Keith Olberman gets suspended

Each week, I do a piece called “Moment’s of Reflections” This week’s “moment of reflection,” The New York Times Article, by ADAM LIPTAK, entitled “Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit.” Recall it stated the following: Overruling two important precedents about the First Amendment rights of corporations, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.  The 5-to-4 decision was a vindication, the majority said, of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech. The dissenters said that allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace would corrupt democracy.

I bring this up because of what happen this week to Keith Olberman. MSNBC has suspended star Keith Olbermann following the news that he had donated to three Democratic candidates this election cycle. This came on the heels of the Politico report on Friday that Olbermann had donated $2,400 each to Reps. Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, and to Kentucky Senate contender Jack Conway.
While NBC News policy does not prohibit employees from donating to political candidates, it requires them to obtain prior approval from NBC News executives before doing so. MSNBC president Phil Griffin said in a statement, "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," In a statement earlier Friday, Olbermann defended his donation, saying, "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."

Was this justifiable? I find it odd for individuals not to be able to exercise their right to support a candidate. What are we coming to these days. It is ok, for corporations to make millions of dollars in anonymous donations but when you are transparent it is frowned upon.

Listen to internet radio with Patrick Cook on Blog Talk Radio

In case you missed it. You can listen to the latest podcast here! Podcasting is a way to receive audio/video files over the Internet by using feeds to deliver them directly to your desktop. You can listen to the files on your computer, load them on your portable media player and take them with you. Play or download the iTune now.

Be sure to leave your comments just below this post - click on "Post a Comment". Your comments elevate awareness and keep the conversation going. Don't forget to share this with your facebook friends. Be a fan of Current Events with Patrick, join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter @tailormade101