Political Contributions: NBC Suspends Olbermann for Political Donations – CNBC www.cnbc.com MSNBC has suspended prime-time host Keith Olbermann indefinitely without pay for contributing to the campaigns of three Democratic candidates this election season: Friday, 5 Nov 2010: http://www.cnbc.com/id/40030762
“MSNBC has suspended prime-time host Keith Olbermann indefinitely without pay for contributing to the campaigns of three Democratic candidates this election season.
“Olbermann acknowledged to NBC that he donated $2,400 apiece to the campaigns of Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway and Arizona Reps. Raul Grivalva and Gabrielle Giffords.
“NBC News prohibits its employees from working on, or donating to, political campaigns unless a special exception is granted by the news division president—effectively a ban. Olbermann's bosses did not find out about the donations until after they were made. The website Politico first reported the donations.”
Contractual considerations aside, I’m on the other side here. I do not believe that Don Imus, Helen Thomas, Dave Weigel, Rick Sanchez, Juan Williams, or Keith Olbermann should have lost their jobs.
I believe in free speech.
I do not, for the record, agree with, or like, hardly anything the above group of journalists said or did to cause them problems with their jobs. I do not care nor am I surprised that Olbermann contributed to Democrats.
For another point of view, read: “Olbermann Suspension is Lunacy,” by Matt Taibbi - http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/matt-taibbi/blogs/TaibbiData_May2010/231499/83512 ... “Just quickly: I just found out about the suspension of Keith Olbermann for making political contributions. NBC apparently has some policy prohibiting journalists from donating to candidates, so they suspended him indefinitely without pay….”
Then again, read: “Flashback: Olbermann Comments On Rick Sanchez, Juan Williams Firings,”by Frances Martel - http://www.mediaite.com/tv/flashback-olbermann-comments-on-rick-sanchez-juan-williams-firings/
My contract says I am not allowed to contribute to any candidates and I like my job and I honor that clause. However, I have grown exhausted with the war on journalists and I’m especially tired of the war on the commentary segments of Fox, CNN, MSNBC, et al. If you don’t like – don’t watch it.
20101107 sdosm NBC Suspends Olbermann
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Update: Something that has bothered me about this story from the beginning was that I couldn’t find anything at the FEC website about Olbermann’s contributions. Go here, type in “Olbermann, Keith,” and nothing shows.
ReplyDeleteYet Politico in its article on this subject Friday reported:
POLITICO discovered the Olbermann donation to Grijalva in a Federal Election Commission filing, and when MSNBC was asked for a comment, it forwarded a statement from Olbermann:
“One week ago, on the night of Thursday October 28 2010, after a discussion with a friend about the state of politics in Arizona, I donated $2,400 each to the reelection campaigns of Democratic Representatives Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords,” Olbermann said. “I also donated the same amount to the campaign of Democratic Senatorial candidate Jack Conway in Kentucky.”
Under FEC rules, an individual donor may give only $2,400 to a candidate per general election campaign. The FEC filings for Olbermann’s contributions list an address that is a Mailboxes Etc. storefront in New York, and it also lists his occupation as a newscaster for NBC Television.
Where is that filing?
FEC checks of the candidates Olbermann gave money to also produced no results.
Here are individual contributors with last names beginning with the letters K through O for Jack Conway, Raul Grijalva, and last names beginning with O for Gabrielle Giffords.
No Keith Olbermann.
I sure would like to know what FEC files Politico discovered.