Journalism, Ethics and Keith Olbermann

Friday morning, POLITICO revealed that MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann was suspended after he made contributions to several Democrats running for office.

NBC has a rule against employees contributing to political campaigns, and a wide range of news organizations prohibit political contributions — considering it a breach of journalistic independence to contribute to the candidates they cover, the POLITICO article stated.

I haven’t read a lot of the opinion pieces on the Countdown host’s suspension, probably because I can predict what both sides would say.

One side would state: “This is ridiculous and he’s nothing more than an unethical journalist.”

The other side would argue this isnt a big deal. This also happens to be the side I fall on.

Matt Taibbi wrote a short piece on the suspension calling it “lunacy.”

NBC punishing Olbermann for donating to Democratic candidates is like Hugh Hefner fining the Playmate of the Year for showing ankle. It’s completely and utterly retarded, Taibbi wrote.

I have to agree it is ridiculous for NBC to have a such a policy. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why that policy is in place but it does not make any difference if that was in place or wasn’t.

If Olbermann wasn’t allowed to donate to political campaigns he would still vote for a certain candidate.

Many people have brought up that it is unethical for a journalist to donate to a campaign. Hell, one Washington, D.C. newspaper sent a memo to it’s employees that if they attended the Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear they had to remain neutral and not laugh too much. That memo is here.

Taibbi again makes a good point about the “ostensible experts” that want to scream breech of ethics.

We had a whole generation of journalists who sat by and did nothing while, for instance, George Bush led us into an idiotic war on a lie, plus thousands more who spent day after day collecting checks by covering Britney’s hair and Tiger’s text messages and other stupidities while the economy blew up and two bloody wars went on mostly unexamined… and it’s Keith Olbermann who should “pay the price” for being unethical? Because, and let me get this straight, he donated money, privately, to politicians?, Taibbi wrote.

Do not get me started on the “journalists” that cover “entertainment” news.

Here’s the bottom line in my own opinion: If you are a journalist and cannot write a story objectively then you are not a journalist. It is the basic function of a journalist to relay the information to the general public, objectively, without any spin.

If Olbermann donated money to the Jack Conway campaign and was unable to objectively vet Conway, then Olbermann has failed as a journalist. However, if Olbermann can support Conway but at the same time objectively report on Conway then where is the foul?

Election 2010

It’s the eve of the 2010 election and this post probably should have been written several weeks ago.

The months leading up to this time are always filled with ambitious future politicians vying for your vote in hopes of having a secure paycheck for the next couple of years.

Some may lie. Others will make broad promises. They always explain what they will do better than their opponent and why their opponent’s party is bad.

Far too often elections come down to Republicans v. Democrats.

There is a thought process out there that “Oh the President is a Democrat and I don’t like what’s going on in this country so I’m going to vote Republican.”

That isn’t always true.

Far too often we let the media influence our decision when it comes to whom vote for. The media is a tool that should be used to help educate ourselves on a candidate, not make our decision for us.

Do research.

If the media reports a candidate said something, look for another news outlet’s take on that and compare it. In the world we live in there is so much media spin it is hard to fight through it to find out what really happened or what someone said.

Sure it will be hard and time consuming but the hardest part of voting should not be driving to your local polling place and waiting in line.

We need to make a concerted effort to find the best candidate out there and not the best candidate for us.

Too often people vote on the basis of “What will this candidate do for me?” “How with this candidate benefit me if they are elected?”

That mentality needs to stop. We live in a country where we need to work together. We can not move forward alone, we need each other. We need a candidate that will benefit the whole.

We have the right to vote, say what you may, but that is an amazing right.

So, get out there, be informed and vote.

And this could be the resurgence of my blog.