In the wake of Keith Olbermann being suspended from MSNBC for making donations to Jack Conway, Gabrielle Giffords, and Raul Grijalva, I thought I would engage in some free association, some false equivalency, and poke around to find out, given Olbermann's anchoring anchor status, what, say, a Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity would have to do to get fired from MSNBC rival Fox News.
Turns out he would have to quite a lot. Though there have been some local reporters fired from Fox affiliates for various causes over the years, when it comes to the parent network, there aren't too many high profile cases of sudden cannings, and certainly none of Olbermann's stature.
But there are a few firings, in any case. Roger Friedman, a movie reviewer, lost his job for pirating a bad Fox movie, (Wolverine) for one of his segments. And
That's about it. E.D. Hill was let go after her "terrorist fist jab" comment, but she was allowed to finish her contract, so that doesn't totally count. And that was going by the quaint, 2008-era standards of political discourse. Fox today validates fears of people in "Muslim garb" in airports and has already floated the notion that Barack Obama is a Muslim, so for them Obama being a terrorist is 2+2. They report, you decide.
It should also be mentioned, especially in light of Olbermann, that Fox did fire reporter Jennifer Locke for telling John McCain, on air, that she voted for him. But come on. Given the million dollars Fox has given the Republicans, to say nothing of on-air shilling, this makes Locke the Lyndie England of partisan journalism.
No, Bill O'Reilly should be just fine, as long as he doesn't donate to Raul Grijalva.
Posts
Sigh. Just don't give them a reason, jeez. Keith's a smart guy; he should know this. . . .
ReplyDelete