Fox is not News

The recent suspension of Keith Olbermann by MSNBC has had some unintended consequences, namely calling to light donations from other quasi-news networks. NBC actually has three major outlets: the standard NBC channel; MSNBC, which has mostly commentary; and CNBC, the most watched financial network . NBC News has strict standards regarding political support and contributions, thus their reporters and anchors cannot donate to campaigns without prior approval. CNBC and MSNBC apparently allow their employees to make donations as long as they get pre-approval as well, and this has been done by commentators Scarborough, Buchanan. Kaminsky, Ormon and Faber. Here's a complete list of journalists who have donated to political candidates.

Olbermann was wrong in the strict sense of the rule and it also violated the spirit of the rule as well. But who doesn't know that when they leave NBC and go to MSNBC that they are going to be exposed to left-leaning commentary. No where on Olbermann's show is the word "News" printed on the screen. Bill Kristol, the conservative editor of the Weekly Standard is having a little fun with the story, and forgetting that disclosure is still important for anyone in journalism.

Recently, Howard Dean said he has stopped calling Fox by the name "Fox News" because it's not news. Sure, guys like Shep Smith are pretty straight shooters, and I usually give van Susteren a break. But when I watch Doocey, Kilmeade, Beck, O'Reilly or Hannity and see the spinning logo on the bottom left that says "Fox News", I cringe. This is not news, folks.

Is it important to know that people who are delivering news have certain financial relationships with office-seekers? I would think so. Now that the Supreme Court has bestowed onto corporations the freedom of speech, previously reserved for persons, we should also pay attention to where parent corporations are sending donations as well.

Olbermann has been punished, and he'll return at some point. In the future he'll be more careful about sending all that huge payola to the Democratic candidates-- we all know how it turned the most recent elections in their favor. Ha. But now the light is shining on Fox. Murdoch has given $1.1 million to the Republican Governors Association. Even Chris Wallace has said, "the Republican primaries [in 2012] will be a production of Fox News" since all the nominees are already on the Fox payroll anyway. As Politico says, "With the exception of Mitt Romney, Fox now has deals with every major potential Republican presidential candidate not currently in elected office." My guess is they "have deals with" some of those in office as well. Extra slutty.

Roll the video:

Fox should just change its name to "GOP TV" and save us all the pretense. I dare anyone to find me such a display of unethical behavior by another "news" channel anywhere.