It’s fine that NBC made a strategic decision to move to the left, adding blatant bias to its overall coverage. It’s where most of the networks are anyway, only NBC is a little further over on the spectrum. Fox News is conservative – I’d say unabashedly so, except that it pretends to be fair and balanced, which it’s not – and being a conservative network is fine too.
But what’s very disconcerting is having a major TV news network in the tank for a specific politician. This is unprecedented and a little frightening, giving off the noisome air of a nationalized, official government network.
Obama should not have gone last Sunday to the Martha’s Vineyard summer mansion of Brian Roberts, the CEO of Comcast, which owns NBC and MSNBC. And Roberts should not have hosted him. It stinks of collaboration.
Obama didn’t even bother to bring his family along. He paid tribute all on his own, because this was business.
The recent purchase of NBC by Comcast – requiring government approval, which the Obama Justice Department provided in January – put Roberts in the business of at least pretending to provide independent news, even if biased. Independent means not having the president over to your house for a party.
The invaluable website Opensecrets.org, which lives up to its name, yesterday noted that Comcast employees – led by Roberts and his executive team, I would imagine – are bigger donors to Obama than any other company. By far. They’ve given even more to Obama’s reelection effort than any Hollywood company or even Berkshire Hathaway, whose Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett has become a virtual economic spokesman for the White House.
So let’s imagine you are an NBC reporter, and you are thinking of doing a tough story on Obama – I know it seems unlikely, but stay with me here – and then you remember that YOUR BOSS JUST HAD OBAMA OVER TO HIS HOUSE IN MARTHA’S VINEYARD.
And Obama went to him, not the reverse. Are you really going to do a piece that will piss off both the White House and your employer?
But you don’t want to be tagged as just another liberal reporter. You actually want to try to uphold some of the traditional standards of journalism. So maybe you decide to do a piece on Nancy Pelosi, or even some lesser administration figure like Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
But not Obama. Because you are reporting for the Obama Broadcasting Corporation, and you know it.
34 thoughts on “The Obama Broadcasting Corporation”
They have been blatant in their coverage since the campaign started in 2007
Hardly news. And if Fox is really not even attempting to present both sides, could we lose Shep, that dopey Chris Kotter, Alan Colmes, that Jeru-something woman, Judy Miller, Liz Trotta, Kristen Powers, and plenty more!
Please Colmes first he is bordering on insanity! Shep is not fair at all
and should be made to identify himself like Hannity he’s very biased
and an arrogant overpaid news reader!
Colmes pisses me off as soon as he opens his pie-hole!
My head explodes and I am unable to make a coherent sentence
for two days:(. He’s certifiable but on the bright side he makes the left look even worse:)
Is that the guy with the eye makeup?
Plenty more is right… Juan Williams, Geraldo Rivera, Bob Beckel, etc. OBC would never employ a conservative voice to give the other side of the story the way Fox does.
Juan, Beckel, Geraldo–I am slipping today–and there are more…
It’s beyond being just blatant and annoying I now think we are treading on
very dangerous territory. With all three networks in the tank again for
Obama added to the almost incestuous relationships this WH has with
the media in general you have to ask how far will they go and what will and
have they covered up? Couple that with them treating the American citizen
as being stupid it is dangerous mix. That is part of the reason I read the
British papers they have already had things we haven’t seen reported over here.
I see this as outright pandering. I’m not sure who is pandering who….but this would fall in line with Chicago politics. It would also fall in line with facist/communist control of the media. Control the message and control the people.
Fortunately, new media has prevented them from total control of the message. Thanks to brave journalists like Keith.
Scary what the US has evolved into.
Keith – I read that the President had gone to this CEO’s house and I had the same reaction. At least if his family was with him, it would have had the illusion of being a “social visit”. Let’s just suppose he was a conservative and had this meeting with the CEO of Fox News – OMG – can you just hear the outrage from the liberal side. I am fiscally conservative and getting more so as I age (must have something to do with trying to save for retirement!) and I do watch Fox News, but I can easily sort out what is partisan and what is fair reportin. There are many on Fox News that I don’t care for, but they also have some very young and bright people – just like the other cable news stations, but unfortunately, most of the cable news stations are more opinion and entertainment and not “news”. The networks have definite slants to them – and I know that and can sort through what I believe and don’t believe or do my own research, but bottom line – without a doubt, this President either has horrible advisers who have no clue or he personally has no clue. Again – it isn’t about what is right and wrong – it is about perceptions. I sound like a broken record, but the bottom line is perceptions.
Speaking of in the tank–Buffett apparently talked to the president before kicking BofA $5 bllion and getting preferred stock…My mortgage is there, my mother’s money, but apparently the idea is that Warren can “invest” without a new TARP or anything controversial…Seems kind of unorthodox to me…
He is following his buddy Hugo’s game plan. How long before the DOJ raids Fox and shuts them down? Nobody seems to be able to stop this man from dismantling America. Just wait until he unleashes his regulators to enforce net neutrality rules. How long before our ability to voice our opinion on blogs like Keith’s is silenced along with every other dissenting voice? This is the face of tyranny in my opinion.
