On Keith Olbermann's suspension: Don't cover the candidates you contribute to

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2010/11/on-keith-olbermanns-suspension-you-shouldnt-cover-the-candidates-you-contributes-to.html

by Patrick Goldstein

I heard the news about Keith Olbermann getting suspended from MSNBC for 
contributing to three Democratic candidates as I was driving back from 
lunch with the Israeli TV newsman Shlomi Eldar, who's made a new 
documentary called "Precious Life." I'll have more to say about "Precious 
Life" next week, but at one point during our interview, Eldar made a 
compelling point about the 2008-09 Israeli military blockade of Gaza. He's 
a big critic of the Israeli military for not doing more to ensure the 
safety of Palestinian civilians, many of whom were killed in Israeli 
bombing raids. When fellow Israelis said to him, "So what? Hamas was 
shooting off hundreds of rockets, often killing our civilians," Eldar's 
answer was always the same: We don't have to be like them.

I think the same logic applies in the case of MSNBC suspending Olbermann. 
His defenders, sounding an awful lot like Eldar's Israeli critics, point 
out that Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Neil Cavuto have contributed to 
Republicans in the past. And of course Fox News' parent company, Rupert 
Murdoch's News Corp., recently gave $1 million each to a pair of 
organizations trying to defeat Democratic candidates during the midterm 
elections.

So why should MSNBC hold Olbermann to such a high standard, especially 
when he's clearly a commentator, not a newsman? Because MSNBC doesn't have 
to be like them -- them being Fox News. If liberals want to brand Fox News 
as a propaganda wing of the Republican Party, which it surely looks like 
90% of the time, then they need to cling to some moral high ground, 
starting with not opening themselves up for charges, as Olbermann has, 
that they are doing the same thing themselves.

As Politico, which broke the story, reported Friday, Olbermann gave 
$2,400, the maximum legal donation, to Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva on Oct. 
28, the same day Grijalva appeared as a guest on Olbermann's "Countdown" 
show. There's no way that should happen, for the very reasons stated in 
NBC's rules against employees contributing to political campaigns--it's a 
breach of journalistic independence to contribute to the candidates that 
you're covering.

Not objectivity, since no one is arguing that Olbermann is objective, but 
independence. How can we, the viewers, possibly expect Olbermann to ask a 
candidate the toughest possible questions if he's giving him money at the 
same time? Or even worse, it could be perceived as pay-to-play: I give you 
money, you appear on my show. The same goes for Fox News, which now has a 
host of leading 2012 GOP presidential hopefuls all serving as paid on-air 
contributors. When I see them being interviewed by Fox newsmen, that 
exchange looks a lot more like media back-scratching and self-promotion 
than journalism.

The Olbermann mess simply highlights the dilemma MSNBC faces as it plays 
second fiddle to the Fox News juggernaut. If it wants to be a liberal 
advocacy network, fine, then it can reinstate Olbermann and start shaping 
the news to benefit liberal causes, the way Fox does on the right. But if 
it wants to be taken seriously as a real news network, then it should make 
Olbermann serve a suspension, make sure its other anchors understand the 
rulebook and, most important, say loud and clear: Unlike our competition, 
when we say we practice independent journalism, we really mean it.

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