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Ed Schultz and Paul Begala to Participate in Democratic Retreat…

Roll Call’s John Stanton writes about an upcoming Democratic retreat and what’s going to happen. Ed Schultz and Paul Begala will be there…

Wednesday evening’s festivities are highlighted by an “American Voices Panel” that includes pundit Paul Begala and the leaders of several Democratic-leaning interest groups, while MSNBC host Ed Schultz will participate in a panel on Minority Whip Steny Hoyer’s (Md.) “Make it in America” plan.

I’m surprised both CNN and MSNBC will allow their people at these things.

Update: TVNewser’s Chris Ariens reports that MSNBC execs signed off on Schultz going there. I never thought otherwise. But it’s the second part of Ariens’ reporting that caught my eye…

Schultz will also conduct an on-site interview with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi which will air on his show tomorrow night.

The storyline just changed. It’s no longer “Why does MSNBC allow Schultz to go to a Democratic poltical operation event retreat”. Nope. Now the storyline is “Does Ed Schultz still get that Pelosi interview if MSNBC doesn’t let Schultz go to this Democratic political operation event retreat?” Quid Pro Quo? Probably not. But it looks bad. Really bad. And apparently these kinds of cozy insidery appearances are A-OK with MSNBC brass. I guess it’s all about the access…

This entry was posted on January 25, 2012 at 8:57 am and is filed under CNN, MSNBC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

9 Responses to “Ed Schultz and Paul Begala to Participate in Democratic Retreat…”

  1. paminwi Says:
    January 25, 2012 at 9:51 am

    Begala is just a contributor, right? Not a full time employee. So, no big deal. And Ed from MSNBC – that should come as no surprise that he will be there with rings on his fingers and bells on his toes! I mean – no one has any idea that he is anything other than a full on liberal democrat.

  2. Laura L Says:
    January 25, 2012 at 10:04 am

    Ed with toe-bells is entirely too disturbing an image for lunchtime. Pie!

  3. savefarris Says:
    January 25, 2012 at 10:55 am

    Can’t wait for someone to complain about his attendance to his face so he can break out his “I went there as an objective reporter” line again.

    — “But no, it’s Hannity and FOX News who go to these Republican retreats to get their talking points hand-delivered!” — random Kossite

  4. Elle Grantham (@ModLibGrantham) Says:
    January 25, 2012 at 11:00 am

    Yeah, I hear about this stuff happening on both sides of the aisle, and I don’t like it. The media gets way too cozy with those they are supposedly covering. I’ve read articles about how Maddow is Obama’s favorite cable news personality and she has been the the white house several times. Private dinners with political pundits, including the pow-wow with President-elect Obama and George Will and other conservatives at George’s personal residence. In the last 20 years, they have now decided it is okay to pluck “journalists” right out of their job and make them press secretary?!!? This has been going on for a while with D’s and R’s, so don’t go all partisan on me. I know MSNBC is liberal and Fox is conservative so at least we know their ideology but do they really need to be parrots of their respective administrations?!?! It bugs me, even when its my own team. I agree with paminwi, Begala is a part-time contributor so he can do whatever, but anchors should be held to a higher standard. Really, can you at least pretend to be remotely objective?

  5. imnotblue Says:
    January 25, 2012 at 11:02 am

    Reports are that if Ed wasn’t invited… he was going to burn that place down.

    So… you know… their hands were tied.

  6. savefarris Says:
    January 25, 2012 at 1:32 pm

    ^^blue wins!

  7. joeremi Says:
    January 25, 2012 at 3:52 pm

    I understand that Ed sees himself as a progressive activist, which is slightly different from the standard commentator role, but he and Phil Griffin both need to recognize he’s not just a radio talker anymore.

  8. Elle Grantham (@ModLibGrantham) Says:
    January 26, 2012 at 9:03 am

    Its this kind of accepted coziness that irritates me and makes me question the media. How does letting the President smooze you with “access” help you report on the facts of the SOTU? It doesn’t. It just lets someone like Wolf Blitzer walk around CNN headquarters sayin “Neener Neener, I had lunch with Obama!”

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