Shots From The Left: MSNBC Takes On Obama Administration Too

by Steve Krakauer | 12:22 pm, November 16th, 2009

» 8 comments

With Democrats running the executive and legislative branches of government, some might expect MSNBC to be the cheerleader for the current D.C. situation.

But while it’s not anywhere near Fox News in its criticism, MSNBC has taken some recent shots at the way the Democrats are doing business – knocking the left, from the left.

The New York Times‘s Brian Stelter writes about the ways MSNBC has worked in criticism of this administration, focusing specifically on the 9pmET host, Rachel Maddow. One of the most obvious examples is Maddow’s recent crusade against the Stupak amendment which was added to the health care bill in Congress. As her attacks continue almost nightly, the implication is clear – the Democrats in Congress are wrong. “I don’t think our audience is looking for unequivocal ‘rah-rah,’” she told the Times.

Maybe not, but they still get quite a bit of ‘rah-rah.’ While Maddow’s show, along with another liberal talker Ed Schultz‘, often have debate with those they disagree with, the linchpin program, Keith Olbermann‘s 8pmET hour is almost entirely devoid of the same debate. Has he ever been critical of Pres. Obama? Yes, but Maddow’s show has more clear examples of this.

One interesting takeaway is regarding the previous administration. MSNBC President Phil Griffin says, “We heard a whole lot more from the Bush White House,” implying the former administrations tactics of dealing with a network it felt was out to get them differed from this new method the White House has employed to deal with Fox News. Instead of cutting them off, they would reach out and voice their concerns. This does appear to be where the relationship is headed now between the two sides in the WH/FNC battle.

Was Fox News as critical from the right as MSNBC is being from the left during the Bush years? It’s hard to tell. Sean Hannity certainly wasn’t, but Bill O’Reilly was often critical of the Bush administration on a variety of topics. Glenn Beck wasn’t around the News Corp. hallways until Obama reached office.

One note: Maddow said, “We’re articulating liberal viewpoints…but we’re not saying ‘Call your congressman, show up at this rally!’” (She’s implying this is what separates MSNBC tactics from Fox News tactics.) While she might not be, Gawker found someone else on the network who most certainly is.

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fnc, fox news, left on left attacks, Maddow Stupak, msnbc, MSNBC criticizing Congress, MSNBC criticizing Obama, Rachel Maddow, Stupak Amendment

germ

Maybe I am missing something, but how is criticizing Stupak for being a “C” Streeter being critical of the Obama Administration?

I watched Maddow’s opening salvo against Stupak live, and she wasn’t being critical of the Administration, she was being critical of the “C” Street Pro-life, Pro-family Lobbying influencing the bill.

I wonder if we can expect the same for SEIU’s illegal lobbying and influencing bills (see the current injunction against SEIU for unregistered lobbying).
ImNotBlue

MSNBC is willing to go after Obama… but only if he’s not leaning far enough to the left. MSNBC is willing to go after Democrats… provided that it’s the moderate Democrats or the Blue Dogs, especially if they’re not towing the very Liberal line. (Maddow and KO’s attacks on Stupak over the past week are a fine example of that.)

It is true, however, they’d rather attack Republicans… and if they had to side between the two, the option would be easy. Apparently they’re morphing a bit from a “pro-Democrat” network, to a “pro-Liberal” network. Remember when KO was against FISA, before he was for it under Obama… he got burned for that on the blue-blogs, because he wasn’t holding up the Liberal line. He’s learned his lesson, and so has everyone else… push Liberals, not Democrats.
http://glassbead.info Magister

#ImNotBlue: I’m not going to bother looking for the clip, but from what I saw in the blogosphere, Beak (and perhaps others at Fox) appeared to be behind the “Conservative” candidate in NY23 and he seems to most often come across as a Libertarian, while as this post notes, O’Reilly was occasionally critical of Bush.

IOW: One could argue that Fox is the conservatism, as MSNBC is to liberals and in addition to the financial benefit mentioned in the NYTimes piece, what might actually also be news coming out of the article is now, someone at MSNBC has voiced their opinion-block’s bias.
http://glassbead.info Magister

OK – Obviously I didn’t proofread my comment – Sorry.

Clearly, I meant “Beck”, not “Beak” and that last graph should’ve started “Fox is to conservatism”.
ImNotBlue

Magister says:
November 16, 2009 at 2:16 pm

The only difference is that there seems to be a more homogeneous feel to MSNBC than FNC. Beck doesn’t always agree with O’Reilly doesn’t always agree with Hannity does always agree with Cavuto, and so on. On MSNBC, however… Ed seem to agree with Olbermann, with Maddow, with Schuster, and so on. There are always exceptions (Smith, Scarborough, etc.), but that’s the impression I get.

As for your overall point (errors not included… although, I liked “Beak”), I don’t disagree with too much.
Fidoohki

Now this isn’t a hit on Obama. This is a hit on a pro life democrat.
Jim R

Rachel and many others at MSNBC have been and will continue to hold this administration’s feet to the fire.

It’s called intellectual honesty, and you easily see it across the left in their criticism in continuing to push for a progressive agenda.

This is sharply contrasted by the ever fawning coverage by the right of things Republican, exemplified by the Bush/Cheney love fest of the last eight years.

There’s simply no comparison.
germ

I guess “intelluctual honesty” is the new progressive code word for “lying”