Remember this?
And Fox's reaction? Per CBS News.
Bill Shine, Fox News senior vice president of programming, told the TVNewser Web site that Beck had "expressed a personal opinion which represented his own views, not those of the Fox News Channel. And as with all commentators in the cable news arena, he is given the freedom to express his opinions."
More after the fold...
You follow me so far? Glen Beck goes on television and calls the President of the United States a racist. Naturally, people call him out for his bullshit and Fox News washes their hand of the situation, copping out by saying that "he is given the freedom to express his opinions".
But then I got up this morning and saw this.
For years Keith Olbermann of MSNBC had savaged his prime-time nemesis Bill O’Reilly of the Fox News Channel and accused Fox of journalistic malpractice almost nightly. Mr. O’Reilly in turn criticized Mr. Olbermann’s bosses and led an exceptional campaign against General Electric, the parent company of MSNBC.
It was perhaps the fiercest media feud of the decade and by this year, their bosses had had enough. But it took a fellow television personality with a neutral perspective to help bring it to at least a temporary end.
At an off-the-record summit meeting for chief executives sponsored by Microsoft in mid-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 networks and the increasingly personal nature of the barbs. Days later, even though the feud had increased the audience of both programs, their lieutenants arranged a cease-fire, according to four people who work at the companies and have direct knowledge of the deal.
In early June, the combat stopped, and MSNBC and Fox, 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 reconciliation — 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.
The article expounds on the situation, stating that the situation hasn't been good for either parent company. It details some of the more contentious situations between Bill O' Reilly and Keith Olberman, including K. O. taking O'Reilly to task over the murder of Dr. Tiller, and O'Reilly rant about some secret information tying G. E. to Iran.
Over time, G.E. and the News Corporation concluded that the fighting "wasn’t good for either parent," said an NBC employee with direct knowledge of the situation. But the session hosted by Mr. Rose provided an opportunity for a reconciliation, sealed with a handshake between Mr. Immelt and Mr. Murdoch.
So, according to this article, both companies claim to have killed the Olbermann-O'Reilly feud. I don't watch either show, so I'll defer to the wisdom of the crowd to substantiate whether or not that it truly the case.
Whether its true or not is beside the point, however. What is important is the utter hypocrisy of Fox News in this situation. After asserting that they have no control over the punditry of Glen Beck, who called the President of his country a racist, they then claim to have the ability to reign in Glen Beck's brother in bullshit, Bill O'Reilly.
Why? The answer is obvious. The feud between O'Reilly and Olbermann isn't good for Fox News. They can obviously dish it out, but they can't take it. They have a glass jaw so to speak. With K. O. pointing out the peccadilloes of the former host of Inside Edition, O'Reilly's meager credibility falters, while K. O. becomes a more important force in the media world.
And while what Glen Beck says is obviously foolish to those of us with a negligible mental capacity, we are not his target audience. And they lap it up like dogs in the desert.
Updated Per PhillyGal in the comments.
Per Glenn Greenwald.
Most notably, the deal wasn't engineered because of a perception that it was hurting either Olbermann or O'Reilly's show, or even that it was hurting MSNBC. To the contrary, as Olbermann himself has acknowledged, his battles with O'Reilly have substantially boosted his ratings. The agreement of the corporate CEOs to cease criticizing each other was motivated by the belief that such criticism was hurting the unrelated corporate interests of GE and News Corp
The link.
This all brings up another important issue as to whether it would be right for a company to silence its talent for business purposes. It certainly hurts your journalistic integrity when you cherry pick the type of commentary you will or won't support based on your company's bottom line.
However, this has been the entire business model of Fox News, and they seemingly have traded their journalistic soul for profit. In doing so, they have damaged journalism and have led to a new generation of Americans seeking their news via alternative sources.
Did GE silence K. O.? Olbermann claims to be party to no agreement. Let's wait and see what happens Monday night.
