand Chris Daly:
But it looks like Olbermann's staff got what they wanted after all, replacing Alioto with Chris Daly, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors,
"You know, this is dangerous," Daly told Olbermann on the air. "Fox News and Westwood One need to take some accountability for this and terminate Bill O'Reilly's employment."
Upon her arrival in Washington, DC last night, the Radio Equalizer reached Alioto via email:
"Brian, I think Bill's words were unfortunate to say the least, but as a staunch supporter of the First Amendment, I believe that it goes both ways and not just when the left wants it to," Alioto remarked."I do not believe for one minute that Bill wants anyone dead. I believe that he is a passionate conservative and to me that is important as a passionate liberal.
"See, I am a moderate, so the bottom line is that San Francisco is a great city and any comment wishing her harm will always be vigoriously contested, especially from me.
"But calling for Bill's termination is intolerant of his ability to speak and I do not support it. So Amy at Keith Olbermann's show called and cancelled my planned appearencee because I also told her that if she wants someone to slam Bill, period, then that's not me," Alioto concluded.
While we were on the subject, I asked Alioto about the extreme nature of contemporary San Francisco politics. Isn't it odd to be called a "moderate"?
Her response: "the comment in the paper was that I am a moderate in San Francisco, meaning a liberal anywhere else."
The Radio Equalizer also contacted MSNBC producer Amy Sutre today for her account of the incident. Sutre didn't comment, other than to say she was aware of Alioto's allegations, and indicated she would call back later with a statement.
Any subsequent information from Sutre will be added here in an update.
While one could expect cable news channel competitors to spar, there are signs of increasing conflict between Olbermann and O'Reilly, even if it primarily originates with the former.
There's no question about one thing, however: ratings for O'Reilly are several times higher than Olbermann's.
On Wednesday, for example, "The O'Reilly Factor" had 2.8 million viewers in its 8pm airing, compared to 517,000 for "Countdown", according to TVNewser.
UPDATE-- Thursday evening cable ratings are in, here's how O'Reilly and Olbermann compare:
At 8:00pm EST Thursday:
O'Reilly Factor: 2.5 rating, or 2,221,000 homes
Olbermann: .4 rating, or 330,000 homes
The 4am EST "O'Reilly Factor" showing (which is the second rerun) beat Olbermann's first 8:00pm EST airing.
UPDATE: No subsequent call from Olbermann's producer.
Your Amazon orders that begin with clicks here, regardless of your final purchase selections, help to support this site's efforts. Thanks again!
The Radio Equalizer also recommends the (free) Mozilla Firefox web browser. Packed with features such as tabbed browsing, SessionSaver (makes computer crashes less painful) and dual Google/Yahoo (both at once!) search extensions, I can't imagine using anything else.
published by Brian Maloney at
17:24
12 Comments:
uber lefty Olbermann is poorly armed to enter an intellectual battle of wits against any of the conservative prognosticators, pundits, and bloviators ... yes, that's Bill's job.
When it treats the military, gun owners and families of officers killed in the line of duty the way that it does, SF has no position to act indiginantly when it is called to task for its "moral" positions on international policy.
Maybe, SF needs to do the rest of hte country a favor and just sucede from the union...
Oh, by the way, to the fine citizens of SF...thank you for allowing Stockton to get the battleship USS Iowa. Stockton will show it the respect that it so richly deserves...
By
nocoen, at 18 November, 2005 13:23
That being said Olbermann is the highest rated on their network, way ahead of matthews and scarborough (hoo-rah, i guess) and in the 18-34 demographic he, according to nielsen, kinda beats o'reilly pretty handsomely.
By
Adam Berkowitz, at 18 November, 2005 13:47
lyin' baloney-
It's sad that you cannot make the point of it without having someone spell it out for you. It is just typical SOP for liberal commentators, they either don't care about what their opposition really thinks, or they'll allow one to oppose four or five libs.
Here, we have the case of a liberal who apparently wasn't liberal enough to suit Mr. Olbermann's intents, only because she thought that Mr. O'Reilly had a constitutional right to speak his mind. And, since Olbermann's focus is to silence his opposition (as is so often the case), there was no interest in hearing any view other than Bill O'Reilly should be sacked.
And the point of it? What else than to show the hypocrasy of the "tolerant, broad-minded, enlightened" Olbermann's demanding that O'Reilly be censored.
