MSNBC Gets What It Needs: Obama Supporters and Spokespeople

Glenn Greenwald teases MSNBC because he doesn't love MSNBC, on two of its new hires, former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and former Obama advisor and senior strategist David Axelrod:

I wonder: does someone who goes from being an Obama White House spokesman and Obama campaign official to being an MSNBC contributor even notice that they changed jobs?….

Impressively, David Axelrod left the White House and actually managed to find the only place on earth arguably more devoted to Barack Obama. Finally, American citizens will now be able to hear what journalism has for too long so vindictively denied them: a vibrant debate between Gibbs and Axelrod on how great Obama really is.

MSNBC, having branded itself very explicitly as the pro-government channel, will have some scrambling to do when regime change comes and they are required to not reflexively love everything the executive branch does or says.

Comments

[Sevo]

"does someone who goes from being an Obama White House spokesman and Obama campaign official to being an MSNBC contributor even notice that they changed jobs?...."

Same job, just a different name on the paycheck.

[Pro Libertate]

What possible use is a network that cheers on the government? I mean, to consumers.

[$park?]

You mean other than spreading warm, fuzzy feelings to people who need to be told they made the right choice?

[Pro Libertate]

What they should be hearing is what morons they are for eschewing a centuries-old tradition of utterly distrusting and despising the government. Which has served us well.

[$park?]

How quaint. Why be self-sufficient when the government is willing and able to provide everything you'll ever need? Government is the great protector, it keeps you safe when you sleep and it gives you food and shelter when you can't afford it. Freedom is hard, painfully so. Easier to just rely on government.

[Pro Libertate]

I might buy that argument--that people would think that could happen and continue to happen--if we weren't surrounded by examples of that system failing everywhere else.

Unsustainable in every way.
And forever more, that's how you'll stay.

[$park?]

People will only see those examples if they go looking. The cozy embrace of government makes that search unnecessary. The nice man on the TV tells them that everything is fine, in fact many things are getting better. Why worry?

[Almanian!]

I feel so....warm. And tired...so tired. I think I'll just stop here and rest. Just for a minute. Just put my head down and sleep. For a minute. So tired...mmmmmm....gummint.

[Pro Libertate]

Trust no one!

[$park?]

Trust no one!

Nobody has the time or the inclination to be sucked into your paranoia.

[Pro Libertate]

What's positively surreal is that government behavior in general, and certainly ours specifically, has demonstrated that the only rational viewpoint about government is one of deep distrust.

In other words, it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you.

[$park?]

the only rational viewpoint about government is one of deep distrust

Maybe you missed this:

government is willing and able to provide everything you'll ever need? Government is the great protector, it keeps you safe when you sleep and it gives you food and shelter when you can't afford it

You're stuck on giving people more credit than they deserve. To all the average people out there you look like a crazy dog chasing its own tail.

[Pro Libertate]

No, I'm calling them all irrational.

[$park?]

No, I'm calling them all irrational.

Everyone is irrational to someone who isn't them.

[Pro Libertate]

Okay, how about delusional? Because reality doesn't support faith in government. Even for welfare clients, since the doom should be obvious even to them by now.

[$park?]

Okay, how about delusional?

Yes, absolutely, that's my point. People are being taken care of by the government and they have no desire to see what the ultimate effects are. The crash is going to come, I don't think there's a way to prevent it anymore. But nobody is even going to think about it until it happens.

[Pro Libertate]

There is one way. We start broadcasting SOS messages into space. A few decades later, if we're lucky, benevolent superaliens will come and bail us out.

[Enough About Palin]

"What possible use is a network that cheers on the government?"

That's only one half of the equation. They also spend a great deal of time berating and vilifying conservatives who happen to be non-white/Asian. Just watch Al Sharpton's show.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Unfortunately, this government bootlicking mentality has pervaded CNBC as well. Unwatchable.

[John]

Same for the Weather Channel, which is now full of green and pro government propaganda.

[Almanian!]

I know - weird and disturbing.

Et tu. Weather Channel? Et tu?

