MSNBC Host (Olbermann) Rips AP Reporter's Analysis of Obama Speech

[Newsjock]

Source: Editor & Publisher

In an unusually heated attack on a veteran political reporter by a cable news host, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann laced into the Associated Press's Charles Babington an hour after Barack Obama had concluded his speech in Denver on Thursday night.

... So Olbermann was outraged that the AP's Babington had written, in his analysis of the speech, just off the wire, that Obama had tried nothing new and that his speech was lacking in specifics. He read the first few paragraphs on the air, lamented that it would be printed in hundred of newspapers on Friday, and concluded, "It is analysis that strikes me as having born no resemblance to the speech you and I just watched. None whatsoever. And for it to be distributed by the lone national news organization in terms of wire copy to newspapers around the country and web sites is a remarkable failure of that news organization.

"Charles Babington, find a new line of work."

Olberman even criticized the reporter on his time-keeping, noting that the article said the speech was 35 minutes long when it was, he said, actually 44 minutes long. A few minutes later, the AP copy showing up at news sites had been corrected to "44 minutes."

Read more: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003844063

[Ian David]

1. I think it was over-the-top when Olbermann accused Babington of not washing after he pees.

Sorry, I made that part up.

[cliffordu]

3. No, that was me. I said that. The fucker doesn't wash up.

[valerief]

40. LOL!!

:rofl:

[Ian David]

2. Rupert Murdoch is a major shareholder and new member of the board of Associated Press.

Notice the difference lately?


"I'm Mister Sleaze Miser, I'm Mister Slime! I'm mister Yellow Journals... I'm Mister Swiftboat and blow. They call me Sleaze Miser... everything that I touch... turns to sleaze in my clutch...(He's too much!)"

[Joe Bacon]

5. PLEASE, get a custard pie for that face!

Please, somebody pie that fool once and for all!

[nxylas]

36. He has cancer, I think that's punishment enough

And no, as a cancer survivor myself, I'm not gonna say he deserves it, because cancer is not something I would wish upon anyone, even Murdoch.

[atreides1]

43. He has cancer, and???

That's where you're a better person then I am, Murdoch is not deserving of sympanthy. His family I can show sympathy to, because I know what they are going through, my mom died of cancer in 1992.

As far as him deserving it, that's not my call, but maybe he'll learn humility from it!

[Javaman]

58. I totally agree, this evil bastard single handedly changed the course

of the political discourse in this country from civil to outright hostile.

just because the guy has cancer I have to suddenly forgive him for his roaring bastard like ways?

Virtually every member of my family has or had cancer, they were all wonderful people, I feel and felt sorry for them. They had good hearts.

murdoch is deserving of no good will nor good cheer.

[ooglymoogly]

88. amen to that. nt

[Bette Noir]

55. Having cancer doesn't excuse him for trying to throw this election

any more than having been a POW allows McCain to refuse to answer questions.

What a bunch of whiners.

[nxylas]

71. I never said it did

I just said that, given that he has cancer, a pie in the face on top of that would be somewhat superfluous.

[Joe Bacon]

80. NO!

I want him pied! Hell, I'll gladly pay $20 to anyone who can pie that fool!

[Bennyboy]

50. delete

damn

[DeepModem Mom]

6. I forgot that! He did recently go on the AP Board. Well, there ya go. nt

[Just-plain-Kathy]

44. Which is it, does the White House Mafia have Murdoch in their pocket,

or is the White House in Murdoch's pocket?

[EnviroBat]

38. I wish this scumbag would wither up and die already.

But I'm sure the whole thing will be passed down to one of his Nazi minions...

[hisownpetard]

52. Well, the first half of your wish has already come true...

[TechBear_Seattle]

65. I LOVE that Sleaze Miser song!

Too damned funny! :rofl: :toast:

[youngharry]

66. Murdock

It continually amazes me that we let a foreigner run our news media and has so much power over American thought. Apparently, however, Murdock and his propagandists don't understand--Americans are NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE. There will be blood from non-Murdock papers and from our airwaves and our blogs. YOUR TIME HAS COME MURDOCK PROPAGANDISTS---STARTING WITH THE AP.

[Maestro]

69. That is what I always thought too.

He's not even an American, but this is where he decided to plant his fortune to spread his version of the "truth." Send him back down-under and let them deal with him.

[Enthusiast]

73. Is this a result of the 1998 Telecommunications Act?

I mean, did this allow the degree of media consolidation we see today? If so breaking up these monopolies should be top priority.

