Is The Progressive Party Over at MSNBC?

By Mark Karlin

As BuzzFlash noted yesterday, we have been pointing out -- among others -- for nearly 10 years the role of the few corporations who own our mass media, particularly television, in shaping public perceptions.  At this moment, for instance, the television networks, in particular, have so aligned themselves with the for-profit healthcare sector that Americans think healthcare reform will hurt them, while agreeing with its specific details!


Yesterday, I wrote about how MSNBC put a partial muzzle on Keith Olbermann pointing out what a Jackass Bill O'Reilly is in order to ensure that FOX and Roger Ailes wouldn't attack GE's overall business, including its role in the defense industry and nuclear power plants.


The Political Carnival website wrote how Glenn Greewald had exposed one of the guest hosts for Olbermann (who has been off a bit lately) as a paid member of a corporate public relations firm, Richard Wolffe. As Greenwald observes:

Having Richard Wolffe host an MSNBC program -- or serving as an almost daily "political analyst" --  is exactly tantamount to MSNBC's just turning over an hour every night to a corporate lobbyist.  Wolffe's role in life is to advance the P.R. interests of the corporations that pay him, including corporations with substantial interests in virtually every political issue that MSNBC and Countdown cover.  Yet MSNBC is putting him on as a guest-host and "political analyst" on one of its prime-time political shows.  What makes that even more appalling is that, as Ana Marie Cox first noted, neither MSNBC nor Wolffe even disclose any of this.  

 

This is a conflict so severe that it's incurable by disclosure:  who wouldn't realize that you can't present paid corporate hacks as objective political commentators?  But the fact that they don't even bother to disclose that just serves to illustrate how non-existent is the line between corporate interests and "news reporting" in the United States.

And we're seeing more of the likes of Tom Tancredos show up on the MSNBC progressive programs, thus legitimizing the right wing fringe by giving them a forum.  These placements, we are sure, is coming out of corporate, as well as the continued retention of openly racist Pat Buchanan.


After all, the New York Times article I referenced yesterday noted that a noticeable of GE stockholders were upset that MSNBC was carrying programming that was revealing information that could endanger entrenched wealth and corporations with the truth.


Glenn Greenwald reminds us that NBC and MSNBC hired so-called neutral "military analysts" who were actually employed by defense contractors and other corporations -- and didn't disclose the inherent conflict of interest.


Greenwald also notes:

There are many reasons why our establishment press exists to do little other than serve the interests of the political and financial establishment and to mindlessly amplify government claims.  The virtual disapparance of the line between large corporate interests and journalism (as Richard Wolffe himself noted) is certainly one of the leading factors. 

UPDATE:  On Richard Wolffe's bio page at Public Strategies, Inc., the role he plays on MSNBC and NBC News is actually touted to the firm's corporate clients and potential clients:

In addition, Wolffe is an NBC political analyst. He provides political commentary on several MSNBC programs, Meet The Press, and TODAY.

They're basically telling their clients and prospective clients:  if you hire us to control and disseminate your political messaging, you'll have someone working for you -- Richard Wolffe -- who has a regular platform on MSNBC and NBC News, where he's presented as an independent "political analyst."  And this is how they describe what he does for the firm:  "Wolffe provides high-level counsel and insight to our clients on how to manage their reputations in a complex public environment."  How much more blatantly sleazy could that be?

BuzzFlash loves Rachel and Keith, and that is why we worry about what appears to be encroaching GE corporate intrusion.


BuzzFlash has always warned that our readers need to personally financially support sites such as BuzzFlash as insurance for democracy, because what may be the golden age of the brilliant Maddow and the acerbic and often eloquently derisive Oblermann may be short-lived. Already, it appears that their freedom has reached its limits.


From now on, it appears we are going to see more "corporate balance," which means the minority and fringe view will appear more in our beloved progressive television "beachhead."  This, in turn, will legitimatize kook thinking, as we have seen with the TV media coverage of the "birthers."


The parents of the corporate parent company trump the truth -- and the growing audience for progressive television programming.


Too much success for the likes of Rachel and Keith in the end are not in GE's interests.


It happened to Edward R. Murrow a half-century ago; it is likely to happen again.


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