[Sevo]

BTW, fat chance getting an actual weather prediction any more.

[Virginian]

WeatherUnderground.com

Why would I wait for someone on the TV to read it to me?

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Why would I wait for someone on the TV to read it to me?

Because sometimes the person reading it has a nice rack?

[R C Dean]

Her (or his! not judging, here) rack is just as nice with the sound off.

[Pro Libertate]

I recently heard that the Europeans are much better at weather forecasting than we were. I don't know why, but that shocked me.

[Gray Ghost]

Weather Underground is not shy on the leftist propaganda either. Unless it's hurricane season, Dr. Masters is damned near unreadable, with all of Gaia's ills being blamed on AGW. Even the hurricane reports and forecasts (which are usually very good) come chock full of editorializing about how the storms are so bad this year due to the U.S. stubborn refusal to get out of our cars, or some such.

[The Late P Brooks]

Lean Forward, America, and spread those cheeks.

[Vapourwear]

Maybe we can get Chris Matthews to pay us for our turns?

[H. Reardon]

Lean Forward

[Skip]

Am I the only one who knows that leaning forward is the first step to butt rape?

[Sudden]

Wow. I read the article and didn't realize there was actually a serious movement afoot to put Obama on fucking Mt. Rushmore. I made the asinine decision to watch the Sharpton video linked and Toure tries to appear reasonable by saying "I'm not ready to put Obama on Mt Rushmore yet."

Words fail to explain the level of disbelief. They can't be serious.

[Episiarch]

Just wait until the calls to repeal the 22nd Amendment come. Also, the calls for a monument for him on the mall.

[Brett L]

They can have 22 if I can have 17.

[$park?]

People keep saying this. What is the advantage of removing the 17th amendment?

[Enough About Palin]

Senators would be beholden to their states' legislatures, providing a counter balance to popularly elected House members.

[$park?]

I get that. Why is that an advantage? Are you assuming that the states' legislatures would necessarily make better decisions that the states' people?

[KDN]

I'm not sure about the practical consequences, but it does make the Congress's structure more akin to what it's intended to be (one house for the People, one for the States) and should make it more clear that the government is not the people.

I think it would help, but we could also expand the concept. I feel that there aren't enough House districts, so "the People's chamber" is essentially made up of minor league Senators; essentially we get too much democracy in the upper house, not enough in the lower, and the whole thing is just muddled. Plus, it should be easier to squeak candidates with unusual ideologies through if a district consists of 20,000 voters instead of 400,000, which could be a good in and of itself.

[$park?]

Thanks. I think population size is part of the problem. With Representatives having an ever growing constituency it makes it harder for anyone to get proper representation anymore. Some states have more people now than the entire country did back then.

[Mickey Rat]

The federal government might be less willing to impose mandates on the states if the Senate represented the state governments as they were supposed to.

[Ted S.]

They can have 22 if we can have 16.

[Andrew S.]

The calls have already been there. Harry Reid was talking about it in 2009.

I'm just waiting for someone to complain that the 22nd is racist somehow.

[Warty]

When I am Overlord, I will make like the Taliban and dynamite the false idols on Mt. Rushmore. Fuck Honest Abe and his dickhead friends.

[Pro Libertate]

Washington and Jefferson were okay. For presidents.

[Warty]

Were you not listening? FUCK THEM.

[Pro Libertate]

Dude, they both told our sorry forebear asses not to let government get big.

[Loki]

I'm actually kind of shocked Sharpton would actually want Obama to appear on the same monument with those old white guys. Didn't a couple of them own slaves?

"Mt. Rushmore should be re-made with only Obama appearing. Get rid of those fucking racist ass crackers!"

[The Late P Brooks]

CNBC has been turned into the MSNBC Business Channel. Bloomberg is better; that's how bad they are.

I quit watching quite a while ago.

[Citizen Nothing]

Has CNBC really gone that far? I only see it occasionally on the road. What about Joe Kernen?

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Yeah. It's that bad. Jim Cramer is openly shilling for Obama's positions and The Fed. He blames investors for not being fair to certain, "well connected" companies.

