Hey Hey Hey, Good-bye!
Last night, one could not help but feel a subtle vibration as the Earth jolted from the collective jumping with glee by conservatives around the country. Keith Olbermann is shutting down Countdown.
Of course, we at TheLobbyist celebrated a little as well.
It sounds to me that the problem was working with Olbermann. His ratings, while trailing behind nearly every Fox News program, were better than any “news” program at either MSNBC or CNN according to Drudge:
NEWS RACE
THURS. JAN. 20, 2011FOXNEWS O'REILLY 2,918,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 2,079,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 1,940,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 1,786,000
FOXNEWS BECK 1,780,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 1,460,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,106,000
CNN PIERS 1,025,000
MSNBC MADDOW 976,000
MSNBC O'DONNELL 855,000
MSNBC SCHULTZ 760,000
CNN COOPER 740,000
MSNBC HARDBALL 700,000
TMZ reports, “Sources connected with the network tell us … Comcast honchos did not like Keith’s defiance and the way he played in the sandbox.” Sounds to me like he was just as painful to work with as he was to watch.
In the end, at least we know who we can blame for the era of Olbermann… damn you Pat Sajak!
-rj
Yay
Speaking as a conservative, all I can say is…YAY. Keith Olbermann is, finally, off the air at MSNBC. The earlier link from Hot Air has the details as well as the video of Olbermann’s announcement as they broke last night.
Unfortunately, via Daily Kos, it appears the arrogant jerk that runs Young Turks (a liberal YouTube show) will become the new 6 p.m. host for MSNBC as Lawrence O’Donnell moves to 8:00 and Ed Schultz moves to 10:00. Question: Why not have Maddow take 8:00? Her ratings are good; she has a huge fan base on the lft; and she is a talented host with (unfortunately for conservatives) a lot of basic intelligence (she was the first openly-homosexual Rhodes Scholar from America). I rarely agree with her, and find her mocking, condescending attitude annoying, but she’s a good host.
For what it’s worth, Olbermann’s departure announcement was extraordinarily classy, both for him and in general. Check it out at the first link above.
The Rand-Slide… and Other Tuesday Lessons
God Help Me. I Agree With Kennedy…
…now granted, there are myriad ways I agreed with John F. Kennedy (and many where we disagreed); there were not very many instances where I agreed with the old “Liberal Lion” though and let’s face it, his son Patrick is a bit of a tool. Let’s just say, if he asked me to go for a joy ride in his Mustang Convertible, I would kindly take a rain-check.
But Patrick Kennedy did something yesterday, that I believe deserves bi-partisan support. He went after the media for turning our Federal government into a circus show, 24/7, and perpetuating the belief that Congress is nothing more than an episode of Maury in expensive suits. And the media is guilty of the charges that were levied against them.
He’s right. How many of our nation’s bravest men and women have laid down their lives in far away places, only to have their memories passed over because the press finds sexual harassment and “world’s ugliest dog” far more interesting? And this is by no means, a liberal or conservative issue: news organizations with a favorable sway towards either ideological camp are guilty of this, even though I find FoxNews and MSNBC to be the worst offenders.
Congressman Kennedy and I may part ways on every political issue under the sun, and we even disagree with what the objective of the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, I believe the impassioned monologue he delivered yesterday should speak to all Americans and remind them that the most important issues are those that have to do with our security and the security of our men and women overseas. So what Massa might be gay (a topic unworthy of discussion, as I cannot imagine someone going on Larry King Live and having the Crypt Keeper on that show hammering them on whether or not that guest is straight … hard hitting indeed) and he may be a nutjob for lack of a better term; there are more important things out there to be talking about. But many people in the news media wouldn’t know, because they are just as seperated from everyday Americans as politicians are.
-rj
God Help The Haitian People
As is well-known by now, thousands of Haitians have died in a massive earthquake. There’s not much to say other than God help the people over there. See this link for President Obama’s statements on the disaster and a phone number for Americans who have family members in Haiti to check on them.
Also, see USA Today’s comprehensive list of organizations that are helping in Haiti. Also, see here for a site dedicated to the assistance of the Haitian people, and here for MSNBC’s list of assisting organizations. Donations, I’m certain, would be gratefully accepted.