By
yohannbiimu, at 18 November, 2005 15:11
lyin' baloney-
First of all, it is patently obvious that you do not listen to Rush Limbaugh, otherwise you'd know that a relatively high percentage of the callers to his program are liberals, and that he discusses issues, rather than just rant and listen to folks who otherwise agree with him. Olbermann's "editorial decision" was apparently to state his case, and then bring on guests who would basically reiterate everything he had already said. No wonder his ratings are lousy.
As to posting opinions that disagree with him, Maloney is allowing your free expression of opinion. He isn't deleting your posts, which has happened to me when I've posted on Huffington's Post.
As to the "news" of it, I'll throw it back at you--what is the "news"
of saying that you have a case against another social commentator, but you only allow one side of the argument? What sort of case does Olbermann have if he's uneasy about allowing an opposing view to it? What sort of spineless weenie calls for someone's livelihood to be terminated, but censors any objective thoughts that hasn't occurred to him?
As is the case of all libs, they either leave objectivity out of the matter entirely, or they smother it with their brainless banter. Olbermann could have done what Chrissy Matthews does, and put up an ambush for the opposing view, but he was too much of a wussy to even do that.
By
yohannbiimu, at 18 November, 2005 17:40
Brian:
You bio says that you are a "2005 Payne Award For Ethics in Journalism nominee."
I just checked the Payne website, and it looks like absoluately anyone can be nominated. All one needs to do is fill out a form (http://payneawards.uoregon.edu/nomination.pdf).
Why would you put this on your bio? It's not an accomplishment. For all we know, you nominated yourself. The 2005 winners, by the way, can be found here:
http://payneawards.uoregon.edu/news2005.php
By
Justin, at 19 November, 2005 08:57
Seriously...I didn't know Olberman was still on the air. The last time I checked, he had about 13 people watching his show.
Is it just me, or does Olberman look like a Nazi to anyone else?
He kind of looks like a character from Ferris Buehler. Pointing out how stupid the supposed grownups are acting.
By
@whut, at 19 November, 2005 18:36
Brian;
As usual, excellent and incisive commentary on the O'Reilly thing. Just Wat **IS** it with Olberman anyway -- he has feuds with Geraldo Rivera, he hasw feuds with O'Reilly -- he's too much of a wuss to pick a fight with Sean Hannity though -- Hannity would kick his butt up and down the block all day long. Keep up the excellent work on the Air America farce too -- run the weasels to ground until they squeal.
Keep doing what you're doing -- it's one of the best semi-daily commentaries on the web, period. I've added you to my Daily News links on my blog to spread the word.
Besides, you know you're getting to them when cyber-weenies like Lyin' Baloney are razzing you. Go Get 'em, Big Daddy!
By
J.D. Long, at 19 November, 2005 21:07
Justin, didn't you try that one before?
You have no evidence to back your claim. Interesting some of the liberal commenters hold me to a far higher standard than they expect of themselves.
By
Brian Maloney, at 20 November, 2005 00:42
Justin, didn't you try that one before? You have no evidence to back your claim. Interesting some of the liberal commenters hold me to a far higher standard than they expect of themselves.
No Brian, I didn't (search your archives if you don't believe me). As for evidence, I provided a link to the nomination form.
I'm not holding you to a higher standard than anyone else. I'm just saying it's silly to include the nomination in your bio, since anyone can be nominated by simply filling out a form and mailing it in. It's not like you were a finalist or a winner.
File this under "resume padding"
By
Justin, at 20 November, 2005 08:48
I remember enjoying Keith Olbermann's cute limmericks and phrases on ESPN. Taking his word about politics and "real world" affairs as professional, experienced, and knowledgeable? Yeah right!
By the way, the husband and I are using Firefox. He's been using it and touting it for a while. I just moved over last week. Thanks for the plug.
-OC
By
Olah Chadasha, at 20 November, 2005 15:18
Justin, you're starting to sound obsessed with my award nomination.
There aren't any "finalists", there are nomination entries and winners.
I was nominated. Period.
I've addressed this in full in a more recent post.
By
Brian Maloney, at 20 November, 2005 21:51
I have a very "liberal" comments policy here, which has some other bloggers wondering why.
All of the signs pointed to this "samseder" being a fake, now there's evidence it might really be Air America's Sam Seder making these comments.
Seder (since many don't seem to be familiar with him) is Janeane Garofalo's cohost.
I don't know what would possess Seder to make these comments, but they are mighty entertaining.
By
Brian Maloney, at 20 November, 2005 21:57
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