[The Late P Brooks]

"I'm not ready to put Obama on Mt Rushmore yet."

If we could superglue the man himself to George Washington's forehead, I might be persuaded.

[Episiarch]

You've just given Gus Van Sant the perfect excuse to do a remake of North by Northwest with a slightly alternate ending.

[Pro Libertate]

When I finally went to Mt. Rushmore, I was very disappointed to see that there's nowhere for a house on top of it. Disappointed!

[LTC(ret) John]

Of course, everything is inside.

/Team America

[Pro Libertate]

Of course, I was talking about James Mason's house on Mt. Rushmore. North by Northwest owns Mt. Rushmore.

[Sudden]

I dunno Epi. I'm thinking a remake of Richie Rich with the alternate ending of richie giving away his fortune to the IRS to nobly disperse among the downtrodden.

[Loki]

B-b-but MSNBC is the bestest cable news channel ever! Rachel Maddow is the president's biggest critic. T o n y says so, so it must be true. Afterall he's so smart and edumucated, I mean, he reads books and stuff! /sarc

[T o n y]

So they're following the FOX News model.

[Citizen Nothing]

It's Bush's fault!

[Almanian!]

Except for the having-an-audience and making-money parts, EXACTLY.

[DesigNate]

Heh, you got us there. We all LOVE the fox news. Oh and the Rush Limbaugh, don't forget him.

Idiot.

[Sudden]

From the article linked:

"A Pew poll found that in the week leading up to the 2012 election, MSNBC did not air a single story critical of the President or a single positive story about Romney - not a single one - even as Fox aired a few negative ones about Romney and a few positive ones about Obama"

Malibu Tony doll says: "reading is teh hard!"

[Loki]

Damn, should have read all the comments before posting mine. Oh well, maybe if repeated it will sink in.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Sometimes I crack myself up.

[Loki]

A Pew poll found that in the week leading up to the 2012 election, MSNBC did not air a single story critical of the President or a single positive story about Romney - not a single one - even as Fox aired a few negative ones about Romney and a few positive ones about Obama.

Right, totally the same. Two sides of the the same coin. Sure.

[T o n y]

I absolutely agree that, if anything, MSNBC is more biased in its political leaning. The problem with FOX is how much it lies and the fact that it offers itself as "fair and balanced." Nobody is under any illusion about MSNBC's political slant. FOX viewers think they're looking through the only window to truth on TV. Brought to you by former Republican vice presidential candidates and Republican political operatives.

[Loki]

FOX viewers think they're looking through the only window to truth on TV.

I doubt it. Most people I know who watch Fox know full well that they tend to slant things the opposite way MSNBC does. And that's why they watch Fox. Just like people who watch MSNBC, if they're honest, know full that it's slanted to the "left", and that's why they watch it. Neither audience wants to actually have to think.

[Juice]

Just like people who watch MSNBC, if they're honest, know full that it's slanted to the "left", and that's why they watch it.

They're slanting forward, Loki.

[generic Brand]

Does MSNBC come across as openly accepting of its bias when they try to say they are the only adults in the room?

[Enough About Palin]

I agree with T o n y. If anyone can be held up as a paragon of truth, it's Al Sharpton.

[Juice]

Nobody is under any illusion about MSNBC's political slant.

I've run into plenty of people online that actually are.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

I've run into several people like this both online and in real life. I had a "friend" scream at me because I called Joe Scarborough extremely left. He actually claimed Joe was non-partisan and fair to both sides... T O N Y is just under the impression delusion that only FOX viewers think their favorite news source is not biased.

[Skip]

Tony: The MSNBC talking heads do claim that they are able to put aside their biases. Even Olbermann said so until even he couldn't maintain that fiction any longer and got kicked off of political coverage on election nights.

[Loki]

Earlier that day on the same network, a solemn discussion was held, in response to complaints from MSNBC viewers, about whether it is permissible to ever allow Barack Obama's name to pass through one's lips without prefacing it with an honorific such as "President" or "the Honorable" or perhaps "His Excellency" (that really did happen).

