Murdoch and Immelt tried to broker MSNBC-Fox News peace accord

The on-screen and behind-the-scenes feuding between cable news rivals MSNBC, owned by General Electric Co., and News Corp.'s Fox News has become so ugly that the chief executives of their respective parent companies recently held a hush-hush meeting to try to broker a peace treaty.

News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch and General Electric chief Jeffrey Immelt met up at -- appropriately enough -- the Microsoft CEO summit in Redmond, Wash., to figure out how to diffuse tensions between the two channels, Company Town has learned. The primary focus of the chit-chat was the back-and-forth sniping between MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Fox's Bill O'Reilly. The two often exchange insults, Olbermann by name, O'Reilly by insinuation. 

If Immelt and Murdoch took their message of peace and love back to their respective news channels, it doesn't seem to have taken. Olbermann, who generally is the aggressor, has been attacking Fox News and O'Reilly on a regular basis. O'Reilly still takes occasional shots at MSNBC, NBC and General Electric.

For example, on July 9, Olbermann, commenting on reports that Murdoch's London tabloids had to settle lawsuits for illegal wiretaps, said "why did News Corp. go to all that trouble, rather than just get the secret personal information from the Bush administration?"

O'Reilly, meanwhile, accused NBC News on June 18 of being in President Obama's pocket and said last month that "there is compelling evidence that NBC is giving President Obama favorable treatment so that GE will be awarded billions, billions, in government contracts."

A Fox News spokeswoman said "we can't comment on any meeting that may or may not have taken place between Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Immelt," while a News Corp. spokeswoman declined to comment. A General Electric spokesperson was unavailable to comment.

While Fox News and MSNBC don't get along, News Corp. and NBC are in bed together on other ventures including, most prominently, video site Hulu.com, which also counts Walt Disney Co. among its owners.

Since Murdoch and Immelt seem unable to get these two to play nice, maybe President Obama can bring them all in for a beer.

-- Joe Flint

Photos: Rupert Murdoch (top left) by Andrew Gombert/EPA. Jeffrey Immelt (bottom right) by Jonathan Fickies/Bloomberg.

Comments

[sarah alderdice]

Just as long as it doesn't turn MSNBC's generally clean-thinking, straight-talking reporters into the lying, sneaky, disgusting, sexually-harassing coulter-clones that murdochs' minions are....

[JohnRJ08]

I'm afraid that beer isn't nearly strong enough for these two combatants. Intravenous injections of heroin might work.

[Rocco]

How can anybody stand Bill O'Reilly?

[StewartIII]

ChickaBOOMer: Brokering Peace in the Northeast
http://chickaboomer.blogspot.com/2009/07/brokering-peace-in-northeast.html

[News Corpse]

What utter nonsense to say that Olbermann "generally is the aggressor" and O'Reilly merely "takes occasional shots."

O'Reilly has been far more aggressive in attacking NBC and, by proxy Olbermann. Olbermann generally attacks the things O'Reilly says and the lies he tells. O'Reilly, on the other hand, goes for throat. He called Immelt "a despicable human being." (http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=1201) And he frequently accused GE of engaging in business practices that cost the lives of our soldiers in Iraq.

Olbermann may be strident, but he is honest and sticks to the facts. You cannot say the same about O'Reilly.

[Joe Bua]

If Jeff Immelt actually tried to reason with "Mr. Burns," it totally makes sense that he would wait this long to fire Ben Silverman.

He apparently has no sense whatsoever.

Of course, how reasonable can you be with a guy who would have Glenn Beck on his air?

A great homage to Glenn's tenure at Fox at this link:

http://current.com/items/90569062_glenn-beck-1-nutjob.htm

[Dolmance]

Fox News is responsible for a steady stream of ceaseless, yammering lies on behalf of the Republicans and their corporate sponsors. MSNBC is the only outfit that calls them on these lies. It would be a real disservice to the country to "make nice."

[JB]

FOX people are a bunch of hypocrites. They show so much garbage in their programs with no regard for children watching. Their shows are so incident yet they claim they have conservative values, and support Republicans and supported Bush. Additionally, they are constantly fueling racists and hateful propaganda. They have psychological issues. FOX should be banned.

[FontanaFrogFan]

Olbermann needs to be put down!!!!!!!

[FontanaFrogFan]

Dolmance:

MSNBC is responsible for a steady stream of ceaseless, yammering lies on behalf of the Democrats and their libelist liberal sponsors. Fox News is the only outfit that calls them on these lies. It would be a real service to the country to pull MSNBC' license.

We have a difference of opinion on the media. But I will take it one step further. They all, especially the LA Times are a bunch of rags, whether conservative or liberal.

We all need to learn to think for ourselves and stop letting so-called columnists like George Skelton and Michael Hiltzik do our thinking for us.

[Wayne]

Dolmance and FontanaFrogFan:

Switch the words MSNBC and FoxNews in your posts and you'd see what the haters of each network think of each other...

