I just read the NY Times article about Chris and Keith being taken off election coverage. While I throw my rolled up clean socks at them sometimes too - they are not the opposite of O'Reilly. They actually do (or steal) their research.....its funny I hear so many talking points that sound like the RR Show. What do you think? DOES IT MATTER? SHOULD WE JUST TURN THE NETWORK TV OFF AND WATCH IT ALL ON C-SPAN, SHOULD WE WRITE THE SPONSORS??

SHOULD WE BE CONCERNED ABOUT THE BOUNCE IN THE GALLUP POLL THIS MORNING? ARE YOU ENERGIZED TO GET ON THE PHONE AND CALL THE BATTLEGROUND STATES? SO IF YOU'RE PISSED OFF, TAKE ACTION - GET ON THE PHONE, CALL THE BATTLEGROUND STATES (I'M IN CALIFORNIA - THERE'S PROBABLY NO CHANCE OBAMA WILL LOSE HERE) SO WE ARE CALLING NEVADA.....

LOOK FOR PHONE BANKING EVENTS IN YOUR AREA - THIS REALLY IS A CALL TO ARMS - OR A CALL TO THE PHONES. WE ONLY HAVE 60 DAYS - THE TIME IS NOW!

Biasing the news towards facts is a no-no.

Treating lies with the same weight as the truth is called "journalistic integrity".

As Randi has handily pointed out time and again, the news is dead. I don't view what Chris and Keith do as "news". They are political commentators and in my book, that is opinion and being an analyst, not a news man.

Walter Cronkite was a news man.

Then change "news" to "commentary" ... applies just as well.

You misstate the announcement. They are not being taken off of election coverage. they will no longer serve as anchors, purported independent voices who have no known personal preferences with regard to the candidates. Instead, they will continue to appear as analysts, where their respective points of view will be solicited and voiced, in addition to other analysts who have presumably differing opinions.

Isn't commentary just opinion by the observer? It sickens me that the management at MSNBC is cowering to the RNC. Olbermann is a lefty. Everyone knows it. This, all of the sudden, is a revelation to the management? Yet David Gregory can get on stage and dance with KKKarl Rove and that's OK. Scarborough licks the boots of the right-wing fringies on that god-forsaken show of his every morning, while being condescending to Mika, his counterpart on the left, and that's OK too.

The whole thing turns my stomach.

I completely agree with everything you say, although I would add that "anchoring" convention coverage is not necessarily a "news" position, and even if it is, when your are covering news live and someone lies, then reporting that someone is lying is legitimate news.

My point is that no matter if you're actually anchoring the news, or doing political commentary, the same screwed up rule applies ... news or commentary based on facts naturally is biased against the liar ... that is somehow against modern "journalistic integrity" standards.

What the real problem is goes all the way back to 1982. That's when the whole INFO-TAINMENT vehicle was rolled out.

They combined news and entertainment into one show concept and over the years the lines continued to blur until there were no lines. We as consumers have not demanded a purity in products. And now we have what we have. It will never change.

i dont wanna sound petty, but in the future please have one topic, not two..we have a thread already about keith and chris, i was going to merge this one then didnt since you also talk about the polls

dont let me discourage you AT ALL from posting and posting often, but just do it one topic at a time, please...

thanks and, oh yeah....

NEW TO THE WHOLE MESSAGE BOARD THING.....THANKS FOR THE INFO

Since you're new, I'll tell you posting in all caps is annoying, and signifies the equivalent of yelling.

We need to come back with the truth. Each one of us complaining need to go out register peple to vote. WE need to tell people everything that they have forgotten. WE need to demand in Droves that CNN cover the news we want. WE need to create a mass email and send it daily to CNN about covering the truth. WE need to boycott all republicant media outlets.... We need to slam each and everyone of our contacts with the question "ARE YOU REGISTERED TO VOTE". More voters, more power to the people. We need to do exactly what Randi said and flood the system with DEMOCRATIC VOTERS. WE need to speak to all of the IGNORANT Americans that will not register to vote because of JURY DUTY why they could stop the utter execution of the USA. WE can only do that and Obama nor Biden has voice until we stand up to them. Power to the People.

Agreed that Chris and Olbermann are just analysts, but does anyone have a clue as to why MSNBC made this decision? All I read this morning was some activities during the Conventions, but no specifics.

see the other thread on this, plenty of info there

WAPO has a bunch.

Change news to propaganda... applies even better.

IMO, the NaziCons are no better at it than the old Soviet Union, with their Pravda.

The newz can spew all it wants. The debates are coming up and Obama gave Steponallofus a tongue lashing for wasting 45 minutes. I expect a big "Shock and Awe" of the truth. Obama is going to let the newz know they are not above the law and also will go through the scrutiny this administration is going to get.