Keith Olbermann announced a short time ago on Twitter that he’ll be doing a Special Comment tomorrow on Ted Koppel’s Washington Post Op Ed. This should prove entertaining…
FYI Special Comment tomorrow night: Koppel, False Equivalence, and his part in the real “death of news”
What’s Hot:
Keith Olbermann returns to Countdown- Olbermann returned from his suspension but not before issuing a personal statement on his suspension which both thanked his supporters but also threw a few darts at MSNBC, Joe Scarborough, and NBC’s policies. When it came time for Olbermann to go on the air and address the suspension, naturally the darts were missing.
Rachel Maddow Interviews Jon Stewart – Thursday Maddow had Jon Stewart on for the full hour and it was a lively interesting discussion with both sides pressing their issues and neither really backing down. Nothing was settled but for me personally I did get a better understanding of where Stewart is coming from.
Lou Dobbs joins FBN – Dobbs ended speculation that he’d get into politics by signing a deal with FBN to host a program in early 2011.
Ted Koppel vs. Everyone in national TV News and Cable News – Ted Koppel penned an Op Ed in the Washington Post which ruffled the feathers of quite a few people.
Mario Cuomo vs. Eliot Spitzer – In an article on Larry King in the LA Times, it was revealed that King wanted Cuomo on the air for his last show because he was his first guest when his show launched. But Cuomo balked because of things Eliot Spitzer had said about his son Andrew Cuomo.
George Bush – Bush was all over the news this week in conjunction with his book release.
What’s Not:
Stu Bykofsky – The Philidelphia Daily News reporter got had by Tucker Carlson using a fake email account and impersonating Keith Olbermann. Carlson got Bykofsky to get into an email spat thinking he was dealing with the real Olbermann.
Page Six – Page Six tried to make a lot of hay out of John King getting upset over the way things weren’t working during one of his shows. It appears that Page Six overly embellished the story because both King and CNN came out with major on the record denials concerning significant portions of the article.
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a rocket, it’s a missle…no wait…it really was a plane – Cable news went ape over some video that some thought may have been a missle launch near Los Angeles. Turns out it was most likely a plane’s contrail. Special notice goes to TV Newser’s Alex Weprin for really nailing the networks for going bezerk over this non-story. It’s the second time the nets went crazy recently over some misleading video. A month ago it was a United Airlines 747 flyby in San Francisco as part of Fleet Week that had the networks in a tizzy. I was there and saw it when it happened and knew it was nothing.
Chickaboomer has a transcript snippet from today’s Reliable Sources on CNN where Mark McKinnon teased about something that occurred during a break on MSNBC…
MCKINNON: I was on that network with one of the hosts, and we went to a break and they said, could you cut the bipartisan crap and just give us some red meat? So, you know, listen, it’s all about ratings. And, you know, lean forward should probably lean leftward. And let’s just tell it like it is, news is news and opinion is opinion, which I think is fine. Let’s have some editorial opinion, but call it what it is.
KURTZ: Were you offended by being asked to cut the bipartisan crap?
MCKINNON: I wasn’t surprised.
KURTZ: Did you change what you were saying? Did you change your tone?
MCKINNON: No, I didn’t change a thing. I’m going to keep fighting for the middle and for dialogue that I think the vast middle of America really wants to hear.
KURTZ: Mark, of course, a former Democrat. Do you want to tell us who it was that said that?
MCKINNON: I don’t.
There are ways to try to figure this mystery out. All someone has to do is use TV Eyes to look at Mark McKinnon’s recent appearances on MSNBC, probably within the past month or so. It’ll probably generate hits on multiple programs though so it likely won’t be conclusive…