While I can't figure out why MSNBC would stake out the left as a business strategy, Murdoch's pandering to the right makes a lot of business sense, as they were underserved (at least on TV news)...

[Jerome Melgar]

How can people think Olbermann is the fair-reporter between these 2 rivals? Olbermann invites insult-hurling, put-you-down guests like Garafolo! The ratings say it all folks. Olbermann (and the rest of MSNBC) has been tanking since Election Day while O'Reilly (and the rest of FOX) has had his ratings skyrocket.

[Scott]

"MSNBC.s clean-thinking..."

Huh?? Their entire clown brigade used an oral sex term to describe the tea party protestors, for crying out loud. And then they brought in Janeane Garofalo to slander hundreds of thousands of Americans. MSNBC is the fake news network, not FNC.

[Blah, blah, blah]

Yes, Olberman needs to be put down! Down with MSNBC!!!!

[tashak38]

Well wait a minute...what am I going to do now? No repartee between Olberman and OReilly (whom I don't watch anyway). That's a quarter of the blast I get from watching MSNBC: a progressive with some bite! Please Keith, don't back down. You give O'Reilly and FIX news exactly what they deserve. Nobody else says out loud what we know; they entertain and brainwash millions into doing nothing--in the name of free markets and libertarianism. I'm just waiting for someone to get on Lou Dobbs--the racist.

[Joe Jericho]

MSNBC is garbage. Those of you trying to silence Fox news are simply left-wing kool aid drinkers, i.e., socialists and communists. You don't want any dissenting views on television, and you want the fairness doctrine on radio. It's too much to ask you to just watch what you want and tune out what you don't want. Civil War! Revolution! Down with socialism and communism!

[jay lewis]

The entire journalistic community, which during the last ten years appeared to be moribund, owes their very salt to Mr. Olbemann.

It was Olbermann who stood forth and spoke truth to power, during a time when journalists sat in cowering huddles in Presidential news conferences while George W. Bush swaggered in place at the podium, glaring and glowering, daring any journalists to speak up with meaningfulness.

I knew when Bush, during the debate with Gore, ignored the questions and the format of the debate and strided about on the stage, making a small speech that America was truly under an unarticulated repression. The moderator made an initial effort to redirect the debate to the parameters of a very respected, time-honored format, but seemed to melt into nothingness as Bush chuckled and sneered, drunk with neocon/fascist power. Bush established an agenda for debate that only Neitszche could admire.

It was not the moderator that embodied the travesty--it was the lack of any real follow-up, any addressment of this arrogant dismissal of the Presidential debating process by the msm that defined and confirmed the power the neocons presumed to enforce.

Olbermann was the guy who stood up. His presence and his continued efforts to conduct himself as a truly bona fide journalist deserves the respect of every American who understands just how important a free press is.

[tedro]

for all msnbc viewers, keep drinking the kool aid.

[Tom Hockman]

Any of you who watch Fox news (any program from morning till night) are advertising your own stupidity. That network promotes such garbage throughout the day that to be both a Fox viewer and an intelligent person is not possible. The Fox network promotes fear, anger, intolerance, ignorance, and completely made-up news to promote the agenda of its financial backers.

You people who listen to this "fair and balanced" propoganda are being duped. Wake Up! Use your brains! Question the crap you are being spoon fed! If you don't believe MSNBC, try international networks that are not just shills for the U.S. media machine. Search the internet. Read more newspapers and books from across the world. But whatever you do, find out all the facts instead of listening to the Fox drivel machine! You are only keeping yourselves dumbed down by watching these Fox idiots.

[ILOVEBILLOREILLY]

Fox News tells the truth and MSNBC and every other news show lies. It's that simple. I'm an educated, middle-aged women living in Chicago. I am not stupid or racist and I know right from wrong. I watch a lot of other news shows and read a lot of articles from various sources. The fact is, FOX tells the truth. People who can't understand this fact are the mindless, brainwashed, hateful ones

[kd]

MSNBC has nothing but ultra liberal, ultra arrogant "journalists" - both olbmerman and maddow. I get a chill up my leg when I think of them.

[Steve]

News reporters should be unbiased - "just the facts". If I want to hear an editorial, it should be sated as such. MSNBC, CNN, and Louisville Courier-Journal are sooo transparent in their news bias, never report anything that does not support their "guy". Fox newscasters and Forbes Magazine are the only two outlets I enjoy reporting all the facts.

[fixnews]

fox news is total lying garbage, the fact that all the posters claim its the 'only truth' should be enough to convince anyone on the fence: a GOP-run(roger ailes, look it up....morons) entertainment station tells the only 'truth'? yeah, keep marching at the orders of dc public relation firms and united health systems too. dumb, racist, uneducated sheep herding together in 'rebellion'.

[ben]

if these republicans are so worried about the stimulus money. Why dont they give back the 250.00 obama gave to senior citizens. Also the extra money they get in their checks every week. Plus the money some of them are getting in their unemployment extensions. NOW THAT WOULD MAKE THESE SO CALLED TEA PARTY PROTESTERS LOOK REAL