“Keith Olbermann’s announcement tonight, the very same week that the government blessed the Comcast-NBC merger, raises serious concern for anyone who cares about free speech. Comcast proved expert in shaking down the government to approve its merger. Comcast’s shakedown of NBC has just begun.”There were no rumors, no advance warnings, no fanfare. Countdown with Keith Olbermann aired last night for the last time. Here is the video:
According to an MSNBC spokesperson, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell will replace Countdown at 8 p.m., and The Ed Show will fill the 10 PM time slot. The spokesperson denied any connection to the recent acquisition of NBC by Comcast. Bullshit, I say. For background, here is a post I wrote over a year ago::
Act 1: Last August, Comcast removed MSNBC from its Digital Starter Package and moved it to one of its premium offerings. Of course, Fox News remained in the basic Starter Package because Comcast is a conservative media conglomerate ... According to beachwriter429 at Daily Kos:
What this means is that one now has to pay an additional $17 per month ($204 per year) to view anything progressive enough to even remotely balance out FNC's right wing extremism (…) The neighbor who alerted me to the situation is an attorney, and he thinks this appears to be to be an FCC/Fairness Doctrine violation.Act 2: Some Daily Kos readers in the Jacksonville area ganged up on Comcast with a letter writing campaign. In response, Comcast restored MSNBC to all customers and sent this reply (excerpt):
Thank you for the email. First and foremost, I wanted to let you know that today we restored access to MSNBC for all of our digital cable customers in the Jacksonville, Florida area (…) Please know that this week's disruption was not at all targeted at MSNBC - it was due to some changes to our digital channel security system (…) This issue was isolated to the Jacksonville area, and we have no reason to believe that Comcast customers in any other areas experienced any interruptions of MSNBC.Except for the fact that Comcast customers in the suburban Philadelphia area still paying extra for MSNBC (and how many other markets that we don’t know about). Comcast is lying.
Act 3: Advance the calendar to November 4, 2009. In the Pittsburgh area, MSNBC has been replaced by the Golf Channel. When an irate Comcast subscriber called to complain, this is what Comcast said:A year later, the deal is done, which is why I am willing to wager that Keith Olbermann is the first casualty. And the worst is on the way:
I was told that at my level of service, basic cable, it is no longer available. No way can I afford to upgrade my service, (and nor would I....it is Comcast after all) so no more MSNBC for me (…) The agent on the phone also told me that Comcast had nothing to do with this decision, but that because MSNBC is a national cable network, it was no longer available in a non digital format. Oddly enough, CNN and Fox are still in the same place.Act 4: If you can’t beat them, buy them out:
General Electric and the cable giant Comcast have moved closer to a deal giving control of NBC Universal to Comcast (…) After a series of meetings last week, the two companies reached a tentative agreement on Friday over the main points of a deal …Does this mean bye, bye to Keith Olbermann? Bye, bye to Rachel Maddow? Bye, bye to liberal media? Sorry folks, but this wave of media consolidations spells b-a-d * n-e-w-s ! Once MSNBC is gone, that leaves only us, the netroots community, to keep the liberal flame from flickering out.
Letting one company control the pipes and the content that flows over those pipes is a formula for abuse. Comcast-NBC could soon hike rates, take away your favorite channels, or even stop you from watching your favorite shows online. Comcast has already targeted Netflix and other companies that compete with its video and Internet offerings. This warning comes from Josh Silver of FreePress.net:
Today's deal, combined with the FCC's recent loophole-ridden, fake "Net Neutrality" rule, sets the stage for Comcast to turn the Internet into something that looks like cable TV.
You might be saying, "I'm not a Comcast customer, so I'm not worried." But Comcast will jack up the prices that other cable and online distributors pay for NBC content, and you'll pay higher prices -- we promise.
You might be saying, "I can just get a new Internet provider if I don't like it." But there's almost no broadband competition. And as TV, radio, phone and other services increasingly become Internet-based, cable will be the only connection that's fast enough to deliver high-quality media and services to most Americans.
You might be saying, "Why should I care about a business deal between two giant companies?" But this merger is certain to be the first domino to fall in a series of mega-media mergers. The FCC's blessing of Comcast-NBC will embolden companies like AT&T or Verizon to try to gobble up content providers like Disney and CBS, creating a new era of media consolidation where even fewer companies control the content you watch and all the ways you watch it.The Comcast-NBC merger is a catastrophe for the public and for the future of media, technology and democracy. It's time to get mad … and time to get involved.
