GE and Fox cut deal: Censor Olbermann

[kpete]

GE and Fox cut deal: Censor Olbermann

Executives told the New York Times that the feud was called off specifically because it threatened the business interests of GE and the News Corporation.

by Steven D
Sat Aug 1st, 2009 at 11:15:49 AM EST

You can read all the details here via Glenn Greenwald.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/01/ge/index.html
But the short story is that Charlie Rose brokered a deal between News Corp CEO, Rupert Murdoch and GE's CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, to get Olbermann to stop attacking Bill O'Reilly and to get O'Reilly to stop attacking -- GE, the friendly folks who bring good things to light, including numerous defense contracts. I wondered why Olbermann suddenly stopped attacking "Billo the Clown" (as he iconically referred to him) back in June. Something about the reasoning didn't seem right. Well, guess what? It wasn't MsNBC, to protect the interests of its corporate parent, told Olbermann to shut up, and Fox did the same to O'Reilly, who suddenly abandoned his reporting on GE's legitimate sales of energy and medical technology.

And they wonder why no one trusts the corporate media. It isn't a liberal bias or a conservative one (except, obviously, Fox News) so much as it's a corporate bias. And when GE's CEO was feeling the heat from Bill O'Reilly he put a muzzle on Keith Olbermann. Now, we have no direct link to the so-called deal the New York Times is reporting and any mesage to Olbermann from his bosses to shut down the attacks on o'Reilly, but as Glenn notes, since June 1 of this year, Olbermann has essentially stopped attacking O'Reilly, not once mentioning him by name.

more:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2009/8/1/111549/4986

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/01/business/media/01feud.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

[jpak]

1. Is a "special comment" in the offing before they fire KO?

:shrug:

[Eric J in MN]

2. And they agreed to censor Bill O'Reilly, too. NT

NT

[JitterbugPerfume]

3. The feud was often childish but

censorship always sends up a red flag

[Auggie]

4. Everyone enjoying Corporate Fascism?

Because that's what we got -- economic ideology placing profit above all else.

[Deja Q]

8. Why else did Bill stop short of, amongst other things, citing FOX Broadcast Network

in his special, from a few years ago, describing how the media (audio and visual) have been affecting soicety and, particularly, our young. He's right, but as FOX News is owned by the same lot as those who own FOX Broadcast Network, he too was muzzled.

If he didn't enjoy corporate fascism, he wouldn't have made that episode.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Ya know, if the two of them didn't bring in serious money...

they both would have been fired a long time ago for measuring their dicks on air.

This is kids' stuff they're doing-- imagine, for a moment, Cronkite in a grudge match with Walter Winchell and you see how silly this is.

[mkultra]

6. seems like a guess by someone but its plausable

Olberman is just another corporate stooge just like the rest of them. He is just our stooge.

[spanone]

7. news is a corporate joke ....all of our info is tainted by profits

[daa]

9. Am I the only one that would quit? nt

[stuball111]

10. I for one applaud this

And any other attempt to silence childish crap, now if only they could lay down the law about semi truthful statements and schoolboy tirades like Beck and Hannity do, and get back to Cronkite style news reporting and lay off this drama and nit-picky grade school yard attitude at fox, maybe it will force people to listen to the real story and make up their minds properly. And ditch Van Sustren... GOd she's ugly! And has the most irritating voice I have ever heard. (Not that I ever listen) They have all these Fox babes on there for commentaries, and every time I flip by that channel I see Van Sustrens mug and just wanna smash my TV! Get some ex-Miss America on there to replace her, and at least I can turn down the volume and watch the fox channel with relative comfort! I took a step back and tried to look at both channels in perspective, and found that if I was somebody on the right, I would find MSNBC hard to watch, although they are not nearly as smarmy as fox. Rachel does a good job of exposing things, and so does Keith, but he gets pretty nasty some times, not that I mind, I agree with most everything he says. I Love big Ed and he does just fine with his style. But the right will never listen to the truth of things if things get personal. How do I know this? Cause I get equally mad when I see fox doing it to our side. I think that MSNBC should buy a half hour slot on fox and do an expose' on health care, citing the Canadian system, the money being spent on lobbying by big insurance against it, and what a single payer system would look like in the US. THAT would be a coup, and before the righties knew what was going on, they'd be informed!

[Beaverhausen]

11. Mr. Olbermann, who is on vacation, said by e-mail message, “I am party to no deal,"

...adding that he would not have been included in any conversations between G.E. and the News Corporation. Fox News said it would not comment.

from the NYT link.

