US TV anchorman Keith Olbermann suspended?

Keith Olbermann is a US TV anchorman who has been suspended just today in breach of company rules.  He made a donations to three candidates of the Democratic this week’s midterm elections.

Any US journalists or media employees shall be banned by donating to any political parties even any involvement to politics that might cause a conflict of interest for US journalistic ethics are extremely strict.
Papers such as the New York Times, National Public Radio and television channels such as CNN and MSNBC seek to maintain strict neutrality even though Rupert Murdoch contributed $2m (£1.23m) not just commentators from his Fox News network which made donation but also to the Republicans.

The host of Countdown, Olbermann with Keith Olbermann, made contributions to two Democrats in Arizona and the Democrat Jack Conway, seeking a place in the US Senate in Kentucky against a Tea Party favorite, the Republican Rand Paul.

In a statement to the Politico website Olbermann confirmed that he had given the legal maximum for donations to each of the candidates of $2,400.

MSBNBC president, Phil Griffin said: “I became aware of Keith’s political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC news policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay.” Olbermann signed a contract with MSNBC up to 2012.

It has been known that MSNBC has positioned itself in recent years as a liberal counterweight to the rightwing Fox News, with journalists such as Olbermann outspoken in support of Obama and the Democrats. But it still wants to be seen as adhering to journalistic standards of objectivity, and has been criticising Murdoch over his donations.

Olbermann, in this statement said: “One week ago, on the night of Thursday 28 October 2010, after a discussion with a friend about the state of politics in Arizona, I donated $2,400 each to the re-election campaigns of Democratic representatives Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords. I also donated the same amount to the campaign of Democratic senatorial candidate Jack Conway in Kentucky.”

He also stated: “I did not privately or publicly encourage anyone else to donate to these campaigns, nor to any others in this election or any previous ones, nor have I previously donated to any political campaign at any level.”

According to the Salon website, the Fox News commentator Sean Hannity gave a Republican congresswoman and Tea Party favourite, $5,000 to a political committee that supported Michele Bachmann. Unlike MSNBC, Fox sees no conflict of interest.

Len Downie, famously did not even vote, the former editor of the Washington Post, in a sign of the strict neutrality the US media normally applies.