[Ian David]

98. Yes. And this is what killed Howard Dean's campaign.

Howard Dean told Big Giant Head Chris Matthews he would enforce the Sherman Anti-Trust Act as it should be applied to the media monopolies.

The very next day, the media's love affair with Howard Dean ended, and the new talking point / Fox Question all across the media was, "Is Howard Dean too angry?"

[Pastiche423]

99. IIRC, that was on December 13, 2003

It so enraged the corporate media, that they engineered "The Scream". The media killed Dean's campaign.

[Enthusiast]

101. I remember those talking points.

From that moment onward we have not had a chance. Now it is even worse as CNN and even NPR repeat Administration talking points as if they were written in stone from Charlton Heston himself.

[alphafemale]

97. And then the grinch got a Wonderful, Awful Idea.

[Enthusiast]

102. I love that, alphafemale!

And it perfectly sums it up.

I fear the Grinch had better be careful of what they wish for. The world they are creating becomes uglier every day.

[Zorra]

100. I didn't know that, thanks. AP now stands for American Propaganda.

It has become blatantly RW in the past 5 years.

[opihimoimoi]

4. Fuck them Negative SOBs from the GOP...come, its time to sing tonite

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg9QekmZ-iM&feature=related

Both are Irish...so its fitting to sing the Irish national Anthem

[go west young man]

7. Keiths up on the BS that AP spreads.

The AP gets into all the papers across the US without question and they have been spewing tripe for years. Even before Murdoch got involved with them. Bloomberg is another crap spreader. Reuters is the most professional.

[ladjf]

33. Several newspapers have recently canceled their AP wire

services. Maybe there is a good reason.

[Norrin Radd]

8. Go Keith!

[EFerrari]

9. Keith made me so happy tonight.

Finally, someone calls these people on their bullshit!

[DeepModem Mom]

10. K&R

[CreekDog]

11. if O'Reilly can call a child of a 9/11 survivor whatever he called them

then Olbermann can point out incompetence, or mendacity when he sees it.

[autorank]

12. AP is on hard times and they've got that fake guy in DC, the

one in love with Rove (in print, proof of bias).

Good for Kieth.

[Grinchie]

13. Notice the word "Workmanlike" in the negative article.

Karl Rove used the same word to describe McLame's failure of a speech in Lousiana a few Months ago. He described McCain as "Workmanlike" while everyone else was calling it an utter disaster.

I guess we know where Rove is getting a few extra bucks these days. == The AP

[SleeplessinSoCal]

14. Did you know Juan Williams was a "liberal" contributor?

"In Olbermann's crosshairs on this occasion was Charles Babington who penned an article that largely mirrored the opinions offered on Fox News by liberal contributors Juan Williams and Nina Easton: the speech was short on specifics."

http://newsbusters.org/people/charles-babington

[trumad]

17. Did you know he works for Fox?

nuff said

[Strawman]

30. I had to see what they could possibly say in response

So I flipped to Faux News for a minute and I was astounded at the "liberal" response. They sure have their "liberals" trained well at Faux. Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes were actually more positive about the speech. Their little "liberal" toadies did the dirty work for them to allow them to appear fair (for once).

I only watched for a minute. That's about all I can take of Faux before throwing up in my own mouth.

[Raineyb]

82. Juan Williams is no Liberal

He just plays one on Faux News.

Badly, I might add.

Juan Williams is a worthless piece of shit.

Regards

[Doug.Goodall]

15. Good for Keith

I am glad somebody in the media has the gumption to point out this right wing bias.

[frogcycle]

16. Looks like Keith just won another Algae Award

coming soon...

[NM Independent]

18. HELL yeah Keith. WTG!!

I read the article and it rubbed me the wrong way too.

[bulloney]

19. A lot of people here seem uncomfortable or offended by Olberman's recent outbursts.

I think it's long overdue. The RW has had the run of the media for years, saying everything and anything about Democrats and liberals and they've gone virtually unchallenged.

This entire media coverage of the Democratic convention was a joke. The media seemed more obsessed with getting the Republican spin on the speakers and other activities at the convention. They talked about a divided party coming into the convention that was overblown at best. They droned on about Biden's remarks about Obama when they were both in the hunt for the nomination, ignoring the fact that people on Crash McCain's short list for VP and his surrogates were doing the same thing.

The media gerbils brought their RW bias to a whole new level and I've gotten sick of it.

Will these same media give the same courtesy to the Democrats during the Republican convention that was given this week to the Republicans? I'm not holding my breath.

