Bickering Olbermann and Matthews Out as MSNBC Election Anchors;Olbermann to Get Two More Years, Big Raise

NY Times’ Brian Stelter reports  that Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews will no longer anchor MSNBC’s election coverage.

Says Stelter:

After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage…..While some critics argued that the assignment was akin to having the Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly anchor on election night — something that has never happened — MSNBC insisted that Mr. Olbermann knew the difference between news and commentary.

The anchors bickered openly on air.  At one point when MSNBC talk show host Joe Scarborough - a former Republican congressman of Florida -  predicted a McCain resurgence, Olbermann snarked, "Jesus, Joe, why don’t you get a shovel?"

As Stelter points out, Olbermann and Matthews also "squabbled" on air after Olbermann accused Matthews of talking too long.

The bickering became fodder for the pundits.  Quipped Aaron Barnhart, at the top of his TV Barn website under his "what’s working for me" column, "as Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews sniped on-air and Joe Scarborough chewed out David Shuster for sleeping through his show, I couldn’t help thinking what a great reality show this would make."

Jon Stewart mocked the MSNBC infighting as "’Lord of the Flies’ on the NBC roof!"

None of this would matter much if the Olbermann/Matthews team had pulled in decent audience numbers, as they had during the primary coverage.  But the squabbling may have "quite possibly alienated viewers,"observes Stelter. "Although MSNBC nearly doubled its total audience compared with the 2004 conventions, its competitive position did not improve, as it remained in last place among the broadcast and cable news networks. In prime time, the channel averaged 2.2 million viewers during the Democratic convention and 1.7 million viewers during the Republican convention."

The subject of MSNBC’s impartiality was broached last July at Television Critics Assocation during the NBC election coverage panel.  One critic asked NBC News president Steve Capus this question:  "I wonder what you would say to FOX News and Chris Wallace’s complaints about letting Keith Olbermann anchor." 

But Capus replied that he wouldn’t "dignify" Wallace’s remarks. 

A few moments later, however, another reporter cornered Capus.  "At the risk of defending ourselves against the unfair and unbalanced charges that ironically were thrown to us by Chris Wallace, " the reported persisted, "you didn’t really answer the question. I mean, he said — and I think it’s a legitimate question — ‘How do you have Keith, who expresses opinions as strongly as any of us here, which he has every right to do, how do you then have him be the objective news anchor on campaign coverage?’"

Capus asserted that Olbermann and Matthews know how to "play it straight down the middle."

"Chris and Keith have anchored our election coverage before on MSNBC," said Capus.  "The audience gets it. I think  that’s the single biggest factor that I see. When you look at the ratings performance, the audience understands
the roles that these guys have played. And I think that they play it right down the middle on election night. "

Olbermann followed up by saying: "We know there are different rules for us. And the viewers, I think, based on how many of them have turned
out, know that there are different rules. And as Steve pointed out, we did this in 2006, and I don’t remember reading one thing suggesting that what we do was somehow inappropriate on election night. If you are fairly good
at what you do in this business, you should be able to do a couple of different things and know which is appropriate in which set of circumstances."

I guess they all forgot about the commitments they made at our TCA panel…

ETA. Brian Stelter tweets: "end of my story’s been largely missed. It’s a headline on its own: MSNBC’s about to re-sign Olbermann for 2 more years and a big raise."