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Why we play this stuff, I have no idea. But Chapman has since apologized saying he is ashamed for offending anyone.Watch out, celebrities on TMZ.com and MSNBC producers. Hell hath no fury like an MSNBC woman dragged into covering tabloid chaff.
Word is, a growing number of GOP lawmakers have become mysteriously “unavailable” when asked to appear on MSNBC. Numerous meetings have taken place in both the House and the Senate side regarding the interview and “what to do about it,” Hill sources report.
One MSNBC producer told a Hill staffer, as relayed to us: “We can’t even get any republican senators!” While other offices immediately declared “absolutely not” when they heard the host was Shuster.
“There’s no difference because sending your boss over to David Shuster or the Democratic National Committee at this point,” sniffs one high-placed House source.
Keith Olbermann, whose biting, pull-no-punches commentaries on MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” have been known to spike the blood pressure of their targets—ask Fox News’ belligerent right-winger Bill O’Reilly—will moderate the AFL-CIO Presidential Candidates Forum in Chicago on Aug. 7.The debate will consist of some questions posed by AFL-CIO members in an online contest and a number of questions from Olbermann himself.
A year and a half ago MSNBC could have probably worked Olbermann in to moderate a debate without drawing too much fire. But not now. Not after Olbermann has firmly placed himself on the left side of the political spectrum with numerous Special Commnets/attacks at the Republican administration, and one aimed at the Democratic Congress for not having a spine to stand up to Bush on the Iraq War, I don’t see how anyone can watch Olbermann moderate a debate without thinking of his biases. MSNBC is taking a big risk here.
More than a decade after the Internet went mainstream, the world's richest information source hasn't necessarily made its users any more informed. A new study from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press shows that Americans, on average, are less able to correctly answer questions about current events than they were in 1989.While it’s surprising to us that Americans can’t name Vice President Dick Cheney as readily as people used to know Vice President Dan Quayle, in Americans defense we’re more aware of political facts like “Who is the Speaker of the House?” and “Is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court conservative, moderate or liberal?”
Recruiting from the blogosphere is not without its risks--for both sides. The acquisition of blogs by big media companies can alienate the very readers they're looking to pull in. Bloggers who join the mainstream press trade freedom for a steady paycheck but could get swallowed up by the larger media brand.While we would’ve been interesting to see how Congdon could’ve developed as a web-type commentator vloggette, Ana Maria Cox probably got off the Wonkette bus just in time. She’d done all she could with her make-your-momma blush jokes and was ready for the big time.
Wonkette founder Ana Marie Cox and ex-Rocketboom anchor Amanda Congdon are good examples. Now that they're at Time.com and ABC.com, respectively, neither enjoys the same high profile as during her original blogging gig. It's hard to shake the impression that the traditional media banners for which they now work have blunted their insurgent charm.
Mike Huckabee on GOP "rock stars," 2012, health care reform and more.
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