Their does appear to be a ridiculous amount of prostrating going on around here over the fact that MSNBC dropped Olbermann and Matthews from anchoring election coverage (I guess that means the 3 POTUS, 1 VPOTUS debates and Election Night)
For the moment, I am more inclined to address the more obvious issue that seems to be pushed aside over all this huffing and puffing over MSNBC bouncing Olbermann and Matthews and ask the most obvious question over the convention coverage:
Does the MSNBC FAMILY have to be the Lohans:
Production Mismanagement
MSNBC's Democratic Convention Coverage SUCKED ( I admit that I didn't watch the Republican War Criminal Convention at all, so I don't really know what went on with that one.) The coverage lacked virtually ANY cohesion whatsoever. They failed to provide ANY coverage of many speeches (as far as I know) including 2 very well blogged about speeches by Brian Schweitzer and Dennis Kucinich They seemed to continuously toss from one uninspired panel to an uninspired 'reporter' to an uninspired commentator to another uninspired panel with the very rare occasional coverage of the Convention itself.
With a H/T to Noisy Democrat, I am including John Kerry's Speech which they totally big footed with their nattering about how the Democrats weren't being aggressive enough
Editorial Mismanagement
I don't know how many times I had to hear about "Can Obama get Hillary Voters", but I am sure that they talked about that more than I even saw, because I couldn't stand to watch it, and had to change the channel (PBS, CSPAN) Rather than Editorializing on anything actually being put forward at the convention (like, You know, the speeches!) it seemed to be continuous coverage of the most insignificant of minutia. Seriously, How many of us changed the channel to CSPAN or PBS? I can all but guarantee You that a large portion of the "Core" MSNBC viewership changed over to CSPAN and PBS to get actual coverage of the Convention.
Olbermann and Matthews Responsibilities
I don't know how much actual responsibility they had in providing either coherent coverage or smooth editorial supplementation -- but, in all honesty, if they had ANY role in this -- they failed miserably. Leaving aside what may well be larger management issues, they are at least responsible for their own on camera behavior -- AND that sucked too. Sorry, I really like KO, but simply, he wasn't very good over the Democratic Coverage. While we all enjoyed the "get a shovel Joe" episode, it would have been far better had he rather directly confronted him with the contrary evidence rather than prefacing it with this sarcastic comment -- He undermined himself before he even began.
As Jon Stewart pointed out - It seemed that the anchors (Specifically Matthews and Olbermann) were vying as much as anything, over who held the conch. It came off as incoherent and unprofessional. Like it or not, both Matthews and Olbermann hold some responsibility for their own failures.
Besides Matthews and Olbermann, there are 2 other personalities that I would like to comment on.
Tom BROKAW SUCKS!!!
I can NOT stand this man. I don't know whether it is because he himself is 68 and suffers from a ridiculously inflated ego and sense of self worth and ability that makes him so preferential to John McSame (72), but I suspect that he suffers from the exact issues that plague McSame -- in that he has absolutely NO CAPACITY for complex thought. Leave alone his mummbly mouthed marble filled drawwwwwwwwwwlllll -- it is possible that I could get past that IF he ever commented on ANYTHING of ANY value beyond the regurgitation of the simplest conventional wisdom talking points. As much as I dislike Right Wing Republican Hacks, Tom Brokaw is even worse because he hasn't a shred of intellectual curiousity or honesty. If NBC/MSNBC was going to fire ANYONE, I truly wish that it had been him. Simply, I can NOT stand even the slimmest moment of him, and the moment he comes on, I HAVE to change the channel.
David Gregory DOESN'T SUCK
I admit that I well know where the animosity against David Gregory is coming from. He gets in the habit of regurgitating Right Wing Rethuglican talking points as 'fact' and I think he is far too embedded in the Washington Culture (That John McCain sure does make some gooooood barbecue!) But, I don think he has at least the capacity to be a good and balanced reporter and editorial manager. During his time as NBC's chief White House Correspondent, he as much as ANY major media reporter took the White House to task a lot more than many others:
So, instead of contacting MSNBC complaining to them for doing something about the Convention Coverage that I think most of us agree SUCKED! and whining about them bouncing Olbermann and Matthews, who failed to live up to their own journalistic responsibilities (despite Your or My fondness for KO) and complaining to them about selection David Gregory -- maybe if You contact them and say that "David Gregory at one time was a pretty good White House Correspondent, I hope that he brings that same honesty and vitality and gets out of the habit of simply repeating talking points in his new role"