What. The. Fuck. How about "Dear Leader"? Or "His Holiness"? Or simply "Messiah"? Fuck, fuckity fuck, I don't think I can take much more of this shit. I'd almost rather live in Venezuala or Cuba or North Korea. At least they don't try to hide what they are.

[John]

In think the population of those places is more cynical of dear leader than most of the Dems are of Obama here. In some ways we are worse. In Venezuela, anyone with Tony's devotion to dear leader would be sneered at as a paid toady. In America, Tony and millions like him are willing to do it for free.

[Loki]

That's kind of what I mean. There everyone knows the government the is lieing to them and that everything is just propoganda. Anyone outside the gov or media (same thing) who mouths the lies on blog posts would be looked at with suspicion. Either of being a government stooge, or a complete fucking idiot.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Where despotism is taken pure, without the base alloy of hypocrisy?

(Paraphrasing Lincoln)

[Sudden]

They don't actually raise the use of the terms "honorable" or "his excellency". They simply address whether every utterance of his name should be predicated with "President". Bad enough yes, but thankfully not yet to the level of deification (at least formally)/

[John]

My favorite is 60 Minutes talking about how the President granted them 30 minutes for an interview like he is the fucking Pope or something.

The whole press corps is just pathetic. Last weekend, Obama ditches the wookie and the brats and goes down to Florida for some private time with Reggie Love and ditches the entire White House press corps. Whining ensues and he grants them ten minutes on the plane back to ask him important questions like "did you beat Tiger Woods" and they are all happy again. Pathetic.

[$park?]

Is this fixation on Reggie Love anything like the fixation on Rubio taking a drink?

[SugarFree]

Greenwald brings the pain. Nice.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

He and some of the guys at Counterpunch are probably the last principled leftists on the planet.

[John]

And they of course will be the first ones shot if the real leftists ever take over.

[Scooby]

...Ed Henry of Fox, who a couple of years ago demonstrated exactly what kind of "access" he craves when he publicly celebrated in the most giddy way imaginable how he got to play water sports with Rahm Emanuel at Joe Biden's official Vice President house ...

Anybody got some brain bleach to remove this image I now have of Rahm Emanuel watersports?

[Art Vandelay]

Wet and wild!

[Loki]

"What do say, Ed Henry? Do you like it when Rahm Emanuel sprays hot white foam in your face?"

[Enough About Palin]

"...Ed Henry of Fox, who a couple of years ago demonstrated exactly what kind of "access" he craves when he publicly celebrated in the most giddy way imaginable how he got to play water sports with Rahm Emanuel at Joe Biden's official Vice President house ..."

So Ke$ha was there too?

[Atanarjuat]

Also, the calls for a monument for him on the mall.

I wouldn't be at all surprised by an Obama monument being built. Hopefully his statue will depict him wearing his Nobel Peace prize.

[Sudden]

With the bloody severed limbs of Pakistani children scattered about the base?

[$park?]

Doubtful, but they may include the severed head of Osama clutched in his hand.

[SugarFree]

A permanently circling drone overhead would be nice. And standing with his foot on the neck of a cripples medical marijuana user.

[The Late P Brooks]

What about Joe Kernen?

The last time I saw it was months ago. I tuned in late, but Kernen appeared to be talking about going through the process of getting a New Jersey pistol permit, and the little dweeb Sorkin looked as if he might actually puke all over their nice conference table. That's worth something, I guess.

[The Late P Brooks]

Speaking of the MSNBC Business Channel, is Senior Fed Apologist Steve Liesman still there?

[R C Dean]

will have some scrambling to do when regime change comes and they are required to not reflexively love everything the executive branch does or says.

I'm sure they can find room in their hearts for President Hillary!.

[T o n y]

You might as well get used to the idea.

[Jam]

we have state run media disguised by the 1st amendment

this just proves Tyler Cowen's theory on big government, it was technology that grew the state, TV and radio just piped the states organ right into the home.