MSNBC host has been receiving praise for going after his NBC bosses–as the L.A. Times noted today (4/29/11):
MSNBC commentator Lawrence O’Donnell escalated attacks on NBC executives this week. On his MSNBC show the Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell Wednesday night, he accused NBC (another division of his own company) of allowing the Celebrity Apprentice host Donald Trump to spread “racist” lies against President Obama in demanding that Obama produce his long-form birth certificate….
“NBC has created a monster who is using his NBC fame to spew hatred reeking with racist overtones and undertones,” O’Donnell said on his show.
This isn’t the first time O’Donnell has done something like this–remember that when the news surfaced about GE‘s tax avoidance, O’Donnell slammed the company–which still owns a hefty chunk of NBC.
O’Donnell recently did an interview with Howard Kurtz of the Daily Beast, where he expressed frustration with the cable television game and said, “I can’t look up and imagine myself doing this for three years.”
At this rate, he might not have to worry about hanging around that long.
Good for Lawrence O’Donnell! Truth-tellers in our media are a rare breed to be sure.
We would be losing too many of our more liberal commentators. Laurence I believe has enough other good isues behind him that he can survive.
I’m not that impressed. He’s probably trying to bump up his ratings. I’ve been boycotting NBC/MSNBC ever since they fired Obermann. Can’t wait to watch Keith in June on Current TV. Countdown!
You write as if it’s a bad thing that Lawrence is speaking his mind. I think it’s worthy of praise and pretty courageous as they definitely could punish him severely.
I didn’t like Lawrence at first, I thought he had too much of an ego, but the more I watch of him the more I like. He’ll tell it like is and hopefully not cover for Democrats (or his company) when they are doing something wrong.
I think that as long as a host’s actions boost ratings MORE than they do any damage to the company’s bottom line that they *think* can be traced to the host, all will be fine.
I’m pretty sure he is not in trouble for this, it was such a rambling and all over the place diatribe it’s hard to know what it was that he was trying to say. First he attacks Trump, then the network, around and around then ends it with “don’t ever say again this is just trump being trump”?
Last time I checked it is a Presidential candidate’s choice to decide how and where he announces for the Presidency, so he was just calling Trump on a minor white lie, or exaggeration – and probably for attention, and it probably gave Trump as much attention as anything … maybe took the attention off being called a racist by Bob Scheiffer??
No big thing.
We recall when this crusading commentator went after the liars who (in 2004) went after John Kerry’s official record of distinguished military service in South Vietnam. Overall, the whole televised episode was quite entertaining for us. Mr. O’Donnell can really do a fine follow-through when he knows he’s right. After all, there is really no good defense against the real truth.
O’Donnell did something similar with the Russian “birther” woman recently…but that was very, very brief compared to what he did with the so called “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” (“SBVforT”).
We can’t recall if John O’Neill was the subject of O’Donnell’s wrath that night, or whether it was another representative of the “SBVforT”.
O’Neill was the primary spokesman for the front organization that the televised spokesman represented, i.e., for the “SBVforT”. We recall said crusading commentator (O’Donnell) labeling the representative as a “liar” (over and over and over and over again that night).
O’Neill was also the fellow who “debated” Kerry on the June 1971 Dick Cavett show, and who (it is said) was recruited by President Richard Nixon to go after (future senator) Kerry through another right-wing front organization (similar to “SBVforT”) called “Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace”. The use of O’Neill by the Nixon White House was recorded on the infamous Nixon Watergate tapes.
We don’t think that O’Donnell really cares about a day job, when he’s enjoying his night job so much! Again, the real truth is generally a winner in the end.
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Lawrence O’Donnell is a quiet sensible and good man, but when you get his dander up watch out. I think he is a truth teller to the ninth degree. I hope he has this job for a very long time.
Good for Lawrence! Good for America! He should never lose his job for exposing and disparaging lies and and liars or asking for truth. Of course, what with the dictatorship of corporate governance and the censorship that is already present, extreme censorship could be the next big thing. Less power to them! More power to the Lawrence O”Donnell type of journaism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Each of the MSNBC political commentators has his or her own style. Chris Matthews is the loud, confident oldtimer. Rachel is the good-natured, jolly clown. Ed Schultz is Everyman. Lawrence is the classy, quiet intellect, the thinking man’s, and woman’s, voice. I hope they are all on-air liberal advocates for a very long time, they are a great bunch. I was a Keith Olbermann fan, too, but he will be in direct competition with Lawrence when he goes back on the air. Lawrence wins.
Don’t think NBC doesn’t care. It has shareholders. They care.
But by the time they want to get rid of Lawrence, it will be time enough for him. He doesn’t like the gig that much, and he would be hired somewhere else anyway, somewhere else with nothing to lose, like Current TV. He’d join Keith and the ratings would go there. Rachel and Chris might also leave and go there. Al Gore is at least a part-owner in Current, so it’s good for climate if they all move to Current. Don’t forget these progressive news programs are a drop in the bucket to NBC. But their shareholders are here to stay. That’s why with the monopolized corporate media, truthtellers don’t stand a chance.
No one hates a conscience more than a corporation. Time for NBC to make a choice; support professional integrety or sell it’s soul. Ironically, there may be greater profit potential in choosing the former, but that would require vision and risk. For now, we’re watching …..