It's a weird world we live in when Keith Olbermann loses his job and Glenn Beck ("We should shoot them (liberals) in the head." doesn't.
ReplyDeleteI'm not one to idolize teevee pundits and personalities, and I wasn't a big fan of Keith's, but it seems stupid to me that he was taken off the air because of issues with his management and not because of his viewer base.
I wonder what their reactions will be and where he will go next.
He has a history of dust-ups with his bosses.
Oh well, good night and good luck, Keith.
Wow. This is sad, sad shit.
ReplyDeleteI don't know the cause of this breakup, but it sure sounds like continuing problems between KO and management could be at the heart of it. Anyhow, what remains to be seen is whether there's a chilling effect on other MSNBC liberal commentators' ways of opining and reporting. I doubt that there will be, but we'll see. I'm hoping that KO's leaving isn't the start of a shutdown of the network as a liberal antidote to FOX.
ReplyDeleteRachel Maddow has grown into the role of investigative journalist, and is the one doing the most serious reporting on the network.
O'Donnell is worthwhile because he knows a great deal about how government actually works and is seldom if ever caught churning out wishful thoughts and ideology -- he seems to enjoy bringing naive young hotheads onto the program and schooling them with a dose of Clintonesque "Realpolitik," which is fine.
"Ed" I like but don't watch because I can't stand listening to his guests -- a lot of them come across, I find, as blowhards who insistently talk over one another and never waver from some pre-established line of argumentation. To me, watching that is like inviting a couple of partisan hacks into my home for an hour to scream at one another. I learn nothing from it. But I guess he fills a niche for that kind of combative style.
Chris Matthews is always fun -- he's outspoken and civil in his excited way, and clearly has a lot of integrity and genuine passion for the country. Occasionally he makes some silly remark that gets him chuckled at for a while, but that's the risk you take, I suppose, when you're on TV almost every day. I like the man, and he manages to get along even with people he clearly thinks are wrongheaded, but without backpedaling on his own views. That's not easy to do, and I give him a lot of credit for it.
Dylan Ratigan I don't know anything about, but I hear he's well liked.
Know what they could use on MSNBC? Something with more international reach; they already have enough talking-head-style shows, even if they're good ones -- PBS used to do a show and maybe still does on various worldwide issues. Seems to me that MSNBC's audience is smart enough to go for something like that -- they could stand to cut the ridiculous, lurid prison-based programming that seems to envelop the news & opinion content. All it does is fuel America's obsession with crime and criminals. What's it doing on a liberal network at all? In principle, at least, "libs" recognize that they really should know a thing or two about all them-there other countries and the funny-talkin' furreners that lives in 'em, so go for it!
All,
ReplyDeleteDo any readers have experience with a satellite TV service such as DirectTV? Reason why I ask: In April, I am moving to a new area where only Comcast and DirectTV are available. I am hoping to avoid Comcast at all cost, hence the DirectTV option. Questions: Any problems with reception in stormy weather (sunspot cycles)? Service? Picture quality? Are there compelling advantages or conveniences to DirectTV (besides avoiding Comcast)?
The worst events seem to happen slowly, like a gentle swirl on the surface as things begin to go down the toilet. We'll watch as one by one liberal and progressive voices and networks are bought up, co-opted, watered down, and eliminated, and end up with everything coming through a Chamber of Commerce filter... newspapers, mags, television networks, internet sites...
ReplyDeleteNot a good day for America, and without people like Olbermann, there will be a lot more of them.
I am disturbed at the loss of Olbermann's voice and hope that it is temporary,certainly some other network will take advantage of the opportunity to acquire Olbermann and his already significant audience. However, I'm even more disturbed by the larger problem that Octo addresses that this merger of Comcast and NBC will limit communications choices and drive up costs to consumers. Only one member of the FCC, Commissioner Michael Copps dissented from the decision to allow the merger and cited as his concern that the merger is against the public interest. I fear that squatio's comment accurately reflects what the future may be bring.
