Like most conservatives today, I’m enjoying a bit of schadenfreude with MSNBC’s suspension of Keith Olbermann over contributions made to Democrat candidates. But as much fun as it is to see one of the nastiest, patently unfair liberal commentators get into some hot water I’m not sure that Olbermann was wrong in making his contributions.
After all, who among us has ever thought of Keith Olbermann as an objective political commentator?
Olbermann’s sin, I think, wasn’t making contributions to Democrat candidates but rather not disclosing them to his audience. For too long the public at large has been sold on this myth about objective journalists. Th TVe journalism profession has been elevated to the point where the common perception of journalists has them as truth-telling knights in shining armor slaying the dragons of lies and ignorance.
This is a bit of mythology that is hard to square with examples like Dan Rather and his attempted smear of President George W. Bush, or more recently the journalists at a CBS affiliate in Alaska who got caught plotting negative stories to undermine Republican Joe Miller’s campaign.
The truth is that nobody is objective. I’m not, you’re not and certainly Keith Olbermann isn’t and never has been. Reporters can have agendas too.
Given that truth, we should drop this charade of objectivity and embrace our biases. We should wear them on our sleeves and allow the public at large to determine what roll our biases play in the news we report and/or comment on.
The idea that Keith Olbermann is in the tank for Democrats doesn’t bother me. I knew that long before these contributions were exposed. What bothers me is partisan, in-the-tank journalists and commentators hiding behind a masquerade of objectivity.
Rather than perpetuating a charade we all know is a lie, let’s try honesty and transparency? It couldn’t hurt.
