Olbermann Watch - MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann: Blowback Redux: Russert and Matthews Fed Up With Olbermann

Olbermann Watch, "persecuting" Keith since 2004

June 3, 2008

Blowback Redux: Russert and Matthews Fed Up With Olbermann

TVNewser is reporting that Tim Russert and Chris Matthews are upset that partisan activist and Daily Kos blogger has become the new face of NBC News' political coverage.

"Every Tuesday night Keith is up there as the face of NBC News. That's a problem," says our source. "[Tim] Russert is upset about it. Russert has spent 20 years building credibility. All of a sudden he's taking questions from Keith Olbermann, the Daily Kos blogger?"
The insider says Olbermann's election night partner has reservations as well: "Chris Matthews is quite pissed about it. He knows a lot about politics and he takes it seriously. He's so close to it that he's not that political. He's not an activist -- Keith's an activist. That's the difference."

MSNBC dismissed the report claiming that TVN's source was uninformed. Only problem is that TVN is run by Chris Ariens who has plenty of well-placed sources at MSNBC because before becoming head blogger at TVN he was a producer at MSNBC.

TVN's source says Olbermann's repeated threats to quit MSNBC have frightened his bosses at NBC News. The source calls Olbermann's blogging at Daily Kos "insane".

All we can say here at Olbermann Watch is...told you so!

Olbermann Watch readers will recall that Keith told Bill Moyers that he came close to quitting back in the summer of 2003 when MSNBC hired Michael Savage.

BILL MOYERS: I watched you walk off when you were at MSNBC and they were covering the Lewinsky scandal. And I believe you said, "This is ridiculous."
KEITH OLBERMANN: Yeah.

BILL MOYERS: This is drip, right?

KEITH OLBERMANN: Right.

BILL MOYERS: You walked away.

KEITH OLBERMANN: Yeah.

BILL MOYERS: Would you do it again?

KEITH OLBERMANN: I think probably it won't happen. But I would say that there were circum-- there were circumstances in this show, there was one occasion where I was prepared to go out the door an hour before one of the shows because we had one of those conflicting moments. This is very early on again. This is 2003. When we were all still in that kind of, "Gee, should we suspend our disbelief? What if he's-- what if George Bush is right and this is the kind of threat that he portrays?" He-- it's probably exaggerated because he's a politician, number one. But number two, what if he's right? I think a lot of us were saying, "Well, okay, let's just tread gently." MSNBC hired a guy named Michael Savage. And he came on and did-- not only did he do a show once a week that was basically just spattering invective on people he didn't like and these people change from week to week, but it was terribly produced. I mean, it was an awful show. And he was-- he looked like he was standing in front of a chalkboard somewhere in somebody's basement with a camera. One night I walk in, my boss is out of town. And the guy actually running the show at the point said, at countdown, said-- "We're going to run a Michael Savage commentary. I've got to go now." And he ran away. And I said, "We're not running a Michael Savage commentary. That's in the"-- and he was gone. I called my agent. Now, I'd just gotten back to MSNBC. I left, as you said, under the Lewinsky circumstances. A lot of bridges were burned. Came back. Everybody hugged. It's three or four months in. I'm enjoying it. I think I'm making a difference. I'm getting that little sort of skeptical thing back. And here we're going to have a Michael Savage commentary in the middle of it. So I finally got a hold of my agent. And I said, "I have to walk out, don't I?" She said, "Yep, you do." And I said, "Yeah, I guess so. Well, it was a nice career." I'm going to try to get a hold of my boss in Washington. And I called him and I said, "I can't"-- he said, "Can you find some reason not to run it that doesn't pertain to the politics?" I said, "Are you saying to me if I go and look at it and it doesn't meet production standards we don't have to run it?" "I might be saying that, yes. Just give me something to work with." And I went in and looked at it and the guy repeated himself nine times. So I called the guy back and said-- "It's very badly produced. He's repeating himself. I don't think you should run it." "Okay, good enough." But those things still happen, and I'm sure they'll still happen.

Posted by Robert Cox | Permalink | Comments (15) | | View blog reactions

15 Comments

By dcmeyer on June 3, 2008 4:21 PM

Matthews has nothing to be fed up with. He is as much a left wing kook as olby is. Russert is a different story, he and MTP are in danger of being marginalized every time he appears on MSLSD with the kooks. NBC News suffers because of MSLSD. Karma is a b@tch.

By Philly on June 3, 2008 5:37 PM

Make good on your threats to quit, Olby. I wholeheartedly support your decision.

By merkle923 on June 3, 2008 5:43 PM

Microsoft has no stake in (MS)NBC cable anymore. It's all NBC News. The moniker (MS)NBC is simply another NBC "News" misrepresentation of fact.

