Hypocrisy Alert

As hypocritical behaviors go, this one is relatively minor, but it looms very large because it is the behavior of someone who has made a career from pointing out the hypocrisy of others.

A few weeks ago, it was discovered by NBC News that Keith Olbermann, the host of MSNBC's Countdown, had contributed money to the campaigns of three Democrats. This violated NBC's rule against any of their on-air employees donating to any political campaign without the prior approval of NBC. Mr. Olbermann was suspended for two days for violating the rule.

Mr. Olbermann's response was that he did not know about the rule, he had not attempted to hide the contributions (which seems to be true), and he accepted the judgement of his employer, NBC, through MSNBC.

The stated reason for the rule was that it helped to preserve the objectivity, or at least the appearance of objectivity, among those on NBC who reported the news.

The suspension provoked much internet outrage among fans of Mr. Olbermann.

Most of the discussion revolved around these issues: 1. Whether it made sense to suspend someone for violating a rule he didn't know about. 2. Whether Mr. Olbermann should have known about the rule. 3. Whether the rule itself made sense when applied to someone like Mr. Olbermann, who is clearly partisan anyway, whether he donates to campaigns or not.

However, I think all of the discussion missed the point. The point, the really important point, is that Mr. Olbermann had, prior to his donations to Democratic candidates, repeatedly skewered Rupert Murdoch and Fox News Corporation for having donated large sums of money to Republicans in various ways. Mr. Olbermann used this apparently undisputed fact to bolster his argument that Rupert Murdoch and Fox News Corporation were merely tools of the Republican Party or, vice versa, that the Republican Party had become a tool of Fox News, since the sums of money donated were so large.

On the other hand, Mr. Olbermann argued that, while he, on Countdown, frequently and openly took positions that were favorable to Democrats and critical of Republicans, it was not because MSNBC was tied to the Democratic Party, but because they were convinced that the positions held by the Democrats were correct and the positions held by the Republicans were incorrect.

The only difference that I can see between the donations made by Rupert Murdoch and the donations made by Keith Olbermann is that Mr. Murdoch's donations were a lot larger.

But, as I've said before, we've now established what they are, and we are merely haggling over price.

I strongly disagree with much of the tone of Mr. Olbermann's program, and very often with his rhetoric and on-screen devices used in making the points he makes. But, I find myself usually in agreement with the points he makes.

But, I can't tolerate hypocrisy. Why, oh why, Mr. Olbermann, did you have to be such a hypocrite? Your integrity was worth so much more than the paltry campaign donations you made. Your integrity was a much more valuable asset to the causes you believe in than any amount of money you could have given to any candidate.

Now, when folks ask me for the difference between Fox News and Countdown, I can no longer say that there is a qualitative difference. I can now only argue that Countdown is not as bad as Fox News.

Mr. Olbermann, I'm not going to make that argument.

Why, oh why, did you have to do it?