ReplyDeleteOcto,I have DirectTV and I am reasonably satisfied with the service. On occasion when there is an exceptionally heavy rain, I lose a signal briefly, but restoration takes place fairly soon without any action on my part. No problems with outages due to sunspots. When it snows, you'll need to knock the snow off the dish so I advise having a ground installation rather than a rooftop.If you do go with rooftop, invest in a snow cover for the dish. The picture quality is excellent. Technical assistance is available 24 hours a day. The basic package includes a lot of networks including MSNBC. I've ad television service via DirectTV for six years and I've been very satisfied.
I detest Comcast with a passion but I'm not a fan of Olbermann's either. I think this has been in the works for a long time and that he's just as responsible for his own demise as anyone else. But I also think everything else you say is valid and certainly a matter of serious concern.
ReplyDeletePS: KO won't be on another network for at least two years. This from CNN:
ReplyDelete"Olbermann signed a four-year extension on his contract in 2008, Carter said, which will prevent him from appearing on television. He can still do radio and online appearances, he added."
His 20087 contract was for $30 M.
PSS: I thought this was an excellent article.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-01-21/keith-olbermann-quits-msnbcs-countdown/
As Mark Karlin says in this post, If You Don't Think Olbermann Was Fired Because of Comcast, I Have an Igloo in the Mojave Desert to Sell You:
ReplyDeleteComcast is a right-leaning, big media entertainment corporation that is about to control content, television, telephone and Internet service, all through one giant portal. Its interests are in dictating what consumers pay, see and hear by owning the delivery system and what it delivers.
Its acquisition of NBC Universal will accelerate an already-monopolized big media presence on television to include content control that extends even to the Internet.
Anybody who thinks that a company that is the epitome of Pac-Man corporate growth is going to tolerate liberal programming on MSNBC that is critical of corporate governance - well, you're floating down the river of "de-Nile."
When Olbermann was suspended for a couple of personal political donations, even though it is hardly an uncommon practice among millionaire broadcasters -especially on FOX - there was a lot of Internet chatter about the role of Philip Anschutz, a billionaire Christian financier of fundamentalist causes, who is allegedly a big shareholder of Comcast.
But whether or not Anschutz is a big shareholder, his Anschutz Entertainment Group (and other large holdings) could be considered, like Comcast, a kindred spirit to the Koch brothers brand of tilting America to the right [my bold].
I've had DirecTV for about 15 years. I dumped Cable because ATT's utter incompetence (they're still called the worst ever) and went to satellite and yes, I do prefer it to cable. For a while I did have Comcast and DirecTV simultaneously and the satellite images are all digital and better than the cable standard definition (NTSC)ones, although the HD pictures are about the same. DTV has more HD, I believe.
ReplyDeleteYou may have problems during those afternoon Summer storms, but I don't consider it a big deal. Outages are usually brief and it's a small price to pay for not having to support evil.
All,
ReplyDeleteForgot to add a note about KO -- one thing I appreciate about him is that his Murrow-like style of broadcasting seems to flow from a good sense of humor; he's accused by the Right of being a sanctimonious ideologue, but I think what they're missing is exactly the sense of humor that stems from humility in the face of big, complex events. How many conservative talkers have any sense of humor at all, unless one means by that only a propensity for cynical leering and mean-spirited mockery? Some of them come across as dour ideologues, so of course "Worst Persons in the World" is something they're prone to take literally rather than as the joke it's clearly meant to be. If they did it, they wouldn't be joking: they would be "informing" you who you're to consider the enemies of all things good and holy.
"How many conservative talkers have any sense of humor at all, unless one means by that only a propensity for cynical leering and mean-spirited mockery?"
ReplyDeleteWell said. I keep remembering a certain ideologue blogging that I was calling for the ritual beheading of Limbaugh after I wrote that heads should roll at Newscorp.
Some of the humorlessness may be deliberate, but on the whole, there are no funny fascists.
Keith made his own decision in the face of corporate control of what we can see on our TV's.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many did not make their own decisions, but were the targets of corporate controlled communications. That's the killer of free speech.
"corporate controlled communications. That's the killer of free speech. "
ReplyDeleteAmen to that. Still, wasn't he making 30 mil a year? I suspect it will be a soft landing.
Captain and Sheria,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback on DTV. No way in hell will Comcast get even a penny out of me.
Tnlib,
Admittedly, KO was undoubtedly shrill and abrasive with management but still ... he was our spokesperson, a true Original, and I will miss him.
I had to gulp when I lost the satellite signal halfway through the SOTU speech, but it was a wicked storm.
ReplyDelete