Big News of the day or BIGGEST News of the day?
Read the article below and let me know what you think in the comments section:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. taxpayer profits from bank bailout investments are being offset by estimated losses from American International Group and automakers and mortgage payment cuts for struggling homeowners, a U.S. Treasury report showed on Monday.
The Treasury estimated net losses on its $700 billion bailout program at $68.5 billion for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2009.
The December report for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, showed that the fiscal 2009 net loss included estimated losses of $30.4 billion for AIG and $30.4 billion for automakers, with $27.1 billion in losses from the Home Affordable Modification Program.
These were much larger than a $15 billion profit registered from the Capital Purchase Program for banks and $4.4 billion in profits from other bank investments, asset guarantee and lending programs.
A senior Treasury official said the bank investments will ultimately produce a positive return for taxpayers. But the department was not yet ready to update its estimate of the final taxpayer costs for the bailouts.
The official said the Treasury would update its cost estimates on a quarterly basis as the bailout program shifts its focus toward small business lending and housing relief in its final 10 months of operation.
The Treasury in November said TARP’s ultimate cost estimate had been reduced to about $141 billion from $341 billion earlier in the year. Further reductions in the final cost estimate could aid the Obama administration as it faces pressure to produce a new budget that starts to show deficit reductions.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Dan Grebler)
Unfortunately, this story was not the lead anywhere today, though Fox did have a related one on their top three stories. Drudge’s lead story today is about Scott Brown, the candidate for former Senator Kennedy’s seat (okay, that one’s fairly important). Yesterday, he had an accusation that Senator Reid (D-NV) had a facelift or something. Drudge did have this story, but buried several stories down. Meanwhile, cable news is failing as badly as usual to provide important news. Fox has the “tell-all” story about Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) as their lead story, and CNN has David Frum’s newest column as theirs. MSNBC actually has the most important lead story of the three, with an article about the death of an Iranian opposition leader. ABC is also not doing their job, with a massive lead story about President Obama allegedly playing favorites regarding the race card.
Once again, I’ll ask Americans to look at the important news. Who really cares if Sarah Palin is on Fox? Is anyone surprised? Reid has said two racial statements in recent weeks. Why are we letting our elected officials waste our taxpayer money over his comments? (Note- every time they go after or defend Reid instead of doing their job they are wasting taxpayer money.) We are losing billions of dollars to corrupt government, business and other officials and executives…and we care about something stupid Reid said or the common-sense career move of Sarah Palin? Give me a break. Let’s worry about the troops dying overseas, our sovereignty, the education of our youth and the other critical issues facing this country. Our mainstream/professional media certainly won’t do it, obviously, but in the age of the Internet and other technologies, we the people have no excuse.
The Mayo Clinic Speaks
Senator Reid, when The Mayo Clinic, possibly the most respected medical establishment in the nation, dislikes your bill, you are in trouble.
President Obama and The Mayo Clinic have worked together on health care reform this year. Mayo has critiqued the health care reform efforts before, but also praised efforts on payment reform. However, consider the following regarding the current Senate bill: “Expanding this system [Medicare] to persons 55 to 64 years old would ultimately hurt patients by accelerating the financial ruin of hospitals and doctors across the country. A majority of Medicare providers currently suffer great financial loss under the program. Mayo Clinic alone lost $840 million last year under Medicare. As a result of these types of losses, a growing number of providers have begun to limit the number of Medicare patients in their practices.? Despite these provider losses, Medicare has not curbed overall spending, especially after adjusting for benefits covered and the cost shift from Medicare to private insurance.? This is clearly an unsustainable model, and one that would be disastrous for our nation?s hospitals, doctors and eventually our patients if expanded to even more beneficiaries.”
Mayo spends a fraction what the most expensive Medicare-accepting hospitals do on patients and uses fewer resources by far. When they can’t break even on Medicare, who can? Yet Democrats want to expand Medicare? Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean was on MSNBC the other night- I was in the gym and decided to watch Keith Olbermann for a few minutes- and he fully supported the expanded Medicare concept. That alone is almost enough for me to oppose it, though when a single-payer advocate in Congress supports it as well and Stuart Butler of The Heritage Foundation is against it the opposition becomes complete.