Lawrence The O’Donnell is the bravest of Journalist brave hearts daring to put the Truth above deference to a corporate master. NBC has been caught with its’ comb over blown over to reveal the nest of a truly hideous, arrogant, and greedy racist snake. Moreover, NBC has been caught in the act of attempting to manipulate political partisanship to boost the faltering ratings of a television sideshow that pegs the crapometer. For shame NBC!
There should be more Lawrence O’Donnells in this world. He knows what the truth is and does not compromise his values or integrity, something we cannot say about NBC – anything to make a buck.
Mr. O’Donnell, keep up the outstanding work; it’s been depressing to listen to the lies and twisting of the truth by so many in government and people in the media who are there for their self-aggrandizement- thank you, Mr. O’Donnell for caring about our country and taking Donald Trump and NBC to task.
I support you 100% and if you leave MSNBC I will NEVER listen to them again and will follow you wherever you go.
Marietta K. Wilk
Lawrence O’Donnell knows the Washington scene very well, and he brings that experience to his current job. Who knows how long his bosses will tolerate his truth-telling, or that of Rachel, Cenk, and Ed, but as long as any of them are there, I will watch MSNBC PM. I will also watch Keith on Current TV, and Thom Hartmann on Free Speech TV (Dish Network, 9415). I will gladly take truth wherever I can find it!
I heartily agree with and completely back Lawrence O’Donnell…he is a brave and honorable man, who has the courage to call out the cowardice in the NBC executive rank. Why on Earth they have allowed this squirrel wearing idiot all of this airtime is beyond comprehension! Way To Go, Lawrence! BRAVO!
Mr O’Donnell lives in a free country.He can say whatever he wants.He can also be fired for insubordination as his company also lives in a free country.His idea that asking for a birth certificate is racially motivated is not really adding up to me.Ive been asked for mine.People are asked for theirs every day.Some people may(don’t know why)simply refuse to give it up.I guess that is ok too, as they also live in a free country.It might be kinda weird if the president…you know the guy with his finger on the button refused.I guess since we employ him- we could fire him for insubordination.Free country all around.
We should never forget that 9/11 would not have happened if George W. Bush had heeded the warning from the Arizona flight school instructors that Middle Eastern men, who didn’t care to learn how to land the airliner,were taking flying lessonsand only wanted to fly the airliner level. A child would question this.
Also, Bush had warning that al Qaeda was planning to hijack planes in the U.S. and fly them into buildings. This report came in the Presidential Briefing in August 2001, a month before 9/11. Yet Bush did not alert airports of the threat or advise them on security measures to take to stop the hijackers before they boarded.
Why did we elect this incompetent man president for a second term?
Get rid of Lawrence O’Donnell
Get rid od lawrence O’Donnell after interview with Condolezza–
Trump’s comment was ill-advised, kind of stupid, and “racial”, but I really doubt Trump is racist – just political, which is often mistaken, because our pathetic population and electorate is somewhat racist and that is just the way our system works. Democracy’s failing says that if everyone votes to be racist, then we are racist.
Anyway, I think O’Donnell goes off like a car burglar alarm in every video I have ever seen him in, and lately is has been a bit too much so I have to label him as a kind of clown, even worse than Trump since at least Trump is trying to get attention for a Presidential run.
As far as Trump, I think it would be good to see him participate in the process, he is entertaining and might be able to help dismiss some of the goof-ball candidates the Republicans are running.
I just wish someone would run against Obama, because it is not right that a candidate such as Obama was was elected from the left, not is holding the left hostage based on the “exagerrations” that got him elected originally and now is representing more the right and the middle.
Oh … and it was not the birth certificate that was racist … or questionable in terms of race, it was the demand to see Obama’s transcripts that was kind of catfight kind of tactic. For right or wrong there is no education requirement for President, in fact I think we’d do a lot better with Presidents who did not go to the same educational institutions for the same indoctrination and political connections – it is obviously ruining our politics.
We think it only “fair” to note that Keith Olbermann showed rare pre-election journalistic fortitude when he assumed his “Edward R. Murrow persona”, and called the entire Bush administration out for having lied extensively to Americans and to the world…with emphasis on the invasion of Iraq.
Of course, it is only the sliver of swing voters that decides each election. Persuade (or put the fear of God into) that relatively tiny sliver of registered voters, and any incumbent (or challenger) can be assured of reelection (election). After all, senate and house elections can be decided by a mere one vote, as certified by each state’s chief election official. Likewise, (as in Florida in 2000) each state’s chief election official certifies that “mere one swing vote” to decide which presidential candidate receives the electoral votes of that state. Yes, we know that electors are not bound by “false” certifications such as that in Florida in 2000 (which was preceded by the 5-4 supreme Court vote that should never have occurred, i.e., the supreme Court should have let the Florida supreme court ruling stand, if for no other reason than that voting is a state administered issue not a federal one).
Incidentally, we presume that most O’Donnell fans caught his “conversation” with possibly the least effective national security advisor and secretary of state (well, right on up there with the least effective) in U.S. history. Yes, we’re talking about the one who was on the Bush administration payroll, and who remains to this day in denial about all of the tens of thousands of deaths, wounds and injuries of The Best and Finest of Us┞¢ arising over the past 8 years from the unconstitutional (undeclared) war with Iraq over nonexistent “weapons of mass destruction” (including the subsequent unwinnable counterinsurgency and occupation in Iraq). During that conversation with Mr. O’Donnell, we noted that the former Bush administration official reverted to an obviously “disingenuous unsworn mode”…just as was done during “unsworn testimony” before the 911 commission.
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