memeorandum: MSNBC suspends Olbermann over political contributions (Michael Calderone/Yahoo! News)

7:35 PM ET, November 5, 2010

Top Items:

Simmi Aujla / The Politico:

Keith Olbermann suspended after donating to Democrats — MSNBC host Keith Olbermann has been suspended indefinitely without pay after POLITICO reported that he made three campaign contributions to Democratic candidates. — MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in a statement Friday …

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:

Keep Keith! — On Olbermann's unjust suspension. — MSNBC's suspension of Keith Olbermann is ludicrous. — Second, he's not a reporter. It's an opinion show. If Olbermann wants to put his money where his mouth is, more power to him. — Third, GE, the corporate parent of MSNBC, gives money to political organizations.

Discussion: msnbc.com, National Review, Examiner, Mediaite, Ben Smith's Blog, TigerHawk, TalkLeft, No More Mister Nice Blog and Vox Popoli

Steve Krakauer / Mediaite:

Keith Olbermann Suspended From MSNBC Indefinitely — Blowback to the political donation is immediate, and shocking. — Statement from Phil Griffin, President of MSNBC: … More coming, obviously. — Ok, let's decompress. First of all, “indefinitely” is David Shuster language.

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Gawker, The Right Scoop, NewsReal Blog, Raw Story, JOSHUAPUNDIT, The Awl, The Daily Caller, Breitbart.tv and Moe Lane

Brian Montopoli / CBS News:

Keith Olbermann Suspended from MSNBC — Keith Olbermann has been suspended indefinitely without pay from MSNBC for making donations to three Democrats in violation of NBC's ethics policy. — “I became aware of Keith's political contributions late last night,” Phil Griffin, President of MSNBC, said in a statement.

Discussion: NewsBusters.org blogs, Eschaton, The Plum Line, Firedoglake, The Atlantic Online, AMERICAN DIGEST, The Daily Caller, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Huffington Post, Pajamas Media, Examiner, Nice Deb, Patterico's Pontifications, TPM LiveWire, Mediaite and Shakesville

The Huffington Post:

Keith Olbermann SUSPENDED From MSNBC Indefinitely Without Pay — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? … MSNBC has suspended star anchor Keith Olbermann following the news that he had donated to three Democratic candidates this election cycle. — “I became aware of Keith's political contributions late last night.

Discussion: Verum Serum, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Advocate, Open Left, Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars, Outside the Beltway and AMERICAblog News, more at Mediagazer »

John Cook / Gawker:

Olbermann 'Doesn't Answer' to NBC News Standards — MSNBC chief Phil Griffin suspended Keith Olbermann today for violating “NBC News policy and standards” by donating to three Democratic congressional candidates last month. But according to an NBC News source, MSNBCers have been exempt from those rules for years.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Crooks and Liars, The Plum Line, The Atlantic Online, Democracy in America, Daily Kos, Ben Smith's Blog, Booman Tribune, CBS New York and Salon

Danny Yadron / Washington Wire:

Olbermann's Replacement? Wait for It... Chris Hayes, tapped Friday by MSNBC to fill in for the indefinitely suspended Keith Olbermann as host of the prime-time political show “Countdown,” gave money to two Democratic campaigns in recent years. Now, following that disclosure, MSNBC says Mr. Hayes won't get the gig after all.

Discussion: ECHIDNE of the snakes

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
OLBERMANN'S CHECKBOOK.... [Update: there's an important follow-up to this story]

Discussion: Slate, Comments from Left Field and The Daily Caller

Media Decoder:
Olbermann Suspended From MSNBC for Campaign Donations

Discussion: Politics Daily, Hot Air, Runnin' Scared, Mediaite, Big Brass Blog, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Caucus and The Nation

Kos / Daily Kos:
Olbermann suspended by MSNBC

Discussion: TalkLeft and Washington Monthly

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Did Olbermann violate NBC ethics code by contributing to Democrats?

Discussion: Washington Post, The Huffington Post, National Review, The Politico, TVNewser, Lawyers, Guns & Money and NewsBusters.org blogs

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:
MSNBC suspends Olbermann over political contributions

Discussion: Balloon Juice and Gateway Pundit

Mike Allen / The Politico:
$250k ‘dead’ as tax-cut tier …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, The New Republic and Salon

Foster Kamer / Runnin' Scared:
MSNBC to Sub-In for Olbermann With Nation Editor Chris Hayes …

Discussion: Focal Point, Salon and Mediaite

P.J. Salvatore / Big Journalism:
Olbermann Suspended from MSNBC Indefinitely

Discussion: Moonbattery

Reuters:

Power play: Pelosi's work ‘not finished’ — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to stay in power as minority leader after losing 60 seats and control of the House — a stunning announcement that sets up combat between her two top lieutenants. — Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the majority leader …

Discussion: CNN, The Note, The Politico, ABCNEWS, USA Today, Left Coast Rebel, Guardian, Conservatives4Palin.com, Ben Smith's Blog, Commentary, Outside the Beltway, ThinkProgress, New York Magazine and Hotline On Call

The Hill:

Dems split over Pelosi bid for minority leader — Battle lines are emerging in the House Democratic Caucus over Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) possible bid to stay on as the minority leader. — Liberal Democrats are mobilizing in support of Pelosi remaining at the head of the party …

Discussion: Comments from Left Field, JammieWearingFool and Capitol Alert

William Saletan / Slate:
Democrats didn't lose the battle of 2010. They won it.