I think Olberman's remarks are an attack on the RW bias that's built up during recent presidential and congressional elections more than him serving as a cheerleader for the Democrats. If you listen to Olberman, he attributes everything to a credible source. The RW media just throws anything and hopes some of it sticks. Unfortunately, we've become a nation of toothless inbred knuckle-draggers who can't think for ourselves and the RW tactics work.

[tsuki]

24. Long, long, loooong overdue. nt

[blm]

26. The media did this exact same thing to Dems in 2000 and 2004 - some of us TRIED to call them on the

obvious complicity but the media was also suceesful in making Dems believe Gore and Kerry deserved the skewed and WRONG coverage, and deserved to have their actual campaigns heavily edited - you see, it was ALL THEIR FAULT.

NOW more Dems are waking up to HOW BAD IT IS in the corpmedia, and they damn well sure make the corpmedia accountable this time. And hopefully more American voters have made themselves immune to the media's lies and spin.

[calimary]

62. Agreed. And I used to work at the AP.

This is a disgrace - passing off commentary and opinion as news. Them now, too?

A total bastardization. Not surprising when you consider rupert murdoch is on the board.

The AP used to take pride in what Mark Twain said about it. "There are two sources of illumination in the world: the sun in the heavens and the Associated Press down here." That more-or-less verbatim quote (memory here) was engraved on every AP Mark Twain trophy awarded to a news reporter, anchor, writer, producer or anybody who entered an AP news competition. It was a point of great pride.

How far they've fallen. :(

[Lint Head]

20. It's impossible to stop liars from lying. That is what they do.

Republicans love death and lying. Those are the things that get them ahead in the world. The Shock Doctrine and the philosophy of the Chicago Boys economics school is alive and well. :dem:

[FLAprogressive]

21. go KO! n/t

[Irishonly]

22. Good For Keith

[liberal N proud]

23. GO KO

[LostInAnomie]

25. The AP article is a good example of an article before-the-fact writing.

More than likely, Charles Babington had the structure of that article written long before the actual speech. Once the text of Obama's speech came out he filled in a few gaps.

The nine minute error on the length of the speech is a dead give-away.

[RedSpartan]

27. No question

You're absolutely correct...

Why bother to change your pre-conceived "analysis" with actual facts? :sarcasm:

[Myrina]

29. ... as was the GOP's initial response ...

... a paragraph of non-sequitur blather which had nothing to do with the substance of what Obama said.


:freak:

[EFerrari]

77. Exactly. n/t

[HEyHEY]

81. Bingo!

[Mad_Dem_X]

28. You go, Keith!

Keep calling them on their BS! :yourock:

[JTG of the PRB]

31. Babington deserved it. What a hack!

Seriously! What an assjack!

[baldguy]

32. "It is analysis that strikes me as having born no resemblance to the speech you and I just watched."

There's reason for that. He just strung together the GOP talking points he'd received to "write" his column.

Juan Williams said the same thing as Babington: "nothing new" and "lacking specifics". The other meme is that it was a "laundry list". These sound bites were written long before the speech was actually give for people like Williams and Babington who have no thoughts of their own.

[RedLetterRev]

34. As for specifics

KO counted 29 specific points for change and direction. He didn't enumerate them all, but he did reiterate the number quite a few times for emphasis. Yes, puggies, we were paying attention to President-elect Obama and we're also paying attention to you.

Not this damn time, you won't get away with it. We're watching you esso bees like a hawk. Every tiny little dirty trick, and we will shine a kleiglight on each.

Trust.

[Ian David]

35. See also: Stop the AP bias - contact them to cover McCain too!

Stop the AP bias - contact them to cover McCain too!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6796458&mesg_id=6796458

[adamuu]

37. we emailed our local paper

Our household wrote to our local paper, the Times Union, and asked "do you guys even read this stuff before you publish it?"

That AP article was disgusting.

[SpiralHawk]

39. AP is completely republicon propaganda now. Ptooey.

No honor, worthy of no respect.

[NorthCarolina]

41. Perhaps Olberman and Maddow will serve as watchdogs during this campaign

to challenge and correct the flurry of swiftboat claims that are sure to arise. The right will no doubt be very vocal against these two and will likely dump tons of complaints about them on NBC. Will the left step up to forward praise for these two to NBC? If we lose advocates for truth like Keith and Rachel due to complacency we may never get another chance to see their ilk again in the MSM.

[Khaotic]

42. Charles Babington

What a fuck up.

Here's a link to his full article:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5joxG_JOXv3j2ZcUqOBBQKDtTVTJAD92RNBIG0

No doubt he wrote it before Obama even took the stage.




It makes a person want to vomit.

