THE PLANK AUGUST 7, 2009
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Yesterday, Keith Olbermann released the following statement to TV Newser about former Newsweek writer Richard Wolffe’s current position with the corporate PR firm Public Strategies, Inc.:
The bloggers are leaving one component out, unfairly so: In April, I knew vaguely that Richard Wolffe had gone to work for a non-news firm, and that's about the last I heard of it. It was entirely concurrent with my mother's fatal illness, and I turned it over entirely to my management team. My first awareness that this was more than just a non-news job, was this week. If Jonathan Berr, whoever he is, does not like my prioritizing caring for my mother and dealing with her death, and then doing as many shows as I could, ahead of vetting the comments of our analysts and my management team, frankly, I feel sorry for him. Getting myself through those two months were, and are, more important than what is still being investigated about Richard."
In the week since questions were first raised about Wolffe’s guest hosting of “Countdown,” Olbermann has said he did not know the full extent of Wolffe’s PR job. He wrote to Daily Kos on Monday that he “was caught flat-footed" and did "not know what the truth is."
A person close to Wolffe told me that there has never been any secret about his employment at Public Strategies. “We/he were fully disclosed to NBC,” the source said. “This has become an issue within NBC.” Indeed, it’s difficult to imagine that Olbermann and his producers didn’t know about Wolffe’s affiliation. He listed it in his author bio at the Daily Beast, where he has contributed regularly since March 19. And it even appears on his Wikipedia page since April 20. Some of Wolffe's Public Strategies colleagues attended his book party in Washington on June 11, which was co-hosted by Wolffe's friend, Meet the Press moderator David Gregory, and attended by NBC staffers including Gregory's producer Betsy Fischer, correspondent Savannah Guthrie, Washington bureau chief Mark Whitaker, and MNBC host Davd Shuster.
MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines declined to comment on whether Olbermann’s producers had ever briefed him on Wolffe’s new job. Wolffe is traveling in Italy and declined to comment.
--Gabriel Sherman
5 comments
Not this topic again. This is not a broadside against you, Gabriel. You are just reporting a hot issue, one that should be a non-issue. This certainly is not the left equivalent of the birthers because we are actually talking about something real but it is extremely trivial.
- liberal reformer
August 7, 2009 at 4:11pm
-- He listed it in his author bio at the Daily Beast, where he has contributed regularly since March 19. And it even appears on his Wikipedia page since April 20. Some of Wolffe's Public Strategies colleagues attended his book party in Washington on June 11, which was co-hosted by Wolffe's friend, Meet the Press moderator David Gregory, and attended by NBC staffers including Gregory's producer Betsy Fischer, correspondent Savannah Guthrie, Washington bureau chief Mark Whitaker, and MNBC host Davd Shuster.
Why not just let a "person close to Wolffe" write the post? And why do journalists continue to not name their "sources" - this is not a matter of national security. Frankly, none of this is even remotely evidentiary that Olbermann was aware of Richard Wolffe's position.
- ndmackenzie
August 7, 2009 at 4:19pm
This is what happens in a manichean world where everything is reduced down to either/or. There are never any problematic shades of gray, ambiguities or uncertainties. You are either Good or Evil.
And in a world like this "gotcha!!" is invariably at the center of the universe.
Olbermann needs to get more acquainted with the expression "what goes around comes around". He often pillories those who don't agree with him. On his "worst fucking people in the whole fucking world" segments he can be particularly brutal.
That's why I love the guy so. The catharsis liberals feel listening to him pound the right wingnuts to a pulp can make their day. If, of course, you despise the same people he does. I know I do.
But Keith needs to own up to the fact that the Dudley Do Right clowns on the right would like nothing better than to see him in the crosshairs. In fact, the character Eric Bogosian played in the movie "Talk Radio" leaps to mind. It really would not surprise me if one day he is found dumped in an alley somewhere.
Olbermann stirs up the rabble and I for one would like him to keep doing so. But I know this: Just as some folks out in the blogosphere would like nothing better than to take a few swings at the "the Jew hating Nazi bastard" I get reduced down to, Keith might consider purchasing a good bullet proof vest.
george walton
[annie/danny]
- iambiguous
August 7, 2009 at 4:40pm
I agree with LR, for one leave Olbermann out of it, even if he should have known let him be to deal with his personal tragedy, as to what management should have known, like LR says, this is trivial.
- blackton
August 7, 2009 at 7:51pm
It's not clear to me what the substantive -- as opposed to technical -- problem here is. Are we worried that Wolffe was commenting on MSNBC about subjects involving his p.r. clients and basically giving such clients good p.r. surreptitiously? I don't see it. I see a guy who likes Obama talk about how great Obama is and how lousy the Republicans are. What does that have to do with his p.r. job?
- jhildner
August 7, 2009 at 10:09pm