Mayo has its critics- but many of those critics merely claim Mayo can keep costs down because it has patients that are less racially diverse, wealthier, etc. Those critics add to the case Mayo makes above, because if Mayo does have the advantages critics claim and still can’t break even on Medicare reimbursement, how can the vast majority of the rest of the nation’s hospitals even come close?
Liberals make the argument that Medicare brought millions of elderly people out of poverty- this may or may not be true, but the simple fact is that many or perhaps even most Congressional Democrats don’t have a clue about financial sustainability- granted, nor do most Congressional Republicans- and by expanding Medicare they hasten the bankruptcy of America.
Chris Matthews: West Point is the “Enemy Camp”
Chris Matthews on West Point as \’the enemy camp\’
In what can be considered a fairly poor choice of words from the notably bombastic Mr. Matthews; the host of Hard Ball points to West Point as the “enemy camp” because the cadets were not overly enthusiastic with the President’s speech there.?
To be fair, Chris “Chilly Leg” Matthews was not referring to West Point as the enemy camp with regard to his own relationship to the place.? However, the man is political to the core and a very firm adherent to the friend/enemy description of the political.? He sees everything through his political goggles and when doing his analysis, made a comment that can be considered disgusting to say the least.? But this shows how many liberal (and Conservative) pundits think.? It’s US versus THEM.
-rj
Real News Left Behind
It was 10:10 on Sunday evening, and I decided to see what the leading?news stories were on CNN?s and Fox?s respective websites. Having seen Yahoo News? top story being about Tiger Woods? car accident the other day, I suspected I knew what the answer was. Turns out, I was right. The stories were in spots designed to get major, first–or-second-glance attention.
Now, to be fair, Fox and CNN also had big stories about the police shooting (both), a woman who is helping women get mammograms (CNN), a story about AIDS guidelines (Fox) and Fox had its required “Support a Republican” story about Senator Lugar (R-IN) and his?thoughts about delaying health care reform until?”next year, the same way we put cap and trade and climate change, and talk now about the essentials: the war and money.” However, Fox had the Woods “story” on its top four list on its site, and CNN had it first on its “Latest News” list. (Oddly enough, MSNBC had the Woods “story” listed as third in its Sports section, and I actually missed it the first two times I scanned the page. MSNBC’s main section covered the police shootings, the economy, Afghanistan, Detroit’s economic needs, where investors are focusing this week and the Steelers-Ravens game. Not too bad for a liberal rag of a “news” source.)
Money drives news, as it should- news needs money to survive, after all- but once again our news is showing just how misplaced American priorities and dollars are. Stories that cover Honduras, Afghanistan, Iraq, Russia, China, the recession, the police shootings, health care reform efforts and other important news should be at the top of the list the vast majority of the time. Instead, they are pushed aside by non-news and entertainment.
This is an old rant, and says nothing new (except that MSNBC actually did a good job at something). Should those of us who care keep hammering at America’s lack of real world knowledge and news awareness, or are we wasting our time? Will we as a nation pull our heads out of *the clouds* and at least try to be aware of the world around us? Please?
“One MILLION Dollars…” bum bum bum…
Now, everyone here is well aware of my unfortunate (and unhealthy) addiction to Morning Joeon MSNBC.? So I won’t continue to apologize for it.? While watching this morning, I couldn’t help but notice that when Mika Brzezinski was doing her typical short news stories on the hour (in otherwords, when she’s doing her real job masquerading as a journalist) she mentioned the cost of the recently terminated CIA program to track and kill Al Qaeda leaders and operatives.? I will eschew going anywhere near the fact that the?people who?are outraged by a CIA operation to kill bad guys are the same people who?got mad at President Bush for not pursuing and killing the bad guys because of the Iraq War… blah… I digress.
One million dollars.? That was what MSNBC was reporting; that the CIA program that was recently terminated was a “whopping” $1 Million dollars (the same amount of money that belittled Dr. Evil in front of everyone).? Considering that the State of California (or the City of Los Angeles, whichever was dumb enough) flipped the bill for a $1.4 Million funeral for the “King of Pop,” a million dollars to hunt down and kill terrorist (it is dishonest to call it “assassination” when they are part of a trans-national organization and not attached to any state or government officially) who would be more than happy to return the favor aint so bad.?
-rj