[hisownpetard]

53. Awesome, Keith. You are one of a kind!

[Neolib2]

45. Their whole argument reminds me of

the movie "Anger Management", when Jack Nicholson kept asking Adam Sandler, "Who are YOU?" "No, who are you, REALLY?" "No, really who are YOU?" It seems they just want to ignore any information given, and keep up the lie that Obama has not shown us who he really is.

Or...there is a tactic you can use to argue with someone, just keep asking someone the same question, like "Why", or "How", and eventually their argument will become irreduceable any further, and it will give others the impression they don't know what they are talking about, and that you have exposed them. But any argument can be reduced like that. I think that may be what they are up to.

[jberryhill]

49. Children, especially, love discovering that tactic....

Although my wife ties me in knots with it, too.

[suffragette]

46. Looks like Keith started something

Very glad he did. It is good to hear AP getting called on their bias.



And now others are chiming in:
"Time For The AP To Look In The Mirror"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/29/politics/animal/main4395441.shtml

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, soon after the AP piece hit the wires, read excerpts before trouncing the ridiculous analysis. "It is analysis that strikes me as having born no resemblance to the speech you and I just watched," Olbermann said. "None whatsoever. And for it to be distributed by the lone national news organization in terms of wire copy to newspapers around the country and web sites is a remarkable failure of that news organization. Charles Babington, find a new line of work."

That's reasonable advice, but I'd just add that it's time for the AP to take a long look in the mirror. The man responsible for directing the wire service's coverage of the presidential campaign, Ron Fournier, considered joining the McCain campaign's payroll just last year, and his "leadership" has taken the AP in an unprofessional direction. Its coverage of the race has not only been biased and misleading, but has become an embarrassment to once-great media institution.

The Associated Press is just too important to slip so far from where it once was. It can become credible again, but the service is in desperate need of sweeping changes.

[Bette Noir]

57. Good on CBS.

[stubtoe]

59. I was gonna say "Oh, this from CBS??"

Pot call kettle black, etc. etc. But they did do a surprisingly decent writeup of Obama's speech.

I wonder what's going on exactly in MSM land at the moment...

[EFerrari]

78. So, Obama accepted the nomination AND Keith called out the AP!

That's a good haul for one night.

I never thought anyone would get around to it!

[suffragette]

95. A very good night indeed.

Let's hope it all starts a trend!

[progressivebydesign]

47. I tried to warn you all about AP in the primaries... but got trashed for it.

The primary lovefest by Babbington, Espo, Pickler, and Fouhy, was exactly what was done to Gore and Kerry in the Primaries. The AP picks a likely Dem Candidate (or they help MAKE them likely) and fawns on them in the primary. The minute the nomination is locked up.. those friendlies vanish -- and eventually return as snarky attack dogs. No one believed me.. they all believed that AP saw the light about Obama, and thought they were supporters of his.

Not suprised to see Babbington turn on Obama.. it's part of APs work. Always has been. It's how they operate. Wonder when the other three "pro-Obama" reporters will be rearing their ugly heads with attacks on him. Oh.. it's coming.

[trumad]

51. Got trashed ---by who?

A lot of us know the AP very well....

[HEyHEY]

85. Likely by me!

However in the primaries I found a lot of the comments about AP subjective... this, however, is fucking blatant as hell.

[undeterred]

48. This is righteous anger.

[LiberalEsto]

54. When I applied to write for AP in 1976

The NJ AP bureau interviewed me and gave me an exhaustive series of tests. I thought the interview went very well, but they told me I didn't pass the testing. I'm pretty sure at least one of the tests was designed to weed out political bias. I was disappointed, but assumed they had discovered that I had some liberal tendencies that wouldn't fit their criteria.

I ended up going on to better things. As a reporter for a major NJ daily, I was amused to find that many of my stories were picked up and run verbatim by the same AP bureau.

I wonder what they would have done if my testing showed a conservative bias. They probably would have hired me immediately.

And now, under that right-wing thug Murdoch, they seem to only hire people with a strong fascist bias.

[HEyHEY]

83. Testing?

Wierd. I had an interview for the Canadian Press last year and it was just that, and interview. There was no testing. I wonder if they ever did that up here.

