MSNBC: Getting Along

This morning, sparks flew on MSNBC's Morning Joe when David Shuster, in kind of sideways manner, told host Joe Scarborough that he was being unduly biased in favor of John McCain. You don't come on somebody else's show and accuse him of something. Joe basically tore Shuster apart. It was not pretty.

Just now, I watched Chris Matthews talk condescendingly toward his co-anchor, Keith Olberman, and Olberman grimaced over it. I've seen this one coming for a long time. MSNBC is putting Olberman front and center, even though he's a lightweight compared to Matthews (staffer in the US Senate, speechwriter in the Carter administration, six years as an aide to Tip O'Neill, and 15 years of print journalism for the San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle).

If I were Matthews, I'd be a bit perturbed at being forced to play second fiddle to Olberman, a sportscaster who was re-engineered into a political pundit. Matthews brings a tremendous sense of history to politics. Olberman is highly articulate, funny, and quick on his feet--but he's a lightweight. And an extremely partisan lightweight.

So as I said, to me, it was only a matter of time before Matthews had enough letting a sportcaster anchor MSNBC's political coverage.

Posted on August 26, 2008 10:28 PM|

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