Olbermann lashes out at Koppel criticisms
(CNN) – Less than a week after returning from his network-imposed suspension for contributing money to Democratic candidates, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann lashed out at a recent editorial from Ted Koppel, in which the former ABC anchor suggested MSNBC and Fox News have recklessly ushered in a new era of unobjective news reporting.
In a nearly 15-minute "special comment" on his program Monday, Olbermann said the media's greatest failing over the last decade isn't a lack of objectivity but instead a lack of truth-telling by major-network anchors and reporters like Koppel.
"Mr. Koppel did not shine that same light on the decreasingly coherent excuses presented by the government of this nation for the war in Iraq," Olbermann said. "The utter falsehood and dishonesty of the process by which this country was committed to the wrong war, by which this country was committed to dishonesty, by which this country was committed to torture – about that, Mr. Koppel and everybody else in the dead, objective television news business that he laments, about that, where were they? Worshipping the false god of objectivity."
In his Washington Post editorial published Sunday, Koppel wrote that, with an eye toward profit, Fox and MSNBC have dangerously embraced business models that do away with the traditional objectivity of journalism and instead spot only opinions their audience wants to hear.
"The commercial success of both Fox News and MSNBC is a source of nonpartisan sadness for me. While I can appreciate the financial logic of drowning television viewers in a flood of opinions designed to confirm their own biases, the trend is not good for the republic," Koppel wrote, adding later, "We celebrate truth as a virtue, but only in the abstract. What we really need in our search for truth is a commodity that used to be at the heart of good journalism: facts – along with a willingness to present those facts without fear or favor."
Olbermann appeared to take greatest offense to Koppel's suggestion that Fox and MSNBC have become merely mirror images of each other and vehicles in which political parties disseminate their own spin and doctrine.
"The very kind of fact-driven journalism Mr. Koppel seems to be claiming he represents and I fail, would not stand for his sloppy assumptions and false equivalence of 'both sides do it,' said Olbermann. "We do not make up facts here, and when we make mistakes, we correct them."
"While Fox may be such, we are not doctrinaire," Olbermann continued. "To equate this network with Fox, as Mr. Koppel did, to accuse us of having our own facts, is another manifestation of a dangerously simplified understanding of modern news."
The MSNBC host added that just last week his show killed a segment highlighting a Huffington Post article which claimed former President Bush lifted passages from other political memoirs in his new book.
"It was largely based on excerpts that mostly required heavy editing and still produced only weak evidence," he said. "We killed the segment. Would Fox have? Would CNN have?"
Monday, Olbermann said the media's greatest failing over the last decade isn't a lack of objectivity but instead a lack of truth-telling by major-network anchors and reporters like Koppel.
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Olbermann is correct. There is no truth-telling, fact checking, depth analysis in the media. The news has become nothing but political talking points, smear campaigns, and incompetent journalists who allow the talking points to go unanswered by both pundits and policy makers alike. CNN is as guilty as FOX in allowing the pundits to spread their often times vicious lies. So are CBS, NBC, ABC, and MSNBC (Morning/Daytime programming). Read the comments from the right wing bloggers spewing their Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck (et al) talking point lies, innuendo, and hate with relish day after day. These same talking points then make the nightly news round preceded with the innocuous "in tonight's news (blah blah blah) it has been mentioned (blah blah blah) but, we'll let you decide if this is true (blah blah blah) after our pundits vocalize their talking points (blah blah blah) without fact checking (blah blah blah)."
I have to agree with Koppel on this. It's fine to have Opinion excerpts and shows, but when they're masqueraded as "News" and full of conspiracy theories (aka. Glenn Beck), then the difference between real news and opinion gets clouded. It becomes fear-mongering and a base for the spread of misinformation. I don't see MSNBC as being nearly as bad as Fox, but they certainly seem to be trying to compete directly with Fox by putting out more radical opinions.
I'll stick with ABC, NBC and NPR. Between those three we seem to get the most accurate information.
Mr Koppel, you mean report the news like Dan Rather did? A one who has lived abroad a few times during the last 4 decades I can say that during the days of the big 3 networks the only way to get all the news was thru BBC. News told here was limited only to what the networks wanted you to hear.
Olbermann is an idiot as well as Kopple and anything printed by the Huffington Post......saying that MSNBC killed a segment and goes on to say
The MSNBC host added that just last week his show killed a segment highlighting a Huffington Post article which claimed former President Bush lifted passages from other political memoirs in his new book........
The hater just needed to say it out loud.....Olbermann...what a looser
I tend to believe and agree with Ted Koppel... I have difficulty trusting anybody who is so extremely left-biased as Olberman (or as extremely right-biased as the people on FoxNews). I'd rather hear neutral reporting and form my own opinion.