[LiberalEsto]

86. Perhaps you have a free press

unlike our corporate-controlled media

[LiberalEsto]

56. Babington "cover-up artist"

Posted July 19, 2008 by MEC on Mercury Rising:

"I first became aware of Charles Babington when I read a Washington Post article, soon after George W. Bush took the White House, that quoted Richard Perle saying encouraging things about Bush’s foreign policy skills (Charles Babington, “Leaders Urge Bush to Face Foreign Policy Issues.” Washington Post, 20 March 2001, no longer online). Babington portrayed Perle as a conservative (but nonpartisan) objective observer of the new Bush Administration — in reality, he’d been an adviser to the Bush campaign. When I wrote Babington to ask him why he’d chosen a Bush partisan to cite in the article, he claimed complete ignorance of Perle’s role."


http://phoenixwoman.wordpress.com/2008/07/19/charles-babington-coverup-artist/

[redqueen]

60. Unsual from the LEFT... O'Reilly, Hannity, Coulter, Limbaugh et all do MUCH worse.

And the big difference is that Olbermann has the FACTS on his side.

ENOUGH!

[RevCheesehead]

61. Charlie Babbit?

Last I saw him, he was in Vegas, counting cards with Ray.

[Texano78704]

63. Sounds a lot like David Brooks

On PBS, he offered his comments after Obama's speech and said something similar.

[redqueen]

64. Blast fax of talking points from the RNC?

Surely not... they'd never do such a thing, and "journalists" would never rush to get the talking points out to the GULLIBLE public.
:sarcasm:

[stubtoe]

68. If I could recommend your post, I would! Bingo, redqueen.

n/t

[CitizenPatriot]

67. More "news" from McCain's "Ministry of Truth"

Never forget what they themselves admitted

I swore last night I would never READ another AP article and I won't

If you are also banning them, don't click on them either -- they get ad dollars or credits for every click and make sure your internet "news" provider knows how you feel, too. tell them you're changing your home page because of it....They are racing for eyeballs and if they lose your eyeballs because the AP is on their home page, they may soon think better of that. (e.g., yahoo, earthlink, comcast-- all of those home pages have AP news articles on their home page)

OBAMA gave the best political speech since JFK and no one can diminish his accomplishment or our pleasure and joy. the times they are a changin'.

[Maestro]

70. Good for KO.

We need more outrage on our side. Enough is enough!

[L0oniX]

72. K & R

[TheCoxwain]

74. Luckily we dont have to rely on some jackass.

in todays world to translate it for us.

Just the pure and simple words form the horse's mouth.

http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/president/conventions/videos/20080828_OBAMA_SPEECH.html

[amyrose2712]

75. Anyone post a vid of this? n/t

[Hulk]

76. It shows where the shills and propaganda creeps hide...

We are going to have to root these bastards out of hiding and tar and feather the sons of bitches.

It's like william "bloody" hiding at the Times. Nothing more than a propaganda shill for this fast sinking neocon machine.

It's time to shove these pathetic soulless sacks of shit out into the gutter where they belong!

[Ian David]

79. See also: Time For The AP To Look In The Mirror

Time For The AP To Look In The Mirror
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3877857&mesg_id=3877857

[HEyHEY]

84. Be interesting to know if AP gets flak from their papers over this

If I'm paying for a wire service I want just that. Not this shit. Maybe an AP reporter with balls will come forward and say what, if anything, has been going on. Cause I'd like to know if this was an individual act, or part of an AP master plan.

[YvonneCa]

87. We are SO lucky to have Keith Olbermann...

...give voice to what we Democrats think and believe. He is a true patriot.

My GREATEST thanks, KO, for what you continue to do to help get this country back on track!:patriot:

[Plucketeer]

89. Kay & Arrrgggghhh!

Assholes!

[hasssan1]

90. THANK YOU Olbermann , HIT THEM HARD THOSE WHO WANT TO SEE DESTRUCTION OF THIS COUNTRY AGAIN

[LaPera]

91. Fuck ALL AP "reporters"...Another republican Americran news conglomerate.

AP will write any story the republicans ask for and need.

The decline of AP's traditional rival, United Press International, (UPI) as a major American competitor in 1993 left the AP as the only nationally oriented news service based in the United States

In 2000 UPI was purchased by News World Communications, a media company owned by Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.

Reuters Group Limited is a British based news service and former financial market data provider that provides reports from around the world to newspapers and broadcasters.

Way to go Keith Olbermann....Cheers!

[BRLIB]

92. AP Radio news is also garbage and needs to be shut down!

I listened today to two of their segments on XM 167 during Ed Schultz. Not even one sentence from Barack's speech in either news update! Yet McSame's blathering was all over about his VP. And these asses are calling her a "maverick" just like they still say McCain is.

Time for these asses to be in the unemployment lines!

[liberal1973]

93. KO!

[sasori]

94. god, those reporters just won't...

...give them a break, will they? :rant:

[Radical Activist]

96. The article was obviously mostly written before the speech was delivered.

It has the same recycled cliches we've been hearing for the entire campaign.