I hope KO comes back swinging next week.

[SoCalDem]

17. Knowing KO, (remember "the Big Show"?), he may walk after his contract ends

I know he just signed a new one, but he may just play it out and then vanish.,. He does not like to be reined in..

[mmonk]

19. That's the Keith I know.

[Serial Mom]

20. I don't think KO will come back swinging...

But he may have ended feud "on his own terms" after Dr. Tiller's murder. He last statement on Countdown about O'liely was about Dr. Tiller's death on June 1 and said

Transcript of June 1 show http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2009/06/01/olbermann-blames-fnc-o-reilly-murder-abortion-doctor-tiller
That I have a commercial conflict of interest here is obvious, so I'll make the first symbolic contribution to this quarantine. One of my pleasures obviously is constantly criticizing him in that Ted Baxter voice. It is the idea of laughter, as a social sanction against inflexible behavior. But this is no time for laughter. This is serious. Serious as death. As serious as George Tiller's death. So as of this show's end, I will retire the name and the photograph and the caricature.

So did he do it on his own terms? I believe so, but I also think the execs may have influenced his decision to So as of this show's end, I will retire the name and the photograph and the caricature.

[Medusa]

23. No party to such a deal

read: he didn't take part in the negotiations. He just did what he was told to do after the deal was done. Doublespeak bullshit.

[City Lights]

12. The corporate masters have spoken.

Billo is free to spew lies; Olbermann is forced to mums the word. :-(

The truth loses again. :argh:

[Medusa]

13. And this my friends is why you can never, ever, ever

trust the corporate media. Today we have 100% proof that a deal went down. What else do they make deals on that we'll never know about? Making heroes of these guys is wrong because they'll sell out to their corporate masters every single time.

[Berry Cool]

14. What 100% proof do you see here? I think this is bullshit.

Yet all the anticorporatists swallow it. Glenn Greenwald said it, and we hate corporations, therefore it must be true? Baloney.

I normally trust Greenwald but I suspect he's talking out his ass this time. I want to hear what KO says about it. He is most certainly NOT a corporate stooge and would resign before allowing himself to become one.

[SoCalDem]

18. Keith is getting up there in years, and he has a reputation for being a bit of a "bad boy".

He lives in an expensive city, and he needs to make money. He will probably swallow hard, and stick around until his contract ends.

He cannot deliberately buck the "system", and stay in the spotlight.. They will not have it..

He could do a "Dan Rather" and go to some obscure web/digital/invisible venue, but I don;t see him doing that either.

he loves sports, but even then sports arena has been co-opted by these same moguls, so if he shits in the "nest", he'll be cut out there too.. he's in a bind, and probably knows it..

[Medusa]

22. They cut the deal in late May/first of June.

And what does Olbermann do? Go on air on June 1st and uses Dr. Tiller's murder as a cover story as to why he will no longer be mentioning O'Reilly on air. Since then he has not. That's one hell of a coincidence except it's no coincidence. He caved to corporate pressure and used a man's murder to justify it. 100% proof he is in fact a corporate stooge. They all are.

[Senator]

15. Say It Ain't So, K.O.

Just, ... http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/01/ge/permalink/c170c1a730fa7ffa32d1f127ead57854.html">Say It Ain't So.

--

[SoCalDem]

16. Not surprising.. Try to remember the last time there was a barn-burner story done about

the goings on of :

Disney Corp
GE
Viacom

or any of their subsidiaries. When I was young, the news broadcasts OFTEN had stories about (and continuing stories) big-business corruption.

They are all in a Mutually Assured Destruction compact. they all know where the bodies are buried, in each other's business dealings...many of them have worked at the others' venues.

At a certain level, there is complicity because any one of them has the power to destroy the other, so they all agree to stay out of each other's "business", and concentrate, instead on the antics of Madonna, or Brittney or the ubiquitous waterskiing squirrel.

[Shagbark Hickory]

21. Or maybe the whole entire thing was a publicity stunt planned from the get go.

I'm sure a lot of people tuned in to watch that and the ensuing response and that must have meant big bucks for air time/adverts.
Scoooby rooby roo. I'm such a good detective.

[Lorien]

24. And some people fear a return of the Fairness Doctrine. Ha!

THIS is how the MSM "polices itself"; by ensuring that voices on the Left are always quieter than those on the Right.