Opinionated Journalism

I will start this post with two things: I like the show of Keith Olbermann, I have always enjoyed watching his show on MSNBC, and I respect his journalism. Secondly, this post is not a comment on whether it was fair for MSNBC to suspend Keith for his political donations, or should it be legal to stop your employees from political donations. That would be totally different discussions, and as usual I have strong opinions on that issue. Work contracts are always specific to employers and one is almost always aware of the terms when signing the contract.

My opinion on this issue is on a different level. The question for me is what happens when a journalist of a major media house aligns with a political party, or donates to a candidate’s campaign? Nothing wrong if you see this in isolation; it is different if you see in context of MSNBC and transparency. There are media channels which are unbiased, non-aligned and then there are ones that are opinionated, partisan, or ideological. It will again be a different issue to discuss, which one is better? What matters in context of Keith is transparency. It goes against the public face of objective journalism of NBC. It makes NBC say one thing and do exactly opposite. This is the issue here, and this is what concerns me.

It is totally wrong for any channel to say one thing and do another. A popular media channel has a huge potential to influence opinions and it should be rather transparent in what way it does that. Many times people develop their opinions on the facts presented by media, facts that are already influenced by the ideological bent of that media channel. If the channel had a disclaimer then may be some of us would not take the facts at face value and use our own judgment. I have come across many passionate debates where facts from media channel are cited. It is sad to say the least that the debater putting colored facts think they are objective. This is what Keith Olbermann has to understand and I am sure then he will agree with me on this. I am not siding with NBC, but I am putting transparency above everything.

I am happy to see him back on air, and as usual totally enjoyed his ‘comeback’ show.