Legal Commentary

Olbermann Suspended on Grounds of Possible Bias

By Orin Kerr

Via the New York Times:

Keith Olbermann, the pre-eminent liberal voice on American television, was suspended Friday after his employer, MSNBC, discovered that he made campaign contributions to three Democrats last month. . . .

The contributions came to light in an article by Politico Friday morning. Mr. Olbermann acknowledged in a statement that last month he donated $2,400 to the campaigns of Representatives Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and Attorney General Jack Conway of Kentucky, who lost his Senate race to Rand Paul.

Mr. Olbermann also said, ?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.?

Several hours later, the president of MSNBC, 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.?

Mr. Griffin consulted with both Steve Capus, the president of NBC News, and Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal before making the decision to suspend Mr. Olbermann.

I find this exceedingly silly. Keith Olbermann is not shy about his personal views, and no one who has watched him has any doubt as to who he supports. Why he should be suspended for donating money to the candidates he supports is a mystery to me.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on November 05, 2010 (boomark / email).