Discussion: The Hill, Firedoglake, Hot Air, JustOneMinute and Patterico's Pontifications

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Rep. Van Hollen done as chairman of DCCC

Discussion: Gateway Pundit, The Hill, The Politico and TPMDC

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

What Happened to Prop 19 — Why did the Pot Legalization proposition go down to defeat in California? — ed.note: A lot of people on both sides of the Prop 19 issue have written in with various points about Prop 19 but usually assuming that I personally supported it. I hadn't really focused on it much, honestly.

Discussion: Ezra Klein, Hit & Run, TPMDC and The League of Ordinary …

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Josh Marshall And The Weed

Discussion: Althouse

Wall Street Journal:

Americans Vote for Maturity — Obama gets a rebuke, but so do Republicans who seem unqualified. — 'The people have spoken, the bastards. " That would be how Democrats in the White House and on Capitol Hill are feeling. The last two years of their leadership have been rebuffed.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Outside the Beltway and National Review

David Brooks / New York Times:

Midwest at Dusk — If Balzac were alive today, he would plant himself in that region of America that starts in central New York and Pennsylvania and then stretches out through Ohio and Indiana before spreading out to include Wisconsin and Arkansas. He'd plant himself in the working-class families in this area.

Discussion: The New Republic, Commentary, EconLog and Swampland

William Easterly / Aid Watch: David Brooks illustrates how clueless Easterners can be without …

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Rasmussen Polls Were Biased and Inaccurate; Quinnipiac, SurveyUSA Performed Strongly — Every election cycle has its winners and losers: not just the among the candidates, but also the pollsters. — On Tuesday, polls conducted by the firm Rasmussen Reports — which released more than 100 surveys …

Discussion: Don Surber, RedState, Left Coast Rebel, JustOneMinute, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Outside the Beltway, Donklephant, Booman Tribune, New York Magazine and Prairie Weather

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

USN&WR: ‘December issue will be our last printed monthly sent to subscribers’ — Memo to US News & World Report employees — RE: Completing Our Shift to the Digital World — Colleagues, We're finally ready to complete our transition to a predominantly digital publishing model with selected, single-topic print issues.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, MyFox Philadelphia, TechCrunch and New York Magazine, more at Mediagazer »

Reuters:

Clinton rules out a presidential run through 2016 — (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ruled out running for president in 2012 or 2016 on Friday, saying the United States should be ready for a woman president but it would not be her. — In interviews in New Zealand …

Discussion: Yglesias and The Confluence

Sean J. Miller / Ballot Box:
‘Hillary voters’ abandon Democrats

Discussion: Fox News, Weasel Zippers and Democracy Corps

Tim Fernholz / American Prospect:

January Would Be a Great Time for Democrats to Eliminate the Filibuster. — Joe Biden looks like Sam the Eagle. — The Progressive Change Campaign Committee has a new poll showing that 64 percent of voters oppose the filibuster. While it strikes me as one of those polls that miraculously finds …

Discussion: Yglesias, TPMDC and ThinkProgress

Myglesias / Yglesias:

The Conservative Recovery — Here's the shape of the past 12 months' worth of job growth: — In a normal year, government employment goes up. After all, the population is growing so providing the same quantity of public services requires more personnel.

Discussion: National Review

Myglesias / Yglesias:
Jobs — 151,000 new jobs in October, unemployment rate flat.

Discussion: The New Republic and Dennis the Peasant

Myglesias / Yglesias:

The Irrelevance of Mitch McConnell — To echo something Josh Marshall said this morning, I think something the press reaction to the election has thus far missed is that Mitch McConnell is now totally irrelevant. Instead, both McConnell and the press seem to be running with the idea …

Discussion: The New Republic, Talking Points Memo and CNN

The Politico:

The ego factor: Can Obama change? — In the anthology of Barack Obama quotations, one of the classics came just hours before the event that made him the hottest property in American politics. — As Obama walked toward the arena at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, The Daily Beast, Althouse, Pajamas Media, Commentary and Betsy's Page

Larry O'Connor / Breitbart.tv:

Liberal Civil War Breaks Out on MSNBC; Progressive Glenn Greenwald vs. ‘Socialist’ Lawrence O'Donnell — This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Left Coast Rebel and Weasel Zippers

Mark Davis / The Age:

Murdoch reveals ‘arrogant’ Obama — TWO generations ago, Rupert Murdoch bowed to pressure from the White House to suppress the biggest story of his life - that the American president John F. Kennedy was indifferent to the political fate of Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies.

Discussion: Political Punch, Ben Smith's Blog, Weasel Zippers and New York Magazine

Becky Bohrer / Associated Press:

Murkowski acts like victor; questions linger — WRITE-INS: Valid votes are yet to be determined, counted. — Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is acting as though she already has pulled off an improbable victory after her write-in candidacy, enthusiastically thanking supporters and telling them they've made history.

Discussion: Ballot Box