By Grammie on June 3, 2008 6:58 PM

Until recently I never realized that the MS in MSNBC News was b/c Microsoft owned it.

How did the ownership go and who owns who now?

By CountDung on June 3, 2008 7:12 PM

Commentators that contribute listed over at Kos:

A. Whitney Brown
Michael Moore
Keith Olbermann
Michael Schiavo
Sam Seder
Cindy Sheehan

Great company for a legitimate newscaster (that's what he calls himself anyways). 3 of these guys are losers from Air America. I remember A. Whitney did a recurring skit on SNL called "The Big Picture" and it sucked.

By MLong on June 3, 2008 7:31 PM

Well as I've said over and over again KO and MSNBC have only 7 months left to figure out what to do once Bush is gone..if their chosen one wins that's it for KO his ratings will drop like a stone if McCain wins He'll still suffer a ratings loss.

Plus KO's burning bridges at MSNBC and if you look at KO's history it's about time for him to walk again anyway...and the first time there's a negative news story about Obama that even MSNBC can't ignore..will be the day KO starts calling in to stay in the tub...new Murrow indeed.

By Olby Sucks on June 3, 2008 8:53 PM

I wonder if Olbyonesidedkanoby knows that if obama "wins" that his jig is up?

By MikeH on June 3, 2008 9:19 PM

"If their chosen one wins that's it for KO his ratings will drop like a stone if McCain wins he'll still suffer a ratings loss."

The problem with your analysis is that you have demonstrated time and time again that you really don't understand his viewers in the first place, ...... yet you continue to make predictions like this about audiences you don't understand in the first place!

By MLong on June 3, 2008 9:55 PM

"yet you continue to make predictions like this about audiences you don't understand in the first place!"MikeH

There's not much to understand...even the Kossacs aren't going to turn in night after night of KO kissing Obama's a**...KO's fan base are Bush haters that's the only thing that drives them and without Bush as a target for their hate they'll just fade from the general audience.

By MikeH on June 3, 2008 10:41 PM

"....KO's fan base are Bush haters that's the only thing that drives them and without Bush as the target for their hate they'll just fade from the general audience."

Yet ANOTHER statement that illuminates the FACT that you don't understand your opposition in the slightest.

That's all right.....Keep right on believing ridiculous simplifications and talking points that have no basis in fact.

By Olby Sucks on June 3, 2008 11:12 PM

Keep right on believing ridiculous simplifications and talking points that have no basis in fact.

by mikeh

Just our daily dose, yawn.....

By cee on June 3, 2008 11:21 PM

"Keep right on believing ridiculous simplifications and talking points that have no basis in fact......."

Like, The war is lost, Iraq will be a never-ending bloodbath, The surge will not stop the violence, There will be unending civil war, The Iraqis will not step up until we withdraw.....

That is all the SNOBamessiah is, dear MikeH.....ridiculous simplifications (platitudes) and talking points (McCain=Bush, McCain is "doubling down", yada, yada, yada) that have no basis in fact.....how ironic you see that only in others!

Has SNOBamessiah decided to go to Iraq yet, MikeH?....he was cool, then warm, now cool again.....what a hard decision!

By MLong on June 3, 2008 11:22 PM

"That's all right.....Keep right on believing ridiculous simplifications and talking points that have no basis in fact. " mikeh

You just recapped every Countdown episode with KO..Bravo. LOL!!

By Olby Sucks on June 4, 2008 12:33 AM

Good point, mlong. That's exactly what mikeh did.

By Scott on June 4, 2008 12:59 AM

""There's a very large untapped market of liberal TV viewers," says the insider. "It's probably smart in the short term. Fox has succeeded because there are a lot of alienated conservatives who thought no one was speaking for them. All of a sudden there are huge numbers of liberals who feel the same way."

You have to be kidding me. A large, untapped market of lib tv viewers? Come on. It's tapped. MS-Obamessiah-NBC has tapped it. It's all they have.

I have no doubt as to the accuracy of this story, with the excecption that really, Russert and Matthews are only "pissed" because their leftist bias is being exposed by KO.

MikeH, do you really believe that the "base" of KO's viewers will tune in every night to hear "OH YEAH, our guy is awesome, and here's the reasons I hate Billo....and some video's I find funny....and American Idol."

KO's whole schtick is the "truth to power" lie. If that continues in an Obama presidency, he has to become Ariana Huffnpuff. He's already a joke to the right and center. He can't win them back, because he's already gone over the top. So a few of you may tune in for the cheerleading, but once Obama has proved he's not bringing the troops back right away, are you still gonna be a fan?

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