MSNBC, Obama's tanks a lot

Howard Kurtz:

MSNBC, which bills itself as "the place for politics," is being pummeled by political practitioners.

"It's an organ of the Democratic National Committee," says Steve Schmidt, a senior strategist for John McCain's campaign. "It's a partisan advocacy organization that exists for the purpose of attacking John McCain."

Ed Gillespie, President Bush's counselor, says there is an "increasing blurring" of the line between NBC News and MSNBC's "blatantly partisan talk show hosts like Christopher Matthews and Keith Olbermann."

Terry McAuliffe, chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign, says Matthews has been "in the tank" for Barack Obama "from Day One" and is practically "the Obama campaign chair."

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The focus of the attacks is MSNBC's evening lineup, where the channel has clearly gravitated to the left in recent years and often seems to regard itself as the antithesis of Fox News. Schmidt, for instance, says he regards MSNBC's daytime reporting as fair, but that it would be "delusional" to view its nighttime operation as anything other than a "partisan entity."

NBC and its cable outlet have become more integrated since MSNBC moved to the 30 Rockefeller Plaza headquarters in New York last fall, a trend accelerated by the sharing of journalistic talent during the campaign. Some top NBC journalists say privately they are troubled by the overlapping identities.

Matthews, the voluble "Hardball" host, appears frequently on NBC's "Today," and Tim Russert, NBC's Washington bureau chief and "Meet the Press" moderator, is an increasingly visible presence on MSNBC. Andrea Mitchell and David Gregory, both well-regarded NBC correspondents, now anchor hour-long programs on the cable outlet. Gregory replaced Tucker Carlson, leaving former GOP congressman Joe Scarborough as the channel's only conservative host.

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... news and opinion often seem to merge on primary nights. MSNBC's coverage is anchored by Matthews, a onetime Democratic operative, and Olbermann, the "Countdown" host who recently finished one anti-Bush commentary by instructing the president to "shut the hell up."

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The Obama campaign, for its part, has not complained about MSNBC's coverage. "Has it been too pro-Obama? Absolutely not," says Obama spokesman Bill Burton....

Gillespie, who raised questions about the overlap between the networks in a letter to Capus, says in an interview: "The president is not covered on MSNBC, he's talked about on MSNBC," largely in unflattering terms. "It's an advocacy network, and they're free to say what they want."

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I don't watch them unless they do something outrageous enough to make YouTube. Olbermann is mostly an incoherent insult artist whose emotional diatribes only inform you of his anger rather than putting facts in perspective, even as warped as his. I used to think Mathews at least had integrity, but I have seen reasons to question that judgment with quotes I have seen in the media about his performance.

The best political show on TV right now is Special Report with Brit Hume. It is my only don't miss news report. I have noticed that ABC has not been as restrained as the other major networks in raising questions about Obama and his friends. NBC's credibility is being questioned for more than its association with MSNBC. Its coverage of the war in Iraq has been unbalanced and unfair and uninformed. Its editing of the President's remarks recently was grossly unfair.