Keith needs to go back to ESPN where I enjoyed him. It's sad to watch him try to defend political positions, obviously the far left position. Give it up, Keith. You're going to have a stroke over this crap!
Mr. Koppel is blind to the fact that the major networks no longer have journalistic purity of fact, if indeed they ever did. In that regard I'd agree with the radical far left propaganda purveyor Olbermann. MSNBC is the home nothing but liberally oriented biased drivel. Fox has both pure news and commentators, one only has to look to see the difference.
Olbermann is right on. The fourth estate has an inherent obligation to focus on not only facts but primarily the truth. The media has failed on these counts repeatedly over the years but rarely with such consistency and disastrous results than during the run-up to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There appears to be a bandwagon effect in place which offers comfort and protection to the herd. Where is the courage? Ted Koppell certainly did not present a shining example when he had the opportunity, nor did any of his big name colleagues.
He has a point, all the major prime time news channels were claiming WMD's and fully on the bandwagon. Can't deny that one. I cruise my news stations and I've watched both Fox and MSNBC as well as CNN, and Public Broadcasting. I honestly am impressed that both Olbermann and Maddow do seem to research their pieces. Do they have opinions, of course. They are admittedly opinion-based programs, unlike Fox that claims "unbiased reporting". On Fox News, I get a strong sense of bias toward the right to the point of stretching the facts. I don't appreciate that kind of "reporting". Often when I hear something labeled "liberal" like universities and media, I equate that to "educated & informed".
Olbermann is the biggest joke and clown on TV. The fact that he takes himself seriously when he spews so many falsehoods each night is amazing. Koppel is right and journalism is dead. We would not have gotten to this point if there had been objective reporting from the start but it snowballed and we ended up with the uglier side of Fox and MSNBC's idiotic Olbermann. I find Olbermann's antics and misstruths to be equivalent to watching Jershey Shore. Its says alot for the intellectual side of his viewers.
The gentleman protests too much, I think.
Keep up the good work Keith, Rachel, Lawrence. This country is in trouble because of the ease misinformation is being used by some to justify destructive behavior, always with an eye towards a profit margin while leaving dead bodies in their wake. So much for this being a "Christian Nation."
Pot calling the kettle black in my opinion. So all of a sudden, MSNBC is now objective and not biased? Watching MSNBC is laughable, and biases to the left are borderline nauseating, yet he says this. If you practice what you preach Keith...you are living a lie, which further discounts and shred of credibility that you offer to objective journalism.
"Mr. Koppel did not shine that same light on the decreasingly coherent excuses presented by the government of this nation for the war in Iraq," Olbermann said.
Amen to that Keith. I watched the coverage of all networks besides for Fixed News whne the escalation to invade Iraq was building. MSNBC is the only network that actually had objective reporting about the entire matter. I knew the government was lying about WMD's, but all the other networks kept running with thsat story without any "Reliable Sources."(pun intended)
I agree with Ted Koppel. Reporters need to report and not have a point of view. There isn't a need for them to put their 2 cents in...I will figure out how I feel about things- I don't need to have someone shove their slanted views down my throat!
OMG! I may actually agree with Obermann for the first time!
I am getting real tired of Keith and all this back and forth between different News outlets and reporters. Enough already.
This just shows what an absolute moron this guy is and how arrogant he is. Yes, Fox is biased, but MSNBC isn't??? What planet is he living on? Ted Koppel is one of the most respected journalists of our time and as objective as you will find, and he is COMPLETLY accurate in his assessment of todays media. Olbermann is an idiot, plaine and simple (but so is Beck)
Poor Olbermann, the truth hurts. A real journalist would not even respond to an editorial but Kieth lives in a left wing liberal bubble and cannot take any criticism of his ideas or his show. Even his coworkers have to leave messages stuck to his door instead of speaking directly to him. He is sheltered and surrounded by like thinking yes men.
I watch Keith Olbermann regularly and he hit the nail on the head with this "Special Comment." What I find fascinating is that the author of this post on the Ticker failed to completely report all that Mr. Olbermann had to say about CNN and Anderson Cooper. Mr. Olbermann pointed out some home truths about CNN that, undoubtedly, they are loath to admit.
I read Koppel's editorial. It's very well-written, very thoughtful. I agree with him completely.
Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow are spinning in their graves.
Give 'em H – E – L – L Keith! To even utter MSNBC in the same breath as Fox Noise is beyond reasoning!
me thinks he doth protest too much...
Olbermann is right about one thing. The "objective TV news" failed miserably to expose the total crap relating to Bush's rationale for invading Iraq.
Olberman is correct.
One of the reason the right prevails is no one else is unified like they are.