According to the New York Times, the corporate honchos at GE recently instructed MSNBC generally and Olbermann specifically to stop attacking Bill O'Reilly and Fox News. It seems that O'Reilly's counterattacks on GE and its CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, had an effect (perhaps the intended effect), and pushed the parent company to bring the hammer down on MSNBC.
At an off-the-record summit meeting for chief executives sponsored by Microsoft in May, the PBS interviewer Charlie Rose asked Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of G.E., and his counterpart at the News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch, about the feud.
Both moguls expressed regret over the venomous culture between the two networks. Then — even though the feud had increased the viewing audience of both programs — they instructed lieutenants to arrange a cease-fire, according to three people who work at the companies and have direct knowledge of the deal.
In early June, the combat stopped, and the anchors for the most part found other targets for their verbal missiles (Hello, CNN).
"It was time to grow up," a senior employee of one of the companies said.
The rapprochement — not acknowledged by the parties until now — showcased how a personal and commercial battle between two men could create real consequences for their parent corporations. A G.E. shareholders’ meeting, for instance, was overrun by critics of MSNBC (and one of Mr. O’Reilly’s producers) last April.
"We all recognize that a certain level of civility needed to be introduced into the public discussion," Gary Sheffer, a spokesman for G.E., said this week. "We’re happy that has happened."
The parent companies declined to comment directly on the details of the cease-fire, which was spearheaded by Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal, and Gary Ginsberg, an executive vice president who oversees corporate affairs at the News Corporation.
The ill effects of corporate control over news divisions is an old story, of course. But this is a particularly nasty example (if true). For years, starting in the mid-1990's, Fox News operated as the media arm of the Republican party, but no one with any serious media megaphone would acknowledge that fact. Then, in or around 2005 or 2006, Olbermann made it his business to call out Fox and O'Reilly for what they were, on TV. Fox News and O'Reilly hit back, of course, but Olbermann didn't care, and kept firing. And it made a difference. Olbermann's show further undermined Fox News as a legitimate news source.
But now, according to the New York Times, Olbermann's been silenced. Perhaps the story is not true, and Olbermann will post something here soon disavowing it. But, if it is true, it stinks.