Olbermanngate

Last week MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, one of the network’s most outspokenly liberal commentators, was suspended* after Politico broke the news that Olbermann had donated money to a number of Democratic campaigns. MSNBC’s policy is that journalists like Olbermann have to first ask permission before donating to campaigns because, well, apparently it’s okay for journalists to make political contributions if they ask permission but not okay if they don’t.

Olbermann’s suspension sparked a tidal wave of commentary about whether opinion journalists like Olbermann should be punished for donating to campaigns. Isn’t it obvious that Olbermann is a partisan journalist? Are partisan journalists compromised and therefore biased? There used to be a clear line separating journalists who were “objective” and “analytical” from those who weren’t, but in today’s opinion-saturated media environment that line seems to have moved somewhere else. It’s not clear where.

Interestingly, some of the best commentary about Olbermanngate (had to do it, sorry) is at the blog of the conservative National Review, The Corner. I think the fact that the Corner is siding with Olbermann on this hints at where the journalistic ethics line has moved. After all, The Corner’s writers don’t exactly hesitate to sock liberal commentators in the stomach, and in light of the conservative midterm domination last Tuesday, now is as good a time as ever to do that. But writers like Cliff May and Jay Nordlinger instead have sided with Olbermann and asked some pretty interesting questions about the definition of a political contribution and how an opinion journalist does or does not contribute to partisan misinformation. Yesterday May wrote the following:

Is it possible that MSNBC does not realize that Keith Olbermann’s show is itself a political contribution?  They don’t actually think it’s a news show, do they?

For the record, schadenfreude notwithstanding, I’m with Andy, Bill Kristol, K-Lo, Jonah, and others on this: Firing Olbermann for putting his money where his mouth is makes no sense and upholds no coherent journalistic standard.

Defending Olbermann is much easier than arguing that he should be fired for his partisan actions while Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly keep their respective partisan radio and TV shows. Nevertheless, it’s conceivable that conservatives like May or Nordlinger would take that angle. The fact that they didn’t suggests that a new standard of journalistic ethics might finally be taking shape.

*Admittedly this is only a suspension of two business days, and Olbermann will be back on the air tomorrow.

(Image by Freedom to Marry used under a Creative Commons license.)