Of all the slimy things this fraud has done, this is REALLY up there!
PS: Did you see Neil G. Telegraph UK, linked and mentioned you a lot in his great piece today? He spelled your last name wrong, but still good coverage.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100102170/time-for-the-white-house-to-rein-in-michelle-obamas-out-of-control-spending/
Wow, there will be no living w/ him now…”Keith Coffler(sic), who edits the influential White House Dossier…”
Thanks, Bunni.
Keith, two questions:
1. Does Brian Roberts have a corporate jet?
2. Did he ‘summon’ Obama?
It’s only fair, Clinton had CNN (Clinton News Network) while in office, so it only makes sense that Obama gets his own network, and the “O” Network is not on poor man’s TV (ie broadcast vs cable).
The United Soviet States of America needs an official media organ, just like the old USSR had Pravda.
Except he’s got all the TV, print media as well in his back pocket very
scary.
Great reporting on this, Keith. This was the first I had heard of it.
While your argument that the partisan ownership of a network such as NBC poses a problem for reporters who might do an unfavorable piece on Barry, I think you are being overly generous in even allowing for the possibility that reporters from those sources would go after anyone who is supportive of or working for BHO. I don’t think I will be doing any breath-holding while I wait for those pieces on Pelosi or Geithner, or any other administration lackey.
Some of the things I learned while watching “MorningJoe” on MSNBC:
MsMika receives ‘talking points’ from the WhiteHouse on her Blackberry during the program.
MsMika and MrJoe spent a great deal of time defending their chatter/banter from the WhiteHouse’s accusation of not being “pro-Obama enough”.
It’s no secret that MSNBC is an Obama campaign supporter and none of their opinion slanted programs even attempt a stab at non-partisanship.
It’s what it is. We all know it and it reflects in their bottom-of-the-pile ratings.
Great story, Keith! Subtlety is definitely not one of Obama’s attributes! It’s just jaw-dropping that he would actually go knocking on Robert’s door instead of vice-versa! More importantly, it’s beyond tacky that he would even consider such inappropriate behavior at taxpayer’s expense. I guess he thinks he is ‘off-duty’ when he’s on vacation!
Obama has denigrated the Office of the Presidency so badly – I don’t think I can stand another 15 months of his tasteless behavior. He has become a NATIONAL PEST invading everyone’s private space, their backyards, their business establishments, their factories, their tv screens…he is omnipresent!
Since the campaign began in earnest in 08, I have stopped watching CNN, all the network news, MSNBC, PBS, and practically everything in between. FOX news is integrating more LIBS into their regular programming now – I rarely watch anything but FOX BUSINESS CHANNEL. Watching TV today is like walking through minefields! I have returned to the days of talk radio – never leave home without the pocket radio!
If Obama is re-elected, I am seriously thinking of taking a 4 yr sabbatical overseas. Obama is a pox on this country! The only way to escapt him is to leave the U.S.!
…Pest…Made me laugh.
Yeah, so unabashedly Conservative that Glenn Beck is gone. I disagree that FOX News is Conservative. Have you seen the people on there? Bob Beckel, Kirstin Powers, and many more. Then you’ve got Bill O. He is not a Conservative. Gretchen? Shepard Smith? Are you kidding me?! Geraldo?!!!!! Please. The difference between FOX and NBC is FOX shows the other side which the others don’t so FOX news gets labeled Conservative. I have never heard that one. I have heard Republican, but Conservative? I don’t think so.
Well, O’Reilly is an independent leaning conservative or O’Reiilyish, I would say. Stossel is a libertarian, the heck with everything.. Dobbs—well obvious. Hannity lets it all hang out. Cavuto–sort of moneyish… Coulter.. Krauthammer…Rich Whatsis from the panels is a conservative. Bill Kristol. Plenty of conservatives–but as we said elsewhere, plenty of bleeding hearts, too.
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Interesting. Are you as bothered by Fox News and Roger Ailes advising the Bush administration after 9/11.
Somehow I doubt it.
Didn’t Roger Ailes advise the Bush WH immediately after 9/11? Hypocrisy is SO five minutes ago.
Out of curiosity, do you have any concrete examples of bias? Unlike the literally THOUSANDS of examples of Fox’s bias.
What a pathetic attempt to take attention away from the fact that Fox News is not news but a staged outlet with actors playing journalists. Where do the bosses on Fox come from? Who is their friends? Who sends out morning memos to tell their “journalists” what to mean and what side to promote? Yes, thats right. No other then Fox News.
Aw, come on–try watching it. A comment like that confirms 100% that you don’t.
I remember a time in America where we could “almost” believe the news presented to us. Nowadays the news is one sided political bluster pitched at what these news yahoos believe to be simpleminded Americans and all with the hopes of winning over one more voters to “their” side. A news media that is curved to the extreme left or the extreme right does not represent the America most of us remember and hold close to our hearts. It is time for the news media to see the American people as we really are; intelligent enough to think for ourselves. Give us the REAL facts on each candidate and WE WILL make the right decision. That is the America you can trust in.
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