[StBernard] Well, it's about time

Westley Annis Westley at da-parish.com
Thu Sep 11 08:55:20 EDT 2008


Westley,

I thought you might find the below article somewhat interesting. Looks like
some network executives are finally realizing what most Americans have known
for years. Nice to see some of them finally waking up and getting the
message - by lower ratings!

John Scurich



MSNBC reassigns liberal-biased 'reporters'
Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 9/10/2008 6:00:00 AM
Election 2008 White House

A conservative media analyst says the decision by MSNBC to drop Keith
Olbermann and Chris Matthews as co-anchors of its political night coverage
is an effort to regain some of the credibility that the network lost when
the liberal bias of the two hosts was challenged on the air by their
colleagues.



Veteran reporter David Gregory will now anchor MSNBC's coverage of the
presidential and vice presidential debates, along with election night.
Olbermann and Matthews will remain as commentators on the cable news
network's coverage. During the Republican and Democratic conventions,
Olbermann, Matthews, and MSNBC pundits engaged in a series of spats.

Bob Knight, director of the Culture and Media Institute, believes MSNBC did
not make the move sooner because it had risen in the ratings.

"There is a segment of the population out there that likes to hear Keith
Olbermann rant against any conservative, but you can only do that so much
and still have credibility," Knight contends. "Over the last couple of
weeks, obviously Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann unleashed so much venom
toward Sarah Palin and other Republicans that they felt that the reputation
of the network was at stake, so they finally made the move."

Robert Knight
According to Knight, it is yet another reminder that the major television
networks are suffering from liberal bias.

"It's not just MSNBC. There've been two revealing polls in recent days. One
of them was of uncommitted voters, and 50 percent of them believe that the
media were trying to elect Barack Obama - they saw that much bias," Knight
adds. "And then another poll that just came out said that a large number of
people thought the media were being very unfair to Sarah Palin. And then
when you have US Weekly losing 10,000 subscribers [who were] furious at how
they treated her on their cover, you can see the public rising up and saying
'enough is enough.'"


Knight says it hurts a network's credibility any time the objectivity of an
anchor is being questioned on the air by his own colleagues, as was the case
with MSNBC. He recommends that if the networks really wanted to stop their
declining ratings, they would employ more conservative commentators because
they "speak more to the heart of America."

It appears more and more Americans are trusting the mainstream media less
and less.




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