The News

[VOguy]

From Shoptalk Magazine

Look out spinmeisters and pundits, (MSNBC and CNN.com should listen up) SpinSpotter.com is coming to the rescue.

Think the media is biased? Well, now you can do something about it.

Seattle-based SpinSpotter launched an online service at DemoFall on Tuesday that lets readers judge whether articles on the Internet are objective and accurate or not.

"People no longer trust the media," Todd Herman, founder and chief product officer of SpinSpotter, said during a presentation. About 66 percent of people consider the press "one-sided" while only 9 percent of journalists are concerned with the media's credibility, according to a Pew Research Center study.

A SpinSpotter toolbar, called Spinoculars, displays any edits that have been suggested on a news article or blog item on the Web. Readers can annotate headlines and text, comment on and rate other reader's spin ratings of the item and e-mail their work to others.(more)

There's a lot of other media news to cover in today's edition of ShopTalk (relatively spin-free)...at the top of ShopTalk this morning is more on MSNBC's decision to remove Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews from anchoring political night coverage:


Fall From Grace

Hard Fall: What Happened to NBC?
From Felix Gillette at the NY Observer:

On Tuesday afternoon, Phil Griffin, the president of cable-news network MSNBC, had had enough of the interviews and was getting angry.

Roughly 48 hours earlier, Mr. Griffin had announced his decision to remove Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews from anchoring big political nights for his network. Henceforth, according to Mr. Griffin's dictum, NBC News' chief White House correspondent, David Gregory, would handle the news duties for MSNBC. Mr. Matthews and Mr. Olbermann would shift into purely revved-up pundit mode.

This morning, Mr. Griffin was batting back a report from the New York Post that Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of NBC's parent company General Electric, had facilitated the change after "a lot, maybe thousands" of shareholders had called up to complain about Mr. Olbermann's performance in the anchor chair during the Democratic and Republican national conventions.

"This makes me so mad, because it's so untrue," Mr. Griffin said. "Somebody is spreading rumors. It's wrong. It's getting into the echo chamber."

On any other day, the dispute could be chalked up to the long-running feud between a newspaper owned by News Corp. and the cable-news network that airs Countdown With Keith Olbermann.

But Mr. Griffin's decision, coming as it did on the heels of criticism from his sister-brothers over at the main news division of NBC and from the floor of the Republican National Convention, has taken on more importance than some internecine media squabble. MSNBC has become the poster child of the chastened media, now (finally!) ready to treat the McCain campaign fairly, and to pay its obeisances to the "straight" journalists of NBC (Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw), whose bosses themselves won't sacrifice prime time to put them on the air wall-to-wall during events as uninspiring as the conventions.

So how did it happen, according to Phil Griffin?

The "beauty of my job," he said, was that nobody from GE had ever big-footed his domain. He said he dealt purely with NBC Universal's president and CEO, Jeff Zucker, and NBC News' president, Steve Capus. He had come to this decision, he said, after consulting first with Mr. Olbermann and later with Mr. Matthews.


MSNBC

When MSNBC announced the other day that Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews were being replaced as co-anchors of the cable network's nightly political broadcast, the news was widely taken as evidence that the grownups at the parent network are looking to salvage NBC News' reputation for balance. And who can doubt that Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams--who've had to squirm before the likes of Jon Stewart, pretending to be something other than appalled! by the nightly goings-on at MSNBC--had a major hand in this move?

Indeed, during the conventions, what heretofore had merely been an embarrassment on MSNBC blossomed into full-blown travesty. While both Olbermann and Matthews had long since revealed themselves on their own shows as lapdogs for Obama, viewers were now treated to the spectacle of the two of them viciously snapping at one another; and, in Olbermann's case, at just about anyone else with what he took to be an errant take on the campaign or anything else.

He sneered "get a shovel" at Joe Scarborough, the former GOP congressman who hosts MSNBC's morning show, when Scarborough had the temerity to say a few kind words about McCain; was overheard hustling Republican strategist Mike Murphy off the air with a sharp "Let's wrap him up"; and piously apologized to viewers when the network aired a routine GOP convention video that included a tribute to the victims of 9/11.

[Project]

Damn those liberals for ruining our media!

[Mcnowhere]

This was a veiled attempt to muzzle these guys. Now it frees up Mathews and Olbermann to have atter in full pundit mode, without the encumbrance of having to try to remain neutral as hosts. If you can't control them, let them loose. They bring in the ratings for MSNBC.

[VOguy]

Peacock problem
MSNBC is in Barack's corner, which may cause an electoral backfire for the Democrats
From Steven Stark at the Boston Phoenix - September 11, 2008

When Campaign 2008 began, few would have predicted that distrust of the mainstream media — especially NBC — might end up as one of the defining issues of the election. But it seems that the Peacock Network has unwisely painted itself into a corner, and that could actually hurt Barack Obama.

A recent Rasmussen Report poll shows that about half the country thinks the press is out to get Sarah Palin, with a full quarter saying this makes it likelier they'll vote Republican. If that trend continues, it could have huge consequences.

Keith Olbermann and MSNBC are commonly recognized as the leaders of the pro–Barack Obama movement in the mainstream media (through no fault of Obama's, by the way). It seems odd that a cable TV host, on a network with a relatively small audience, could help swing an election. And yes, NBC moved this week to rein him in, taking Olbermann and Chris Matthews off their hosting duties for live political events, including Election Night and the debates. And yes again, Olbermann's self-declared enemy, Fox News, is often every bit as partisan as he is.

But in the age of YouTube and the Internet, even a cable host can have a large, instant impact, magnified by his critics. And what Olbermann and MSNBC are still doing may be helping the Republicans and many of the old supporters of Hillary Clinton unite in a common cause against an old target of populism: the press.

[Project]

did anyone actually think these guy were 'reporters'?

[Mcnowhere]

And what Olbermann and MSNBC are still doing may be helping the Republicans and many of the old supporters of Hillary Clinton unite in a common cause against an old target of populism: the press.

I disagree. These guys have been tame compared to the talking heads on Fox News. Fox didn't have much of an impact until Miss Sarah came along to shake up the show. Just saying...

[VOguy]

did anyone actually think these guy were 'reporters'?

I've always maintained that the best reporters are the ones where you can study their pieces and not know what their personal political preferences are. Nowadays you not only can identify the their preferences, but know what they will be by the network. It seems that in the quest to give "their opinion", they have crossed journalistic bounds, and sacrificed their souls.

But, I blame the public. It seems that people don't want unbiased news. They would rather hear someone articulate "their views" on the radio/TV so they can nod and say, "see, I'm correct." As long as the sheep follow the shepherds, the money comes in for the network.

Been there, done that, but I'll be gone.